A cassette tape and its sleeve packaging displayed on a light gray background. The cassette is wrapped in clear plastic, showing a dark gray tape body with silver reels.

The Italic Mixtape, Vol. 1

€14,00
Format

The Italic Mixtape, Vol. 1

With music by Philipp Johann Thimm, Jens-Uwe Beyer, Conrad Oleak, Lisa Marie Vogel, Johanna Wundling, Tabea Haarmann-Thiemann, Luisa Babarro Fernández, Nikolai Szymanski, Stefan Schwander, Lothar Hempel, Julian Knoth, Sebastian Genzink, Alan Abrahams, Jan Philipp Janzen, Christopher Marquez, Phillip Thielsch, Sebastian Blume, Ella Zwietnig and Florian Zwietnig.

Come to your senses, take a moment to calm down, look back on what has been achieved, take stock, and look ahead.

The Italic Mixtape Vol. 1, catalog number 145, compiles ten tracks from the label, with a focus on the 2020s.

Italic, founded in Cologne in 1999 (whoever wants to can also set the beginning in 1995 and Düsseldorf, with the fluid transition from Stewardess to Italic), has always considered itself a representative of a certain, let's call it Rhenish, form of understatement: an unexcited musicality, at least as a claim, which nevertheless contains a lot of musical excitement. And Marc Knauer, label operator and also the man at the mixing desk here, quickly found artists far beyond the Rhineland.

The Italic Mixtape Vol. 1 does not claim to be a representative overview of the label, which with twice 21 minutes for 144 releases is also a rather futile endeavor. Rather, it draws our attention to one of the threads – and Volume 1 indicates that more will follow – that has run through the catalog from the beginning. A thread that we may have paid less attention to so far, which deserves that we pay it more attention. Let's call it space music. Music that creates a space where people can come together, where things can be done, which also includes listening to exactly this music.

The common thread is pop, but to engage in a bit of genre-hopping, it ranges from hints of drone (Jens-Uwe Beyer), kraut (Lothar Hempel) or 70s ambient (Philipp Johann Thimm), via electronica (Nikolai Szymanski), distorted pop (Stefan Schwander), leftfield pop (Von Spar, Zwietnig) or adult R&B (Alan Abrahams) to something like contemporary chamber music (Berlin Strings, Conrad Oleak, Julian Knoth, Sebastian Genzink).

The art of the mixtape is the narrative that it unfolds. Beatmatching and smooth transitions are done by the software alone. The Italic Mixtape Vol. 1 creates images, moving images, perhaps a film. And if the common thread is pop, that naturally means that drone is not about threat and distortion is not about disturbance. That the gathered music, even where it drifts out into the open, gently opens new spaces for us, makes us attentive. Moments of surprise: a sensual voice, a guitar melody, strings in an astonishing scale. 

The Italic Mixtape Vol. 1 is pleasant, a mixtape after all, a gift, a promise, to listen to and listen to again, because we want to listen to it again and upon listening again discover details that make us turn the cassette over once more. 

And – just as an aside – also make us curious about the entire Italic catalog.

Compilation and design: Marc Knauer
Dot image concept: Jens Reitemeyer
Text: Andreas Reihse

1. Of Sister and Brother (2023)
Written and performed by Philipp Johann Thimm. From the album “Wer wir sind – Music from the Original TV Series” (ITA134)

2. Taken (2007)
Written by Jens-Uwe Beyer, performed by Popnoname. From the album “White Album” (ITA068)

3. Signals (2023)
Written by Conrad Oleak, performed by Berlin Strings. From the album “On a Dark Night” (ITA128)

4. City Lights (2020)
Written by Nikolai Szymanski, performed by Airchina. From the album “LP 2” (ITA115)

5. The Wave (2005)
Written by Stefan Schwander, performed by Antonelli. From the album “The Blackout Quintet” (ITA054)

6. Zukunftsmusik (2025)
Written by Lothar Hempel, performed by Nessuno. From the album “Future Music, Future People, Future Problems” (ITA136)

7. Endloser Ozean (2025)
Written by Sebastian Genzink, performed by Julian Knoth and Trio Abstrich. From the album “Unsichtbares Meer” (ITA137)

8. Ascend (2025)
Written and performed by Alan Abrahams. From the album “Ascend” (ITA135)

9. Hearts Fear (2014)
Written by Jan Philipp Janzen, Christopher Marquez, Phillip Thielsch, and Sebastian Blume, performed by Von Spar. From the album “Streetlife” (ITA100)

10. Without Time, Exist (2025)
Written by Ella Zwietnig and Florian Zwietnig, performed by Zwietnig. From the album “A Second, An Eyeblink” (ITA138)

Artist:
Various Artists
Title:
The Italic Mixtape, Vol. 1
Format:
Cassette and Download
Label / Cat. No.:
Italic Recordings / ITA145
Release date:
6 November 2026

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