Contrasts - Collected Works 2015-2017

Released in a six-panel digisleeve with printed liner notes by Headphone Commute. Liner notes as they appear in the CD sleeve: South African composer and music producer Jason van Wyk has been releasing music since the mid-2000s. Producing mostly club music during this period, van Wyk found a home on the Dutch label Black Hole Recordings, where numerous singles, collaborations and remixes were released. The next decade, however, saw him incorporating elements of electronica, modern classical, and ambient into his music, bringing his sound to where it is today. The music appearing on both Attachment and Opacity came from the same recording sessions that took place from 2015 to 2017. Van Wyk had just moved into a new studio and purchased a fully restored 1920s Grotrian Steinweg upright piano. A few of his vintage synthesisers had recently returned from being serviced and were added back into his setup. Many months were spent on the first few tracks, with van Wyk still unsure what they would become. Session musicians came in for violin and cello parts, all of which were recorded separately and then manipulated through chains of analogue and digital processors. The tracks slowly started to take shape. In 2016, Attachment was put together for the French-based Eilean Records, a 100-release concept label by Mathias Van Eecloo, which ran from 2014 to 2019. Ian Hawgood, who mastered this album, connected with van Wyk and offered to reissue it a year later on his revered label, Home Normal. Examining van Wyk’s control of time and space among the pieces, Attachment lulls the listener with its simple and unabashed beauty. Bittersweet melodies are rendered on dampened piano, interwoven with soft melancholic drones and a variety of sonic ephemera in the form of incidental sounds and field recordings. A year later, van Wyk returned to Home Normal with its follow-up, bringing twelve new pieces to light. On Opacity, slowly rising ambient swells brush along their acoustic string counterparts. The closely-miked piano offers the listener a binding structure among all the shimmering sounds. This organic and synthetic treatment of textures puts the keys slightly more in the background, still confident, gentle and vital. Throughout the album, even listening to it again all these years later, I find myself being mesmerised into a state of slight melancholy. I’ve always felt that Opacity is an evident development of the themes explored in Attachment, so I tend to listen to these albums back-to-back. In addition to my high praise for the albums (Attachment and Opacity both ranked among my favourites, appearing on Headphone Commute’s Best of 2016 and Best of 2017 lists), I wasn’t alone, as compliments poured in from every corner of the music journalist community. Here we are almost a decade later, and I’m delighted to see this three-CD set appearing on Home Normal. Gathering the first two albums along with a third compilation of variations, sketches and unreleased pieces from those 2015-2017 sessions - expanding the world these albums reside in and giving the listener a glimpse into how they were initially composed. This beautiful collection of music is a time capsule of the emotions I experienced when I first discovered these two albums. I sincerely hope that their timelessness and beauty will enrich your memories as well. Mike Lazarev, September 2025 headphonecommute.com