Trev’s Virtual Cassette Library 278
www.mixcloud.com/djsofabed/tvcl-278/
Good day, listeners… or should I say, travellers of the tape.
Trevor here. You’ve pressed play on another fragile spool of the Virtual Cassette Library. Episode 278. Twelve-track virtual cassettes that flips themselves at the halfway mark. Whether you’re ready or not.
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.
I’m trying something new by not introducing the artists, but instead incorporating their work into an incantation of sorts.
The shows remain free for the first week, then slip quietly into the hands of my Mixcloud subscribers, who currently have 1,107 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.
A free-flowing, reflective ambient journey through sensory electronics, memory, and quiet personal growth.
Side A moves from biological-electrical parallels and anisotropic expansion into lo-fi peace, earth-toned experiments, momentary swells, and one-note joy. Side B drifts through early-synth sci-fi, molecular machinery, endless Ukrainian fields, youthful better ways, fluttering reassurance, and pleasant loss at C.
Overall mood: Contemplative, warm, and gently expansive — balancing scientific curiosity with emotional depth and soft analogue comfort. Perfect for deep listening, late-night reflection, or peaceful immersion.
Side A
Veins of living light pulse through a lattice of roots and circuit traces. The British Stereo Collective – Bloodrush. Biological pathways merge with electrical grids in a continuous glowing network. Neurological rivers flow into digital rivers. Sequencer patterns rise in free-form currents of sensory electronics, carrying the entire landscape forward in one unbroken surge of warm voltage.
Space stretches in every direction at unequal speeds. Ty Lumnus – Anisiotropic Expansion. Horizons lengthen into luminous corridors of shifting density. Particles drift along invisible axes, forming soft geometric clouds that keep expanding outward in quiet anisotropic bloom.
A solitary figure walks away from a city of fading neon into open starfields. LoveKrafty – Peace Out. Lo-fi cassette warmth coats every surface in soft analog grain. The path opens into a junkie space opera of surreal colour, where the traveller follows a new trajectory through swirling planetary dust and glowing debris fields.
Earth pigments swirl across an endless canvas of evolving texture. Analogue Path – Tempera Terra. Early exploratory tones layer themselves into rich mineral hues. The road ahead unfolds as a long sequence of warm analogue colours, each one revealing another stretch of open sonic ground.
A tide of soft harmony drifts across misted water. M. Cross Dougherty – Momentary. Melodic currents swell into pale horizons that dissolve at the edges. Every rise of the water carries deeper layers of luminous mist, the whole surface breathing in slow continuous motion.
A single pure note of C3 expands into thirty-one radiant nodes. aztechsounds – Nodes Of Infinite Joy. Each node blooms as its own complete world of infinite joy, all orbiting the shared frequency. The nodes rearrange themselves in endless new constellations, flowing seamlessly from one luminous form into the next.
The cassette reaches its midpoint and turns.
Side B
Vast synth environments open into deep-thought corridors of soft phosphorescence. Richard Francés – 2013. Early electronic clouds drift through sci-fi meditation chambers. Extraterrestrial light filters across Terry Riley-like cycles, creating a continuous pathway of inner and outer consciousness glowing in the same slow colour.
A complex molecular machine glides along a long strand of luminous code. Akinetic – Cryocoma. Protein structures read the intricate sequence with steady luminous precision. The entire cellular landscape unfolds as a quiet reading of infinite genetic light.
Endless fields stretch under a remembered Black Sea sky of liquid gold. Bohdan Stupak – endless fields. A low massive drone carries the horizon while high-pitched textures float above it in shifting emotional colours. Memory opens the fields into wider and wider expanses of warm drone light, ending in a soft closure of computer-generated bells and glowing crackles.
Small silent steps form a continuous path of fluid sound. hershel – Better way. Processed guitars and piano tones reshape themselves into new luminous forms. The landscape moves in gentle everlasting motion, each step revealing another layer of intimate hopeful atmosphere that keeps evolving forward.
A warm ambient blanket of soft fluttering echoes wraps the entire space. Ian Hawgood – Flutter Echo Refrain. Fourteen gentle layers of reassurance drift through the air in slow cascading waves. The echoes form a continuous field of transcendental calm that settles over everything in quiet luminous comfort.
The shared note of C expands into a pleasant drifting openness. BAK – Pleasantly lost at C. The frequency opens into wide soft territories where the listener floats among glowing harmonic islands, carried deeper into the pure tone with every slow turn of the current.
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 Trev’s Virtual Cassette Library, episode 278.
Travel safely between the tracks.
I’ll meet you on the other side of the next spool.
Side A
00:00:00 The British Stereo Collective – Bloodrush
Sensory electronic ambient drawing parallels between veins, roots, neural pathways and circuit boards. Intense, free-flowing, and richly textured.
00:05:19 Ty Lumnus – Anisiotropic Expansion
Expansive, directionally uneven ambient with subtle scientific tension and wide spatial growth. Cerebral and atmospheric.
00:12:15 LoveKrafty – Peace Out
Lo-fi, cassette-warmed ambient with surreal 70s/80s concept-album flavour and crunchy analogue comfort. Quirky and relaxed.
00:15:13 Analogue Path – Tempera Terra
Earth-toned exploratory ambient from early sonic experiments, soft and searching. Honest and grounded.
00:19:50 M. Cross Dougherty – Momentary
Drifting melodic ambient where soft harmonies blur into misty horizons. Gentle, swelling, and reflective.
00:22:15 aztechsounds – Nodes Of Infinite Joy
One-note ambient (C3) from a collective compilation, built around shared frequency and quiet joy. Minimal and uplifting.
Side B
00:27:30 Richard Francés – 2013
Early-synth ambient recalling Tangerine Dream and Terry Riley, with sci-fi meditation and extraterrestrial calm. Expansive and pioneering.
00:30:50 Akinetic – Cryocoma
Molecular, DNA-reading ambient imagining a complex protein machine at work. Precise, intricate, and quietly scientific.
00:35:28 Bohdan Stupak – endless fields
Emotional drone-ambient reflecting on lost places and memory’s tricks — tension, hope, and eventual soothing closure. Poignant and deep.
00:38:20 hershel – Better way
Intimate, youthful ambient shaped by personal growth and quiet transformation. Soft, hopeful, and melancholic in equal measure.
00:41:20 Ian Hawgood – Flutter Echo Refrain
Warm, reassuring ambient with fluttering echoes and gentle curative presence. Comforting and transcendental.
00:46:41 BAK – Pleasantly lost at C
Softly disoriented ambient circling the same note with pleasant, drifting ease. Light and free.
Trev’s Virtual Cassette Library 273
www.mixcloud.com/dashboard/my-shows/published/
Good day, listeners… or should I say, travellers of the tape.
Trevor here. You’ve just pressed play on another fragile spool of the Virtual Cassette Library. Episode 273. A twelve-track virtual cassette that flips itself at the halfway mark, whether you’re ready or not.
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 soft, slightly quirky ambient journey through floating persistence, growth, residual hope, and quiet promises.
Side A drifts from stuffed repetition and first cultivations into remixes of light, machine minimalism, low flames, and mysterious beings. Side B moves through glitchy indexes, bubbling collaboration, woodland ghosts, emptiness, suspended paths, and ends on a gentle promise.
Overall mood: Contemplative, warm, and gently playful — full of soft textures and quiet emotional space. Perfect for deep listening, late mornings, or peaceful immersion.
I’ll introduce Side A now. Side B will wait for the intermission, as is tradition.
The shows remain free for the first week, then slip quietly into the hands of my Mixcloud subscribers, who currently have 1,098 other episodes waiting for them whenever the mood strikes. Subscribers also receive the expanding series Veil Frequencies, recorded floor-by-floor inside the 24 buildings of a place called the Resonant Veil Enclave. They also get the ever-growing advance version of the forthcoming compilation Quiet Figures.
Side A
On this episode you’ll hear young Italian composer and producer Luciano Masala, better known as hershel, with the floating piece “Stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy” from his debut album silent steps for a better way, available on CD from Whitelabrecs.
Then Estonia-based Paul Beaudoin invites us into adaptive drift with “1st Cultivation” from his brand-new release spores.dat, out on Sheffield’s Audiobulb.
Next, Wahn appears via a remix: Dissolved’s reworking of “Not All Is Lost”, taken from the album Re: Echo Mist Light, in which 18 artists remix Wahn’s classic Echo Mist Light. The release celebrates Bulgarian label Mahorka’s 500th release.
We’re back with Whitelabrecs for French composer Anthony Elfort (as Toàn) and the track “DEL 1”, created entirely on a single machine — the Deluge — from the album Solitarium.
Staying with Harry Towell’s wonderfully prolific Whitelabrecs, we hear a guitar-based gem from Michael Cottone’s long-running project The Green Kingdom: “By Low Flame”, taken from the soothing album Vespera.
Closing Side A is an exclusive from my upcoming compilation Quiet Figures: Brighton-based BUNKR with the vibrating “The Beings of Borde Hill”. The album currently features 11 artists including Anhnch, Cries from the LTN, Keith Seatman, BUNKR, The Gaye Device, HDRF, Simon Heartfield, The Earl of Dean, Graham Thorpe, Visionary Lines and Substak. There’s still time to submit — the window closes 24 September.
But first, to set the vibe: hershel with “Stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy”.
Now settle in. Turn it up just a little. Let’s see where the tape takes us.
One side flip. Just the music.
Side B
Welcome back, sonic travellers. Six tracks down. Six still waiting.
You’ll hear UK-based Bibio together with Vienna’s Dorian Concept on their bubbling collaboration single “Shame”, out on Warp Records.
Then we revisit older Triplicate Records material with Nottingham’s George Evans (Suncastle) and the good-mood creation “Ghost in Trees” from the 2020 album Platformer.
Next we head to one of my favourite labels — the one-of-a-kind Cyclical Dreams from Buenos Aires — for a minimal track titled “Into Emptiness” by Trittau, Germany’s Christian Fiesel, taken from his recent release On A Second Thought.
Near the end we travel to Alfortville, France, for Japanese artist Hiroaki Yamamoto and the opening track “Paths” from his album Suspended in the Wind, the latest release on Driftworks.
And finally, from the excellent cassette compilation Connection: sculpting silence on French label Hylé Tapes, I leave you with Ekin Fil and Dominic Coppola’s wonderfully soothing “Promise To Never Be Like Them”.
But first, we return to 2020 and Santa Fe, New Mexico’s Richard Alfaro with the glitchy “Index”, taken from the Trip FM compilation Red Shift. Being six years old, it’s Name Your Price on Bandcamp — thank you to Triplicate Records for helping keep this channel sustainable.
Enjoy…
Side A
00:00:00 hershel – Stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy stuffy
Playfully repetitive, floating ambient with soft, stuffed-up textures and quiet persistence. Curious and hypnotic.
00:09:54 Paul Beaudoin – 1st Cultivation
Patient, adaptive ambient exploring first growth and subtle digital spores. Organic and thoughtful.
00:13:46 Wahn – Not All Is Lost (Dissolved Remix)
Hopeful, remixed ambient with residual light and a sense of recovery. Atmospheric and reassuring
00:18:10 Toàn – DEL 1
Minimal, single-machine ambient created on the Deluge, with clean deletion and precise restraint. Focused and pure.
00:22:22 The Green Kingdom – By Low Flame
Gentle, guitar-led ambient with low flickering warmth and soft, evening glow. Soothing and intimate.
00:24:35 BUNKR – The Beings of Borde Hill
Vibrating, exclusive ambient with quiet presence and mysterious garden-like inhabitants. Intriguing and textured.
Side B
00:29:20 Richard Alfaro – Index
Glitchy, indexical ambient with fragmented references and soft electronic scatter. Quirky and detailed.
00:31:30 Bibio & Dorian Concept – Shame
Bubbling, collaborative electronic with playful rhythms and warm, slightly bashful charm. Groovy and engaging.
00:35:47 Suncastle – Ghost in Trees
Good-mood ambient with spectral woodland presence and light, platformer energy. Bright and atmospheric.
00:40:31 Christian Fiesel – Into Emptiness
Minimal, void-seeking ambient with patient descent into open space. Stark and contemplative.
00:43:31 Hiroaki Yamamoto – Paths
Suspended, path-finding ambient with soft wind and quiet direction. Serene and exploratory.
00:47:06 Ekin Fil & Dominic Coppola – Promise To Never Be Like Them
Soothing, collaborative ambient with gentle resolve and soft emotional clarity. Tender and restorative.
Also in the works: the next compilation, Quiet Figures, due 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.
All the best,
Trevor
Trevlad Sounds 