Cyclic Defrost Magazine

Flying Lotus: “I don’t want to remind people of the world we’re in. I want to help people escape it.” For weeks, Steve Ellison, better known as Flying Lotus, lived inside a surge. From his home studio in Studio City, Los Angeles, he would wake and move straight to work, staying there until evening in a state that felt closer to compulsion than routine, as sleep thinned and meals interrupted momentum. The music arrived in one sustained rush and, when it stopped, it stopped completely.

Flying Lotus: “I don’t want to remind people of the world we’re in. I want to help people escape it.”

For weeks, Steve Ellison, better known as Flying Lotus, lived inside a surge. From his home studio in Studio City, Los Angeles, he would wake and move straight to work, staying there until evening…

Temporal Totality: The Magical Vibrating World of Éliane Radigue (1932–2026) French composer Éliane Radigue passed away on the 23rd of February 2026 in Paris, at 94 years of age. Just the day before, I was sitting on the balcony of my home with friends, listening to the Feedback Works 2LP set we reminded ourselves of the effect her music could have on listeners. It is now a reminder of how fortunate we are to have the incredible legacy Radigue leaves in both recorded and live music.

Temporal Totality: The Magical Vibrating World of Éliane Radigue (1932–2026)

French composer Éliane Radigue passed away on the 23rd of February 2026 in Paris, at 94 years of age. Just the day before, I was sitting on the balcony of my home with friends, listening to the Feedback Works 2LP set we…

Nathan Fake: “It confused a lot of people.” Nathan Fake might not be a household name like Fred Again or Four Tet, artists often credited with helping to define the current electronic landscape, but his contribution runs deep. Over the past two decades, he has shaped the UK’s ambient and electro terrain, particularly from his roots in the North of England. As one of the early voices on James Holden’s…

Nathan Fake: “It confused a lot of people.”

Nathan Fake might not be a household name like Fred Again or Four Tet, artists often credited with helping to define the current electronic landscape, but his contribution runs deep. Over the past two decades, he has shaped the UK’s ambient and electro…

Nathan Fake – Evaporator [InFiné ] Twenty years after Drowning in a Sea of Love introduced Nathan Fake’s emotive, ambient-electronic palette to a wider audience, Evaporator finds the Norfolk-based producer in reflective but adventurous form. Released via Berlin's InFiné, the album does not revisit the past so much as reframe it. It feels warmer, freer, and often surprising in its tonal shifts. The record opens with a softness that speaks to its origins.

Nathan Fake – Evaporator [InFiné ]

Twenty years after Drowning in a Sea of Love introduced Nathan Fake’s emotive, ambient-electronic palette to a wider audience, Evaporator finds the Norfolk-based producer in reflective but adventurous form. Released via Berlin's InFiné, the album does not revisit…

Listen to an expanded Praed’s experimental electro Shaabi . We're pretty happy to hear that the experimental electro Egyptian trance duo Praed are about to drop another album. It comes hot on the heels of Raed Yassin & Paed Conca's second Orchestra album, The Dictionary of Lost Meanings, on the ever reliable Discrepant label, which saw them enlist a bunch of incredible improvisors including Alan Bishop, Radwan Ghazi and Sam Shalabi for a kind of improvised free jazz take on their signature sound.

Listen to an expanded Praed’s experimental electro Shaabi

. We're pretty happy to hear that the experimental electro Egyptian trance duo Praed are about to drop another album. It comes hot on the heels of Raed Yassin & Paed Conca's second Orchestra album, The Dictionary of Lost Meanings, on the…

Luz González – Bi Gezur (Everest Records) With Galician and Basque references in its name and song titles, Bi Gezur (two lies) from artist Luz Gónzalez was released back in December on Everest Records and it’s been under our radar since then thanks to its distinctive feel, rooted in the vast springs of ambivalence, making this a recurrent play in the past weeks. It builds anticipation with thick, cavernous synths on the opener ‘Volverse paisaxe’, with a strong narrative and a dramatic transition from an eerie atmosphere of grainy effects to a sharp and tense percussion.

Luz González – Bi Gezur (Everest Records)

With Galician and Basque references in its name and song titles, Bi Gezur (two lies) from artist Luz Gónzalez was released back in December on Everest Records and it’s been under our radar since then thanks to its distinctive feel, rooted in the vast…

Watch Markus Guentner’s expansive new ambient work German DJ and producer Markus Guentner has released his music on Ware, Warner, A Strangely Isolated Place, Moodgadget, and Sending Orbs, also Kompakt where he often featured on their Pop Ambient series. Over the years he has collaborated with numerous artists including the likes of Rafael Anton Irisarri, Julia Kent, bvdub, Tom Moth, Joachim Spieth, and…

Watch Markus Guentner’s expansive new ambient work

German DJ and producer Markus Guentner has released his music on Ware, Warner, A Strangely Isolated Place, Moodgadget, and Sending Orbs, also Kompakt where he often featured on their Pop Ambient series. Over the years he has collaborated with…

Caterina Barbieri and Bendik Giske – At Source (light-years) Caterina Barbieri and Bendik Giske's At Source arrives fully formed, like an object that has always existed, outside of the constraints of space and time. The collaboration sounds exactly like what you would expect from these two minimalist composers, in the best way possible. Barbieri’s drifting synth arpeggios and Giske’s rhythmic extended saxophone combine to form complex layers of sound that are at once recognisable from the individual performers, but merge into something beyond the source.

Caterina Barbieri and Bendik Giske – At Source (light-years)

Caterina Barbieri and Bendik Giske's At Source arrives fully formed, like an object that has always existed, outside of the constraints of space and time. The collaboration sounds exactly like what you would expect from these two…

Listen to Akira Kosemura’s intimate piano melodies on the 15th Anniversary of his seminal Poloroid Piano . Room40 have just announced a reissue of Japanese pianist and composer Akira Kosemura's Poloroid Piano on its 15th anniversary. Kosemura has scored anime, a Hollywood drama series, a Nitendo Switch game as well as collaborating with everyone from Devendra Banhart to Lawrence English. In fact he works with English on Poloroid Piano. It's really quite a beautiful work.

Listen to Akira Kosemura’s intimate piano melodies on the 15th Anniversary of his seminal Poloroid Piano

. Room40 have just announced a reissue of Japanese pianist and composer Akira Kosemura's Poloroid Piano on its 15th anniversary. Kosemura has scored anime, a Hollywood drama series, a Nitendo…

Various Artists – Elemental Studies (Carpe Sonum) It’s always a delight to catch up with Carpe Sonum. The U.S. based platform started in 2013 to release ‘Die Welt Ist Klang’, a fantastic Pete Namlook tribute that we remember dearly given the collective effort that made it happen. TJ Norris is a multidisciplinary artist hailing from Fort Worth, Texas. Many years ago he was a lighthouse in the cultural storm for us thanks to Toneshift, a music review platform that has gone through many iterations, its current form a monthly radio-show on Camp.

Various Artists – Elemental Studies (Carpe Sonum)

It’s always a delight to catch up with Carpe Sonum. The U.S. based platform started in 2013 to release ‘Die Welt Ist Klang’, a fantastic Pete Namlook tribute that we remember dearly given the collective effort that made it happen. TJ Norris is a…

Watch Alejandra Cárdenas (Ale Hop) and Gibrana Cervantes on ‘Inward.’ Alejandra Cárdenas (also known as Ale Hop) is a Peruvian-born artist and researcher based in Berlin. Her multidisciplinary work spans live performances, record releases, sound, text and video artworks, academic research on sound and technology, and original compositions for film and dance. She has recently collaborated with the likes of percussionist Laura Robles on Agua Dulce, and Congolese guitarist Titi Bakorta on…

Watch Alejandra Cárdenas (Ale Hop) and Gibrana Cervantes on ‘Inward.’

Alejandra Cárdenas (also known as Ale Hop) is a Peruvian-born artist and researcher based in Berlin. Her multidisciplinary work spans live performances, record releases, sound, text and video artworks, academic research on sound…

Listen to the harrowing ‘Violence Is Like An Infectious Disease’ from Chicago Gunfire Survivors . Given the events in the US overnight it seems pertinent to share this short excerpt from a forthcoming album produced by Ian Brennan. I connected with Brennan about 6 years ago where we had a great chat about travelling to Pakistan to record the great maestro Ustad Saami. You can read that here. Brennan has famously travelled the world, producing the likes of Tinariwen, more recently the super weird…

Listen to the harrowing ‘Violence Is Like An Infectious Disease’ from Chicago Gunfire Survivors

. Given the events in the US overnight it seems pertinent to share this short excerpt from a forthcoming album produced by Ian Brennan. I connected with Brennan about 6 years ago where we had a great…

Listen to The Sea from Swedish composer Matti Bye  Matti Bye is a Swedish pianist, composer and sound artist. With a background in silent film accompaniment having live scored masters like Fritz Lang, Victor Sjöström and Jean Vigo at the Cinematheque in Stockholm , he has gone on to compose over 30 films and TV series, including Life After Death, Faro and Young Wallander. He has also released numerous solo albums, including Capri Clouds (2024) and Between Darkness & White Snow (2023) on the likes of Denovali, 1631 ecordings and Tona Serenad.

Listen to The Sea from Swedish composer Matti Bye

 Matti Bye is a Swedish pianist, composer and sound artist. With a background in silent film accompaniment having live scored masters like Fritz Lang, Victor Sjöström and Jean Vigo at the Cinematheque in Stockholm , he has gone on to compose over…

Watch Swiss artists Zimoun and Till Hillbrecht’s new work In what feels like a change of pace for Swiss artist Zimoun, he has teamed up with sound designer Till Hillbrecht for a highly textural work and something of a change of pace from last years Harmonium I-VI. We spoke to him at the time and he reflected on his desire to consider not what more can be added to a piece, but what can be removed.

Watch Swiss artists Zimoun and Till Hillbrecht’s new work

In what feels like a change of pace for Swiss artist Zimoun, he has teamed up with sound designer Till Hillbrecht for a highly textural work and something of a change of pace from last years Harmonium I-VI. We spoke to him at the time and…

Jana Irmert: Portals / 7038634357: Rope (GRM Portraits) We’ve had this split EP on repeat since it came out a couple months ago on Portraits GRM together with Shelter Press. It presents two pieces commissioned for the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (INA grm) and thought for the acousmonium. Berlin based sound artist and composer Jana Irmert takes over on side A with Portals, created with ultrasound and hydrophone recordings of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and Colombia.

Jana Irmert: Portals / 7038634357: Rope (GRM Portraits)

We’ve had this split EP on repeat since it came out a couple months ago on Portraits GRM together with Shelter Press. It presents two pieces commissioned for the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (INA grm) and thought for the acousmonium. Berlin…

Watch a tripped out 46 minute audio visual improvisation that is O Fortuna’s album launch O Fortuna is an improvising trio of Robert Vincs (Saxophone), Monty Price (Electric Guitar) and Sam Price (Drums). Late last year they released Hylo, which demonstrated the trios unique approach to experimentation and improvisation. They launched it Dimension Art project studio with a totally improvised performance, augmented by similarly improvised lights/visuals. Price sent the clip to me as a Xmas present, with the words "it's seriously not shit." I tend to agree, in fact I'd go a little further in the other direction and say its pretty bloody good.

Watch a tripped out 46 minute audio visual improvisation that is O Fortuna’s album launch

O Fortuna is an improvising trio of Robert Vincs (Saxophone), Monty Price (Electric Guitar) and Sam Price (Drums). Late last year they released Hylo, which demonstrated the trios unique approach to…

Craven Faults: “I like things that evolve slowly over time.” The music of UK electronic artist Craven Faults is hypnotic and durational. A mysterious and enigmatic figure who carefully guards his identity, he first emerged in 2017 with Netherfield Works and has since issued a number of EP’s and albums on the Leaf label to considerable acclaim. Whilst his music draws parallels to German Kosmische music due to its repetition and simultaneous though somewhat contradictory feelings of both propulsion and stasis, his minimal modular music is very much tied to a sense of place.

Craven Faults: “I like things that evolve slowly over time.”

The music of UK electronic artist Craven Faults is hypnotic and durational. A mysterious and enigmatic figure who carefully guards his identity, he first emerged in 2017 with Netherfield Works and has since issued a number of EP’s and…

Listen to the incredible new duo album from Carl Stone and ASUNA Carl Stone is a composer and radio producer from Los Angeles. He studied composition at CalArts in the 1970s with Morton Subotnick and James Tenney and is a pioneer of computer sampled music, having used computers in live performance since 1983. He later moved to San Francisco and then Tokyo, where he teaches at Chukyo University. ASUNA is a Japanese sound artist renowned for his sound installations (often using toys or keyboards such as…

Listen to the incredible new duo album from Carl Stone and ASUNA

Carl Stone is a composer and radio producer from Los Angeles. He studied composition at CalArts in the 1970s with Morton Subotnick and James Tenney and is a pioneer of computer sampled music, having used computers in live performance…

The Bug & Ghost Dubs – Implosion (PRESSURE) Look, this is a totally superficial comparison but let's entertain an idea that The Bug is playing at being The Beatles of dub techno here. Moving beyond the obvious entomological comparisons, I want to compare how Kevin "The Bug" Martin is moving into the latter years of his musical career and how The Beatles drifted apart in their later years. Because I think it's interesting to listen to this album in the way that one hears the specific Lennon or McCartney tracks in the twilight years of their partnership, as the contrasts between Martin and his collaborator Michael Fiedler seem similarly easy to identify.

The Bug & Ghost Dubs – Implosion (PRESSURE)

Look, this is a totally superficial comparison but let's entertain an idea that The Bug is playing at being The Beatles of dub techno here. Moving beyond the obvious entomological comparisons, I want to compare how Kevin "The Bug" Martin is moving into…

Mark Harwood – or, Urim (Penultimate Press) Haha I get it. Yep, quick, tell Mark Harwood I’ve cracked the code. It’s funny right? Some albums are puzzles that on immediate listen seem to make no sense, it’s like there’s something greater at play, a deep conceptual plan, a series of in jokes that only the chosen shall understand. In this sense whether the music gives you pleasure, creates endorphin rushes or reminds you of your first kiss becomes kind’ve redundant, as does whether there’s a killer guitar solo on the 3rd track, or the vocals of a Vietnamese llama on track 9.

Mark Harwood – or, Urim (Penultimate Press)

Haha I get it. Yep, quick, tell Mark Harwood I’ve cracked the code. It’s funny right? Some albums are puzzles that on immediate listen seem to make no sense, it’s like there’s something greater at play, a deep conceptual plan, a series of in jokes that…

Kevin Purdy – Hundreds and Thousands (Soft Records) There’s a woozy psychedelic energy at the heart of Sydney based Kevin Purdy’s eight solo album. It’s playful, inventive and fun, brimming with a mischievous energy, these odd eclectic constructions, unexpected asides and ill defined samples. It’s the world of Kevin, and I’m immediately transported back to when I first encountered his work, the similarly eclectic Tooth, his trio with Sir Robbo and John Maddox, which possessed a similarly assured sense of self whilst dragging us happily along for a magical mystery tour of undersea nostalgia.

Kevin Purdy – Hundreds and Thousands (Soft Records)

There’s a woozy psychedelic energy at the heart of Sydney based Kevin Purdy’s eight solo album. It’s playful, inventive and fun, brimming with a mischievous energy, these odd eclectic constructions, unexpected asides and ill defined samples. It’s…

Cyclic Defrost: Best of 2025 I know what you’re thinking, am I human? Did AI write this? Or at the very least did it help? And the answer is who cares? It’s humans who are plunging us into unjust bullshit wars, pretending genocides aren’t occurring on our watch, telling us that reality can no longer be trusted. So at this point maybe its time to have a crack at robot overlords.

Cyclic Defrost: Best of 2025

I know what you’re thinking, am I human? Did AI write this? Or at the very least did it help? And the answer is who cares? It’s humans who are plunging us into unjust bullshit wars, pretending genocides aren’t occurring on our watch, telling us that reality can no…

Unravelling Le Guess Who?, Utrecht 6–9 November 2025 Now into it’s 19th year, Le Guess Who? (LGW?) is a major international music and arts festival occuring annually in Utrecht, a metropolitan hub of the Netherlands with a picturesque walled city at its core. From the outset, surveying the festival program was mind boggling. With too many artists to count performing over twenty venues and programmed across overlapping streams—when planning my visit I was already flummoxed!

Unravelling Le Guess Who?, Utrecht 6–9 November 2025

Now into it’s 19th year, Le Guess Who? (LGW?) is a major international music and arts festival occuring annually in Utrecht, a metropolitan hub of the Netherlands with a picturesque walled city at its core. From the outset, surveying the…

Jamie Lidell and Luke Schneider – A Companion For the Spaces Between Dreams (Clandestine Label Services) Jamie Lidell has described this album as "...a guide for those liminal spaces you may find yourself in, so to speak." That space for the artist was an internal one after returning from ketamine-assisted therapy, so the results are in many ways akin to a chillout album and it relaxes into a spot on the couch next the KLF's landmark and definitive "Chill Out".

Jamie Lidell and Luke Schneider – A Companion For the Spaces Between Dreams (Clandestine Label Services)

Jamie Lidell has described this album as "...a guide for those liminal spaces you may find yourself in, so to speak." That space for the artist was an internal one after returning from…

Listen to the strange and beautiful soundscapes of Cleared . Cleared is the longstanding project of Chicago based Steven Hess and Michael Vallera. Since about 2009 they have released albums on Immune, Utech Records and Touch. Their work is characterised by repetition and layering, a near complete enmeshing between the duo, often utilising environmental sound and obscuring and processing to the point of abstraction any hints of instrumental sound. It's a truly unique sound world.

Listen to the strange and beautiful soundscapes of Cleared

. Cleared is the longstanding project of Chicago based Steven Hess and Michael Vallera. Since about 2009 they have released albums on Immune, Utech Records and Touch. Their work is characterised by repetition and layering, a near complete…

Listen to Rafael Anton Irisarri’s new music . Cyclic favourite, US composer, producer and mastering engineer, Rafael Anton Irisarri has returned with a new solo album. We've been fans of his work for some time, you can check out our interview with him earlier in the year here. The album, Points of Inaccessibility was developed during a residency inside the former Pieter Baan Centre in Utrecht. Once used as a psychiatric prison, the site still carries traces of its past in the building’s stark silence and heavy acoustic character.

Listen to Rafael Anton Irisarri’s new music

. Cyclic favourite, US composer, producer and mastering engineer, Rafael Anton Irisarri has returned with a new solo album. We've been fans of his work for some time, you can check out our interview with him earlier in the year here. The album, Points of…

Penelope Trappes @ Casa Montjuïc (BCN), 11th of October 2025 The first time we heard of Penelope Trappes was her outstanding remix for Field Works, a desolate soundscape given movement by her hypnotic voice in an already interesting project. That same year we fell for how soothing, oneiric and caressing her voice can be in the song ‘Possession’ (Past Inside The Present), so it was a matter of time until the anticipation built to see her perform.

Penelope Trappes @ Casa Montjuïc (BCN), 11th of October 2025

The first time we heard of Penelope Trappes was her outstanding remix for Field Works, a desolate soundscape given movement by her hypnotic voice in an already interesting project. That same year we fell for how soothing, oneiric and…

Listen to a newly discovered Western Grey improvisation . Western Grey is the Naarm trio of field recorder, composer and academic Philip Samartzis, guitarist and composer Dave Brown (Candlesnuffer), and late percussionist Sean Baxter. Their previous album Glacial Erratic (2003, Dr Jims), existed somewhere between electroacoustic composition, free improvisation, and sound design. Their latest album was recorded back in 2006, inside West Space—a Melbourne artist-run initiative over two nights during its summer shutdown.

Listen to a newly discovered Western Grey improvisation

. Western Grey is the Naarm trio of field recorder, composer and academic Philip Samartzis, guitarist and composer Dave Brown (Candlesnuffer), and late percussionist Sean Baxter. Their previous album Glacial Erratic (2003, Dr Jims), existed…

Princess Liar on songs being magic bullets to the destructive domino effect of “not owning your shit” and other topics Princess Liar is the latest evolution in the artistic journey of Julie Montan. We last caught up with Julie at the release of her Lovers of the Black Bird project ‘Ocean of No Time’ back in 2021. Much has happened since then, with Montan relocating from the grimy backstreets of Inner Northern Melbourne, to the tropical hot-dog nights of Cairns in Far North Queensland.

Princess Liar on songs being magic bullets to the destructive domino effect of “not owning your shit” and other topics

Princess Liar is the latest evolution in the artistic journey of Julie Montan. We last caught up with Julie at the release of her Lovers of the Black Bird project ‘Ocean of No…

Jeremy Dower – Personal Computer Music 1997-2022 (Chapter) With Chapter commencing this reissue series of whimsical Australian electronic producer Jeremy Dower I’ve been tearing my house apart trying to locate his Chapter released compact disc EP from 2002, Music For Retirement Villages, Circa 2050. At the time I remember being really struck by these jaunty self assured almost genreless electronic ditties that seemed to owe as much to muzak as electronica, and possess all the time in the world.

Jeremy Dower – Personal Computer Music 1997-2022 (Chapter)

With Chapter commencing this reissue series of whimsical Australian electronic producer Jeremy Dower I’ve been tearing my house apart trying to locate his Chapter released compact disc EP from 2002, Music For Retirement Villages, Circa…