Hüma Utku’s mixes and productions both delve into marginalia and mysteries of the unknown, the fragile gestures in the shadows. And it seems that’s what we need right now.
I was going to call this the mix of the week, but then someone might well ask, when was the last mix of the week? Please, try to live in the moment. Put this mix on and forget you had that thought. Both this mix and album feel like they fit today on some deeper level.
Hüma Utku, composer and artist, is now back in Istanbul, but submitted this mix to Refuge Worldwide in Berlin; she shares these notes on the latest in the Mercurial Cycles series:
I’m solo on this one, delving deeper into a state of stillness and radical presence. Moving forward in anticipation of change, in acceptance of the unknown. Grateful for the moment.
This episode is also the fourth and the last one showcasing the wonderful photographic work of Michaela Knizova. @nynewe
Track listing is below. For me, it’s a mix of favorites and now new favorites. It does fit the moment — of needing to find some meaning in the uncertainty, like looking into the darkness until some pattern emerges, to center oneself.
Adomas Palekas, Elif Gülin Soğuksu – In the Perpetual Circle, Part 1
9T Antiope – Mount 22
Félicia Atkinson & Christina Vantzou – Film Still/The Sea
Southeast of Rain 东南有雨- Day 22: Luminescence（萤光 /东南有雨）
Caterina Barbieri – Intuition Nimbus
Dagmar Zuniga – Even God Gets Stuck in Devotion (feat. Austyn Wohlers)
Alex Zhang Hungtai – Mazil
Lucy Railton – Phase I
Ohyung – Storm Chase
Sofie Birch & Antonina Nowacka – Morning Room I
Maria W Horn & Sara Parkman (Funeral Folk) – Kyrie
Hüma Utku – Rüya (Şimdiki Zaman Kipinde)
Merzbow, Iggor Cavalera & Eraldo Bernocchi –
Swietenia Macrophylla
Kevin Drumm – Cloudy
Jana Irmert – Portals
纬 Liu Yiwei- 弓箭 Cong Jian by 刘
The Bird’s Companion – With Untiring Hands
Rosa Anschütz – Like Oxblood
I never got the chance to write about Dracones, Hüma’s full-length last spring on Editions Mego. That release was a potent, fearless dive into demonology and hauntology — yet, like this release, also moments of stillness. Mixed with Buchla 100 textures created on an EMS residency in Stockholm, we were treated to Hüma on vocals, cello and, electric guitar, plus a one-track guest turn by Mihalis Shammas on the self-built ‘Lyraei.’ This one is part bubbling alien moon, part industrial meditation. And really, Hüma’s full back catalog is worth a listen:
Here, a moment of Hüma in the lab, controlling the spacecraft: