V/A :: soak vol 2 (Soak)

An international community focused on contemporary sound

Angular and granular electronica with some minor guitarica. There is probably no dancing and definitely no sleeping, this is all art—so rejoice! 32 very strange episodes, plenty to baffle the listener. Soak (the record label) is based in Petropavl, Kazakhstan. Soak 2 is a second compilation album by that label, an international community focused on contemporary sound as a means of emotional liberation & self-inquiry, featuring various kinds of music, ranging from lamebient & downtempo to quirky sound-design, raw sonic intimacy & processed emo, whatever that may be. “This is something we are proud to share, aiming at fostering a sense of unity, artistic freedom & love.“

The project was gathered and meticulously curated throughout 2025. “We hadn’t planned it to turn out that long, 32 tracks crept up like an uncontrolled desire of getting tattooed over and over again. As a result, ‘soak body’ is etched with a (s)extensive selection of self-recognition-evoking music by sound producers & musicians across the globe. Raw or refined, recorded live, carefully produced, (un)processed or playfully generated, the diversity of sound and approach eventually point at something intimate: the ‘how to be’. A shared ‘something’ we truly celebrate together via media at hand.”

A part of proceeds will go to Isaakov dog shelter in Petropavl, Kazakhstan.

The artists heard on this anthology are: s[].any, goo, lycopsid_, OL, sidechain unit, tumy, free version, other joe, louis vogue, яома bantik ³³³, obe, s.drift, double blind, Alien Recycling, obi uto, moemu, zuno, Infant, Kilou, virtual echo, DJ Birdbath, kk.Shucko, marat koshkin, Yerofeyev, 16:9 ratio, duun, ebilen, inferior design, Alien Team, slyn, poole, bad lsd trips, defkon, and Sta Dormida. Curated by a b, marat koshkin & a. doina, Mostly mastered by yeyo & a b. Artwork by marat koshkin & a. doina. Merch design by marat koshkin.

One of the best aspects of anthologies is that smaller projects have the opportunity to exhibit in a common showcase, reaching more of the whole community, to expose their work and to experience the reactions. None of the tracks are very long, the shortest one is less than one minute. If something puts you off, hang on, there will be something new coming along soon, or maybe more of the same but somehow different. Some aspects are similar, but each track stands alone.

The names are creative, to decode this, here you will find the moniker of the creating entity, a hyphen, followed by the track title and the length in minutes, and a brief description of what I think that I heard.

1. s[].any – t.here 05:55 — Opens into a dark mood, I imagine that I hear many voices hidden in the mix, which is a sound collage, with different surprises. Our dreamy poetic singer is honest, the overall sound has lots of little flavors in a delicious complex collage stew. So strange.

2. goo – Secret 03:37 — A classical guitar, with some electronics whirled about, a cello, a singer, a robot plumber. Fragments of voices that echo amidst the tunneling strings and things. Easy drifting instrumentals with strange effects and odd bits here and there.

3. lycopsid_ – raupe 03:40 — “Lycopsid” is a botanical term for clubmosses, and Lycopsid (or lycopsid) is a Leipzig, Germany-based musical artist, known for producing electronic or ambient music, with tracks available on platforms like Bandcamp and Pandora. The sound here is celestial, a steady awakening into increasing brightness with interesting sound collages or wet chattering bits sprinkled and patterned about.

4. OL – Softshell 02:08 — The collected cadence is a bit loose, mumbling taps and tings, shuffling percussive snaps and shudders. It lunges forward, it pauses and holds, it shifts and prepares to lunge, it starts again. I can dig it. It whispers to me about beats while staying fluid and just flowing with sticky stop-start moments built in.

5. sidechain unit – wasted youth riddim 03:32 — I think there are voices, fragments including screaming happy kids in a playground hidden within the mix, which comes up harsh and stays very interesting, percussive clacks, perhaps some island riddim, there are ghosts flicker dancing, and a roller coaster where they all scream together. The beat is skeletal, with an odd missing beat pattern and new mumbling taps and tings, shuffling percussive snaps and shudders.

6. tumy – frostlings 03:48 — A dusty ghost piano melody loop and an agitated electronic spirit bouncing about, echo effects gone wild, in a deep dub style. There are many things going on at once, the piano, and percussive elements that echo and shatter, about half way through the strange beat gets stronger. The piano stays perfectly on course.

7. free version – moonlight yuh spotlight yuh 06:05 — Somewhere in the abandoned old factory ruins by the sea, in a big dark cave there are strange radios playing, or maybe poetic people reciting lines, or both and more. This sounds like it is probably dangerous, voices are talking and there are echoes, plenty of water. I do not understand any words, which are mostly repetitive. There are large monsters moving about off in the distance, I hear some smoothly running machine noises and banging about. And more water.

8. other joe – every image (ft. concave reflection) 04:28 — A piano, people breathing, someone is talking, there is some kind of electronic instrument, nice and slow. Mystery at every moment, dripping water, maybe a flute, odd woodwinds, slow and quiet and cautious, full of microscopic details. Spraying water? The piano keeps dreaming and seems distant sometimes. The bowed drones have the sky here.

9. louis vogue – out of reach (ft. saga charlotte) 00:59 — Louis Vogue is an electronic music artist, DJ, and co-founder of the Brussels-based collective and event series Club Détour, known for playing atmospheric and experimental sets on Kiosk Radio. The short dreamy misty track bursts in, I hear drama, sadness and darkness on a sweeping scale, singing over the storm of glitchy-pitched musical tones.

10. яома bantik ³³³ – ₉⁹₉ (yeyo & a b edit) 02:16 — ЯOMA BANTIK @romabantik is a Russian artist from the Urals, working with metal, natural and industrial heritages. I hear a fella and his guitar, strummin’ and singin’, sounds great to me. Good times, with no serious fancy science fiction studio effects. A young man alone, telling his heart.

11. obe – iji’s dub 06:37 — I think this one feels like we are deep underwater, the throbbing reverb feels like a dub mix, with various bouncing pulse echoes, the playful living echo vibration creature crawls about above the constant pulse flowing inward slowly then flowing outward, repeating, like breathing in your sleep. The dark water flows for miles below us. There are UFOs down there too.

12. s.drift – quatro CD 03:50 — Nervous and clicky like a rhythm, or maybe more like a collage, with odd forward and backward sounds, blending into a lighter abstract clicky beat, maybe adding a hi hat cymbal effect, an unexpected voice beep pops by a few times, while the shadows shake and shimmy. A drum set somehow shows up. We step forth with pep.

13. double blind – fade 02:29 — Water flowing, strange environmental humming rings, with mysterious winds and rain. The voice sounds drained and perhaps coming from another world. The message is in the form of hopeful poetry, and is not obvious. In my mind’s eye I see candles in the misty rings.

14. Alien Recycling – Pareidolia Cat Dub 03:44 — I am always trying to find meaningful faces or messages in musical clouds or in chaos. Here is an electronic cat that slides. There is an echo rhythm beat, drawing some space night ramblers. The beat is not steady and nearly seems to fall apart, and rallies a few times then eases off. I have been feeding that cat.

15. obi uto – oysq 03:33 — Perhaps this is just how they talk, strange beeps and clicking-rushing tones. No beats, no words, plenty of odd looping collage fragmentations, pulling from a unique musique concrete style and beyond. The feeling is restless.

16. moemu, zuno – petal traces 04:47 — Moemu and zuno are two musical artists associated with ambient, electronic, chill-out music contexts or lo-fi soundscapes, often featured in mix sets, and are found on Pandora and Bandcamp. I hear fragments of so many things, dark loop dreams that make no sense but are restful, pouring spilling cascading repeating flowing falling scattering evaporating, restless and gently convulsive, chaotic, there are void ghosts and melancholia floods over the roller coasters. I try to get there early and stay late.

17. Infant – jewel 03:01 — From twitchy robot bleeps to greebles rumbling, coming through a small tube with some shortwave radio throbbing and ringing, or maybe they are simply talking amongst themselves. There are little spinning bumping bells and a tap-ring collage. A beat comes about, explodes and gets wild, smooths and bumps along, the flow always gets busy in places after the extended coasting interludes.

18. Kilou – Blurry 03:40 — Somewhere deep in space we float upside down, feet over eyebrows, there is buzzing and a musical instrument strumming lightly. Some guy is singing while the dragons and other monsters size the room. Soon chains are broken. A guy is talking and singing, playing a guitar, flying feathered electronic snakes swirling about, seeking a hole in outer space. I hear strumming, spare shovels and tapping glasses with ice. I didn’t tell you everything.

19. virtual echo – j trip 04:35 — In the wash water, jiggling as the machine works, the sloshing water sets the beat. I hear nifty chattering little rhythms and throbbing waves of activities, her voices echo, skyrockets splash, there may be a drum kit, and now we are cooking, throbbing right along. This is where I belong.

20. DJ Birdbath – Rose Drip 04:06 — DJ Birdbath is the artist name for Ian Baxter, an electronic music producer based in the South Island of New Zealand, known for ambient and experimental music, often featuring deconstructed sounds, fragmented rhythms, and shoegaze-tinged vocals influenced by his past, often using a mix of real and generated samples. His music is featured on NTS Radio, SoundCloud, and Bandcamp. He released the album Memory Empathy (2024) via Theory Therapy, which features a blend of samples and influences from his time in the UK. The sound here is an abstract beat pattern that never stops changing, loops with flowing chaos and surprises, mostly variations on the instrumental constructions. Somewhere about half way in, they settle into a very catchy complex groove that stays uncertain but keeps going. They fly off, they fade.

21. kk.Shucko – another missed mirage 03:26 — kk.Shucko is an San Francisco-based experimental club producer and DJ known for crafting intricate, high-res techno, IDM, and warped drum and bass soundscapes, her sets revel in composing evenings that sew together soft and hard, continuity and catharsis draw listeners into an alien realm, and fuses needy rhythms, ambient, and club music to create immersive, imagined biomes. Associated with Club Moniker and Ommaya Records, they create “hyperspace” audio, often incorporating elements like glass and gel, and hold a residency at SutroFM. I hear energized chattering electronic squirrels, also scratchy electronified voices painted on the air. The squirrels keep me busy, some of the sound is harsh with whispers hidden inside, hit with sharp short and zappy bolts, melting into a bubbling sea of writhing monsters and phantoms. Darned cool.

22. marat koshkin – cry OS 03:37 — Marat Koshkin is a musician and artist from Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan, recently located in Saint-Petersburg. The beat is catchy from the jump, splashy weaving beats stay strong and powerful mixed with the collage nicely, gettin’ jammy with multiple instruments, gettin’ down within the change and solids. A winsome laugh has been captured.

23. Yerofeyev – Smares (Senglar Rmx) 05:52 — Senglar is an electronic music artist and composer known for producing experimental, atmospheric, immersive, often dark, and downtempo electronic soundscapes. Based on recent music releases, Senglar often works within the niche of electronic, ambient, and downtempo genres, featuring 2024 album releases like Sensen – Hum. A rolling ball of fragmented multisounds, shortwave abstract whispers, electronic complex and plenty to listen to per sparkle, great for head rushes and surprises. I am sure there is more to the story as to how Senglar came to remix Yerofeyev’s Smares.

24. 16:9 ratio – Nothing Drive 03:15 — 16:9 ratio is likely the moniker for Geunf, a multidisciplinary artist, DJ, and producer based in Ottawa, Canada. He is known for blending techno, pop, and deconstructed club music. He released the ambient/experimental project Our Keyboards in 2025. He is also a member of the pop trio Los3r. I hear a children’s playground and people talking just out of reach, the beat trots up and off we go with nice propulsion, dancing snowflakes, the feeling defines royal and grand (both), towards the end we are at a full gallop with happily laughing snare drums and a big wow finish.

25. duun – chill! 03:28 — A machine is dancing inside of a twisting huge towering steel monster, I sense a dark voodoo beach with a moonlight fire, the rolling beat goes on and on, the feeling is fearsome and close, I hear a sly dark dub beat, probably from a strong dancing doom machine.

26. ebilen – aeon 04:00 — Ebilen is an electronic music artist known for tracks like “Strange Emotion” and the album pihkal (Base 1), releasing music through labels like Tabula Rasa Records and featuring on SoundCloud. They produce in genres often associated with underground electronic or ambient styles. I am in outer space, no gravity, no up or down, spinning slowly, whispers always getting more complex, shifting and ticking inside the mind. Something changes, the energizing chaos dance continues while ghosts call in the dark empty corridors, tiny punchy robot construction workers appear everywhere all at once for a little while, things continue to change, finally we finish swirling with whispers and the clock ticks.

27. inferior design – conning 04:47 — Outer space has no corners or answers, aliens and robots scoot along as we explore all these little pieces, like sand only smaller and with more shapes and colors, flashing and glittering particles spreading everywhere. There is no gravity so the spinning can seem slower, granular overstimulation transports some to a new place with new possibilities. Now we are having a sunrise inside the chaos collage, shooting lasers across the tracks, as chaos echoes and bumps about. This too shall morph.

28. Alien Team – my team 03:33 — Somewhere way out there, by a waterfall, the birdbeams call as they rush by. The rumbling loop brings up the low end, the birdbeams come and go, now we have a beat rumble stomp shake throbstep march while the birdbeams swirl overhead. A continuation of rushing water, with new strange birds taking over and proliferating, growing and developing, learning to dance. Soon the tribe is grooving. Now we are at the waterfall with the chaos birds. I woke up wondering where I was. At home of course.

29. slyn, poole – arc 04:18 — Slyn, a Glasgow-based sound artist, live performer, and DJ, is known for immersive, experimental, and eccentric club sounds that blend IDM, bass, and jungle with ambient textures, heavily influenced by a background in marine biology and themes of hydrofeminism and queer ecology, with soundscapes that are often described as underwater, dreamy, or “algae-like.” I am seeking more about Poole. What I hear here is a new jungle of fabrics and textures, mysterious vocalisms, many things at once. There is a primitive beat picking up, I hear the jungle in the distance. Now and then some guitar tapping time baps along. I want to live here under the arc.

30. bad lsd trips – eno river 04:46 — bad lsd trips is a collaborative music project between artists Domingo Castillo Flores and Mónica Mesa (who performs as doris dana). Based in Miami, Florida, the duo formed during the pandemic, producing music that blends elements of early industrial, dark ambient, tape music, and drone “psychedelic meditations” and “murky field recordings” with “ASMR-adjacent synths.” My mind melts, I hear strange twisted whistles, an emerging beat like a train rattle power turnip ringing shards of metal along comes the boat, an odd motor throb whispering starshine flotters about and the motor keeps running. The individual words are lost for me, the poetic tone and vibe are clear and strong, I float off into another dream with newer words that are never easier to remember.

31. defkon – sun tunnels 03:04 — We are building a new solar passageway, and adding a piano loop skeleton with strange attachments and things to tap. The piano stays solid while the changes bring new creatures that make sound, odd new sounds, piano loops and wild improv with little hand instruments adding into the pattern.

32. Sta Dormida – Trace Abruption 04:44 — Sta Dormida is an independent musical artist, singer-songwriter, producer, and audio engineer who composes, records, produces, mixes, and masters their own music. Known for releases such as Ace of Grace (2025), More Like Never (2025), and It’s Rigged (2024), they are active on platforms like Spotify and Bandcamp. This contribution features her singing and playing classical guitar, nothing electronic, just dry fingers on strings and layered singing. I want to stay here forever.

Soak 2 is the second anthology, the first anthology is titled Soak, or soak, and was released on January 24, 2025.

The soak music label is an international community focused on contemporary sound as a means of emotional liberation & self-inquiry.

Soak (volume 1) features Geklaper, state of radiance, jerom, yeyo, d. towärds, AL-90, Monokle, ihatejulyyy, a b, saga charlotte, margaritki, sonoj, dovecot, yusk, wardi, monocoat, hiromu, secret getii, Igor Dyachenko, qwqwqwqwa, emre girginkaya, philip cock, marat koshkin, doris dana, Morning Sex, and Mélodie Blaison.

This annual anthology project has a logo, “the design traces the legacy of Maud Wagner, reimagined in a state of petrified transmutation where tattoos appear as carved scars.”

Maud Wagner (1877–1961) was a fearless figure who utilized her skills and unique appearance to gain financial independence and influence in a largely hidden subculture, and left a lasting legacy as the first known female tattoo artist in the United States. A former circus aerialist, she pioneered the male-dominated industry in the early 1900s by mastering traditional hand-poked (“stick-and-poke”) tattooing, helping to introduce tattoo artistry to inland America.