Good day, listeners… or should I say, travellers of the tape.
Trevor here. You’ve pressed play on another Virtual Cassette Library. Twelve-track virtual cassettes that flips themselves at the halfway mark.
If you make music, or run a label, and fancy a place in the library, send your links or Bandcamp codes to trevlad@gmail.com. I read every one. Promise.
Tips and subscriptions keep the reels turning. Every little helps the library stay open after dark.
The shows remain free for the first week, then slip quietly into the hands of my Mixcloud subscribers, who currently have over eleven hundred other episodes waiting for them whenever the mood strikes. Subscribers receive the expanding series of 3-hour adventures titled Veil Frequencies.
Right then, my glittering cassette moths…
It’s time I had a quiet word with the universe about this Virtual Cassette Library lark of mine. Lately it’s been drifting off like a helium balloon made of old mixtape innards, floating away from the original bonfire of my intentions. I need to yank it back by its magnetic tape tail before it disappears into a cloud of forgotten B-sides.
I’ve just been bathing in the first episode of The Signal by Wall of Ambient — Harry Towell and James Osland swimming through the ambient oceans like two elegant seahorses in velvet capes. Go and drink it in on Substack. And while you’re there, follow me like a loyal moth to my flickering neon sign.
Anyway, Harry said something that pinged my third eye: concept is the beating heart of an album. And I suddenly realised that even though I pluck these tracks from their original conceptual wombs, my shows are actually stitched together with their own secret concepts. Lately I’ve been chattering between tracks like a magpie on a telephone wire and the concept has been leaking out like cheese from a toasted sandwich.
So what’s the concept, you ask, while adjusting your imaginary pipe?
Well, I’ve spent my entire working life lurking on and around stages like a quiet caretaker with glitter under his nails. I see each episode as a colossal rotating stage — a great mechanical blooming lotus. The audience only ever glimpses a sliver of it at a time. Every artist is allotted the exact time it takes them to perform their piece. Then they rotate out of view like a peacock into fog, and the next act glides in. The stage spins at whatever speed the track demands — slow and syrupy or frantic and glittering.
I still want to whisper the names of the artists, the albums and the labels, so I’ll do that before each set — or “side,” as we cassette alchemists call them. Six little incantations per side, plus a general mist of what mood to expect.
Now… shall we let the stage begin to turn?
So episode 311 is a weathered, slightly spectral ambient journey through closing dive bars, overlapping canopies, and monuments that have already begun to kneel.
Overall mood: Contemplative, analog, and quietly dilapidated — full of forgotten light, phase transitions, and sockets still whispering in the dark. Perfect for late listening, empty stages, or sitting with the ivy while it finishes the sentence.
Side A lets shadows clock off at the edge of the universe, waves from a missed railway cutting, shares a stereo canopy, opens a December jar six months late, weathers the ivy through human architecture, and climbs dilapidated monuments only to accept itself.
00:05:30 Kh3rtis – As Shadows Fall Away
https://kh3rtis.bandcamp.com/track/as-shadows-fall-away
A dive bar at the edge of the universe closing its curtains. Shadows clocking off. You are left holding the light they forgot to take.
00:10:28 Sunshine Playroom / Prozapine – The Ultimate
A MicroKorg dressed as 1974 television, waving from a railway cutting that only exists when you miss it.
00:12:06 Chihei Hatakeyama & Jupi/ter – Canopy
https://ambientologist.bandcamp.com/track/canopy
Two canopies overlapping until the stereo field forgets which tree belongs to which country. Peace wearing someone else’s coat.
00:19:04 Matt Lowery – 12-13-24
https://mattlowery.bandcamp.com/track/12-13-24
The thirteenth of December kept in a jar and opened six months later. Modular dust that still remembers the day it was captured.
00:20:20 The Microgram – Weathered
https://kaisekidigital.bandcamp.com/track/weathered
Human architecture kneeling so the ivy can finish the sentence. A facility learning how to weather.
00:24:05 Blank Embrace – Dilapidated Monuments
https://kaisekidigital.bandcamp.com/track/dilapidated-monuments
Dilapidated monuments on a tundra that ends in a mountain you climb only to accept yourself. The stage turns very slowly here.
Side B argues in black and white until a drop becomes a drum, leaves the singers behind in Midas plumbing, hands in exam music before the piece ends, leaks a green chorus through melted glass, takes on new Beagle waters, and coils after midnight on a Yamaha four-track.
00:33:21 Amotken – Gota
https://mahorka.bandcamp.com/track/gota
Black and white arguing inside a twenty-year-old Mexican machine. A drop of water deciding it is also a drum.
00:37:39 El Michels Affair – Anticipate (Instrumental)
https://elmichelsaffair.bandcamp.com/track/anticipate-instrumental
The singers have left the building. What remains is the Midas plumbing — brass, choir-shaped air, a saxophone ghost clocking in for overtime.
00:40:31 The Sound Catelouge – Phase Transitions
https://theastralrealms.bandcamp.com/track/phase-transitions
Exam music found inside a textbook sleeve. Phase transitions for students who must hand in their papers before the piece ends.
00:42:50 Phil Geraldi – Chorus in Green
https://chakrawhip.bandcamp.com/track/chorus-in-green
Alien country radio leaking through melted glass. A chorus in green that never quite reaches the hook.
00:45:35 Tim Stebbing – New Waters
https://cyclicaldreams.bandcamp.com/track/new-waters
HMS Beagle still taking on new water in 2026. Sequencers collecting specimens the Atlantic has not finished naming.
00:52:28 DOMOTIC – Serpenting
https://domotic.bandcamp.com/track/serpenting
*A Yamaha four-track recorded after midnight, coiling like fur that learned to hiss. Vintage sockets whispering to each other in the dark.
*
This has been The Virtual Cassette Library, episode 311.
Travel safely between the frequencies.
I’ll meet you on the other side of the next spool.
Trev’s Virtual Cassette Library 312
LISTEN HERE
Good day, listeners… or should I say, travellers of the tape.
Trevor here. You’ve pressed play on another Virtual Cassette Library. Twelve-track virtual cassettes that flips themselves at the halfway mark.
If you make music, or run a label, and fancy a place in the library, send your links or Bandcamp codes to trevlad@gmail.com. I read every one. Promise.
The shows remain free for the first week, then slip quietly into the hands of my Mixcloud subscribers, who currently have over eleven hundred other episodes waiting for them whenever the mood strikes. Subscribers also receive the expanding series of 3-hour adventures titled Veil Frequencies.
Now imagine each episode as a colossal rotating stage — a great mechanical blooming lotus. You, the audience only ever glimpse a sliver of it at a time. Every artist is allotted the exact time it takes them to perform their piece. Then they rotate out of view, and the next act glides in. The stage spins at whatever speed the track demands.
The names of the artists and labels I’ll mention before each set — or “side,” as the cassette alchemists call them. Six little incantations per set, plus a general mist of what mood to expect.
Now the stage begins to turn.
A luminous, slightly forensic ambient journey through corridors of evidence, papery lanterns, and planets that have not finished burning.
Side A opens an investigation the cameras invent as they roll, then cracks a cosmic oval, grows emerald armour between patio bricks, combs strings into sand that will not stay, squeezes two minutes of smear-test whimsy, and ends on a wind prayer written for people and cats.
Side B walks dry iron valleys toward utopian lullabies, cuts others from the seventh gemstone tray, argues a Messiah into demo clothes, wires splendour so slowly it can curve, refuses to hurry its illusions, and keeps Batov’s ten-year sun turning with all it can do.
Overall mood: Contemplative, analog, and quietly jewelled — full of evidence the ghost leaves behind, sand still deciding, and light that knows which pocket it came from. Perfect for late listening, slow wiring, or sitting with the corridor while the next spool still waits.
00:03:06 Department of Light – Investigation #1
https://theastralrealms.bandcamp.com/track/investigation-1
Album: ∆ ∆ ∆ ∆ ∆
Label: The Dream Journal Institute
Sofia walks a corridor that only exists when the cameras are rolling. Five triangles of evidence. The library fund gets whatever the ghost leaves behind.
00:09:07 Michael Brückner – Coda (A Pure Oval Shape)
https://cyclicaldreams.bandcamp.com/track/coda-a-pure-oval-shape
Album: The Egg in the Cosmic Crack [CYD 0165]
Label: Cyclical Dreams
An oval so clean it could be an eye or an Ei. The cosmic egg cracks, then politely puts itself back together for the coda.
00:13:06 Soda Lite – Emerald Armour
https://soda-lite.bandcamp.com/album/011-soda-lite-cape-gooseberry
Album: 011: Soda Lite (Cape Gooseberry)
Label: Music To Watch Seeds Grow By
Cape gooseberry armour — a papery lantern grown between patio bricks. The plant singing on a cliff that did not invite an audience.
00:16:05 Trem 77 – Staers
https://trem77.bandcamp.com/track/staers
Album: Textural Colour Spectrum Sandpainting
Henrik’s strings combed into sand. A painting you are not allowed to keep; only to notice while the grains are still deciding.
00:22:47 Daily Mail Comments Section – A Short Song About Sex
https://enofa.bandcamp.com/track/a-short-song-about-sex
Album: Now That’s What I Call Smear Test
Two minutes of smear-test pop that arrived in a dream before Charli could steal the name. Whimsy wearing steel-capped boots.
00:23:37 Frank Pels – Wind Prayer
https://ambientcat.bandcamp.com/track/wind-prayer
Album: Voyager
Label: Ambient Cat
A wind prayer written for people and for cats. Voyager opening a window the size of a synth trail and calling it home.
00:29:07 Fallen – From Dry Iron Valleys to Utopian Realms
https://touched.bandcamp.com/track/from-dry-iron-valleys-to-utopian-realms-2
Album: Stars are Crashing, Home are Burning, Hearts are Changing-Notes from a Distant World/Detuned Lullabies for the Old Planet
Label: Touched Music
Dry iron valleys emptying into a realm that believes in lullabies. Forty-one records walking toward a planet that has not finished burning.
00:39:15 AeTopus – Others
https://cyclicaldreams.bandcamp.com/track/aetopus-others
Album: Gemstones VII [CYD 0166]
Label: Cyclical Dreams
Others, cut from the seventh tray of gemstones. Berlin School light bouncing off a stone that knows which pocket it came from.
00:43:25 SPTW – Messiah (demo version)
https://mahorka.bandcamp.com/track/messiah-demo-version
Album: EUTHYMIA
Label: Mahorka.
Messiah in demo clothes. SP-404 and an MPC arguing with pencils and bottles until euthymia agrees to sit still.
00:45:02 Dirk Serries – Slowly Wired
https://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/
Album: Curves of Splendor
Label: Projekt Records
Guitar wired so slowly the splendour has time to curve. VidnaObmana’s cousin taking the long way around the intrusive world.
00:56:21 DUSQ – Illusions
https://daydreamerslabel.bandcamp.com/track/illusions
Single: Illusions.
Label: Daydreamers
Illusions that refuse to hurry. Belarus folded into Daydreamers’ fourth quiet continuation.
00:58:55 Wax Machine – All I Can Do
https://batovrecords.bandcamp.com/track/all-i-can-do
Album: Around The Sun – Batov Records – 10 Years
Label: Batov Records
All they can do is keep the ten-year sun turning. Batov’s suitcase still unpacked on the rotating floor.
This has been The Virtual Cassette Library, episode 312.
Travel safely between the frequencies.
I’ll meet you on the other side of the next spool.
Posted by trevlad | September 25, 2026 | Categories: Mix shows, Music, Music podcast | Tags: AeTopus, ambient, Ambient Cat, ambient electronic, ambient music, Amsterdam, Argentina, atmospheric, Australia, Batov Records, Belarus, Belgium, Bellingham, berlin school, braindance, Brighton, Bristol, Buenos Aires, Bulgaria, cinematic, Cyclical Dreams, Daily Mail Comments Section, Daydreamers, Department of Light, Dirk Serries, drone, DUSQ, eco, electroacoustic, electronic, electronica, ethereal ambient, ethio-jazz, experimental, Fallen, field recordings, France, Frank Pels, Germany, global grooves, Hobart, idm, Italy, Mahorka, Mainz, Meaux, meditative, Michael Brückner, Minsk, Music To Watch Seeds Grow By, Netherlands, new age, post-rock, Projekt Records, shoegaze, Soda Lite, soundscape, soundscapes, space, space ambient, space music, SPTW, The Dream Journal Institute, Touched Music, Trem 77, UK, Washington, Wax Machine, world, world funk | Leave a comment