Headphone Commute

Happy Thursday, friends. Last year, I managed to put together only a handful of mixes, and, as usual, I found myself wondering whether it was still worth the time and energy. That’s a conversation we can finally have properly now, over on Headphone Community. But for all the self-questioning, some rituals are too important to abandon. Today marks the arrival of the 18th chapter in Mathias Van Eecloo's eisOtones series - a carefully assembled journey through 50 tracks drawn from 50 different releases. You can explore all earlier editions if you feel like retracing the path, but this one very much stands on its own. Expect a wide-ranging and occasionally surprising selection, brushing up against styles that don’t always revolve within the usual Headphone Commute orbit. And that is exactly the point. If you're a fan of Phantom Limb, Thrill Jockey, 12k, Room40, Hands In The Dark, Dronarivm, Audiobulb, and about 40 other labels, then this is definitely a voyage for you. And with that, it’s time to stop talking and let the music take over.

Good morning, and welcome to your Thursday. I may not have published many mixes this past year, but I can't let this one slip through the cracks. Tradition is a tradition. I've been hosting Mathias Van Eecloo's label showcase for almost half a decade, whereby he compiles two years of LAAPS and IIKKI releases into a single continuous mix. If you want to start at the beginning, you can download or stream the 2020-2021 installment, followed by the 2022-2023 chapter, and finally share your time with us here. Once again, this is a glorious selection of two years of music, spanning 23 releases and even 8 books - a label sampler unlike any other, available exclusively here, which, hopefully, will whet your appetite, and you'll check out the albums in full.  As usual, when it comes to sharing these mixes, words become futile, and I'd rather let the music speak for itself. Enjoy the journey, and please don't forget to support all the humans who share this beauty - it's the least we can do in this increasingly bizarre age of agents.

Good morning, friends. Admittedly, I have been quiet here and somewhat behind in the music I want to share. I promise you, however, that is not due to the lack of attention. If anything, I am focused even more, pouring all of my energy into Headphone Community, where I feature an artist each month, connecting on a much deeper level with a meaningful engagement. If you miss this in the current day and age of thinly veiled unsocial media and algorithmic content, I think you would love this new and intimate space. In March, I featured James Murray, finishing this month with Ben Chatwin, and I'm happy to announce that Erik K. Skodvin will be the featured artist for May! It's only $1 a month, and you also get a significant discount code from the artists' latest albums (it's 80% off!). With that said, I want to share a beautiful mix prepared exclusively for Headphone Commute by Jeremy Young. So why don't you sit back, hit play, and let me tell you more about this artist... Jeremy Young is a Canadian musician from Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, and a member of Cloud Circuit, Sontag Shogun, and the newly formed Associated Sine Tone Services (alongside Nicolas Bernier and Rutger Zuydervelt). Young works with analogue oscillators, reel-to-reel tape loops, and filtered electromagnetic signals to create his lo-fi concrète compositions. His recently released album, Cablcar, is a raw suite of tape-saturated sketches, stitched together from found fragments and tuned entirely by hand — no synths, no software, just voltage and intuition. In the spirit of this process, Jeremy has crafted this special mix, sharing the music that’s inspired him throughout Cablcar’s creation — a compelling prelude to the record’s elemental textures. Enjoy this mix and see if you can catch Young in person at one of his upcoming live performances.

Happy Monday, friends. I didn’t publish many mixes last year—probably about four altogether. Do you think I should continue investing time into this? Oh, right. You can’t answer me here, but you can on the newly launched Headphone Community. In any case, some traditions continue. And today, I have the 17th instalment of Mathias Van Eecloo‘s eisOtones series, which comprises 50 tracks from 50 releases of 2024. See all previous editions here. Prepare yourself for a very eclectic selection of tunes, some outside the HC general pathway. This is precisely what I love about this journey – I get to turn to the alleys I don’t generally go down. I like to think of it as a way to reset, cleansing the mind and stepping away from the usual sounds we take for granted. It’s a chance to explore music that exists on the outskirts, the boundaries of which we seem to narrow every day. Mathias is, of course, the founder of the now-concluded Eilean Records, as well as the ongoing IIKKI project and LAAPS, a label focusing on ambient and electro-acoustic genres. All of which I can highly recommend. And now, the music!

Looking back at last year, I realised I didn’t publish many episodes on HC Podcast. In fact, besides the celebrations of the year past, I only had Dustin O’Halloran making a Blue Summer Mixtape for me [and for you]. I’m not sure how I feel about that, to be honest. It’s not like anyone reached out and said, “Hey, what happened to the mixes?” But at least I have this annual tradition where Mike Jedlicka of Optic Echo creates a vinyl-only mix at the beginning of each year. And this is his 14th instalment (if you don’t count his best-of-the-decade mix). As usual, Mike keeps me on my toes by sharing fantastic music that I somehow missed, and it’s a great pleasure to experience his deep knowledge of eclectic selections in a long-form continuous mix. If you like these choices, check out the Optic Echo Presents archive. Enjoy the journey, and may I remind you once again to please support the featured artists and labels! Pick up their releases on Bandcamp, even if you still intend to play them on Spotify on the go! Oh, and one last thing – if you love this mix, I’ll try putting up a lossless version on Headphone Community.

With all of my regular hectic programming, I completely forgot to invite other artists and create a mix for the HC Podcast! This is immediately rectified with this wonderful Blue Summer Mixtape by the one and only Dustin O'Halloran. Oh, and if you're just jumping on board this long-running series and want to catch up, there are a total of 330 mixes already published - almost too many to host in one place. So you can either stream them on your favourite platforms or even download the entire archive in one swoop (more on that is detailed here). But back to this fantastic modern classical voyage. Dustin is, of course, no stranger to these lands - I have been celebrating his solo piano career, collaborative film scores with Volker Bertelman (aka Hauschka), and, of course, his gorgeous project with Adam Wiltzie as A Winged Victory For The Sullen since the beginning of time. So, it's an absolute pleasure to welcome Dustin back to the podcast with his very special selection of inspirational music. Dustin is currently celebrating his latest album for Deutsche Grammophon, titled 1 0 0 1, which I have reviewed in depth here. He is also preparing for his upcoming European tour, and you can see the schedule for his shows in Groningen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and Berlin on his website here. Well, those are enough words for now. I'll leave you with a quote about the mix from Dustin and, most importantly, the music!

It's 2024, and Mathias Van Eecloo of LAAPS is back with another instalment (his 16th) of the eisOtones series, where he hand-selects and celebrates 50 pieces from 50 releases of the year. As is the case with other regular contributors to Headphone Commute (like Ryan Griffin of ASIP and Mike Jedlicka of Optic Echo), who continue this ongoing annual ritual, I always look forward to the eclectic sounds of eisOtones. We already know and celebrate the music featured on the LAAPS and IIKKI imprints (a separate showcase of which you can also stream here), and it's always a fascinating dive down the uncharted waters, spanning a diverse collection of genres, labels, and themes. I always think of it as a bit of a refresher (a "head-cleaner", if you will), to rinse the palette from the familiar and "normal" (whatever normal that may be) and check out the sounds on the outer edge of the musical universe, where, for some, they're at the centre, and it's ours that's on edge. So let's turn on, tune in, and drop out...

Yes, folks, I am still rejoicing in last year. What can I say – I love to listen to great music, especially when it’s picked by someone else. And not just anyone – a trusted source! Ryan Griffin and I go back more than a decade now. Secretly, I’m even jealous of his capacity to operate one of the best labels on the scene today. At times, I toyed with the idea of starting a label too – but then, when would I have the time to write these words and share this music? And so, I leave it to the rest. For this annual entry in the Reflections series, we spend three hours (!) in the company of 42+ tracks selected by your reliable guide of A Strangely Isolated Place, where you will surely find new gems and inspirations. I’ll drop a short quote here, but you should check out a detailed write-up on this mix on ASIP’s dedicated page. If this wasn’t enough amazing music, you can also check out Ryan’s previous years’ selections here.

This has been an ongoing tradition for over a decade (by my count, this is the 13th year). This time, I didn’t even reach out with a friendly reminder. Mike Jedlicka of Optic Echo just let me know that he’s already on it, and here we are with a selection of his favourite vinyl releases of the year. Every single year, I complain about the amount of music, and every single year, I keep wanting even more. And even as I drown in all of the releases, it’s always amazing to discover new and fantastic sounds from a trusted source. This trusted source, of course, is Mike Jedlicka. Even if our tastes do not align on all the genres (and that’s a good thing, may I add), I can always appreciate a good selection when I hear one. If you like these choices, be sure to check out the entire archive of Optic Echo Presents mixes (there is even one where he picks his favourites of the decade). Enjoy the journey, and may I remind you once again to please support the featured artists and labels! Won’t you buy a pint or a coffee for them? Then pick up the album on Bandcamp, even if you intend to play it on Spotify in the end!

Good morning, and welcome to the quietest week of the year. Did you have a good holiday? Before I sign off for the year, I think I’ve got one more gem to share with you. This is a wonderful label showcase and a reflection on this past year from a lovely independent Valencia-based imprint, Archives, curated and operated by Agustín Mena, aka Warmth. I’ve profiled plenty of its releases since its inception in 2015, and I must admit that Warmth’s Parallel (2018) has been on repeat more than others. If anything, it is only rivalled by Glow, which is his collaboration with Fionnlagh, recently released on December 8th, 2023 (you’ll hear a few tracks on this mix). In any case, enjoy the mix, and please support the featured artists! For full details and tracklisting, visit Headphone Commute's main site.