You’ve pressed play on another Virtual Cassette Library. Twelve tracks. Two sides. A little plastic ghost that flips itself at the halfway mark, like a polite pancake.
If you make music, or you run a label, or you simply own a shed full of strange noises and would like them filed somewhere warm, send your links or Bandcamp codes to trevlad@gmail.com. I read every one. Promise. I read them with both eyes and, on special occasions, a third one.
The shows stay free for the first week, wandering about with their shoelaces undone. After that they 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 three-hour adventures titled Veil Frequencies, which is less a mixtape and more a long walk through a curtain that may be sentient.
Now. Each of these episodes is a two-part outing, just like the classic cassette. Unlike mixtapes or playlists, these two sides are curated as proper DJ sets, six tracks segued into one continuous mix, stitched together so carefully you can barely see the thread.
I hope you enjoy the adventure. Mind the flip.
A harbour drawn in soft pencil, then a cloud school ringing a horn of greeting. Side A keeps the seaweed’s appointment with the tide, still feels the earth turn under autumn leaves, dwells in holds large enough to stay, leaves an uncatalogued card in the drawer on purpose, lets silent water hold its breath so you can hear the room, and insists the clock has already spoken. Side B prefers the present tense inside a mutual blur, arrives as “we” with the nights already longer, receives a sincere note from the mothership, pauses between acts with the curtain half-raised, clips the verbs of quiet figures so the meaning stays intact, and lets the low cloud say hello in its own register. Overall mood: Slightly seasonal, and quietly precise — full of soft harbours, open scores, and sentences shortened but still whole. Perfect for dusk listening, houses that are still listening, or sitting still while the next spool still waits.
Side A Mood mist: a harbour drawn in soft pencil, an earth still turning under autumn, holds large enough to dwell in, a card left out of the catalogue, water that keeps its counsel, a clock that insists on the hour.
00:02:18 From A Harbour Softly Drawn (Fraser McGowan) – Seaweed (Exclusive Track) Album: Shepherds. Label: DRONARIVM Shepherds, DRONARIVM. The green that keeps the tide’s appointment, soft as the harbour that drew it. 00:08:23 Ed Herbers – I Can Still Feel The Earth Turn https://herbers.bandcamp.com/track/i-can-still-feel-the-earth-turn Album: Season Cycle: Autumn. Label: Passed Recordings Season Cycle: Autumn, Passed Recordings. Title of the hour. The ground still doing its quiet work under the leaves. 00:10:04 Many Pretty Blooms – Immense Holds https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/track/immense-holds Album: Dwell On Beauty. Label: whitelabrecs Dwell on beauty, whitelabrecs. The climb that prefers to stay, and the view that agrees. 00:15:32 Ümlaut – Uncatalogued https://camembertelectrique.bandcamp.com/track/mlaut-uncatalogued Album: [VA #46] – SOURCE UNKNOWN. Label: Camembert Électrique Source unknown, Camembert Électrique. Jeff Düngfelder’s card left in the drawer on purpose. The house still listening. 00:24:27 Luca Longobardi – Aqua Tacita https://luca-longobardi.bandcamp.com/track/aqua-tacita-2 Album: Aqua Tacita. Label: Seil Records Silent water, Seil. The surface holding its breath so you can hear the room. 00:31:17 Portland Vows – Cuckoo https://portland-vows.bandcamp.com/track/cuckoo Album: Cuckoo. Label: Third Kind Records Third Kind. Everything is the case, and the case is the clock, and the clock has already spoken.
Side B Mood mist: a blur that prefers the present tense, a we that arrived with the nights drawing in, a note from a mothership, an interval between acts, quiet figures with their verbs trimmed, a cloud school ringing a horn of greeting.
You’ve pressed play on another Virtual Cassette Library. Twelve tracks. Two sides. A little plastic ghost that flips itself at the halfway mark, like a polite pancake.
If you make music, or you run a label, or you simply own a shed full of strange noises and would like them filed somewhere warm, send your links or Bandcamp codes to trevlad@gmail.com. I read every one. Promise. I read them with both eyes and, on special occasions, a third one.
The shows stay free for the first week, wandering about with their shoelaces undone. After that they slip quietly into the hands of my Mixcloud subscribers, who currently have over eleven hundred other episodes waiting for them whenever the mood strikes, which in my experience is usually Tuesdays, or during eclipses, or when the kettle boils. Subscribers also receive the expanding series of three-hour adventures titled Veil Frequencies, which is less a mixtape and more a long walk through a curtain that may be sentient.
Now. Each of these episodes is a two-set outing, just like the classic cassette. Unlike mixtapes or playlists, these two sides are curated as proper DJ sets, six tracks segued into one continuous mix, stitched together so carefully you can barely see the thread. Unless you look. Don’t look.
I hope you enjoy the adventure. Mind the flip.
A clock that insists the world is already the argument, then a house that hums because it was cursed to. Side A opens the door unlatched on a cuckoo that has already said what it came to say, builds a choir from stones that will not give the words, fidgets in Latin for a sound that will not sit still, files tears under ocean and returns the glass, sets a plate for a love that left no chair pushed in, and steps into a puddle that learned to be a room. Side B runs a rite hotter than the room agreed to, cuts a faun from the seventh tray of stones, reaches the far point of an orbit, refuses a capital letter for nights that would rather not be introduced, walks the last few steps into silence, and keeps the hymn book and the haunting on the same shelf. Overall mood: Contemplative, slightly haunted, and quietly ritual — full of unlatched doors, lowercase dreams, and sanctuaries that sing whether you asked or not. Perfect for dusk listening, houses with a curse, or sitting still while the ripples never quite reach the edge.
Mood mist: a clock that insists the world is already the argument, a choir built from stones, Latin for a sound that will not sit still, tears filed under ocean, a love that left its plate, a puddle that learned to be a room.
00:02:12 Portland Vows – Everything Is The Case https://portland-vows.bandcamp.com/track/everything-is-the-case Album: Cuckoo. Label: Third Kind Records Cuckoo, and the case is the clock, and the clock has already said what it came to say. Third Kind leaving the door unlatched. 00:06:02 bluhm – stonechoir https://handstitched.bandcamp.com/track/stonechoir Album: signals in the static. Label: handstitched* Signals in the static, sung by a wall that handstitched taught to hold a note. Don’t ask the mortar for the words.* 00:09:12 Sebastian Zawadzki – Fluctuans in Sonitus Ambientis https://sebastianzawadzkimusic.bandcamp.com/track/fluctuans-in-sonitus-ambientis Album:Pax Elysium. A fluctuation in the sound of the room, dressed for Pax Elysium and still fidgeting with its cuffs. 00:10:55 TREVØR – Tears https://passedrecordings.bandcamp.com/track/tears Album: Passed Oceans. Label: Passed Recordings Passed Oceans keeping the salt and returning the glass. 00:13:22 Eje Eje – Phantom Love https://ejeeje.bandcamp.com/track/phantom-love Album: Mezze. Label: Batov Records Mezze for a guest who ate and left no chair pushed in. Batov setting a plate anyway. 00:16:08 Salamanda – Puddle Underwater https://metronrecords.bandcamp.com/track/puddle-underwater Album: Sphere. Label: Métron Records A sphere you can step in without wetting the hem. Métron counting the ripples that never reach the edge.
Mood mist: a rite that runs hot, a faun cut from the seventh tray of stones, the far point of an orbit, nights that refuse a capital letter, a walk that ends in quiet, a house that sings because it was cursed to.
00:20:17 Electric Circus – High Fever https://electriccircus3.bandcamp.com/track/high-fever-2 Album: Rites. Label: Killer Groove Records Rites performed at a temperature the room did not agree to. Killer Groove leaving the window shut. 00:23:26 Cartas de Japón – Faune III https://cyclicaldreams.bandcamp.com/track/cartas-de-jap-n-faune-iii Album: Label: Cyclical Dreams A letter from nowhere in particular, pressed into Gemstones VII until the faun agreed to be a facet. 00:32:57 Erik Wøllo – Aphelion https://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/track/aphelion Album: Earthshine. Label: Projekt Records Earthshine at its furthest from the thing that lights it. Projekt letting the tape run slow enough to feel the distance. 00:34:39 Jupi/ter – dreams. https://jupitersound.bandcamp.com/track/dreams Album: Nights Lower case, full stop. Nights that would rather not be introduced. 00:38:51 Fumana – Into Silence https://imaginarynorth.bandcamp.com/track/fumana-into-silence Album: Imaginary North Transmission 012. Label: Imaginary North Imaginary North transmitting the last few steps before the signal decides it has said enough. 00:41:02 Andrew Wasylyk & Tommy Perman – The Sanctuary Of Song https://claypipemusic.bandcamp.com/track/the-sanctuary-of-song Album: House with a Curse. Label: Clay Pipe Music The sanctuary of song, inside a house with a curse. Clay Pipe keeping the hymn book and the haunting on the same shelf.
This has been The Virtual Cassette Library, episode 319. Travel safely between the frequencies. I’ll meet you on the other side of the next spool.