ZERKALO [The Mirror]

 

[1975]

The first 22 minutes and 40 seconds here are the original Aduard Artemiev recordings for the soundtrack of Tarkovsky's 1975 masterpiece Zerkalo aka The Mirror.

The Korgis - Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime

[1980]

Supreme synth-y soft-rock with incredible 80s synthetic violin solo and er... some zither!

How many top 10 hits have a zither in them? Probably only this.

Another one from back in the primary school dayz, although I feel like this popped up in a couple of movies in the 90s/00s and was there a techno cover version, maybe...

Never seen this video or maybe just forgotten it but I guess I probably just thought this was the same group who did I'm Not In Love...

Lyrical sentiments similar to Talk Talk's philosophical bent of getting your shit together/self improvement to make sure you have a good meaningful life.

Vibe achievement.

Chris Watson - Winter

[2013]

Now for a journey to Lindisfarne and the sounds of nature on the Holy Island as captured by Chris Watson. Featuring the sea, an array of birds and the wind. 

Oklahoma After Dark · Phil Geraldi

[2024]

Hypnagogiamericana!

Static On The Airwaves. Ghosts on the highway switching the dial. Mirages on the horizon of cosmic cowboys playing twanging guitars.

Interior of an Edifice Under the Sea - Pan·American & Kramer

Lamenting The Colours Of Melting Ice - Pan·American & Kramer [2025]

Speaking of peak Labradford. This here is main man Mark Nelson and Lamenting The Colours Of Melting Ice is nostalgic ear candy for me as it reminds me of early Labradford. 

Over the last couple of years Mark (Pan·American) has collaborated with Kramer for two fantastic LPs of spaced out dreamy and drifting improvisations occasionally dipping into glowing psychedelic ambient Americana. Shadowy shifting shimmering tones...  lovely.

In The Time It Takes To Drown - Pan·American & Kramer [2025]

Absolutely gorgeous post-rock ambient-Americana. The "beautiful like the stars at night" guitars and keyboards are couched in marshmallow-y reverb for a supreme secluded nocturnal atmosphere. Depending on your mood this could be lonesome and melancholic or the sound of serenity found in solitude. 

HyperNormalisation Tracks

Thomas Ragsdale - Warning Mass [2015]

Been watching Adam Curtis' HyperNormalisation (2016) again after also watching Academic Agent's critique of the documentary from the right, sensible centre and centre left. We've all known (well a lot of us) for a bloody long time that the partisan division is a joke, left/right is an obsolete gauge, this fake scam is protecting power and people actually want the same things ie. an end to the hyper-capitalism of, dare I say it, neoliberalism. 

There's plenty of Curtis' usual suspects on the soundtrack like Morricone, Eno, Nine Inch Nails, Aphex Twin, Burial et al. But there's also a few less famous artists utilised to great effect in this masterclass of sound design too.

Some of you might know Ragsdale as he's the fella behind Sulk Rooms whose albums have featured in some end of year lists here at CardrossManiac2 anyway Warning Mass is a classic ominous minimal track that moves the atmospheric tones around that then swell into calamitous intensity. It was perfect for the show.

Pye Corner Audio - The Black Mill Video Tape [2012]

This awesome tune popped up which I hadn't heard since Ghost Box released Sleep Games fourteen years ago. Some post-Carpenter hauntological synthwave goodness. 

Gavin Miller - Fotograf (Part 2) [2013]

Then there was this excellent eerie track that I didn't know.

worriedaboutsatan - Blank Tape [2016]

Blank Tape is dark, minimal, ambient with a hint of ye olde post-rock. This was a duo featuring Gavin Miller with the unmistakeable touch of Thomas Ragsdale. Incredible spectral electronics.

worriedaboutsatan - All Safe All Well [2015]

This bit of atmospheric minimalism reminiscent of peak Labradford. Shifting tones of gloom.

Lou Reed - I Love You, Suzanne

[1985]

If you thought Lou was too drug addled or too cool just check out the pizazz of his dancing at the end of this video. 

It is indeed a new sensation! 

Who knew. 

Plus summersault!

A summersault in a bar just who does he think he is.

Suzanne must have really been worth it.

Neuronium - Quasar 2c361

[1977]

A prime slice of 70s cosmic synth goodness. There is even a little bit of acoustic guitar and flute here and there. Top Belgian/Spanish kosmische krautrock.

Connie Stevens - Sixteen Reasons

[1959]

Back in the 90s and 00s I was often tuned into 3MP and Magic 693. 40s, 50s and 60s pop and easy listening. Lovely songs like this all the time on the airwaves. I need a station like these today. Anyway Connie was a good catholic girl of Irish/Italian descent from New York who ended up in Hollywood. She starred in movies and tv, dated Elvis and did this tune. She's still around at the grand old age of 87. The impeccably produced and arranged Sixteen Reasons was a top ten hit in America and Britain in 1960 and it subsequently showed up in David Lynch's 2001 masterpiece Mulholland Drive.

[1964]

Speaking of easy listening there's a great instrumental version of Sixteen Reasons by Lawrence Welk here on his LP The Golden Millions at 20:19. 

The Savage Young Taterbug - Syrupy Evenings

[2010]

An inspired piece of sound collage Americana style where hypnagogia and hauntology deliriously intersect. Ride the creepy ghost train into the American dreams of the past. Fragments of decayed American pop culture are reanimated for a phantasmagoric ye olde carnival revue on Halloween.