BASALTTapes Pre-order

BSLT 008 LP · Cassette · Digital

Ines Kald

Eight tracks recorded in one night inside a basalt quarry, one an hour from 22:00 to 06:00, with the tape left running.

Pre-order from €9
Out
Fri 20 Nov 2026
Length
47:52
Pressed
500 LP / 200 tapes

Move to light itDrag to light and turn itDrag to turn it

Obsidian Hours

22:00The tape starts

Lava that cooled too fast to organise itself.

That is all obsidian is. No crystals, no grain, nothing inside to tell it which way to break, so it breaks in curves: rings spreading from the point of impact, one inside the next.

Ines Kald made this record the same way. One night in the Halde basalt quarry, eight microphones in the dark, no overdubs, no second takes. The tape ran from 22:00 until it was light enough to read the reels.

22:01Struck once

One night, broken into eight.

One track an hour. Side A runs 22:00 to 02:00, side B from 02:00 until the birds. Turn the sound on and run the light over a piece to hear its hour.

  1. Quench

    22:005:48

    The first take. Tape hiss, a door, the quarry still warm from the day.

  2. Pitchstone

    23:006:12

    Bowed steel against the cut face. The room answers half a second late.

  3. Conchoidal

    00:006:21

    One strike on a sheet of glass, heard from eight places at once.

  4. Flow Banding

    01:005:37

    A slow organ drone that the cold kept pulling out of tune.

  5. Perlite

    02:006:04

    Side B. Water dripping into a steel drum, played back through the drum.

  6. Devitrify

    03:007:15

    The longest hour. Almost nothing happens, and it takes its time.

  7. Magnetite

    04:004:58

    A compass needle, a contact mic and a magnet on a string.

  8. Hydration Rind

    05:005:37

    The birds start before the light does. We left them in.

Total 47:52Side A 23:58Side B 23:54

05:15Under the loupe

Every fracture is a groove.

Strike obsidian and it splits in concentric ripples; geologists call it conchoidal fracture. Tilt a record under a lamp and the same rings come up.

Side A was cut at half speed so they stay that clean: four bands, each as wide as the hour it holds.

  1. 01Quench5:48
  2. 02Pitchstone6:12
  3. 03Conchoidal6:21
  4. 04Flow Banding5:37

05:30Sleeve note

We drove out at nine with a tape machine, eight microphones and a flask. The quarry holds the day’s heat for about an hour, then gives it back all at once, and you can hear the rock tick as it cools. I didn’t want to compose anything that night. I wanted to stand where the lava had been and let the tape keep the time.

Ines Kald

05:45Pressing

Own the whole night.

One pressing of each format, numbered by hand. When they are gone, the download stays.

LPs and cassettes ship from 20 November 2026. Prices include VAT. Shipping is added at checkout.

22:00–06:00Listening sessions

It plays once, overnight.

Each session plays the record at the hour it was made: track one at 22:00, track eight at 05:00, the room in between. Sixty mats, tea, no phones. Free, first come.

Listening sessions, with dates, cities and rooms
DateCityRoomDoors
Fri 20 Nov 2026ReykjavíkA cold store on the harbour21:30
Sat 05 Dec 2026BergenA pumping station above the fjord21:30
Fri 11 Dec 2026BerlinA disused transformer hall21:30
Sat 19 Dec 2026GlasgowA railway arch south of the river21:30
Fri 15 Jan 2027LisbonA rainwater cistern under the hill21:30