A LABEL & RESOURCE FOR THE AMBIENT LISTENER
2023 RELEASES
▼
|
|
Crossing Water
by Cat Tyson Hughes
March 17, 2023
Limited Edition Color Vinyl + Digital Download
ABOUT
Cat Tyson Hughes is an Australian composer and artist working in experimental music and contemporary art. ‘Crossing Water’ is her debut album with Past Inside the Present, in addition to it being her first formal full-length. She has spent the last few years working on various music projects including her appearance on our compilation ‘Healing Together: A Compilation For Mental Health Recovery’ 2LP and appearing on zakè’s long-player ‘Remembrance’ 2LP with a beautiful rework. She has also worked on various other music commissions by artists and theatre makers, as well as performing in the band 'Fire to the Stars'.
‘Crossing Water’ is a fragile and delicate affair that balances gentle instrumentation and voice textures against a backdrop of beautiful field recordings. You will find each aural snapshot of sound incredibly patient and elegantly placed. Nature and natural sound permeate throughout the duration of this recording, yet the subtle melodies of these free structured arrangements gently brush a refined beauty to minimal sound design.
REVIEW
"Aussie composer Cat Tyson Hughes is an experimental artist whose new album Crossing Water on Past Inside The Present marks her debut long player. It comes after she's been involved with several other projects and offers a fragile and delicate mix of subtle instrumentation and rich voice textures imbued with an array of lovely field recordings. These are superbly patient and slow-burn tracks that really have a cathartic effect as nature and natural sounds permeate each composition. The melodies take your mind away as the freely structured, minimal arrangements really make you take note." -Juno Records
CREDITS
Written, produced and performed by Cat Tyson Hughes
Mastered at Black Knoll Studio by Rafael Anton Irisarri
Cover art by Cat Tyson Hughes
Layout and design by zakè
©℗ Past Inside the Present
This is PITP-V045 | MMXXIII
PRESSING INFORMATION
160 gram LP on a one-of-a-kind color vinyl. The record color will be exclusive to you alone. It may be opaque, translucent, or transparent with varying characteristics and mixes. The record is housed in a full color, semi-gloss jacket. PITP branded center labels. Includes download code. Shrinkwrapped.
by Cat Tyson Hughes
March 17, 2023
Limited Edition Color Vinyl + Digital Download
ABOUT
Cat Tyson Hughes is an Australian composer and artist working in experimental music and contemporary art. ‘Crossing Water’ is her debut album with Past Inside the Present, in addition to it being her first formal full-length. She has spent the last few years working on various music projects including her appearance on our compilation ‘Healing Together: A Compilation For Mental Health Recovery’ 2LP and appearing on zakè’s long-player ‘Remembrance’ 2LP with a beautiful rework. She has also worked on various other music commissions by artists and theatre makers, as well as performing in the band 'Fire to the Stars'.
‘Crossing Water’ is a fragile and delicate affair that balances gentle instrumentation and voice textures against a backdrop of beautiful field recordings. You will find each aural snapshot of sound incredibly patient and elegantly placed. Nature and natural sound permeate throughout the duration of this recording, yet the subtle melodies of these free structured arrangements gently brush a refined beauty to minimal sound design.
REVIEW
"Aussie composer Cat Tyson Hughes is an experimental artist whose new album Crossing Water on Past Inside The Present marks her debut long player. It comes after she's been involved with several other projects and offers a fragile and delicate mix of subtle instrumentation and rich voice textures imbued with an array of lovely field recordings. These are superbly patient and slow-burn tracks that really have a cathartic effect as nature and natural sounds permeate each composition. The melodies take your mind away as the freely structured, minimal arrangements really make you take note." -Juno Records
CREDITS
Written, produced and performed by Cat Tyson Hughes
Mastered at Black Knoll Studio by Rafael Anton Irisarri
Cover art by Cat Tyson Hughes
Layout and design by zakè
©℗ Past Inside the Present
This is PITP-V045 | MMXXIII
PRESSING INFORMATION
160 gram LP on a one-of-a-kind color vinyl. The record color will be exclusive to you alone. It may be opaque, translucent, or transparent with varying characteristics and mixes. The record is housed in a full color, semi-gloss jacket. PITP branded center labels. Includes download code. Shrinkwrapped.
|
|
Sacred Tonalities
by Mike Lazarev
February 7, 2023
Limited Edition Digistak + Digital Download
ABOUT
Sacred Tonalities is Mike Lazarev's debut album with Past Inside the Present. Mike is an incredible ambient and modern classical composer who also runs the fantastic online informer Headphone Commute.
Mike stated that his last two full-lengths were all about exploring time. Entering time, exiting time, and finding yourself within time. "I think that for Sacred Tonalities, I wanted to be present with time. It's a very meditative state of mind. Like the ocean. Like breathing." Mike wanted the music on Sacred Tonalities to become a mantra during introspective moments.
"I decided to create a sonic aid which could be used as a guide through these meditations. The music features a wide spectrum of frequencies, allowing the listener to pick and choose what they want to focus on or lose themselves in. It starts off pretty timid, almost frail, and grows into a textural and spacial soundscape, which tells its own story, sometimes a bit different on subsequent listens. I spent a lot of time peeling apart these layers myself, picking this or that slow-beating vibration as the focus to see where it leads and changing the emphasis of the melody so that the listener can ride any sound wave they want. And so, the tonalities become a device in themselves, to escort the meditator during their journey."
Mike further describes how he cultivated and created Sacred Tonalities, "On the technical side, I often started by painting the ground layer with super wide brush strokes, always using a hardware synth, ranging from analogue modular to wavetable or granular synthesis, including a lot of gear from the late 90s. If you're familiar with these synths, you may be able to pick out the classics, like Roland JP-8000, Clavia Nord Lead, Novation Nova, Access Virus C, and some newer ones, like Argon 8M, Waldorf Iridium and ASM Hydrasynth. I enjoy designing sound from scratch here, playing with modulated harmonics, gritty and soft. If you listen closely, you will hear layers, layers, layers, moving, fluctuating, and constantly rearranging themselves. Then, when this amorphous blob is nearly finished, I start drawing the outlines of the main melody, accentuating it with bass, piano, and lead arpeggios to give it some rhythm. Finally, when this sonic sculpture is almost complete, I chisel away and remove many things, stripping some structure and polishing off the edges."
About the style, Mike says that "if you listen closely, you may even pick up on some post-90s progressive trance in there, which I've completely reduced down to its bare essence (for example, on Tonality Number Five) - this is a nod to my early days when I used to produce hard acid trance back in the mid-90s - if you were into that type of music, especially from Platipus, Noom, or Time Unlimited labels, some aesthetics here may trigger a flashback. So, we're talking about travelling back in time again... where our past is always inside the present..."
REVIEWS
"Mike Lazarev drops his first album on Past Inside the Present and it's one that reminds us why he has such a great reputation as being one of modern ambient and classical's finest composers. After exploring notions of time on previous records, for this one, he embraces the here and now and that lends itself to a record steeped in mindfulness and meditation. As such, Sacred Tonalities is a perfect accompaniment to introspective moments with textural soundscapes placing you at the centre of them. The harmonics range from soft to gritty, the moods occasionally hint at trance and the layers of bass, piano and arps bring subtle and ever-shifting rhythms." -Juno Records
--
"On Mike Lazarev’s debut with Past Inside The Present titled Sacred Tonalities, Lazarev builds sparse soundscapes that turn subtlety into hypnotic and visceral. Quiet, buzzing tones build over several minutes in almost sci-fi-like mystery. This is the kind of music for deep dives and meditative headiness. Past work Lazarev has said was “exploring time. Entering time, exiting time, and finding yourself within time”, whereas Sacred Tonalities is “present with time. It’s a very meditative state of mind. Like the ocean. Like breathing.” You get a very elemental vibe with this record. It’s like breaking down existence into its individual parts and exploring them in some microscopic world, which turns out to be the universe itself." - Complex Distractions
CREDITS
Mastered at Ambient Mountain House by James Bernard
Photography and design by zakè
©℗ Past Inside the Present
This is PITP30 | MMXXIII
PRESSING INFORMATION
Glass-mastered, silkscreen printed CD housed in a 4-panel 7.3" x 5.3", matte cardstock Digistak. Clear CD tray. Cardstock made from recycled board. Shrinkwrapped.
by Mike Lazarev
February 7, 2023
Limited Edition Digistak + Digital Download
ABOUT
Sacred Tonalities is Mike Lazarev's debut album with Past Inside the Present. Mike is an incredible ambient and modern classical composer who also runs the fantastic online informer Headphone Commute.
Mike stated that his last two full-lengths were all about exploring time. Entering time, exiting time, and finding yourself within time. "I think that for Sacred Tonalities, I wanted to be present with time. It's a very meditative state of mind. Like the ocean. Like breathing." Mike wanted the music on Sacred Tonalities to become a mantra during introspective moments.
"I decided to create a sonic aid which could be used as a guide through these meditations. The music features a wide spectrum of frequencies, allowing the listener to pick and choose what they want to focus on or lose themselves in. It starts off pretty timid, almost frail, and grows into a textural and spacial soundscape, which tells its own story, sometimes a bit different on subsequent listens. I spent a lot of time peeling apart these layers myself, picking this or that slow-beating vibration as the focus to see where it leads and changing the emphasis of the melody so that the listener can ride any sound wave they want. And so, the tonalities become a device in themselves, to escort the meditator during their journey."
Mike further describes how he cultivated and created Sacred Tonalities, "On the technical side, I often started by painting the ground layer with super wide brush strokes, always using a hardware synth, ranging from analogue modular to wavetable or granular synthesis, including a lot of gear from the late 90s. If you're familiar with these synths, you may be able to pick out the classics, like Roland JP-8000, Clavia Nord Lead, Novation Nova, Access Virus C, and some newer ones, like Argon 8M, Waldorf Iridium and ASM Hydrasynth. I enjoy designing sound from scratch here, playing with modulated harmonics, gritty and soft. If you listen closely, you will hear layers, layers, layers, moving, fluctuating, and constantly rearranging themselves. Then, when this amorphous blob is nearly finished, I start drawing the outlines of the main melody, accentuating it with bass, piano, and lead arpeggios to give it some rhythm. Finally, when this sonic sculpture is almost complete, I chisel away and remove many things, stripping some structure and polishing off the edges."
About the style, Mike says that "if you listen closely, you may even pick up on some post-90s progressive trance in there, which I've completely reduced down to its bare essence (for example, on Tonality Number Five) - this is a nod to my early days when I used to produce hard acid trance back in the mid-90s - if you were into that type of music, especially from Platipus, Noom, or Time Unlimited labels, some aesthetics here may trigger a flashback. So, we're talking about travelling back in time again... where our past is always inside the present..."
REVIEWS
"Mike Lazarev drops his first album on Past Inside the Present and it's one that reminds us why he has such a great reputation as being one of modern ambient and classical's finest composers. After exploring notions of time on previous records, for this one, he embraces the here and now and that lends itself to a record steeped in mindfulness and meditation. As such, Sacred Tonalities is a perfect accompaniment to introspective moments with textural soundscapes placing you at the centre of them. The harmonics range from soft to gritty, the moods occasionally hint at trance and the layers of bass, piano and arps bring subtle and ever-shifting rhythms." -Juno Records
--
"On Mike Lazarev’s debut with Past Inside The Present titled Sacred Tonalities, Lazarev builds sparse soundscapes that turn subtlety into hypnotic and visceral. Quiet, buzzing tones build over several minutes in almost sci-fi-like mystery. This is the kind of music for deep dives and meditative headiness. Past work Lazarev has said was “exploring time. Entering time, exiting time, and finding yourself within time”, whereas Sacred Tonalities is “present with time. It’s a very meditative state of mind. Like the ocean. Like breathing.” You get a very elemental vibe with this record. It’s like breaking down existence into its individual parts and exploring them in some microscopic world, which turns out to be the universe itself." - Complex Distractions
CREDITS
Mastered at Ambient Mountain House by James Bernard
Photography and design by zakè
©℗ Past Inside the Present
This is PITP30 | MMXXIII
PRESSING INFORMATION
Glass-mastered, silkscreen printed CD housed in a 4-panel 7.3" x 5.3", matte cardstock Digistak. Clear CD tray. Cardstock made from recycled board. Shrinkwrapped.
|
|
Nurture
by marine eyes + IKSRE
January 13, 2023
Limited Edition LP (Mystery Color) + Digital Download
ABOUT
Nurture is a new album on Past Inside the Present from Los Angeles based musician and artist, marine eyes (Cynthia Bernard), and Melbourne based multi-instrumentalist and sound healer, IKSRE (Phoebe Dubar).
After hearing each other’s music, it quickly became apparent that the two were kindred spirits from other sides of the world. When a conversation started about their love of field recording, the idea sparked to create an album through sharing their captured nature sounds in an email pen-pal format. Going back and forth, the two would get a field recording and then write about where they were from, attaching photos and videos. The mail became a geographical lesson, and also an uncovering of each other’s emotional landscapes. After receiving the email, they would each start a new song using that field recording and story. When it was snowy in California (Abalone Sky), it was the height of heat in Melbourne (Rainforest Dawn), and with these differences in hemispheres, they could transport to alternate seasons while working on songs from their home studios. This cemented a creative friendship cultivated in nature, music & holding space for each other’s stories in creative living and motherhood.
Nurture is a blend of ambient drone, neo-classical, sound healing, dream-pop and gentle lullabies enveloping the listener with a sense of belonging, comfort, & introspection, whispering that in nature we can always come back to ourselves, and in turn be there for others in a deeper way.
REVIEW
"Los Angeles-based marine eyes (aka Cynthia Bernard) and Melbourne-based IKSRE (aka Phoebe Dubar) come together for this new album on Past Inside The Present and it is one that draws on their respective backgrounds as musicians, multi-instrumentalists and sound healers, as well as their shared love of field recordings. The album came about when each heard the other's music and decided to share sounds through an email pen-pal format. The mail chain included notes and pictures and became a geographical lesson and exploration of emotional landscapes. It blends ambient drone with neo-classical, sound healing, dream-pop and gentle lullabies onto something warm, comforting and introspective." -Juno Records
CREDITS
Written, produced, performed and assistant mixing by Cynthia Bernard and Phoebe Dubar
Mixed and mastered at Ambient Mountain House
by James Bernard
Cover art by Cynthia Bernard
Layout by zakè
©℗ Past Inside the Present
This is PITP-V044 | MMXXIII
PRESSING INFORMATION
160 gram LP on a one-of-a-kind color vinyl. The record color will be exclusive to you alone. It may be opaque, translucent, or transparent with varying characteristics and mixes. The record is housed in a full color, semi-gloss jacket. PITP branded center labels. Includes download code. Shrinkwrapped.
by marine eyes + IKSRE
January 13, 2023
Limited Edition LP (Mystery Color) + Digital Download
ABOUT
Nurture is a new album on Past Inside the Present from Los Angeles based musician and artist, marine eyes (Cynthia Bernard), and Melbourne based multi-instrumentalist and sound healer, IKSRE (Phoebe Dubar).
After hearing each other’s music, it quickly became apparent that the two were kindred spirits from other sides of the world. When a conversation started about their love of field recording, the idea sparked to create an album through sharing their captured nature sounds in an email pen-pal format. Going back and forth, the two would get a field recording and then write about where they were from, attaching photos and videos. The mail became a geographical lesson, and also an uncovering of each other’s emotional landscapes. After receiving the email, they would each start a new song using that field recording and story. When it was snowy in California (Abalone Sky), it was the height of heat in Melbourne (Rainforest Dawn), and with these differences in hemispheres, they could transport to alternate seasons while working on songs from their home studios. This cemented a creative friendship cultivated in nature, music & holding space for each other’s stories in creative living and motherhood.
Nurture is a blend of ambient drone, neo-classical, sound healing, dream-pop and gentle lullabies enveloping the listener with a sense of belonging, comfort, & introspection, whispering that in nature we can always come back to ourselves, and in turn be there for others in a deeper way.
REVIEW
"Los Angeles-based marine eyes (aka Cynthia Bernard) and Melbourne-based IKSRE (aka Phoebe Dubar) come together for this new album on Past Inside The Present and it is one that draws on their respective backgrounds as musicians, multi-instrumentalists and sound healers, as well as their shared love of field recordings. The album came about when each heard the other's music and decided to share sounds through an email pen-pal format. The mail chain included notes and pictures and became a geographical lesson and exploration of emotional landscapes. It blends ambient drone with neo-classical, sound healing, dream-pop and gentle lullabies onto something warm, comforting and introspective." -Juno Records
CREDITS
Written, produced, performed and assistant mixing by Cynthia Bernard and Phoebe Dubar
Mixed and mastered at Ambient Mountain House
by James Bernard
Cover art by Cynthia Bernard
Layout by zakè
©℗ Past Inside the Present
This is PITP-V044 | MMXXIII
PRESSING INFORMATION
160 gram LP on a one-of-a-kind color vinyl. The record color will be exclusive to you alone. It may be opaque, translucent, or transparent with varying characteristics and mixes. The record is housed in a full color, semi-gloss jacket. PITP branded center labels. Includes download code. Shrinkwrapped.
