Experimental Electronic Music
Selected Remixes reflects Zach Frizzell’s collaborative ethos and transformative ear, reworking tracks from across the ambient and experimental spectrum. With his signature analog warmth, chthonic textures, and spectral drift, zakè reshapes source material into a cohesive suite of deep-listening reinterpretations that reveal his intuitive sonic alchemy.
Indeed over the course of this first for ASIP KILN fire shivering shapes and febrile forms into a timbral trade-off of hi v. lo-fi; a quiet riot of rhythm’n’sound ranging from “DrnkGrlfrnd” with its ‘aquarium-on-fire radiance’ to “Maplefunk Diptych”’s ‘garden groove of field-recorded percussion’ to the ‘sizzling whiteout’ of “Deacon Rayhand.”
Fresh from his music being picked up for a Ridley Scott Netflix production, Dalham brings the required noise in Cobra / And The Sun, a twin release from the estimable Castles in Space set to alter states across the planet.
The year 2000 saw Aarktica’s debut bring post-rock perspective and a glacial sensibility to guitar-based ambient; Jon DeRosa enveloped us in ‘a new sonic world of haunting, aquatic darkness and shimmering tonal light.’ Its 25th anniversary sees a reissue, No Solace In Sleep [2025 Remaster], shed new light on this by now classic, reaffirming its enduring resonance.
Billow Observatory create an affordance structure for the escape, The Glass Curtain finding a fine balance between dark-light binaries, at once euphonic and tenebrous, engaged and unmoored, a portal opened to elsewhereness.
Baby, It’s Cold Outside may be seen alongside other KeplarRev reclaims (e.g. optimal lp, Herbstlaub) as unearthed ambient-electronica treasure, or a cold case re-warmed by fresh investigation; and what still distinguishes it 15+ years on is that it not only raises the ghost in the machine, but elevates it above.
The Reverent Sky reaffirms Roach’s status as (inter-)stellar sonic explorer, layering various strands of his stylistic armory into a mesmeric tableau of oneiric ambience offset with a timeless pulse.
The release of Trippin’ Variations via A Person Disguised as People is further evidence of Gray’s growing profile with a variety of tweakings to the original track from FC Commitments, Soft Operator, James Scott, SXXN, Stan K, Hidden Rivers, and Drummachinemike.
Fragile Peaks is a deeply engaging (in the sense of the quality of engagement being ‘deep’) slow burner, though that descriptor might misrepresent the intensity of a piece that, fire-wise, is more of a smoulder—a low-lit one at that.
Overall, musically, Vikande blå / Nuages occupies a span of the ambient-drone spectrum that should lure in fans from, say, PITP to 12k, with Aiko T’s more minimal experimental sensibility nearer the latter, and Old Amica’s more fulsome space/post-rock leanings the former. A quality package, as you’ll have come to expect from Handstitched*.
Feedback loops emergent from tape recorder interactions served as a guiding principle, indeterminacy notwithstanding, fostering infusion of a certain fragile sensibility.
