Ivan the Tolerable
Chromophobia
A record made for the ones we lost. Oli Heffernan returns with his fourth album for Riot Season - an expansive double LP that carries with it a deep personal history and years of unfinished business.
The earliest sessions date back to 2018 at the IDI in Middlesbrough, engineered by longtime collaborator Nigel Crooks over the course of three weekends. Then life happened. The material was shelved, left to gather dust for reasons that accumulated and compounded. When Crooks passed away in 2023, com…
Autodidact II
*Limited edition of 100 copies* Finally! The crucial 2021 album by Middlesbrough's Oli Heffernan gets the double vinyl treatment it always deserved. Originally released as a cassette on Cruel Nature Records and gone way too fast, Autodidact II is one of the great documents of UK experimental music from this decade - a sprawling, fog-drenched journey through psychogeography, North Yorkshire folklore and sonic territories that shift under your feet.
Recorded during three separate sessions in July …
Atoms In The Void
Tip! The hazy sound worlds of Hawksmoor(James McKeown) and Ivan The Tolerable(Oli Heffernan) come together in a swirl of hallucinatory bliss on Atoms In The Void. Both McKeown and Heffernan delve in 70s album side long form jams within their own projects, and on Atoms In The Void both come together in hazy, droning beauty in bite-size chunks. "Anise" combines pastoral folk with an underlying unease, while "Atom Dub" has that distinctive Ivan The Tolerable drone to it, while tasteful wah wah guit…
An Orphan Form
A beautifully strange and immersive suite that feels both otherworldly and rooted in something organic. Oli Heffernan returns to Riot Season after the sold-out Vertigo and Water Music releases - but this time the Trio expands across borders. Recorded in winter 2024 between Middlesbrough, UK and Utrecht, Netherlands, An Orphan Form brings together Heffernan with Dutch collaborators Mees Siderius (drums, percussion, vibraphone) and Elsa Van Der Linden (saxophones, flutes) for two LONG pieces of de…
House Of The Hidden Light
*200 copies limited edition* UK experimentalist Ivan The Tolerable announces “House of the Hidden Light,” a sprawling new double LP arriving in 2025 on Stolen Body Records. The prolific project of Oli Heffernan, Ivan The Tolerable once again blurs genre and expectation, offering a deep dive into restless creativity and immersive, atmospheric sound.
On “House of the Hidden Light,” Heffernan continues his exploration of cosmic psychedelia, ambient textures, and freeform experimentation. Across its…
Black Water/Brown Earth
Ivan The Tolerable is the alter ego solo project of Middlesbrough based musical wizard Oli Heffernan. Aside from his solo work as ITT, Oli has played in numerous bands over the years including Year Of Birds, King Champion Sounds with members of the Ex, Detective Instinct, and Shrug, and has collaborated with icons like Mike Watts of the Minutemen, and J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.
On Black Water/Brown Earth, Heff called in the help of his Dutch friends Mees and Elsa in King Champion Sounds again and …
Magic Smoke Chords
Assembled and recorded to tape in 2011 by Oli Heffernan.
''A full-stop on my 20's in mixed media.''
Remastered for vinyl in 2024
Sleeve by Ack! Ack! Ack! Design
Cover Photo by C-Dyer
Released by Industrial Coast 2025
Live In London
Recorded live at The Waiting Room, Stoke Newington, London on friday 13th Sept 2024 - between 8pm - 8:37pm
Oli Heffernan - bass guitar, synths, kalimba, drones, arps
Dedicated to the memory of Stan Brakhage: 1933 - 2003
Design by Ack! Ack! Ack! Design
Autodidact
The first entry in the Ivan The Tolerable archive reissue series - and what a place to start. Originally self-released as a 10" lathe cut on Ack! Ack! Ack! Records in February 2018, now remastered and pressed on limited edition khaki vinyl. 250 copies. This is IT.
Oli Heffernan recorded the bulk of this over a single weekend in January 2018. Living alone in a big house. Not seeing people. Going through what he calls "a very minor breakdown that was to last for pretty much the entire year." Track…
Wild Nature!
The archive reissue series continues! Originally released as a handmade CD run of about 50 copies on Ack! Ack! Ack! Records back in 2019 - screenprinted on the sly during lunch breaks at the day job, hand-assembled, long gone - Wild Nature finally gets the vinyl treatment it deserves. Remastered. Repackaged. Super limited edition orange wax.
This is Oli Heffernan working completely alone. The LAST album he recorded entirely by himself - all instruments, recording, mixing, mastering and artwork d…
Nocturnes
** Housed in a reverse board jacket. Limited edition of 319 copies ** Oli Heffernan locked himself away and emerged with 10 chunks of lo-fi instrumental library-hop - the first solo Ivan The Tolerable album since Wild Nature back in 2019. No band. No collaborators. Just Heffernan alone with guitars, bass, synths, organs, drum machines, electric piano, mellotron and percussion. A restless mind doing what it does best.
Nocturnes is a sonic tapestry that weaves atmospheric library music with dusty …
Infinite Space
Edition of 319. Ivan The Tolerable Trio are back with an alternate version to the amazing Infinite Peace. 2 epic tracks to take you away into infinite space! "When we went in to ATA studios in Leeds to record the Infinite Peace LP - it was always the plan to have two versions of the album - a straight mix that documented what we actually recorded there in its pure form and another version that would rearrange everything into a new shape. Once the LP was out, I passed all the stems to my old pal/…
Infinite Peace
"This album began as a pipedream about 5 years ago and became reality in the Summer of 2023. I've been a huge fan of ATA Records for years now and have wanted to record at the ATA Studio for equally as long, but I had found out that it no longer operated as a commercial studio and just served as a place where Neil (Innes, ATA head honcho and member of Work, Money, Death/The Sorcerers) could record his own music for his label. So I gave up on the idea of ever going there... Then, randomly, I met …
The Long Year
After the release of last years album Out Of Season (feat Mike Watt) we are delighted to release the follow up The Long Year on November 29th. With sounds reminiscent of Can and Neu with spoken word provided by Karen Schoemer (who provided the lyrics to Out Of Season as well). Elements of Krautrock, free form jazz and even afro beat bring this immersive album all together. The Long Year is an album, a journey, which is best listened to as a whole. “…when the eye can’t see, the mind steps in…” Ol…
Water Music
*300 copies limited edition* Stars align and Oli Heffernan brings his ever-(d)evolving Ivan The Tolerable to Riot Season for two LPs of sublime entropic drift. Having this time recruited Christian Alderson (The Unit Ama) on drums, John Pope (Ponyland) on double bass, Kevin Nickles (Ecstatic Vision) on flute and saxophone and Ben Hopkinson on electric paino - both works were recorded as a quintet almost instantaneously, the players barely brushing or breathing a note before the whole thing was do…
Vertigo
*300 copies limited edition* Stars align and Oli Heffernan brings his ever-(d)evolving Ivan The Tolerable to Riot Season for two LPs of sublime entropic drift. Having this time recruited Christian Alderson (The Unit Ama) on drums, John Pope (Ponyland) on double bass, Kevin Nickles (Ecstatic Vision) on flute and saxophone and Ben Hopkinson on electric paino - both works were recorded as a quintet almost instantaneously, the players barely brushing or breathing a note before the whole thing was do…
Out Of Season
*2024 stock. 150 copies limited edition* If you ask Oli Heffernan – aka Ivan The Tolerable – how many releases he’s made under that name, he has to check and cross reference. Let’s call it 42-ish including Out Of Season, his seventh release as Ivan this year. (This is to exclude his work as Year Of Birds and Detective Instinct and as a member of Houseplants and King Champion Sounds).
For a man as restlessly, constantly creative as Heffernan, the lockdown is a blessing and a curse. His trusty Tas…
Toft House Session
*2024 stock. 330 copies limited edition* "This album began with an email back in late 2021, Al at Stolen Body Records asked if I wanted to come and record an Astral Session in Bristol to promote an album I'd just released called Out Of Season. I roped in the three people who play on my records that lived the closest to me (Neil Turpin from Bilge Pump/Objections, Robbie Major from Benefits and piano and saxophone wizard Ben Hopkinson) and we had a couple of rehearsals to get a set together - half…
Time Is A Grave
"An Ivan The Tolerable album is a journey that is visceral, expressionistic, and full of heady intentions."
"Going into an Ivan The Tolerable album it's best to expect the unexpected. His music swings and swerves from psychedelic flights of fancy to free jazz explorations to cosmic drone swirls, sometimes all in the same song. An Ivan The Tolerable album is a journey that is visceral, expressionistic, and full of heady intentions.
Time Is A Grave, the latest from Ivan The Tolerable (aka Oli Heff…
Under Magnetic Mountain
Ivan The Tolerable: The Sonic Alchemist Returns to Library Of The Occult with a Mind-Altering Sonic trip, "Under Magnetic Mountain". Known for his innovative approach and dedication to pushing the limits of sonic experimentation Under Magnetic Mountain is a sonic kaleidoscope that delves deep into the psychedelic kosmische realm, offering listeners an exhilarating and transformative experience through 10 mind-bending tracks forged within the sanctum of the Ivan The Tolerable Sound Laboratory.