WNDFRM

WNDFRM / Live at Nonseq (ASIP045)

 

After presenting a recording from Salvatore Mercatante on our Bandcamp last year, I wanted to try and keep up this approach on the label by surfacing live sets from our artists wherever possible. I knew as soon as I was immersed in WNDFRM’s live set last year, that it would make a great live release and would be enjoyed by anyone who picked up his WVLT release.

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WNDFRM has long occupied a parallel lane, equal parts reductionist and tactile. His studio output, including his 2025 release on ASIP, WVLT, is often about what isn’t there, carving space with restraint and a patient sense of pacing. But in this rare live recording from his appearance at Seattle’s Nonseq series in late 2025, we’re reminded how those same principles can hum with immediacy, weight, and physicality.

Tim’s live set leans even deeper into the tactileness hinted at on WVLT. Over 37 minutes, WNDFRM builds a slow-motion tension through dub-damaged rhythms, brittle textures, and dissolving sequences. Familiar elements, saturated pads, clipped delay lines, off-grid percussion, surface and vanish without resolution. A gradual unravelling from a sound designer in his element.

A huge thanks to Steve Peters, Chloe Harris and the Nonsequitur community for the evening.

Available now as name your price on Bandcamp.

 

WNDFRM / WVLT (ASIPV056)

 

WVLT is the newest sonic addition from WNDFRM (Portland-based, Tim Westcott), an album of eight distinct explorations of micro-rhythmic IDM.

Tim Westcott’s practice is rooted in an acute, nearly forensic attention to sound. Subtle tones, sculpted drones, and lean percussive gestures, always pursued with a patient ear and obsession with sound design. 

With previous releases on Prologue, Home Normal, and Dragon’s Eye Recordings, and several live performances at Mutek, a new album from Tim is a rare yet welcome occurrence. The conceptual approach for WVLT began in 2021, mixing synths with drum machines and granular processing. Lightly arced structures slip between gates of rhythm, shifting pulses, translucent washes, and disquieting residue. There’s a precision to the hesitation and an insistence in the space between notes, a deft balance of raw improvisation and sculpted quietude.

An exercise in immediacy and response, each track builds and unspools, like form in fleeting motion, driven by the moment’s tonal contrasts, micro‑rhythmic interplay, and slight gestures that alter entire planes of listening. It’s minimal without sparsity, intense without density.

Available digitally and on limited transparent dark blue 12”  vinyl on September 26th 2025. Mastered by Taylor Deupree @12k Mastering and featuring artwork by Noah M / Keep Adding.

Release page

 

ASIP @ Liminal Dreams, Tokyo

 

Recording of my DJ set for the Liminal Dreams 1st-anniversary series in Tokyo, March 11th, 2023 alongside @lynne-tokyo, @yolabmi (Live), @yutotakei, and @yutaroy at Spread, Shimokitazawa. Thank you to all who made this evening happen, those who came, listened attentively, shut their eyes and let the music fill the room on an amazing system that Saturday evening.

It really was a special, memorable moment for me.

The set includes lots of unreleased/forthcoming ASIP music, alongside releases from Quiet Places (plenty of their new stuff in here ;-), Max Würden and Merrin Karras, plus some of my fave moments from Field Lines Cartographer, Echospace, qebrµs, Sindh, Jo Johnson, Acronym, Endurance and Wndfrm.

Cover photo on the night by Toby Barnes.

Read more about the event here.

 

Optic Echo Presents – Best Vinyl of 2015

 

Mike Jedlicka's Optic Echo radio show consistently serves up some of the best ambient, experimental and modern classical vinyl-only selections. In this special edition, Mike has curated some of his favorite vinyl of the year specially prepared for Headphone Commute.

As you would expect from a weekly show trying to summarize a years worth of wax purchases, it was no doubt an arduous task narrowing it downvand the result is a lovely journey through the many styles Mike covers on his show.

Mike's included some of my favorite vinyl of the year too, namely Night Sequels, 36, wndfrm, Benoit Poulard and Inventions, all sitting proudly in my best of 2015 lists. And a big thanks to Mike for also selecting Arovane & Hior Chronik's release.

Check out the Optic Echo Mixcloud page for all of the previous shows and Headphone Commute for full details and all download options.

Download.

Tracklist:
Mountains – Parallel Two – You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever
Kreng – Bargaining- The Summoner
Night Sequels – Siamese Summer – Children of the Night Make Music
Jon Hopkins – I Remember (Nils Frahm Dub Interrupt Remix) – I Remember 10”
Four Tet – Morning Side – Morning / Evening
Max Richter – Space 11 (Invisible Pages Over)- From Sleep
Shuttle358 – Can You Prove I Was Born?
Andrew Weathers – We Will Never See A Cloud Again – Fuck Everybody, You Can do Anything
VA (Marcus Fischer) – Field Works: Progue’s Run
Rival Consoles – Ghosting – Howl
Pye Corner Audio – Quasar II – Stars Shine Like Eyes 10”
Benoit Poulard – Whose Palms Create – Sonnet
36 – Sky Fire – Pulse Dive
wndfrm – Monopole – Formal Variant EP
Christina Vantzou – Stereoscope – No. 3
T.Raumschmiere – 007 – T.Raumschmiere
Inventions – Wolfkids – Maze of Woods
Nils Frahm – Our Own Roof – Music For The Motion Picture Victoria
Arovane & Hior Chronik – Scale – In-between [BUY]
Valet – Transformation – Nature
Anduin – Last Days of Montrose House 10”
Helm – I Exist In A Fog – Olympic Mess
Kamran Sadeghi – The Right Direction is Left
Lawrence English – Antarctica – Viento
Olafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm – Three – Loon
Celer – Distant Misgivings – Jima

 

Neel, Donato Dozzy, Just Music, Dewtone

 
 

Neel - Live at Free Rotation '15

From one of our favorite producers comes a rare live set recording, featuring tracks from WNDFRM, Global Communication and a host of other warm, driving atmospheric techno artists. My experience seeing VFTL a few years back was still one of my most memorable gigs of all time and Neel is still evidently pushing the magic far and wide. Available to download on Soundcloud.

 

Phonatic - Dozzy Dives under 120

You can't really have Neel, without Dozzy, so here's a tribute mix by Phantic that captures some of Dozzy's more subdued (<120bpm) ambient productions as himself, in remix mode and as half of Voices From The Lake. Available to download on Soundcloud.

Ambient Zone 2: Just Music Café Vol 5

Just Music have been around for over ten years now and are solely responsible for introducing the world to Jon Hopkins, and ASIP friends and favorites, Echaskech. Just Music's newest compilation shouldn't simply be glanced over as your average chill-out compilation simply because of the rather cliché title. Melancholic ambience from Digitonal, an individual piano piece from Jon Hopkins, driving atmospheres from Xspance, and that infamous ethereal-Schnauss sound from Echaskech grace this compilation, curated by the mighty Chris Coco. This is the type of music that I used to write about when I first started this site, and it makes me happy to know it's still going strong today. Available on Bandcamp.

Dewtone - Reflections

Dewtone have been relatively quiet recently, but that hasn't stopped Dustin and his collective from piecing together some of their finest work over these two Reflection compilations. Remastered and edited for re-release, the compilations capture the very essence of the label with tracks from some of their most notorious releases of recent years including Purl, Deflektion, Martin Nonstatic, Alveol, Sven Laux and ASIP's Halo. Available on Bandcamp.