8 Tracks: Of Ambience with 12th Isle

Originally a bonus track to XYR’s concept album ‘El Dorado’, this one managed to make its way onto the adjusted version of the LP that we released via 12th Isle. Likely the most timeless and majestic piece of music the label has released so far.

London based Pataphysical started out as a live project combining meditative environments with quadrophonic soundsystems and lo-freq body-sonic ambient experience. We are very excited to be presenting their debut studio work due somewhere in the first half of 2019. The LP is part way through mastering at the moment, but we were pleased to get permission to showcase ’Purlo’ for this feature. If you’re in London, keep an eye out for their events.

This one is a very peaceful, seven minute long synth meander from Dutch musician Enno Velthuys on his 1984 cassette ‘A Glimpse of Light’. There’s enough movement or intricacies within the track to prevent it from being ‘cucumber-water-muzak’, but it is essentially just a simple and incredibly relaxing piece of music to zone out to.

Euphoric New Age ambient business from the Cape Verde archipelago or “the islands of the blessed” off West Africa. The arpeggiated synth drives the track forward but Vasco’s vocals are the more dominant presence in the composition. There’s probably something in our psyche that makes the human voice a comforting thing to hear, but I’ve plucked that particular idea out of the ether and have no science to back it up, I just know it’s the case in this song. Reissued in September on Canela En Surco.

Ambient techno done Vancouver style. At a recent gig at the Deep Blue studios out there local hero Scott W passed me a copy of his 12” on Acting Press. The record channels all that 90s downtempo stuff (think Chain Reaction, Other World Collective, Space Time Continuum) but somehow manages to avoid sounding like a simple copycat. This track is an unreleased one that Scott emailed over the other day, some mysterious hard to stumble across YouTube gear.

Very much coming out of the peak of England’s post-punk/industrial canon and more than slightly reminiscent of Coil et al but still a great one here from Andrew Cox and David Elliott. The pair released their first record on O Yuki Conjugate affiliated label Final Image, and though scheduled for a 1993 release this piece remained largely unheard til 2010. Definitely skews the line between ‘ambient’ and a variety of other genres – the way things should be sometimes.

Beautifully simple tear jerker from lofi rock weirdo Russian Tsarlag. I came across it on the compilation of his work ‘Gel Stations Past’ put out by the Goaty Tapes affiliated House Rules label last year, where it lurks alone as the only purely instrumental piece. Originally featured as the title track to a double cassette release on Warp Video Roadhouse, if physical objects are your thing.

Luxurious modern classical curveball released on Firecracker Recordings this year. Drifting slightly from the cello heavy grandeur of the first half of the album, this track opens up into a dubbed out crumbling sauna-scape. Please keep your trunks on.