Trev’s Virtual Cassette Library 326
Hello there, listeners. It’s me. Trevor.
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-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. Unless you look.
I hope you enjoy the adventure. Mind the flip.
A pearl filed under ocean, then a periphery that still has a centre.
Side A keeps the grit and the glow in the same shell, lets the resonant field keep answering after the question has sat down, finds time for a blue event on the fast lane, sets an extra place for a postcard from the future, prefers the slow lane for recovery, and measures restraint in sixty-four fluxes content to hold still. Side B files the spirit of gravity with the soil, deepens into the moment before the moment, drifts with Berlin-school manners since the late seventies, walks a quiet figure down to the reservoir, counts time by the stars, and holds the rim so the centre can rest.
Overall mood: Contemplative, slightly cosmic, and quietly patient — full of unlatched doors, extra places, and clocks the stars prefer. Perfect for dusk listening, fields still ringing, or sitting still while the next spool still waits.
Mood mist: a pearl filed under ocean, a field that keeps ringing after you leave, a blue event on the fast lane, a postcard from the future introducing itself, a recovery that prefers the slow lane, restraint measured in sixty-four fluxes.
00:00:00 Ærebus – The Pearl
https://passedrecordings.bandcamp.com/track/the-pearl
Album: Passed Oceans. Label: Passed Recordings
Passed Oceans keeping the grit and the glow in the same shell.
00:08:06 Vivid Stars Forgotten – The resonance
https://vividstarsforgotten.bandcamp.com/track/the-resonance
Album: The Resonant Field. Label: EC Underground
The field still answering after the question has sat down. EC Underground leaving the door on the latch. Good to have you in the library, and on the subscriber list.
00:11:49 Petridisch x Jude Kerr – Blue Event VI (Breach of Trust Mix)
https://rakurecords.bandcamp.com/track/blue-event-vi-breach-of-trust-mix
Album: 7 Days in the Fast Lane. Label: Rakū Records
Seven days in the fast lane, and still time for a colour. Rakū keeping the lane open.
00:16:47 Mirai No Hagaki – presenting myself
https://camembertelectrique.bandcamp.com/track/mirai-no-hagaki-presenting-myself
Album: [VA #46] – SOURCE UNKNOWN. Label: Camembert Électrique
A fine way to arrive. Camembert Électrique setting an extra place.
00:20:43 KapTep – Recovery
https://chitrarecords.bandcamp.com/track/recovery
Album: Slow Down. Label: Chitra Records, Ambient Cat
The instruction and the album. Chitra and Ambient Cat sharing the chair.
00:24:40 Mantris – Passive Restraint
https://mantris.bandcamp.com/track/09-passive-restraint
Album: 64 Flux. Label: Hi Scores
Sixty-four fluxes, and this one content to hold still while the others rush. Hi Scores counting them all.
Mood mist: gravity with a spirit, a deepening that knows it is about to arrive, a drifter from Leeds who has been sequencing since the late seventies, a quiet figure walking to the water, time counted by the stars, a periphery that still has a centre.
00:30:12 Alien Alarms x Aura Mae – The Spirit of Gravity
https://meansmag.bandcamp.com/track/the-spirit-of-gravity
Album: MEANS 7: Grass Roots. Label: MEANS
Grass roots, the pull under the lawn. MEANS filing Newton with the soil.
00:33:43 Heavens Spin Gray – Deepening
https://heavensspingray.bandcamp.com/track/deepening
Album: Imminence.
Imminence, the moment before the moment. The grey already spinning.
00:43:34 Tim Stebbing – Cosmic Drifter
https://tim-stebbing.bandcamp.com/track/cosmic-drifter
Album: Cosmic Drifter.
Title of the hour. Berlin-school manners, chilled hands, the long orbit.
00:52:04 CommsBreakdown – To The Reservoir!
https://trevlad.bandcamp.com/track/commsbreakdown-to-the-reservoir
Album: Quiet Figures. Label: Trevlad
Quiet Figures, the compilation. Trevlad walking the figure down to the water.
00:55:41 The Light Dreams – Sidereal Time
https://thelightdreams.bandcamp.com/track/sidereal-time
Album: Málverk.
The clock the stars prefer. Málverk, the painting that knows which night it is.
01:01:14 Fonolabe – Bor Eas
(Exclusive)
Album: Essens Periferion. Label: Ethereal Projector, Ambient Cat
https://etherealprojector.bandcamp.com/album/essens-periferion
The essence at the edge. Ethereal Projector and Ambient Cat holding the rim so the centre can rest.
This has been The Virtual Cassette Library, episode 326.
Travel safely between the frequencies.
I’ll meet you on the other side of the next spool.
Trev’s Virtual Cassette Library 309
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.
