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.
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.
A wounded, oceanic ambient journey through blinking cellars, wild roses, and depths that never learned the names of fish. Side A teaches green cellar walls to blink, then breathes through a Mersey scar, keeps a dolphin spare room, waits for a poppy to bloom, writes Hosono’s letter to the planet’s mother, and holds forty-nine seconds of sunset. Side B rains on Caladan, folds a week into a lobby between lives, climbs a twelve-minute Tucson staircase, keeps Batov moving at the gate, sits bathyal until the feeling grows gills, and ends with a piano-fed bird between two machines. Overall mood: Tender, slightly raw, and deeply watery — full of Passed Oceans, analog compassion, and rooms that refuse to close. Perfect for late listening, sitting with a scar, or letting the rain read you while the next spool waits.
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. They also get the ever-growing advance version of the forthcoming compilation Quiet Figures.
The tape unspools its visions.
00:01:20 Altus – The Pulse of Protocols https://altusmusic.bandcamp.com/track/the-pulse-of-protocols From the album “Echo Bloom” on Altus Music. A cellar full of green light teaching the walls how to blink. Eight small machines agreeing, for once, on the same heartbeat. 00:06:02 autumna – the surgery and scar https://autumna.bandcamp.com/track/the-surgery-and-scar From the album “oxygen and light”. Liverpool as an open wound that breathes. Scouse vowels drifting over the Mersey like stitches that won’t close 00:09:17 purplekairi1312 – dolphin sanctuary https://passedrecordings.bandcamp.com/track/dolphin-sanctuary A noise in the hall that was only ever a dream. The ocean keeping a spare room for things that never learned to walk. 00:13:32 Martin Pyne – And Then A Poppy Blooms https://discusmusic.bandcamp.com/ An exclusive track from the forthcoming album “Trios” out on Discus Music 25 September. Vibraphone petals opening on a chalk hillside. Three players standing still enough for a flower to decide it is safe. 00:15:33 Haruomi Hosono – To A Wild Rose https://haruomihosono.bandcamp.com/track/to-a-wild-rose From the album “Yours Sincerely” out on Ghostly International. A seventy-eight-year-old man writing a letter to the planet’s mother and signing it with an oceanside hum. Compassion trying on an English coat that fits. 00:16:40 Fran Carlyon – Sunset https://francarlyon.bandcamp.com/track/sunset From the album “Growing Towards The Light” Forty-nine seconds of a fallen tree still reaching. Chaos in the heartlands pretending it’s found a window.
00:17:44 Akinetic – Rains of Caladan https://passedrecordings.bandcamp.com/track/rains-of-caladan The second of three pieces from the “Passed Oceans” compilation. You are a protein complex reading the weather. Sacramento rain falling on a planet that only exists in the margins of a novel. 00:22:04 Petridisch x Jude Kerr – L’infantile (Alprazolam Mix) https://rakurecords.bandcamp.com/track/l-infantile-alprazolam-mix From the album “7 Days in the Fast Lane” out on Rakū Records A week folded into a single pill. Boston stems stretched until they forget their names and wake up in a lobby between life and the afterlife. 00:32:21 Neglect – Escala III https://neglectsound.bandcamp.com/track/escala-iii Self released single. Neglectsound are from Tucson, Arizona. Longest piece at 12:53 Tucson dust climbing a twelve-minute staircase made of delay pedals. The longest piece tonight, refusing to look down. 00:43:51 Kolonel Djafaar – Movin’ https://batovrecords.bandcamp.com/track/movin From the compilation album “Around The Sun – Batov Records – 10 Years” Ten years of Batov grooves packed into one suitcase that will not sit still. Ethio-jazz tapping its foot at the departure gate. 00:49:16 spectral void – Bathyal https://passedrecordings.bandcamp.com/track/bathyal The third piece from the compilation album “Passed Oceans”. Not to be confused with the black metal band of the same name. The part of the ocean that never learned the names of the fish in it. An Indian composer sitting with a feeling until the feeling grows gills. 00:57:00 Jogging House – Beak https://jogginghouse.bandcamp.com/track/beak From the album “Really”. Piano phrases sent through the post, then fed to tape like breadcrumbs. A bird dwells in the space between two machines.
The visions complete their circle. The oxide continues its quiet journey until the end of the spool.
Also in the works: the next compilation, Quiet Figures, release date 26 September. Uncover the narratives whispered by the silent, ever-present figures that shadow us, through compositions that unravel their hidden mysteries. Does that stir anything? Send entries to trevlad@gmail.com Include artist name, track name, and a link to other work. Deadline: 24 September.
This has been The Virtual Cassette Library, episode 309. Travel safely between the frequencies. I’ll meet you on the other side of the next spool.