Abbas: My practice as a sound and visual artist has long moved between two seemingly distinct environments; the clinical setting of life support and the sonic world of nightlife and music. Across a series of exhibitions and installations, I’ve been drawn to what these spaces share: both alter consciousness, both hold the body in particular ways, and both, in their different registers, offer something that sustains our experience of being alive. I gave Bas access to part of my sonic production archive that traces this inquiry through different bodies of work; including material from my commission for Nocturn 3 (2024) at 17LPS, where Bas is creative director and plays a weekly set I attend as religiously as I can when I’m in London. He’s also, simply, my favourite DJ; that ongoing presence in the same room is probably where the real conversation started.

What brought us into a working dialogue was a genuine alignment of thinking. Bas’s concept of Peculiar Sound; his attentiveness to the generative strangeness that lives at the edges of listening; maps closely onto my own framework of Dissociative Realism, a way of working that is interested in how sonic environments can produce meaningful states of consciousness that sit just outside the everyday. In that shared territory, handing over the archive felt less like a brief and more like a conversation.
A note of gratitude to Christeeeene, who hosts the Cherry Custard show on Dublab and whose generosity brought us here.

Bas: In developing this mix, I was intent on preserving the integrity of the live recordings while weaving in additional layers of production. Working with analogue equipment in the studio allowed for a sense of cohesion and warmth; machines such as the Dynacord TAM21 and the Space Echo lent a natural, almost tactile quality, helping the compositions remain fluid, alive, and dynamic.

It was also an exercise in rethinking rhythm. Rather than relying on conventional percussive elements; whether performed live or programmed; I explored the use of filters to generate movement and pulse across several tracks. This approach introduced a subtle, evolving rhythmic language, one that feels both organic and quietly unconventional.