Release Notes
Label: Ghostly International
Date: August 21, 2026
Mastered By: Rafael Anton Irisarri
Artwork By: Michael Cina
I have never imagined time as a straight line. It was always a bit of a circle. Somewhere, along this line, the time would begin to bend with the weight of its past, until it would arrive at the very beginning, looping upon itself, in an endless rotation. As such, my words on Headphone Commute were never meant to fizzle out. They were meant to be a story, read and listened to again. And when their end would come, they would unwind into another loop and start again from the beginning. Writing all these words for nearly twenty years always felt like leaving notes, not just for myself, but also for the stumbling travellers for whom this music would be fit. It’s a soundtrack to a life that, when played through one more time, seems to resonate forever in a timeless, present din. I suppose that now is as good a time as ever, not to end this sonic trip of mine, but to begin it all anew, and wind it through another round, just like Basinski’s loops, until they too dissolve into the ether. So it’s a pleasure, then, to pause and to start again here with Lusine. This is where the ends connect, from proclaiming my farewell into my welcome once again.
It was 2007. I just moved to Chicago and got a new job with a quiet office overlooking the still, blue lake. I bought my very first pair of high-end Grado headphones. I was entering the world of hi-fi. There was no Headphone Commute as you know it, and I would simply jot down notes on my favourite albums and share them along with my friends and followers in the online journal. These were just a few short paragraphs capturing my thoughts on the latest greatest finds. I remember the day when I brought in Language Barrier. An immaculate blue compact disc, with a cover of something enigmatic, which only revealed itself to be a pool vacuum if you looked a bit closer. Oh, but the music, streaming through the open-back cans, was crystal-clear, deep and pristine, lush, and a little resonant, just like the water portrayed in its blues. I remember asking my co-workers to listen to the opening of “Caught in the Middle” with its field recording of an airport and reverberating chords. “It’s just like you’re there,” I would exclaim with a wide grin on my face, “it’s a whole other world! Can you hear it?” I can still hear it all, and it’s more than a memory – it’s a place that exists, in a timeless and feverish dream.
Back in 2007, I was already familiar with Jeff’s numerous projects as Lusine, L’Usine, and Lusine Icl [upon my meeting him in the later years, I found out that “Icl” stood for “intercontinental”]. I already held more than a few of his EPs in my possession, mostly released on the then-Ann Arbor, and now Brooklyn-based, Ghostly International imprint. And, of course, I still have all of them right here, on my shelf (and in my hands now): the Push EP (2003), the Inside/Out EP (2005), and the Serial Hodgepodge (2004). And later on, A Certain Distance (2009) came along with The Waiting Room (2013), as Jeff began to float a bit more towards avant-pop, creating real songs with vocal hooks and structure. And although it was a perfect progression for this Seattle-based electronic musician, my heart remained with his purely instrumental, borderline-ambient, atmospheric, highly-textured. And now we come to Melting Days – his 10th Lusine full-length release, again released on Ghostly. It’s a welcome return to Lusine’s signature sound, and I can’t help but flashback to the beginning, or maybe we’re flash-forwarding in time.
And it’s a timeless album once again. Glueing these loose strands of time into a Möbius strip of one continuous progression. It bridges memories in only the way the music can. It makes me present, then transports, and now I’m flickering between the times, and somewhere there, even now, I sit in my new quiet office with a brand new pair of hi-fi headphones, looking out of the window upon a blue Lake Michigan, unable to contain myself and bursting with the will to write. And when I travel home from work that very night, I listen once again and form a thought, and turn it into action. And it is born. The music plants a seed and sparks a grand idea. From the ethereal, something abstract emerges. These honest words I write for you on all this honest music. And it begins here with Lusine. I hope that you’ll enjoy this gorgeous album. Welcome to your headphone commute…
-mike
