Buscar:isaac helsen

Isaac Helsen and Zach Frizzell, the unfathomably prolific ambient producer known as zake, have been collaborating together again. They both run the Past Inside the Present label and despite great musical kinship have only put out two records to date: beliefsystems in 2021, and Atonements earlier this year, which first came on Zake Drone Recordings and now gets a cassette reissue on Past Inside the Present. It's a gorgeously hazy analogue affair made with a reel-to-reel and Korg Minilogue. "This album embodies the theme of letting go and moving forward with acceptance," they explain, and what a beauty it is too.

Past Inside The Present co-founder Isaac Helsen - a multi-disciplinary artist from Michigan, creating photography and paintings as well as music - in action on this double cassette alone after a string of collaborations with labelmate 36 and fellow label co-founder zake. Helsen's sound works on a grand (electronically) orchestral scale at times, the proverbial cathedrals of sound coming to mind, at others (see 'Duniskwalgunyi') understated and intimate. On first listen, it's the simpler moments like 'Whisper At A Party' that grab you, but the 17 track selection slowly reveals itself to be quite special on repeated rotations.

'Anon 1' was originally released as a very limited Anonymous 12" on Past Inside the Present in 2020, featuring 36 and Isaac Helsen. The idea was to let people hear the music and judge it not on the names behind it, but purely on the quality of the music itself. When it sold out, the label revealed who wrote it. Obviously quite a few 36 & Isaac Helsen fans missed out, so Past Inside the Present repressed the record, but this time with the knowledge of who made the tunes now public.

A joint effort long past due, PITP founders zake and Isaac Helsen team up to bring forth three arrangements that encompass textured ambient washes and drone-laden guitar work titled 'Beliefsystems'.