ZAKE Vinyl & CDs

Review: The world has found itself in a significant hurry. We have also found ourselves in the most distracted period of time in history; finding it tremendously difficult to remain in a moment of stillness, quietude, or allow time for self-reflection. Conversely, our vast universe continues its expansion into infinite development; a climate of deafening silence in a boundless four-dimensional continuum. It remains mesmerizing with a quiet allure that freely suspends in space-time; a true account of the beautiful unknown that sparks hope, reverence, and an awesome realization of impenetrable mystery.

"Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel" is audibly rich in its delivery with an array of tranquil billows and patient tones. It is a journey and soundtrack that commences at Earth's thermosphere, gently moving towards the untraveled parts of space, lushly floating on forever.

These arrangements represent a group of celestial transmissions that are delicate in nature and intended for the listener to embrace moments of stillness, quietude and reflection, of which are on a trajectory of extinction at a place we call Earth.

Review: 'RMX' celebrates the two year anniversary of zake's debut album that was released on Past Inside the Present. Frequent collaborator and close friend Damien Duque (City of Dawn) took this opportunity to surprise zake with an entire remix of the album. It was too good not to share with the world. RMX is a complete rework of the original album that highlights what Damien does best. Drifting guitar work, warm undertones, and his lovely layering of textures.

Review: This is a special cassette tape version of the recent album from zake, one of ambient's most prolific artists, alongside From Overseas on his own Past Inside The Present label. As always it is an almost impossibly deep ambient selection that once again finds him exploring fresh and always emotionally moving musical territory. Demain Des L'aube features eight tunes that convey real melancholia and have a gently persuasive sense of movement. Each one is vast in scale and sweeps you up and sinks you into the grainy lo-fi pads, wispy melodies and distant string-based sombreness.

Review: The prolific ambient producer Zake (Zach Frizzell) has his latest release out for out us to enjoy. B4 Plus 3 features seven compositions in all. Many of them are brilliantly done drone pieces that are expressive in beautifully done tones that rise and slide. The heavenly 'Braken' as the opener for example. The layered tones creatively mask the depth of the drones to the point of a spontaneous feel that is almost changed by anything as slight as a light wind. 'Betrayal' present bells that ring out from the meandering depth while 'Blight' is deep and foreboding tot he point of being machinelike. 'Bane' is one of the most moving pieces in drone we have heard in a long, long time. Limited to only 50 cassettes in total (+download code), act fast to get the brilliant, peaceful and moving B4 Plus 3.

Review: You can always rely on zake to serve up some of the most magnificent ambient of the moment. He does it at an almost unbelievably frequent rate, too. This latest project is a seance part of the Orchestral Tape Studies series he minted back in 2019 and finds him paying homage to minimalist symphonic composers and orchestras through a series of pieces that focus on tone and timbre, with subtly shifting layers of carefully manipulated sounds, absorbing drones, field recordings and fragmented orchestral loops. Soundscapes shift subtly and manipulate your emotions just as deftly. This is a limited cassette version with several different vinyl versions also available.

Review: zake's fruitful contributions as an artist to his own Past Inside The Present label continues on this new album Deep Into The Unknown We Shall Endlessly Roam. It is an assemblage of arrangements made using archaic tape machines such as a Sony M-570V microcassette voice recorder and obsolete VSC Soundpacer, all on analogue tape. Of course that lends the music a misty, grainy quality that defines much of zake's ambient. Here his loops and found sounds meld and melt to create vast open spaces that are pregnant with emotion and tension. It's another magical work of ambient art that, says the artist, "is dedicated to those who continue to yearn for greater understanding."

Review: Unfurled Works is a collection of back-catalogue zake tracks that have been lengthened for this new cassette, which is a slow-moving cascade of ambiance that washes over you in a delightful fashion. It's an album of frayed edges and lo-fi production, of dream-like haziness and heart-warming subtlety. The five carefully layered tracks on it slowly and stylish shift from one to another with meditative pads and organic drones that are gently peppered with sombre keys. Some pieces are light and airy, others are more moody and heavy, and all of them are perfect for daydreaming and re-setting your mood. Silence takes on all new potency and the beauty of the barely-there grows ever more striking.

Review: "Sound Space Variations" is a delicate and restrained sound bath. A mix of atmospheric, suspenseful drone sounds and meditative aspects. It is an album made for those moments when we just are.

zake has managed to capture the moments that lie between sounds; the unagitated murmurs and atmospheric hisses. The artist connects this in-between-world and our earthly one with calm and sonorous scores, making us think about everything and nothing.

The six pieces on the record do not seem heavy-headed or overloaded but much more airy, wide and open for interpretations. They stimulate the imagination - in a wonderfully unbiased way. In the last track. James Bernhard mixed and mastered the album, written and produced by drone artist zake, at Ambient Mountain House Studio. zake himself provided the artwork and photos himself."

Review: ***B-STOCK: Box damaged, product in perfect working order***


zake box II is a collection of six previously out-of-print cassettes housed in a clear poly box. Two cassettes are vertically stacked on the left and right, and two cassettes sit in the center flip tray. Each cassette in this collection are loaded with FerroMaster C256 super ferric, ultra-high performance type-1 music grade analog tape.

Review: zake box II is a collection of six previously out-of-print cassettes housed in a clear poly box. Two cassettes are vertically stacked on the left and right, and two cassettes sit in the center flip tray. Each cassette in this collection are loaded with FerroMaster C256 super ferric, ultra-high performance type-1 music grade analog tape.

Review: 'Geneva Loops' encompass five loops that were given to each artist for the 'Geneva Remixes' where in turn they reworked, manipulated and expanded upon this source material resulting in each artists' own unique creation.

Review: Orchestral Tape Studies is a compilation arranged and produced by healing sound propagandist, ??. OTS is a group of richly layered movements of fragmented orchestral loops, paying homage to minimalist symphonic composers and orchestras. ?? incorporates field recordings and faint drone billows to accompany these selected samples of orchestral loops. With an emphasis on tone and recurrent murmurs, these four arrangements offer 32 minutes of delicate repetition, reticent sound treatments, and subtle manipulations. OTS is intended for low-volume listening.

Review: There are few things in design (both sound and art) that are more subjective-or more important-than the use of color. 'Color Language' takes the listener through various characteristics of four different colors. Cultural differences can have different reactions to color. A color that cultivates joy may be depressing or melancholic in another culture. The phonic output of Color Language may reveal similar characteristics that leave the listener to decide how the react to each arrangement.

Review: A new double cassette box from Past Inside The Present, which sees its co-founder zake in relatively rare solo mode mixing soothing ambient sensibilities with orchestral, classical influences. 'Dernier Souffle (Pt 1)' is a great example of how the two can meld very easily and comfortably, a sense of slowly retreating heartache creeping over its open, slabs of floating sounds, whereas the three parts of 'La Paix Eternelle (Pt 1), on the other hand, evoke heavenly choirs of angels. An album with its head in the clouds, for sure, but once you join it there you won't want to come down.

Review: 'An Orchestral Suite For Tape' is a compilation specifically curated for playback on the noble cassette tape format, featuring orchestral arrangements by Texas-Indiana duo zake & City of Dawn. Including songs from four albums and one compilation, the first time these tracks have been available on tape, the mood is deep and meditative, the billowing clouds of synthesisers providing ample space for thought and relaxation alike.

Review: 'car nous sommes poussiere, et a la poussiere nous retournerons.'

Review: Escape to a hidden place.

Review: Contemporary ambient and drone composers zake and Jordan Christoff team up for a new split release titled 'Apotheosis'. The opening track, "Evidence of Things Not Seen" by zake patiently unfolds over the course of a 27 minute slow burner. The arrangement's warm nature is both comforting and restorative. Jordan Christoff contributes two deeply emotive and engaging tracks 'Matriarchy' and 'Rippling'. Both embody a sense of intrigue and intimacy, reassuring the listener that they are not alone in whatever they are experiencing.

Review: zake, best known for his work on the prolific Past Inside The Present label that he co-founded, lines up with esteemed soundtrack wizard James Bernard and Marc Ertel, whose work centres on the healing, restorative powers of music. The album for Florina Cassettes boasts five tracks that veer on the grander end of the ambient scale - big, airy, blustery mini-symphonies that blow out the cobwebs, from opening tune 'Protector Of The Night' to closer 'Who Hath Listened'. If there is a moment of respite, it's the midway point, 'Sustained Beath', way more static and calm than the tracks it intersects. It's still filled with drama and emotion, as everything here does.

Review: Esteemed ambient auteurs, zake and ossa's collaborative output continues to soothe and delight in equal measure. After Syntheticopia in August 2022 and the dark long-player 'A Pale Shelter' in 2021 between zake, ossa, and City of Dawn comes Module, a collaboration that includes seasoned electronic producer Ruben A. Tamayo, under the alias FAX. The power trio brings forth an eight-track excursion into heavy ambient atmospheres with moody soundscapes and a real weight of melancholy. As always, the textures are grainy and lo-fi, the drones long-held, and the chords which poke through the clouds, bring subtle rays of hope and optimism. It is the latest and maybe the greatest chapter in this ongoing story from zake and ossa with featured collaborators.

Review: Chicago-based ambient producer Nick Turner (Tyresta) reworked the entire OTS album by zake (??). Nick used his Mellotron M4000D Micro, Fender Jazzmaster, Strymon Timeline Delay, and a Strymon BigSky Reverb to complement and beautifully transform the original OTS arrangements.