This year’s mix, begins with some more tranquil pieces ( Hopkins, KMRU, Arian Shafiee), then takes a dive into the deep, dynamic elements ( ASC, Inhmost, Sciama, AES DANA, Ulla, Bana Haffar), to then slowly emerge into melody just before the hour with Christina Chatfield. The Reflection mix, as it does every year, ends up moving through several different stages and captures many of the different styles of music that have been on high rotation. Slightly darker and edgier perhaps for obvious reasons, with less instrumental, gentle, or orchestral sounds in my library overall it seems. On the listening front, and upon reflection, I have definitely been drawn to the more electronic-driven side of ambient music this year. Numerous times this year I have questioned whether to continue with our current approach, and I am sure many other labels have felt the same. Next year, we may see bigger gaps between releases and different formats as we look to work with new plants and basically turn our production flow on its head. Despite ACL recently commenting that ASIP seemingly “so far has seemed immune to the vinyl shortage”, we have been massively impacted and have only been able to keep somewhat of a cadence this year because we had so much in the pipeline. On the ASIP label front, we finally managed to launch our 9128.live sister label, producing physical and digital editions from notable live performances, with many more planned for 2022. I know from my own experience, that many artists have albums in the locker and the labels are now struggling to keep up with the present vinyl production bottle-neck. At one point, I am sure we were all left feeling truly spoiled with music choices and online events, despite not being able to attend physical events until the past few months. It’s been interesting to see the pendulum of music move across various online listening platforms during strict lockdowns this past year, and what seemed like an onslaught of output as artists buckled down inside. The fact that people actually listen and await the mix, is a lovely bonus. This mix, as it does every year, serves as a great way for me to dedicate time listening to albums again, and I’m realizing this has become a yearly sort of musical therapy for me. Looking back, it’s been a tough year personally and one that in theory should have left me with more time to listen and absorb music but somehow did the opposite. Of course, releases or aliases a part of our own label/s are not considered ( head over here for our label-specific 2021 showcase).Īnother crazy year in the books (or is this the new normal?). I encourage you to use the mix to jump off and explore each artist, listen to the album in full and see what else is on the label (and check the Buy Music Club list). It’s the most enjoyable way for me to boil down the music I’ve loved from the year using these self-imposed restrictions, for you to then enjoy and discover more. As I say every year, this isn’t a definitive ‘best-of’ list, but a selection of just some of my favorite music from the year in one easily listenable format. This means many of my favorite tracks and albums are often omitted in the process, due to the need for them to fit in a mix that comes together as organically as possible. Through the process of compiling a mix that flows well, songs are whittled down and selected from this collection. As with all past ‘Reflection’ year-end mixes, I start with a collection of albums I have enjoyed over the year.
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