18K Affair + Daphni + Stellar Om Source

Cover art by Alex Koplin



18 Carat Affair debuts his enchanting 80’s late night/old VHS sounding R+B album called Vintage Romance, beautifully executed and unique, grab it here.

I can’t believe I never actually shared this, here’s singles from Caribou‘s Daphni project, gorgeous worldly edits to get lost into.

Stellar OM Source is a mind expander, I hate hearing her music stop.

Keep Shelly In Athens Remixes



I’ve probably posted most of these at some point or another in the past separately but now you have them all in one place. Keep Shelly In Athens have been one of my favorite remixers in the past year or so, always epic in this lo-fi way, catchy synths and the effects are always added on in a tasteful way, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Also, look at all the free downloading!

P.S. to Keep Shelly In Athens(if you read this): email me jakub at iso50 dot com i’d like you to remix Tycho.

Cover art by: ? [any info would be appreciated, would love to give credit]

Wieden + Kennedy Portland Office




International advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy transformed an abandoned warehouse into their new world headquarters. The office holds several hundred employees and multiple organizations. The building was redesigned by Allied Works, a Portland architecture firm.

Allied Works renovated the building with a new concrete interior and multiple new storys. The existing timber-frame structure was also renovated and helped push the accenting of wood structures throughout the interior of the building. If you ever get a chance to tour the office do it. Make sure to wander around and check out the unique parts of the office including “The Nest”.

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Kickstarter: Holtermand & Navis



So many great Kickstarters have been popping up and this one seems very close to the ISO50 family, below is info on Kim Høltermand & Tim Navis Outliers project:

This October, with the help of the Kickstarter community, a small group of filmmakers, photographers and musicians are setting out on a journey to explore the remote countryside of Iceland and document our experiences with the landscape, residents and traditions we encounter. The end result, a beautifully packaged box set of the film and companion soundtrack, will be released to backers of the project as a physical artifact of the unique and awe-inspiring experience. We can’t wait to share the results with you.

The project — anchored by internationally renowned photographers Tim Navis + Kim Høltermand and aided by film collective Scenic and composer Deru — will be unique in its improvisational spirit. The group will create a series of short films at various locations throughout the island, inspired by moments of discovery and chance occurrence. Tim’s sun-drenched SoCal landscapes and Kim’s cold, architectural abstractions provide the perfect visual foundation, and fans of their work can imagine how exciting a collaboration between the two will be.

We’ll be sharing our trip in inventive ways with supporters, providing a real-time window into an experience that the community helped to make reality. Upon our return, Scenic will edit a series of short films, featuring an original score by Deru and a full-length soundtrack featuring contributions from select musicians and contemporary composers. Tim + Kim will create an archival photo book and release a limited run of exclusive prints for the Kickstarter community.

Your donation will help provide travel and accommodations while our small crew films and photographs the trip, and will allow us to produce truly stunning physical artifacts that showcase the beauty and wonder of Iceland. We hope you’ll join us on our journey, and we thank you for your support.

About the Soundtrack
*** Download the first single here, FREE ***

Deru is curating a full-length soundtrack compilation of tracks contributed specifically for the film. Artists include:

• Shigeto
• Loscil
• Goldmund
• Asura
• Tycho
• Joby Talbot
• Ryuichi Sakamoto
• More to be announced

EXCLUSIVE: Teen Daze & 18K Rmx Andre Obin

Cover Art by: Jonathan Wong



We have an exclusive gift for the ISO50 readers courtesy of André Obin, Teen Daze, and 18 Carat Affair. Download this synth drenched collection of remixes of André Obin’s new single Lemondrop for free. With both the 18 Carat Affair and Teen Daze albums coming out I thought i’d be a perfect time to ask them to remix this song that André gave us to give away on the site, let me know what you guys think and also visit their sites if you have time.

DOWNLOAD THE ZIP HERE FOR FREE

Discovery: A Visual Eulogy












I’ve seen a lot of beautiful, moving images of the Shuttle lately but none have felt so intimate as these by Justin Ray for Spaceflight Now. Something about these photos of the now decommissioned spacecraft, engines removed, mission complete, bring the idea of it to life like none I’ve seen thus far. It’s the textures and details that highlight what an incredible machine this was and what a profound achievement for humankind it represents.

And look at that lettering! I’ve never seen it so close; it has such a handmade feel to it at this scale. The logos and typography of the Shuttle program always intrigued me, they seemed to represent the idea of the United States as a brand, an ideal to be consumed by the rest of the world. Then when Canadarm was installed on STS-2 it became apparent that even other — less crazy — countries felt the desire to push themselves as a brand in space. Of course, pushing your national space-brand became a bit more accessible with the ISS, but the US and Canada used Helvetica and were way ahead of the curve so I’d say they won whatever prize you get for most recognizable space-brand.

I wonder what we all gained growing up in a world where the Shuttle existed. I know it was a big part of my consciousness as a kid and probably had something to do with how I felt about my national identity. For me it symbolized the combined efforts of some of our greatest minds collectively reaching for a better understanding of the world we live in. For some — and perhaps rightly so — it probably represented a colossal waste of resources in the face of more earthly problems. Maybe it was both, but I I’ll personally miss it as a symbol of what we as humans can achieve when we work together.

More Pictures at Spaceflight Now

ISO50 Visuals At LAUNCH


I’m in Sacramento decompressing after the final, completely insane, few weeks putting the finishing touches on the new Tycho album (I’ll be announcing the release date here very soon). It just so happens that Launch — Sacramento’s annual art / music / fashion festival — is going down this weekend and I’ll be doing some live visuals for Little Foxes during their set.

If you’re not yet up on Little Foxes, they’re a new band consisting of Dusty Brown, Jacob Golden, and Zac Brown (live bassist and collaborator in Tycho). They’re incredible and this event is not to be missed. There are a lot of other great artists on the bill and to top it off it’s back at The Greens again. Hope to see you out there.

More Info at Launch Fesitval site

M83+C Beams+Matthewdavid+James Ferraro



M83 drops the first single with an epic intro for his upcoming album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. I would have shared the cover art but its far from being anything ISO50. I find the single catchy especially with the sax solo, makes me feel like have the gained the skills to be able to leap from one skyscraper roof to another but I don’t recommend anyone doing that. Download the single here for free.

C-Beams comes to us from a small Hamburg label called Smallville, who in my mind are the front runners of keeping the early sounds of spaced out minimalist detroit techno alive and well.

Matthewdavid takes on an important role in the beat scene, tied in with labels like Brainfeeder, he becomes a key piece in keeping a mostly beat focused label very interesting by offering up hazy lo-fi sounds.

Alright let me explain, James Ferraro isn’t a normal sound for the ISO50 blog BUT holy shit! its like my VCR is broken, the sound damage is soo authentic its beautiful. The synth line is amazing and the sequence changes are perfected by completely just cutting tape and taping the next part together in the toughest way possible, amazed.

William Eggleston








Just came across William Eggelston’s photography work tonight (I know, very late to this party). I’m completely blown away. A lot of these almost feel like realist oil paintings.

Does anyone do work like this anymore? I’ve never really seen tone and definition like this in anyone’s work. I have to imagine most kids starting out in photography these days are purely digital; sad to think we’ll be seeing less and less film output as the years go on.

More work at William Eggleston Portfolios. Also check out his bio (pdf) for more info on cameras / film used.

Nosh Promo: Behind the Scenes


Last week I wrote a quick post about the Nosh Promo video I made. Today I wanted to go into the production and describe all that went into its creation. Basically it was insane 25 hours from when we started, until the next morning when I exported the final video and the power went out in my apartment building (literally AS I hit export). Above you’ll see the composite I put together to show how each step of the post-process contributed to the final video. View the final video here or at the bottom of this post. I’ll describe each step in detail after the jump.

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