Dialog Tapes II is the second collaborative release in the dialog series between Dauw Records and Eilean Records. It features a number of artists that have released on either label collaborating on each song featured on the 2-part compilation. Artists featured include: Olan Mill, Omar El Abd, The Humble Bee, Monolyth & Cobalt, Dudal, Josh Mason, Steve Pacheco, Benoît Pioulard, Toàn, øjeRum, r beny, Autistici, Machinefabriek, Emmanuel Witzthum, Offthesky, and Yadayn.
Dialog Tapes II comes in two parts: the first a cassette tape from Dauw and the second a CD from Eilean, thus each label works in its respective media of choice. The two halves feature the same set of artists on each half, but the pairings are switched up between the two releases (except Autistici and Yadayn who each only appear once). However, the one exception on pairing between the two halves is that both parts feature a collaboration between Monolyth & Cobalt with Dudal.
Dialog Tapes II is, appropriately, a decidedly quiet affair – which is fitting in that the strand of micro minimalism displayed is common ground between the two labels. But what makes it interesting is the collaborative nature of each individual song: minimal electronic/ambient is a genre as defined by its space as it is by the sounds going on, presumably, part of the challenge is not to crowd one another’s work and respect those spaces. Looking at the roster of artists, all do indeed have an almost prescient understanding of the role of space in their music, so it is to some degree not surprising that all can navigate their collaborative spaces so well. Still though, hearing the final results of their collaborations, it’s amazing to think that all of these artists still allow so much room to breathe in the final presentation of these compositions.
Tonally, Dialog Tapes II is a blend of some of the more sublime and some of the more experimental and unsettling spaces aspects of minimal electronic. Despite it’s over 80-minute(ish) run time, it’s still a journey that elasticizes time and makes it easy to get lost in without knowing you’ve been lost in it for so long. Even to view Dialog Tapes II simply as an artifact in collaboration, it is again a thing of wonder: To collaborate with an individual, likely who is in different space at different time half a world away, makes it all the more interesting and daring as a sort of creative social experiment. That Dialog Tapes II works at all is a small wonder, that it is so great is a feat. Dauw and Eilean have been two of the most consistent labels since their early days, and Dialog Tapes II re-affirms that and shows that three years on from Dialog Tapes I, neither label is losing any steam.
Last copies available over at Stashed Goods