14 April 2026: Gong "You" (The Radio Gnome Trilogy #3); Fields We Found "Thoughts Persist" Quiet Details 48 (QD48)

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This is one of the albums I will take into the bunker when WWIII starts.

From Wikipedia:

You is the fifth studio album by the progressive rock band Gong, released by Virgin Records in October 1974. It is the last album by Daevid Allen's iteration of the group until 1992's Shapeshifter. Recorded at Virgin's Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, England, side 1 was mixed at Pye Studios, Marble Arch, London, while side 2 was mixed at The Manor. It was produced by Simon Heyworth and Gong "under the universal influence of C.O.I.T., the Compagnie d'Opera Invisible de Thibet", and also engineered by Heyworth.

You is the third of the "Radio Gnome Invisible" trilogy of albums, following Flying Teapot and Angel's Egg. The trilogy forms a central part of the Gong mythology. The structure of the album mixes short narrative pieces with long, jazzy instrumentals (such as "Master Builder", "A Sprinkling of Clouds" and "Isle of Everywhere"), building to a climax/conclusion with "You Never Blow Yr Trip Forever". 

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Rovi Staff assessed the album as "a more sophisticated musical vision that owed as much to jazz-rock fusion as to fellow space rockers... this is Gong's most "spacy" album, full of extended, ethereal passages that would inspire future generations of space rockers. The sound was equally defined however, by the jazzy flights of saxophonist Didier Malherbe and the sinuous rhythms of bassist Mike Howlett and drummer Pierre Moerlen".^[14]

Rolling Stone named You one of its "50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums Of All Time".^[1]

In 1997 the recordings were subject to remixes by a variety of artists and issued as You Remixed (Gliss Records catalogue glisscd001 in Europe, Hypnotic Records catalogue CLP0118-2 in North America). Remixes include those by Moodswings, The Orb, The Shamen, Youth, Electric Skychurch, Total Eclipse, System 7, Stephen Budd, Yamataka Eye, Doof and Graham Massey.^[15]

Lead guitarist Steve Hillage remade "Master Builder" as "The Glorious Om Riff" on his 1978 album Green.

Japanese psych-rock band Acid Mothers Temple also frequently cover "Master Builder", entitled "Om Riff", and have released 2 full albums dedicated to album-length renditions of the song: 2005's "IAO Chant From The Cosmic Inferno" and 2012's "IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out".

In 2020, Vlad Nichols of Ultimate Guitar wrote: "Straight off the bat, Gong established themselves as a connoisseur's band within a connoisseur's subgenre."^[16]

                                                            ^{Thoughts Persist - Fields We Found (QD48)}

Credits:
Music by fields we found
Mastered by Alex at quiet details studios
Artwork by quiet details
Design by quiet details
© quiet details 2026 all rights reserved

For the next release in the quiet details series, I’m happy to share my latest interpretation as fields we found - thoughts persist

From my early albums on labels such as Home Normal, Seil Records, Handstitched*, Ambientologist and numerous self-releases, my recent music, following my last quiet details album, has been going further into complete freedom in music making.

The resolve / relate series came directly after in your hands and continued the ideas behind it; then the rhythm structures series recalling memories of times on dance-floors and beyond; and finally the landscape series are long-form tracks originally made for my own meditation, which became a cathartic and meditative process in itself.

where in your hands was outward looking, thoughts persist is more introspective.

It’s hard to put into words, and sometimes difficult to write about my own music. This album didn’t have a concept as the starting point, was more about making music with an open mind and letting things follow their own course. The tracks feel transitional, and I’ll likely understand them more as time goes on. It’s music for deep-listening.

Each track started with an improvisation, then evolved to form a track, within the wider context of an album. Harmonic development across the whole is an important aspect.

These freeform explorations, either on a modular system or other instruments, were then sampled, re-sampled, recorded to various tape machines again and again. Old equipment has a certain quality - early samplers and reel-to-reels have a character that has always been a part of the sound palette I love, and used heavily here.

Magnetic tape shaping and natural compression; digital artefacts and aliasing; analogue filtering, saturation and mixing; parallel effect chains, delays, springs, valves and modulation - all adding their unique imprint. Deepening the subs, extending the highs, adding harmonics.

Focusing on the textural aspects as much as the compositional, and also including field recordings I’ve made in the recent months. These create a sense of time and location that is very personal, adding to the ephemeral nature of things along with their sonic patterns.

Aside from these environmental snapshots, all other sounds originated with analogue oscillators. The subsequent sampling and manipulation of these with tape and digital tools, particularly ones with a low fidelity core, gives an organic juxtaposition that deeply resonates with me.

Final takes were then recorded live to tape with effects and additional elements - intuitive and hands-on. The long-form mix was done in the same way.

Huge thanks for listening, hope you enjoy x

The artwork was made as always influenced by the music - originating from a photo I took with analogue film and processed here at quiet details studios.


fieldswefound.bandcamp.com  

credits

Our thanks to Alex for providing us with a copy of this release. 

released April 8, 2026

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ambient chill-out downtempo drone electronic field recordings United Kingdom

 

 

07 April 2026: Beckett s/t ; Ian Boddy "Drive

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Beckett were an English progressive rock band formed in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1970. The band released one self-titled album in April 1974 (produced by Roger Chapman, the former vocalist of Family) and disbanded shortly thereafter.^[1] Original singer Rob Turner was killed in a car crash and replaced by Terry Wilson-Slesser, who would later go on to perform with Back Street Crawler and then Geordie whose previous front man Brian Johnson left to join AC/DC in 1980. 

Review:

Beckett is simply one of the great lost Progressive Rock albums of the 1970s. These guys only did one album (Well officially that is. Beckett's Bassist Frankie Gibbon sent me an unreleased live album that's very very good.) but what an album it was. A Rainbow's Gold is simply one of the best songs on the 1970s overall. And Rolling Thunder is just amazing. It is a crying shame these guys never got the sales they deserved. But they did get a bit of recognition, due to Iron Maiden's excellent cover of A Rainbow's Gold as a B Side. Beckett's also notable for the fact that their Vocalist, the excellent Terry Wilson-Slesser later went on to sing for Paul Kossoff's Back Street Crawler. 

 

From Ian Boddy:

Released in 1991, this was my second CD release on the Surreal to Real label. By this time, I was working for Akai, selling and demonstrating their studio sampling gear. This gave me access to some very nice instruments, and the MPC-60, much loved by the dance fraternity, features heavily in this album’s ultra-tight rhythm grooves. The opening trilogy of tracks (Drive, Ice Horizon, & Alchemy) became a mainstay for my concerts around this time. Two of the pieces feature the electronic wind instrument playing of Julian Maynard-Smith, with whom I briefly formed a trio called Hi-Q (along with David Berkeley). As with other albums from this era, the music is very much focused on melodic, tightly arranged compositions.

There are three bonus tracks from around the same time period, with Disconnect Me being a fun piece with a sampled voice I’m sure some of you will recognise. Both Prodigal & Crimekiller are unreleased demos for a couple of computer games I worked on in the early 1990s.

credits

released March 6, 2026
FreeForm Radio thanks Ian Boddy for a promo copy of this release.
All tracks composed by Ian Boddy, except for Alchemy & Analogagogalog by Ian Boddy & Julian Maynard-Smith and Crucifixus by Antonio Lotti (1667 - 1740) arranged by Ian Boddy.
Produced by Ian Boddy.
Engineered by Skogg.
Programmed entirely onto Atari 1040/Steinberg Cubase at Something Else Studios (Jan - July 91).
Mixed to DAT at Projects UK (Newcastle) Aug. 91.
Digitally edited on Akai DD1000.
Cover by Gary Scott.

Remastered for this edition in February 2026 by Ian Boddy.

THE PLAYERS
Ian Boddy :- Akai S1000, S950 & MPC-60. Roland D550,
MK530 & SPD-8. Korg Wavestation & Yamaha TX416.
Julian Maynard-Smith :- Yamaha EX11 Wind Instrument playing
Akai S950 & Korg Wavestation.
David Berkeley - Korg WS-1 & M1 EXR Programming.

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ambient em electronic electronic music electronica modular synth Sunderland

31 March 2026: Rush - "Grace Under Pressure" 2026 Remaster; Appleblim "Liminal Tides"; Electric Dead Speak. Music inspired by the Electronic Voice Phenomenon

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Originally produced by Peter Henderson, “Grace Under Pressure” was the first Rush album since their 1974, self-titled debut not produced by Terry Brown. The processes the band went through after leaving Terry influenced Neil Peart’s choice of album title, a quote from Ernest Hemingway, “courage is grace under pressure”. That release was remastered at Abbey Road Studios by Sean Magee and is Disc 1 of this “Super Deluxe” edition. 

Sandwiched between the albums “Signals” and “Power Windows” and coming after a run that contained classics such as  “2112”, “A Farewell to Kings”, “Hemispheres” “Permanent Waves” and “Moving Pictures” this album is a somewhat hidden gem in the expanse of the Rush discography that continues with the high standards already set and is considered by Alex Lifeson as Rush’s most satisfying album. 

Melodic pop hooks dealing with gloomy lyrics pertinent to the times abound, darkly. Opener “Distant Early Warning” and track 4, “The Enemy Within” with their Cold War fears; “Red Sector A” as Geddy refrains “Are we the last ones left alive?” as the horrors of incarceration in a nazi concentration camp are described. “Red Lenses” with Neil Peart showing his inventive, percussive class, “Afterimage” providing a eulogy to a recently departed friend of the bands’, and closer “Between the Wheels” with metal-esque guitar from Alex complete with smoking solo. 

 

                                                                Appleblim  Liminal Tides

Credits:
Music by Appleblim
Mastered by Alex at quiet details studios
Artwork by quiet details in collaboration with Laurie Osborne
Design by quiet details
© quiet details 2026 all rights reserved

For the next interpretation of quiet details, really excited to welcome a hugely influential figure in underground electronic music, Laurie Osborne, here as Appleblim.

Laurie’s been making music for over twenty years now, and along with fellow pioneer Shackleton, founded the seminal Skull Disco label. Massively important to the evolution of bass music, and leading the cross-pollination of genres with essential releases for dance-floors and beyond worldwide.

Many solo and collaborative releases with top artists across the scene on labels such as Aus Music, Tempa, BLKRTZ, his own Apple Pips, R&S Records, Sneaker Social Club and more - remixes from the likes of Torsten Pröfrock ( T++) - countless mix CDs and podcasts showing his prowess as a DJ (he was resident at the legendary FWD>> and plays at the best clubs all over the world) - Laurie’s a true stalwart of the underground and much loved by artists and fans alike.

So it’s an absolute pleasure to have him on quiet details with the incredible Liminal Tides

Drawing from all his experience creating ultra-deep sonic worlds, this album is a vast and kaleidoscopic trip through psychedelic dubwise exploration.

Billowing synthetic chords envelop the listener in the most mesmerising way - fragments of sound wash around the soundscape - melody and percussion drifts in and out - all evoking a beautiful place we can serenely inhabit and get totally lost in.

Underpinned by endless sub-bass and each track constantly shifting and evolving, this is a definitive piece of sonic art by a musician at the top of their game - a clear vision of the music, executed to perfection.

As Laurie says:

This album is a collection of places between states...

wake / asleep
self / no self
conscious / unconscious mind / no-mind

I hope you feel supported, buoyant, swirling, adrift as you visit them...

The places were all made by manipulating warm harmonic analogue chords, except Seagull which is all generated from the recording of a foghorn and a seagulls call...

Huge thanks to Laurie for this stunning addition to the series.

The artwork was made as always influenced by the music and idea behind the album - originating from a photo from Laurie which was then captured with analogue photography and processed here at quiet details studios.

As usual, the album is presented on the physical edition, a custom six-panel digipack with a separate fine art print too.

The CD also has a special long-form continuous mix of the album, created by the artist and representing the music in its purest form - highly recommended.

appleblim.bandcamp.com  

credits

released March 18, 2026

license

all rights reserved

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ambient chill-out downtempo drone electronic field recordings United Kingdom

 

 

The new Eighth Tower Records compilation dedicated to the Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) delves into one of the most fascinating and disturbing frontiers of sound and human perception. Across twelve tracks created by artists active in the post-industrial and dark ambient scene, the release investigates the mysterious intersections between technology, death, and the persistence of consciousness. The Electronic Voice Phenomenon, documented since the 1950s, refers to the capture of inexplicable voices on magnetic tape or digital media, often interpreted as messages from the dead or transmissions from other dimensions. Whether one believes in their paranormal origin or considers them the byproduct of noise and human projection, these sounds occupy a zone where the boundaries between science and mysticism, signal and hallucination, are erased. The artists involved translate that uncertainty into a dense fabric of drones, mechanical pulsations, spectral harmonics, and decomposed field recordings. Listeners are drawn into a space that feels simultaneously technological and occult, as if the recording devices themselves had become instruments of invocation.
The album functions as an aural séance, a shared act of listening where every sound could be a transmission from elsewhere. The ambiguity of these sonic traces mirrors the ambiguity of EVP itself: are we hearing external messages, or merely amplifying the hidden noise of our own minds? Faithful to the dark aesthetics that characterize Eighth Tower Records, this project extends the label’s exploration of modern mythologies and their technological manifestations. In a time when artificial intelligence and algorithmic processes increasingly mediate perception, the EVP phenomenon returns as a powerful metaphor for our relationship with the unknow, the desire to hear what is not meant to be heard. 

credits

released February 12, 2026

REVIEWS

Bad Alchemy
With Electric Dead Speak. Music Inspired by the Electronic Voice Phenomenon (ETR070), Eighth Tower turns its attention to listening to “paranormal tape voices.” Think of the pioneers, Friedrich Jürgenson and his Radio Contact with the Dead, Konstantin Raudive and Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead. Within sound and tape culture, this field was eagerly embraced, particularly by Michael Esposito with works such as Dead Whisper: In Search of Ghosts and the Supernatural and Paranormal Labs Presents: Ghost Asylum. The house musicians of Eighth Tower are once again involved. Pezzella himself, as RhaD, contributes Afterlife Recordings, unfolding in pixelated, droning harmonies. Mario Lino Stancati delivers distorted speech transmissions and rough buzzing textures in Instrumental Transcommunication. Nikos Sotirelis, with phAntAsma, casts a trawling net for voices amid boiling, hissing, orchestral-blurred audio atmospheres. From New York, Yousef Kawar, who has previously contributed to the ETR compilations Stalker, Drone Islands – Borealis, Solaris, and Music for Imaginary Places, presents vocal simulacra in Voices Without Bodies. Dávid Kovács, aka Kokum, previously featured on Obscured Instinct and the Pale Folklore (ETR055), offers AEA, where chants emerge from buzzing and cracking layers. Walter Abreu, aka SÍLENÍ, from Portugal, explores the “thereafter” with shimmering, rhythmic and elegiac harmonies in The Space Between Noise. His compatriot PNÉVMMA brings drone and heavy footfalls in doni-seis. In Montreal, Richard Bégin crosses the Styx in Metaphonic with creaking drones and bleating sonic textures. Wannes Kolf, aka Oubys, based in Hasselt and known for Holosphere on Unexplained Sounds Group, hums over The Empty Tower, echoing Saint-Exupéry’s final radio message. The Resa dives into cloudbursts of noise surges with Spectral Patterns in Random Noise. Nerthus, the Thuringian drone practitioner, following Love Letters via Echelon (ETR064), casts his net into radio waves with Voces Mortuorum. Finally, Joel Hinkle, aka Insectarium, the nocturnal hunter of fire spirits from Springfield, entertains hardened children with The Child’s Laugh, delivering resonant tones, deep drones and raw, repetitive impulses straight out of the Twilight Zone.
[BA 132 rbd]

Weird bones
weirdbones.co.uk/the-electric-dead-speak

Luminous Dash
luminousdash.be/internationaal/electric-dead-speak-music-inspired-by-the-electronic-voice-phenomenon-eight-tower/
FreeForm Radio thanks Raffaele Pezzella (Sonologyst) for providing a copy of this release.

Curated and mastered by Raffaele Pezzella (Sonologyst).
Published by Eighth Tower Records.
Layout by Matteo Mariano.
Cat. Number ETR070.
© 2026. All rights reserved.

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all rights reserved

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ambient dark ambient drone ambient electronic music industrial noise ambient Italy

 

24 March 2026: Black Widow - "Demons of the Night Gather to See Black Widow Live"; Celtic Pink Floyd

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Review by ZowieZiggy
PROG REVIEWER

An unknown release of a little known band that I quite enjoy. A good old band I should say. The Sacrifice show live from Black Widow released in 2007. It comes as a dual work: one CD and one DVD. The CD for the car and the DVD for each home playing of course.

Before I talk about the content, let's have some historical facts about this very good band which hasn't been very fortunate in their career to say the least. The liner notes that go along with this release is of important historical matter. They are written by Clive Jones (sax & flute) and the information below mostly come out of it (but not only).

It speaks about the genesis of the band which is well known from the devoted fans: the Pesky Gee story, the pre-release of Sacrifice in 69 with Kay Garret on the vocals and the split of the band.

What is less known is that the band thought of a full show about the Sacrifice album and wanted it very much to be as satanic as the lyrics. They asked the guidance of Alex Sanders (who was incidentally voted king of the witches in '65) to construct the show and make sure that it was as authentic as possible.

After a few shows, the press was quite shocked and titled don't let your kids see this show. This led to a huge publicity for the band who were playing full house concerts. Still, the confusion came to the minds of the people. Two bands with the word black in their names, both managed by the same person (Pat Meehan). It was the start of the problems for Black Widow.

The second (and probably the most important one) is that Sacrifice was released the same week as Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel). The latter one sold so much, that the record company (CBS) only pressed BOTW for three weeks to supply the demand and so was the Sacrifice album lamentably . sacrificed. It had climbed to the 32nd spot of the chart.

Their supporting US tour was cancelled because of the murdering of Sharon Tate. To have a band promoting some black magic on stage was not really to the liking of the American authorities. And guess which band replaced them? Sabbath!

 

 

 

In 2010, Damon and Brian Stout combined their love of Celtic music with their passion for Pink Floyd to create a sonic offspring, the aptly named Celtic Pink Floyd.

Growing up in Jackson, Michigan – which is, interestingly, a sister city to Carrickfergus, Ireland – the duo were immersed both in their Scottish-Irish ancestry, and in various forms of musical study.

The brothers began their journey as pre-schoolers, learning violin and by the age of 7, and taking piano lessons with a Julliard-trained neighbour. Later, they picked up the French horn and trombone, performing with a German-based touring band as teenagers.

“A few years later came jazz, rock and other concert bands,” notes Damon via email. “Additionally, with more influences around, we put together a few garage bands playing for parties, talent shows or whoever would have us. A life in music – with no backup plan, of course – ensued.”

 

The idea for Celtic Pink Floyd, he explains, arose by chance.

“It was while hearing ‘On the Turning Away’ (from Pink Floyd’s 1987 album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason) one morning that the light bulb first went on. It is essentially a folk song, and arranging it to Celtic instruments sounded like an interesting idea.”

That led the Stouts to a closer examination of Floyd’s music, unveiling more Celtic influences.

Within a year, the band of brothers had released their debut, eponymous recording, which included classic Floyd tunes ‘Another Brick in the Wall’, ‘Wish You Were Here’, and ‘Comfortably Numb.’

“We thought it might be interesting to take those existing Celtic undertones and expand them to create a 12-track album,” says Damon.

“It is hard to go wrong with an iconic band like Floyd and their huge catalogue of songs…adding Celtic instruments and arrangements seemed like a fun musical challenge that could prove rewarding.”

With a nine member band, however, taking the show on the road was out of the question.

“The logistics and financial backing for touring would have been prohibitive, especially since it was a first album and we had no idea how the music would be received.”

While interest in the group grew, band members took on other commitments that kept them busy over the next few years. When they finally rallied to take a shot at a second album, the Stouts were now living thousands of miles apart.

“I am in Los Angeles and my brother is in Chicago,” says Damon, “so there are some frequent flyer miles being racked up. The other five members – Mary Morales (keyboards), Bryan Dobbs (guitar, mandolin), Rachel Grace (fiddle), Patrick D’Arcy (pipes) and Forrest Robinson (percussion) – are in LA, which is where we are currently rehearsing.”

Recommitted to the project, the group started working on a new album last year – titled ‘You Owe it to the People’ – which is scheduled for release in 2018.

“During those recording sessions we decided to put out our ‘Live, In Studio’ album first,’ says Damon. “It was originally only going to be a rehearsal tool for upcoming live shows, and was put together in about a week, but it came out better than we expected.”

In fact, the band was so pleased with the way the recording session turned out, they resisted the urge to overdub any of the tracks, which include ‘Have a Cigar’, ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’, and ‘Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.’

“We are fairly confident Celtic music fans will like it, and we are really stoked by how many Pink Floyd fans have embraced us. It is a great feeling to strike a chord with both fan bases.

“It is also quite rewarding when Celtic music fans tell us they aren’t very familiar with Pink Floyd but, after hearing what we do, are going to explore their music further. Equally exciting is when a Floyd fan says they aren’t familiar with Celtic music and never suspected a Celtic arrangement would do their music justice.”

The true test, says Stout, is when the band takes the stage.

“We recently opened for The Young Dubliners and that show helped to solidify all our expectations that not only can we pull this off, but the crowd really responded to our arrangements and overall take on Pink Floyd.”

www.celticpinkfloyd.com

 

 

17 March 2026: d'Voxx - "Herzog: A Retrospective"; Pete Swinton & Julien Ash “Cave Dwellers”; Machinefabriek - "Lijnverkenning"

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This bold new release by modular synth duo d’Voxx is their third on the DiN imprint, having previously released Télégraphe (DiN58) & 1984 (DiN75) to much critical acclaim. To give it its full title - HERZOG: A Retrospective by d’Voxx - sees Nino Auricchio and Paul Borg expanding their sonic horizons with musical interpretations of the five films legendary German film director Werner Herzog made between 1972 and 1987 with the mercurial actor Klaus Kinski.

Needless to say, this gives the album a very cinematic feel, where the modular systems that are at the core of their sound are still very much present but often in supporting roles around which the genre-bending five tracks rise and fall. Their ambitious sound worlds incorporate elements of prog, techno, rock, field recordings, and even a sample of a 1911 opera on, where else but the track Impossible Monolith, which references the epic film Fitzcarraldo. The duo state that these tracks do not attempt to score the films but rather to inhabit their territories: the fevered conquistador descending into megalomania; Woyzeck ground to psychological dust by institutional cruelty; Fitzcarraldo's monumental folly; Nosferatu's ancient weariness; the slave trader's trajectory through exploitation and dissolution.

This third outing from d’Voxx will delight and surprise their admirers in equal measure and once again proves that the DiN label never stands still but is constantly looking to push through the straitjacket of genre boundaries.

credits

FreeForm Radio thanks Ian Boddy & DiN for a promo copy of this release. 

released February 20, 2026

HERZOG: A Retrospective by d'Voxx

In the five films Werner Herzog made with Klaus Kinski between 1972 and 1987, we witness not collaboration but collision: two volatile temperaments locked in a creative struggle that yielded some of cinema's most unsettling meditations on power, obsession, and the dissolution of the civilised self. These are films that ask what remains when reason fails, when ambition exceeds all measure, when the jungle (literal or psychological) reclaims what we thought was ours.

HERZOG: A Retrospective does not attempt to score these films but to inhabit their territories: the fevered conquistador descending into megalomania; Woyzeck ground to psychological dust by institutional cruelty; Fitzcarraldo's monumental folly; Nosferatu's ancient weariness; the slave trader's trajectory through exploitation and dissolution. The sonic language deployed here, modular electronics meeting processed strings from the period these stories inhabit, seeks what Herzog himself called "ecstatic truth": not documentary accuracy but something deeper, achieved through what he termed "the voodoo of location."

The harmonic movement is deliberately constrained, often circling a single diminished chord as if unable to escape its own logic, a musical analogue to the closed systems of thought that trap Herzog's protagonists. Rhythms recall not just the pulse of techno but older patterns: military cadences, the regularity of scientific experiment, the measured tread of the condemned. The inclusion of a 1911 recording of Verdi's Rigoletto is no mere period decoration but a reminder that opera, that art form of impossible emotions made audible, haunts Herzog's vision as persistently as Caruso's voice haunted Fitzcarraldo's gramophone in the jungle.

What links these five films is their fascination with how civilised veneers crack under pressure: how quickly the dreamer becomes the fanatic, the man becomes the monster or the victim. Herzog's camera lingers on faces pushed to extremity, on landscapes that dwarf human ambition, on moments where only the image, only the sound, can convey what's happening to a consciousness under siege. And Kinski, for all his volatility, gave Herzog something irreplaceable: a willingness to be that extremity, to make visible the moment when the human cracks open.

This music asks for similar attention: not quick consumption but the focus Herzog demands, the willingness to sit with discomfort, to let patterns establish themselves before they mutate. From the fever dream of conquest to the ritualised violence of institutional power, from visionary grandeur to gothic isolation to the final reckoning with history's brutalities, these five pieces chart a descent that is also, somehow, an ascent into clarity. What remains is not resolution but resonance: the sound of ambitions that exceeded their means, of collaborations that survived their own volatility, of truths too ecstatic for comfortable consumption.
—Nino Auricchio and Paul Borg, 2025

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ambient em electronic electronic music electronica cinematic modular synth Sunderland

A collaboration between two dark ambient musicians, 95 minutes of dark subterranean soundscapes...
Pete Swinton is a very prolific indonesian-based british musician. 
peteswinton.bandcamp.com/music
credits
released June 10, 2022
All music written and recorded by Pete Swinton and Julien Ash June 2022. Mastering and photo by Ash, sleeve by Agent MS.
This is a joint release by Julien Ash - EDT / Pete Swinton / The Church of noisy Goat.

 

                                                    Machinefabriek - "Lijnverkenning" 
 

 

Credits:
Music by Machinefabriek
Accordion in Lijnverkenning 3 by Barbara Eva Ardenois
Vocals on Stemcassette and Lijnverkenning 4 taken from an unmarked cassette tape
Mastered by Alex at quiet details studios
Artwork by quiet details in collaboration with Rutger Zuydervelt
Design by quiet details
© quiet details 2026 all rights reserved 

FreeForm Radio thanks Alex at Quiet Details for a promo copy of this release.

For the next interpretation of quiet details, I have the pleasure of welcoming a true musical experimentalist, Rutger Zuydervelt, here as Machinefabriek.

Hailing from the Netherlands, Rutger has been active as Machinefabriek for over twenty years, releasing on highly regarded labels such as Western Vinyl, Type, Important, 12K, Entr'acte, Miasmah, Consouling Sounds, Eilean and Edition Wandelweiser. This, alongside many collaborations, music for film and dance, installations and live performances, has given him a place as one of the most admired artists working today.

Known for his ability to bring together various strands of musical exploration - from electro-acoustic, field recording, ambience, drone, sound art and minimalism - he has created something completely unique in the quiet details series

Lijnverkenning is an album of sparse and powerful textural beauty. Machinefabriek’s innate comprehension of the potential of sound to affect us in profound and unknowable ways.

This is an album where the personality of the machines dictated the direction of music - carefully and deftly guided by Rutger’s intuition and musicality.

There’s an exquisite subtlety throughout, layers of sound implying so much and the interplay creating something incredibly moving.

As Rutger says:

Of course I said yes when quiet details asked me to join their roster. I was playing Scanner’s Forces, Reactions, Deflections quite a bit at the time, and it inspired me to create my own take on the quiet details idea. I started working with cassette tapes and created a whole bunch of short, quite melodic compositions, but eventually decided they didn’t fit the label’s aesthetic, and definitely didn’t work in the long-form format that qt used for its CDs.

So I started anew, focusing on longer durations and moving toward a more free-form and intuitive direction. Taking time, letting my machines softly hum. In the process of creating the music, I think I found a strange form of intimacy within the sounds — as if eavesdropping on the ghosts inside the machines I was using.
The tracks here were mostly made by combining various layers of minimalistic improvisations with field recordings, oscillators, effect pedals, etc. I even hesitate to call these pieces “compositions,” because to me they feel more like entities that follow their own logic, rather than clearly defined and constructed songs.

Stemcassette is a different story. That track came to life after I used a short vocal sample taken from a tape I found in a second-hand memo recorder I had bought. It was filled with home recordings of rehearsals by an opera singer. A short, pitched-down snippet was used in the piece Lijnverkenning 3, but I couldn’t shake the idea of doing more with the sample. So I created the short Stemcassette from it, and felt it worked well as a mid-album “breather.”

Lijnverkenning means “line exploration.” It’s an expression I once saw marked on a public bus, presumably indicating a test of a new route. It’s a multifaceted word, with many connotations that also relate to the music. I hope listeners of this album will feel like explorers — Lijnverkenners — too.

Huge thanks to Rutger for this stunning addition to the series.

The artwork was made as always influenced by the music and idea behind the album - originating from a photo from Rutger which was then captured with analogue photography and processed here at quiet details studios.

As usual, the album is presented on the physical edition, a custom six-panel digipack with a separate fine art print too.
The CD also has a special long-form continuous mix of the album, created by the artist and representing the music in its purest form - highly recommended.

machinefabriek.bandcamp.com  

credits

released February 25, 2026

license

all rights reserved

tags

Tags

ambient chill-out downtempo drone electronic field recordings United Kingdom

20 January 2026: FreeForm Radio takes a break: January 20 through March 10; Back on the Air March 17

Be sure to follow KMXT FreeForm Radio on Facebook and Bandcamp and Spotify.  

You can now listen to the livestream of the show through the KMXT app; it's available through the Mac App Store or Google Play. The stream is also available at www.kmxt.org

Please support FreeForm Radio and KMXT by going to www.KMXT.org and pledging your support.

13 January 2026: Parallel Worlds "Transformation"; Kayla Painter "Tectonic Particles"

 Be sure to follow KMXT FreeForm Radio on Facebook and Bandcamp and Spotify.  

You can now listen to the livestream of the show through the KMXT app; it's available through the Mac App Store or Google Play. The stream is also available at www.kmxt.org

Please support FreeForm Radio and KMXT by going to www.KMXT.org and pledging your support.

The music you hear on tonight's show is available on the artists' Bandcamp pages and websites. (links below) 

                    We urge you to support the musicians you hear on FreeForm Radio 

Transformation Released January 7, 2026

All tracks composed, arranged and produced by Bakis Sirros during 2023-2025.

Thanks to: friends and family, John Sirros, Alessandro Vaccaro, Mamonu, Ingo Zobel, Dimitris Pavlidis, Angelos Ioakimoglou, Andreas Vamvakaris.

FreeForm Radio thanks Bakis Sirros for a copy of this release.

Machines used:
Eurorack modular (including modules by Qu-Bit, Synthesis Technology, Make Noise, Verbos, Instruo, Xaoc Devices, Intellijel, Frap Tools, Doepfer, 4ms company, Noise Engineering, ADDAC System, Analogue Solutions, Buchla Tiptop Audio, Befaco, Schlappi Engineering, Neuzeit, Strymon and others)
 Analogue Systems RS-Integrator modular,Korg SQ-64
,Korg Drumlogue
,Korg Wavestate 

facebook.com/parallelworldsmusic

Mastered by Lorenzo Montana'

Artwork by LoMo

Igloo Magazine Review

Bakis Sirros possesses a refined instinct for shaping modular soundscapes, his approach grounded in a lineage traced back to early sonic navigators, where vintage machinery murmurs from afar and expansive emotional horizons gradually unfold.

His latest collaboration with Neo Ouija presents sound and vision in genuine metamorphosis, and stands as a clear highlight in our Best of 2025. Emerging from shadow and drifting at a distance, opener “Rejected” glides through calm blips, bleeps, and ambient electronic flutter, darker currents offset by an uplifting charge that gently invites reflection. “Logic Bending” follows, lifting atmosphere while rhythmic forms remain in motion; Sirros settles into downtempo strata, threading delicate fragments through soft glitch and shimmer, a familiar motif from his catalog quietly detonating from within.

Gentler moments surface in the sedated circuitry of “Soft Rain,” rise toward the IDM-tinged grace of “Dreamwave,” then culminate in the fully transporting journey that closes the record, “Inertia.” Here, Parallel Worlds opens broad sonic plateaus, carefully assembled with devotion to enigmatic realms, passing through luminous and obscured corridors alike, guiding listeners effortlessly between unseen dimensions. A masterclass in ambient electronic propulsion.

The visual fluidity and morphing forms of the cover’s art—where shapes seem to ripple and melt like liquid caught between states—are mirrored in the music itself, as Parallel Worldsquite literally opens doorways to other dimensions.

license

all rights reserved

Kayla Painter - "Tectonic Particles"

Kayla Painter is a guiding light in the modern experimental music world - with a list of achievements it’s impossible to sum up in this limited format. From a string of albums solo and in collaboration, to much in demand immersive live performances, to lecturing, to hosting radio shows and much more besides - all with widespread critical acclaim - she’s an artist with endless creativity and energy.

So I’m delighted to welcome her to quiet details with her stunning album, Tectonic Particles

A gorgeous exploration of textural and harmonic cohesion - full of delicate melodic phrasing, environmental recordings and nuanced sound-design - this is Kayla doing what she does so well, crafting beautiful sound-spaces to get lost in.