Each year, we ask a few artists from our Dekmantel Selectors line-up to deliver a mix in anticipation of the new edition. First up in this year’s series is Garage Noord resident and LYL radio show host @merelrhizoom. As a proper connoisseur of modular synth tracks and avant-garde compositions, merel rhizoom tends to navigate the musical stratosphere between what one could refer to as “weird psybient”, hypnotic jungle, trance downtempo or industrial breaks with implausible ease in her selections.
The mix at hand makes a good case for doing what feels right: merel rhizoom told us that she “initially was very tempted to make a more dance-oriented mix”, but then decided to go into a different direction: “focussing on (modular) synthesis of veterans such as Max Loderbauer, Robert Aiki Low, Andreas Tilliander and Driftmachine, while on the other hand including more avant-garde compositions by Jon Hassell, Oren Ambarchi, Upperground Orchestra and others”. What already sounds good on paper, has turned out to be a mesmerizing and thoroughly mind-altering listening session – enjoy it with your eyes closed and mind open.