This piece deals with reflected images, sounds and ideas and the perceptions thereof and how they echo and compliment their real-life counterpoints. The album consists of two tracks, each with compositional direction from the same score but in opposite directions. These two tracks were then blended together, one forwards and one backwards for each side, to create the two finished halves. The results are sounds occurring together moving forward while their reflected sounds move backwards.
Reid Karris is an improvisor, composer and experimentalist residing in the Chicagoland area. He primarily uses prepared guitars to explore sound creation and manipulation centering on extended and invented techniques. Other than performing solo he regularly plays with his group Snek Trio and in various settings with other musicians on prepared guitar, percussion, skatchboxes and homemade instruments. As a solo artist he releases albums of conceptual composition using elements such as guitars, percussion, manipulated field recordings and noise. He has released albums on Lurker Bias, Orb Tapes, Ramble Records, Mother Brain Records, Pan Y Rosas Discos, and other independent experimental labels.
Elated to welcome one of the most enduringly creative and boundary-pushing artists of the last few decades to quiet details, Robin Rimbaud, otherwise known as Scanner.
A towering figure in the worlds of music, sonic and visual art, dance, installation and a myriad of other disciplines – Robin has covered a huge amount of artistic ground since his earliest forays into our consciousness in 1991.
From countless albums and projects as a solo artist and in many collaborations, including the likes of Brian Ferry, Michale Nyman, Steve McQueen, Stella McCartney, Laurie Anderson and Hussein Chalayan, and Pauline Oliveros; to the first Sound Art commission at the Tate Modern London; scoring a dance piece for the UK Olympics; the list of his critically-acclaimed achievements goes on and on.
At the core of his work is always a deep curiosity, the ability to make cognitive leaps into the creative unknown and fashion something beautiful – it’s with this sense of wonder he’s made something truly incredible for quiet details.
The album is a stunning sonic exploration of the world around him, another fundamental element running through his work – realising the majesty contained within structures that has always been there, now brought to life.
As Robin says:
This album is forged entirely from the resonant clangs, echoes, and whispers of a stainless steel staircase at home, transforming everyday architecture into an unexpected orchestra.
By coaxing rhythm, tone, and atmosphere from the metallic body of a staircase, the work reimagines movement between floors as a passage through sound.
No synthesisers were used in the creation, only the natural sound of the staircase using a geophone seismic microphone and the gentle assistance of the occasional resonant filter and sample software.
This has led to an album of enveloping beauty – highly textured drones meet distant pulses; metallic fragments merge with hauntingly evocative melody. Physical architecture translated to harmonic structures in the most breathtaking way imaginable.
There’s so much to admire here – from the beauty of the original recordings to the highest level of craft to turn them into something so musically engaging – a true masterpiece from one of our finest artistic minds.
Huge thanks to Robin for being part of the series.
The artwork was made as always influenced by the music and idea behind the album – originating from a photo from Robin 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.
Scraped from the digital domain, here are the last recordings I ever did on my 4-track tape machine. It was murder cutting up PLU and some other parts of tracks on tape. I hope you like this “lost classic”, but it was never really lost as it was available from Vuzh Music for many, many years. This is a WHOLENESS RECORDINGS release: WHOLE022025 credits released October 1, 2025
Many thanks to Nigel Ayers whom I wrote asking permission. He said it was up to the record company. And thanks to Vicki Bennett of People Like Us, whom I didn’t ask as I didn’t know her address. Cover art by longtime friend and cohort C. Reider who runs Vuzh Music.
label: Sähkö Recordings Cat No: SAHKO-037 format: 2lp+cd in one package, download & stream release date: 15.9.2025 Barcode: 5050580857285
Mika Vainio started making a new Ø album in 2014. He almost finalized the record before his too early passing in 2017. The album Sysivalo is the 9th out of 8 full scale albums, released under the Ø alias by Vainio. Ø was his longest running project from 1993 to 2017. Sysivalo was recorded during 2014-2017 and is 60 min long album with 20 tracks, produced by Vainio. He described the record as a distinct Ø album that was going to include several shorter tracks, etudes. The title, Sysivalo, is invented by Vainio by combining the Finnish words sysi (dark or sinister) and valo (light).
Like life itself, the album carries a quiet darkness – honest and full of hidden light. The many of the tracks are beatless subtle soundtracks of eclipsed emotions. Like an incapacitated creature waiting for something to happen.
The closing track Loputon (Endless) is maybe the most beautiful tracks Vainio has ever written, Vainio’s last word. credits released September 15, 2025
Written, produced and performaed by Mika Vainio (1963-2017) in Berlin and Oslo in 2014-2017
Compiled post mortem by Rikke Lundgreen and Tommi Grönlund according to Mika Vainio’s notes Digital mastering by Denis Blackham Vinyl mastering by Rashad Becker
Front photo and print by Mika Vainio Sleeve by Tommi Grönlund
Label Description: Our favorite six-string shaman is waving that axe around again! Sir Richard Bishop wrenches forth fresh damnable truth and beauty from a musical kamikaze run through histories both known and unknown. Turning a gimlet eye to the American Primitive guitar style, Sir Rick applies his own bloodthirsty interpretive methods on a self-described “excursion into the dark woods,” to locate – and play along with – the Primitive’s moonshine-fed inner savage.
Label Description: Solitary, minimal and otherworldly guitar vignettes, recorded during nighttime/AM sessions throughout 1997, subsequently shelved and eventually forgotten over time due to other commitments. Recently unearthed, and mastered by JKB in 2025.
Label Description: One of the Best Times Ever Was Sex on the Beach And not the Drink – Nothing Metaphorically, Wet Wild & Juicy Sex on the Beach, Stars in our Eyes The Glow of reckless Youth Riding Waves of Pale Moonlight I Saw the Stars that Night, But they Were Outshone Always there But Always Alone – A Blink in Time, A Moment in Stride Inside so Close The Dance of Sighs, The Pitter Patter pattie Try it on for Size ~ It’s What passes for Clase Classy Both Here And Far And Wide ~
The Very Thing That We Need can be experienced as a temporary sonic journey, a drifting passage through layered soundscapes. Each track unfolds like a chapter in an inward-bound narrative, leaning into atmosphere over urgency, weaving layered rhythms and unconventional melodies. The album opens with a soft glow: piano and guitar drifting together in a quiet nostalgia. From there, the grooves loop and simmer, steady but just out of reach, like something half-remembered. Moments of calm give way to darker turns, sliding gently into a dreamlike haze that moves between the familiar and the uncanny.
In According To One, piano and guitar drift together in quiet conversation, conjuring a sense of ease, like looking back on something you never quite left behind. From there, sink deeper into the slow-burning pulse of Induce the Peasants. Its steady groove is hypnotic and unhurried, perfect for losing track of time and letting the present dissolve. With Santi Asoke, the mood lightens. Breezy and effortless, it carries you somewhere warm and weightless, a place where nothing is expected, and everything just is. Things shift with Of Money Use. Here, the familiar starts to slip away and you’re left in a vivid, uncertain dreamscape where imagination takes the lead. Finally, Asoke Hierarchy pulls it all back together. It’s a subtle revival: steady and composed, like standing up again after a long, introspective drift.
Music For The Rest Of Us 