Trev’s Virtual Cassette Library 286
https://www.mixcloud.com/djsofabed/tvcl-286/
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 286. 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 tender, slightly wondrous ambient journey through closed-eye geometries, night markets, living systems, and working-class fanfares.
Side A rearranges itself behind the eyelids, then drifts through Toronto lanterns, cello architecture, space-IDM bloom, pre-language fingertips, and a well of the world. Side B opens with Ramsgate vocal collage and gentle signs, holds the line, raises a fanfare for the working man, conjures pagan stones among the Weaver Hills, and ends with a star-song demo from the cliff top.
Overall mood: Warm, curious, and quietly celebratory — mixing intimate care, city-night haze, and nostalgic industrial glow. Perfect for late evenings, headphones, or sitting still while things change behind closed eyes.
The shows remain free for the first week, then slip quietly into the hands of my Mixcloud subscribers, who currently have 1,117 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.
00:03:39 Soundshift – When I Close My Eyes Things Change
Eyelids close and the air rearranges itself. Soundshift – When I Close My Eyes Things Change. Colours fold inward, surfaces soften, and new geometries rise in the dark behind the lids.
00:07:48 Drones Over Dufferin – Night Market
Night market stalls glow under Toronto streetlamps. Drones Over Dufferin – Night Market. Ambient currents drift between lanterns and late-hour voices, each tone shaped by the city’s quiet corners.
00:10:41 arc rae – I See You
Cello and voice fragments reassemble into living architecture. arc rae – I See You. Improvised performances become collaged motifs, generative textures and tactile beats discovering their own shape in real time.
00:12:47 Andy Wiseman – Thrust
Thrust carries seventeen space-IDM voices into one amorphous bloom of earcandy. Andy Wiseman – Thrust. Composition after composition opens in phantasmic sequence, each reason to listen arriving already luminous.
00:19:45 Guest Bartender Deborah Toyota – Fingertips
Fingertips brush the first possible encounter with sound. Guest Bartender Deborah Toyota – Fingertips. Tenderness and experiment meet as lullaby, ambient composition and care, music made to accompany a listener before language.
00:22:50 Green-House – Well of the World
A well of the world opens in joyous layered synthesis. Green-House – Well of the World. Melody and harmonics helix together. Kaleidoscopic guitar, bubbling synths and orchestral radiance mimic larger living systems, droplets magnifying Yosemite and Inyo into auditory microcosms of wonder.
The cassette reaches its midpoint and turns.
00:29:59 Lone Bison – Vocal Collage
Voices sampled and sung form a collage beside the Ramsgate sea. Lone Bison – Vocal Collage. Hydrasynth textures pack into concise songs, wonky piano loops and groove-based jams rising from park recordings and garage-rock guitar.
00:33:53 Mea Poulpa – Signs
Gentle rhythms and textured samples settle into signs. Mea Poulpa – Signs. Slow tempos, subtle electronics and acoustic guitar create relaxing soundscapes for concentration and meditation.
00:36:02 luxury elite – thank you for holding
Hold music stretches into open waiting space. luxury elite – thank you for holding. Soft tones remain on the line, glowing in patient presence.
00:37:16 Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan – Fanfare for the Working Man
A fanfare rises for the working man among late-seventies chimneys. Warrington Runcorn New Town Development Plan – Fanfare for the Working Man. Prophet synths and reverb celebrate coal, chemicals and cars. Industry glows in nostalgic electronica looking forty years forward.
00:38:05 Geology Disco – Distant Point
Distant points appear among Weaver Hills and dark woods. Geology Disco – Distant Point. Harmonium, accordion, woodwinds, guitar and percussion mix with electronics and field recordings. Monolithic stones and ancient caves conjure pagan memory in Wootton under Wever.
00:45:12 Mike Dickinson – Bonus Track – Song of The Stars (Demo)
The Iron Man reaches the cliff top while stars begin their song. Mike Dickinson – Bonus Track – Song of The Stars (Demo). Microkorg, Maschine, Odyssey and Minilogue voices soundtrack the outsider who saves the world, Mrs Moore’s desk-climbing dragon still vivid in the telling.
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 286.
Travel safely between the tracks.
I’ll meet you on the other side of the next spool.
Trev’s Virtual Cassette Library 275
www.mixcloud.com/djsofabed/tvcl-275/
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 275. 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 varied ambient journey mixing cosmic library mystery, long-form meditation, playful ease, and quiet spectral presence.
Side A moves from Italian mysteries and returning echoes into modular uncertainty, wind-like drones, playtime charm, and challenging growth. Side B shifts through a quick French exit, Pacific waltzing, river-like storytelling, exclusive ghosts, piano stillness, and ends in an empty town.
Overall mood: Contemplative, atmospheric, and gently shifting — balancing deep immersion with lighter, more playful moments. Perfect for focused listening, late evenings, or quiet solitude.
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 1,103 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 the cosmic pulsations of “I misteri del mondo” (The Mysteries of the World) by Giuliano Sorgini — another gem unearthed by the excellent Four Flies Records.
Then legendary Japanese ambient artist Rhucle reinterprets Raúl Cantizano & David Cordero’s “Algo a lo que regresar” (Something to Come Back To) from the remix album Aunque llegue la mañana · Refracted (Even If Morning Comes). Eleven artists appear on the record, including zakè, anthéne, Wil Bolton, Ian Hawgood and more. It’s out on David Cordero’s Noray Records.
Next, UK modular synthesist and guitarist Analogue Path with “Uncertain-A” from his name-your-price album Early Days.
This is followed by the longest piece on the episode — a 14-minute meditation from Italian electro-acoustic sound sculptor Gino Fioravanti (Aglaia). The heavily echoed “Anemoi” comes from the recent name-your-price release Altitudes on Projekt Records.
After that we head to Seattle for the duo Guest Bartender Deborah Toyota and the track “Playtime” from their album Music for Babies, out on Mystery Circles.
Closing Side A is Baden-Baden’s free-improvisational drone artist stefan schmidt with the challenging ten-minute “arbrehl” from his latest album tharva gev.
But first, to set the vibe: Giuliano Sorgini with “I misteri del mondo”.
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
I hope you survived that one. Welcome back, sonic travellers. Six tracks down. Six still waiting.
You’ll hear my favourite Ramsgate-based artist, Nick Bonell (Lone Bison), with the waltzing “Be More Pacific” from his latest Castles in Space release Longshore Drifting.
Next we change the pace with Salt Lake City singer-songwriter Josaleigh Pollett and “Like a River” from her latest album If I Let It Quiet, available on random-colour double vinyl from Lavender Vinyl and also on Audio Antihero.
Then we find ourselves in Lincolnshire — famous for Sir Isaac Newton and for gribbles. The latter genius has just started releasing under his real name, Graham Thorpe, and this is an exclusive first listen: “Ghosts”, from the forthcoming compilation Quiet Figures (digital release 26 September, available for pre-order now on my Trevlad Bandcamp page).
Near the end we’re joined by one of the most prolific ambient artists around, David Cordero, together with Slovenia-based Japanese artist Aiko Takahashi, for the beautiful piano piece “Montsec” from the album Night’s End on Home Normal.
Finally, as it was in the beginning, we return to Italy with Alessio Bertuzzi (Far Away Nebraska) and some magical ambient noodlings in “Empty as this town” from the album Halfway from nowhere, the latest release on Kordel Records (a sub-label of Jogging House’s Seil Records).
But first, Third Kind boss Nicholas Langley and long-time collaborator Stephen Cousins (Fisty Kendal) with the one-minute-thirty-six-second closing piece from their album Now What? titled “French Exit”.
Enjoy…
Side A
00:00:00 Giuliano Sorgini – I misteri del mondo
Cosmic, mysterious Italian library ambient with pulsating wonder and 70s cinematic flair. Atmospheric and intriguing.
00:07:16 Rhucle – Algo a lo que regresar
Gentle, returning ambient reinterpretation with soft Japanese warmth and quiet emotional pull. Tender and reflective.
00:09:42 Analogue Path – Uncertain-A
Modular, uncertain ambient with guitar textures and early-day exploratory calm. Sparse and thoughtful.
00:13:13 Aglaia – Anemoi
Long-form, heavily echoed electro-acoustic meditation named for the winds. Immersive, patient, and deeply contemplative.
00:26:29 Guest Bartender Deborah Toyota – Playtime
Playful, soft ambient designed with light-hearted ease and quiet charm. Warm and inviting.
00:29:36 stefan schmidt – arbrehl
Challenging free-improvisational drone with dense, tree-like growth and demanding presence. Intense and exploratory.
Side B
00:41:45 Hz & Fisty Kendal – French Exit
Brief, elegant electronic farewell with subtle wit and clean closure. Short and stylish.
00:43:07 Lone Bison – Be More Pacific
Waltzing, coastal ambient with relaxed Pacific sway and Castles-in-Space warmth. Easy and charming.
00:45:58Josaleigh Pollett – Like a River
Storytelling indietronica with flowing vocals and quiet emotional current. Intimate and sincere.
00:49:46 Graham Thorpe – Ghosts
Exclusive, spectral ambient with soft presence and quiet figures waiting in the background. Haunting and gentle.
00:52:29 David Cordero & Aiko Takahashi – Montsec
Beautiful piano-led ambient with collaborative clarity and soft mountain-like stillness. Elegant and peaceful.
00:55:08 Far away Nebraska – Empty as this town
Magical ambient noodling with open, empty-town space and quiet Italian atmosphere. Dreamy and spacious.
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 