★Astral Industries
The Kallikatsou Recordings
180g vinyl, 2024 repress. "I’ve never met Rod Modell (Deepchord) in person, but we have met through music. He found an obscure cassette of Chi music (from ’86), sent it to Astral Industries and paved the way for the release (30 years later) of ‘The Original Recordings’ in 2016. Since then, we’ve exchanged ideas and good music. I sent Rod a preview of ‘The Kallikatsou Recordings’ - he really liked it - and here came the idea for a remix of ‘Lanterns’. I started working on some random, lo-fi sampl…
Live Recordings
AI-36 comes from Ear to Ear - the debut collaboration between label regular Samuel van Dijk (Multicast Dynamics) and Ukrainian artist Yevgen Chebotarenko. Taken from a series of live recording sessions, the album explores in four parts a markedly darker realm of soundscape music. A cornucopia of abstract morphing scenes and heady synesthesia, the album brims with rich sonic detail and evocative gestures. Deftly blending organic sound textures with an experimental austerity, ‘Live Recordings’ dis…
Ghost Lights
A year on since the collaborative Mystic AM project in 2022, Rod Modell returns solo to Astral Industries with AI-35. The album - entitled ‘Ghost Lights’ - comes as a gatefold 2x vinyl LP, showcasing the latest epoch of Rod Modell’s signature soundscapes. Spread across four parts, ‘Ghost Lights’ draws out a wide, cinematic sound - with long arching contours, rippling textures and cavernous sound design.
Woven with layer upon layer of hidden fragments and supernal transmissions, each chapter take…
Spirit Medicine
AI-34 arrives from Toki Fuko. Known previously for his contributions of deep and hypnotic techno, he presents on Astral Industries further development of his sound in this long-form work. A two-part sojourn into vibrant organic soundscapes and liminal sonic archaeologies, ‘Spirit Medicine’ is an ethereal yet human-centric venture into the realms of consciousness.
Soft chimes mark the opening, making way for expansive pads and the emergence of a bristling jungle panorama. Solitary flute melodies …
Lanterns
Finally repressed, this is the first release on the Astral Industries label is Deepchord's 'Lanterns', illuminating the skies with red and blue light like floating Chinese lanterns ascending into the aether.Rod Modell presents "Lanterns" - an epic journey through an evolving sonic landscape propelled by the churning momentum of reverb-soaked percussion. Red Lantern is an ode to the eerie red glow that once beckoned sailors to the port of Amsterdam - on one side, the gentle thud of a bass drum ro…
The Fifth World Recordings
AI-32 signals the arrival of ‘The Fifth World Recordings’, by Son of Chi (Hanyo van Oosterom) and long-term collaborator Arthur Flink. A tribute to the late Jon Hassell, who passed away in 2021, the album connects a deep running thread that goes back to the source of Chi project. Carrying on from where Hassell left off, the album takes inspiration and references from his Fourth World music concept and the ancient Hopi tradition of Native America. Illuminating the subliminal space of the arising …
The Transition Recordings
*2023 stock* Astral Industries’ fave Hanyo van Oosterom (The Chi Factory) re-enters the label’s orbit in duo with fellow dutch ether explorer Radboud Mens for a minimalist but lush ambient trip. Following the 2019 death of The Chi Factory’s J. Derwort, ‘The Transition Recordings’ see Hanyo continue to expand the group’s legacy, looping in explorative sound artist and producer Radboud Mens to assist in unfurling his vision of diaphanous pads threaded with silvery solo piano keys, murmuring ether …
Atmospheric Fragments
Submerged, resonant ambient deep dives by Sa Pa, full of diffractive slosh and captivating shadowplay that builds on examples found on that ace LP for Mana.
Cardamom & Laudanum
Tip! Emerging from a thick spiralling haze, is the debut album from Mystic AM - a new project from Rod Modell and label founder Ario Farahani. Conceived as an immersive fictional soundtrack piece, the release tells the story of a traveller, some centuries ago, and the rather intense metaphysical experience he unexpectedly stumbles into whilst taking shelter on a hot desert night at Zein-o-Din Caravanserai, near Yazd in Persia. Dusk envelopes the vast barren landscape as the protagonist enters th…
Dialog
AI-31 sees the debut release from a new collaboration between Samuel van Dijk (Netherlands) and Rasmus Hedlund (Finland). Both key proponents to the scene in Northern Europe, they come together with mutual understanding and a common vision to sound. Dialog acts as a conversational exchange that sees the interplay of dynamic frequencies, evocative imagery and contemporary sonic art. Spread across four sides, the album as a whole exists as a kind of metaphysical process, eternally growing and cont…
V 3.0-3.9
*2022 stock. In process of stocking.* Mysterious productino unit Waveform Transmission make their third release, and the second for Astral Industries, in impeccable style — utterly immersive, a realy work of art from front to back.
There's real storytelling at work on this rather splendid double vinyl score, whether it's in hints of tropical birdsong, the fluid motion of rhythms built from water, or the waves of breezy synths that seem to blow past (or through) your ears. Everything feels like…
Rückverzauberung Exhibition
*2022 stock. In process of stocking.* Long-time AI associate Wolfgang Voigt returns to the London label with his next album – Rückverzauberung Exhibition. The Exhibition reimagines the concept with renewed purpose, opening the gates to deliver an arresting 60-minute journey into the underworld. Dense soundscapes mutate with alchemic fluidity, unravelling with vast symphonic counterpoints and synesthetic textures. Intoxicating in its Mephistolean dissonances and ambitious sonic structure, the spr…
Metamorphosis
*2022 stock. In process of stocking.* Multicast Dynamics returns to Astral Industries for AI-26, this time collaborating with Sid Hille, the German born, Finland based instrumentalist and composer. ‘Metamorphosis’ transmutes both artists’ unique styles into a synergistic blend of transportive storytelling, a delicate dance of light and dark.
Divided into two parts, ’Metamorphosis’ originates from a live performance recorded at Temppeliaukio church in Helsinki on March 2nd, 2019. The material was…
Live at Brancaleone
*2022 stock. In process of stocking.* Following the arrival of their debut album ‘Alterazione’, LF58 (F.Scorcucchi and G.Tillieci) are back on Astral Industries with a special trove of outer-space explorations. Recorded one evening back in April 2019 as a live performance at Rome’s Brancaleone, the eponymously titled album offers a sprawling journey across the pan-dimensional ether. Spread across six sides of vinyl, the performance includes fully improvised material as well as choice selections …
Lucid Dreams
*In process of stocking.* AI-28 arrives as a double-12” reissue of an album titled “Lucid Dreams”. Formerly released in 1996 as a CD on the now defunct UK imprint em:t, the album now becomes available for the first time on vinyl. Produced collaboratively by Chris Allen, David Thompson (both co-founders of em:t), plus label affiliates Tom Smyth and Will Joss, the record features outlier academic and philosopher Celia Green narrating passages of her classic book “Lucid Dreams” (published in 1968),…
The Wetland Remixes
*In process of stocking.* Son of Chi returns to Astral Industries, alongside Spanish artist Clara Brea, for the collaborative release of AI-29. A product of fate, chance experiments, but most of all, sensitive artistry - ’The Wetland Remixes’ exists as a confluence of two kindred musical spirits, a wayfaring epic that draws together a rich archive of ecological field recordings, live instrumentation and higher inspirations. Ahead of Hanyo’s concert at ‘Avalovara listening club’ (Madrid) at the e…
A Miscellany for the Quiet Hours
Another uncovering arrives from Astral Industries by the name of The Humble Bee. The alias of industrious, multi-talented UK artist Craig Tattersall, The Humble Bee’s ‘A Miscellany For the Quiet Hours’ was the inaugural release on Tattersall’s now discontinued Cotton Goods imprint. This beautifully intimate work resurfaces after more than a decade since its initial release, now available on vinyl for the first time. Constructed entirely of tape loops, fragile tapestries of forgotten artefacts ca…
'Rückverzauberung' Live In London
Finally repressed! Then it was time for the man himself, Wolfgang Voigt. This, to put it simply, was a masterclass in ambient music. The sounds, beautiful; the transitions; perfect; the experience, unforgettable. The sound emanating from his quite simple set up filled up the church completely, in a room lit only by a few candles, his music shone through and brought everything to life. Everyone and everything became one with the music, moving with its ups and downs, delighting in it’s near perfec…
Alterazione
"Alterazione presents a critical statement – distinguished by its technical execution and breathtaking artistry. The album itself is a cathedral of sound, each cavernous chamber an exploration of space and consciousness. Presented in four movements (one track per side), altogether they extend as a transportive experience of evolution for the listener.Iniziazione – a steady departure that unfurls like the opening of a portal; a process of molecular transfiguration commences. Panoramic landscapes …
Travel in Peace
J.Derwort (15/07/1952 - 11/02/2019) left all his flutes, old guitars, strange percussion and some weird found objects at the Chi Factory studio. Hanyo van Oosterom went back to Patmos in April 2019 to visit all the magic places where Chi once started. He recorded the basics for ‘Travel in Peace’. Playing and recording these handmade bamboo flutes without the master himself being there was a lonely and emotional journey. But along the way the magic connection returned and the last Chi Factory alb…