DESCENDANTS

Release date: 21 October 2022
Label: n5MD
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Descendants is the fifth full-length album from South African producer and composer Jason van Wyk. The followup to “Threads”, his 2021 debut on n5MD, Descendants advances the narrative of van Wyk’s broader-scope, atmospheric sound. This new work brings into focus an approach that builds on van Wyk’s production methods. Underlying elements are taken further and pushed to the extremes while the influence of his film composition work continues to shine through. Descendants is a slow dive into enigmatic depths; disarming, explorative, evolved. A tentative descent into introspection, with each track a sonic rumination of drifting elements, tunnelling into a subterranean wilderness. Available now on limited edition white-vinyl and digital formats.

“One of the most beautiful ambient albums of the year.”
– Indie Rock Mag

“Serene ambient abstraction which brings van Wyk’s daring musicianship to a point of absolute coherence.”
– Destroy Exist

“Consistent, intriguing, and always emotionally pleasant. Best of 2022.”
– Igloo Magazine

01 All This Time
02 Erasure
03 Undoing
04 Reach
05 Past
06 Glimpse
07 Held Still
08 Surface Drone

Written, produced and performed by
Jason van Wyk
Recorded during 2018-2021 in
Cape Town, South Africa

Mastered at
37N,122W
Cover photography by
Rebecca Hauri
Video by
Nanje Nowack

THREADS

Release date: 23 July 2021
Label: n5MD
Formats: Vinyl, digital

Threads is the fourth solo full length from Cape Town, South Africa based composer Jason van Wyk and his debut album for Oakland based n5MD. Previously known for his progressive trance works, van Wyk has spent a lot of his time as of late composing for the film industry. In 2013, his solo output switched to more pastoral forms of neo-classical leaning ambient with his first full-length Days You Remember, before moving into more piano-based composition for Attachment (2016) and Opacity (2017). Threads does reflect some of his previous ambient works; however, the album shows van Wyk composing music for (and of) current times. There is a much-welcomed underlying beauty to Threads, but there are also threads of anxiousness and unwavering intensity throughout its forty-minute run-time. Threads is out now on vinyl and digital.

“Distantly beautiful. Jaw-droppingly epic. One of my favorite releases of the year so far.”
– Igloo Magazine

“Van Wyk leaps even further into the open and high textured atmospheres. One which I’ve been playing on a loop.”
– Headphone Commute

“A wide and yet stylistically-uniform tapestry of tones and textures. A record of supreme beauty.”
– Fluid Radio

“Another enthralling instalment on van Wyk’s musical journey.”
– A Closer Listen

01 Retention
02 Amidst
03 Sun Fluorescent
04 Light Burns Out
05 Partial Dawn
06 Where To End
07 Subdued
08 Near Dark

Written, produced and performed by
Jason van Wyk
Recorded during 2018-2020 in
Cape Town, South Africa

Mastered at
37N,122W
Cover photography by
Gean Burrell

Four-release bundle available exclusively from n5mailorder.com. Includes the albums “Attachment” and “Opacity” on CD, together with “Threads” and “Descendants” on vinyl.

Original score in collaboration with Andries Smit for the film “Triggered”, directed by Alastair Orr and released through Samuel Goldwyn Films. The film and score are both available now on VOD and all digital / streaming platforms.

LOVE

A modern adaptation of the poem ‘Love’ by
Polish writer Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, originally published in 1926.

Director: Ben Lankester
Starring: Marysia Lyszkowska & Alex Karpinsky
Director of Photography: Conor Chalk
Colourist: Matthieu Toullet
Music & Sound Design: Jason van Wyk

Interview and profile by music journalist Ibrahim Khider for Chain D.L.K.’s Feedback Monitor podcast.
“Jason narrates on ‘breaking in’ the music industry, work flows, habits, and musical transitions.”

“My first introduction to the music of South African producer and composer Jason van Wyk was his 2016 contribution to the Eilean Records project, an entrancingly lush foray into piano-centric post-classical electronica called Attachment. He followed the next year with the equally exquisite Opacity, this time on the venerable Home Normal imprint. Jason made a welcome return last year on the n5md label with Threads, which saw him exploring a more densely layered, atmospheric sound, reflective of his work in composing for film over the intervening years. Continuing in that vein, he has just released a follow-up called Descendants, an album which he deems more introspective in tone but is still very much imbued with the same kind of cinematic breadth and depth. I have thoroughly enjoyed both albums many times over and am thrilled that Jason has taken a few minutes to talk to us about them here.” — Stationary Travels

Three pieces were commissioned by Cologne based book publisher Taschen for three documentaries to promote their upcoming releases; Renowned architect Renzo Piano, fashion and photography icon David LaChapelle and the Bauhaus School of Art and Design.

Renzo Piano: Complete Works
David LaChapelle: Lost and Found / Good News
Bauhaus: 100 Years

Director: Jonas Walter
Executive Producer: Jonas Scheler
Editor: Hagen Hinkelmann
Sound: Markus Gembaczka
Music: Jason van Wyk

The Criterion Collection commissioned a piece for their documentary on New York based fashion illustrator Richard Haines. Among his work with Prada, Calvin Klein and his blog “What I Saw Today”, Haines provided the cover art for Criterion’s release of Tony Richardson’s Oscar winning film, Tom Jones.

Studio Visits: Richard Haines

Producer, Camera, Editor: Tara Young
Supervising Producer: Kim Hendrickson
Production Manager: Brett Sharlow
Executive Producers: Peter Becker, Fumiko Takagi, Jonathan Turell
Audio Mixer: Vasilis Fotopoulos
Post Production Supervisor: Giles Sherwood
Director of Production: Angie Bucknell
Criterion Channel Programmer: Penelope Bartlett
Music: Jason van Wyk

BLINDED

From the album Opacity

Director, Editor: Khai Le
Filmed in Japan, April 2018
Music: Jason van Wyk

FOR NOW

From the album Opacity

Director, Editor: Jacob Rigaux
Music: Jason van Wyk

OPACITY

Release date: 15 September 2017
Label: Home Normal
Formats: CD, digital

“Both haunting and incredibly moving, Opacity is one of the year’s highlights.”
— Fluid Radio

“Such an assured combination of emotional effusion and rich sound design is rare to find. Exceptional.”
— Stationary Travels

01 Shimmer
02 Blinded
03 Until Then
04 Recollect
05 Glow
06 Clouds
07 Beneath
08 For Now
09 Weightless
10 Clearing
11 Hidden
12 Eyes Shut

Written and produced by
Jason van Wyk
Recorded during 2016-2017 in
Cape Town, South Africa
Strings performed by
Brittany Dilkes, Gavin Clayton, Lynne Donson

Mastered by
Ian Hawgood
Cover photography by
Gregory Euclide

ATTACHMENT

Release date: 3 March 2016
Label: Eilean Records, Home Normal
Formats: CD, digital

Originally released through Eilean Records on 3 March 2016. Reissued by Home Normal on 1 September 2017.

“Attachment is replete with simple, unabashed beauty albeit with sophisticated underpinnings – bittersweet tunes rendered on dampened piano interwoven with soft melancholic drones and a variety of sonic ephemera in the form of incidental sounds and field recordings.”
— Headphone Commute

“Deceptively simple sounds embedded in elaborate pieces.”
— A Closer Listen

“Desolate and soul searching.”
— Fluid Radio

01 Kept
02 Before
03 Coherence
04 Unsaid
05 Return
06 Stay
07 Red
08 Found
09 Evanesce
10 Outset
11 Away
12 Depart

Written and produced by
Jason van Wyk
Recorded during 2015-2016 in
Cape Town, South Africa
Strings performed by
Brittany Dilkes, Gavin Clayton, Lynne Donson

Mastered by
Ian Hawgood
Cover photography by
Vadim Petrakov