INERTIA (with Ian Hawgood)
Release date: 6 November 2026
Label: Home Normal
Formats: CD, digital
‘Inertia’ is the first collaborative album from Ian Hawgood and Jason van Wyk.
Recorded between their respective homes in the UK and South Africa from 2022 to 2025, ‘Inertia’ is a deeply melodic work of textured modular ambient, shaped through synthesisers, tape looping, Ciat-Lonbarde modular processing and field recordings. Across eight pieces, small melodic phrases emerge through layers of grain, movement and softly shifting tone, with each track finding its own balance between layered structures and tonal drift.
There is a gentle tension at the heart of the album. The music often feels suspended, yet never static; sounds slowly gather, loosen and fall away, while melodies remain just within reach. The modular elements bring an organic unpredictability to the recordings, while the field recordings hold the music within a sense of place, distance and memory.
‘Inertia’ feels both intimate and expansive, its deeper electronic textures carrying a warmth that remains beneath the surface throughout. It is ambient music built from movement, yet anchored by a clear melodic centre — music that changes slowly while retaining something familiar within it.
01 Inertia
02 Retrograde
03 Semblance
04 A Life Elsewhere
05 Residual
06 Places We’ll Go
07 Moments Apart
08 Into View
Written and produced by
Ian Hawgood & Jason van Wyk
Recorded throughout the UK and in Cape Town, South Africa
between 2022-2025
Mastered by
Ian Hawgood at Mokoshi Mastering
Cover photo by
Gabrielle Guy — Untitled, Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, 2015
SURROUNDINGS (with Ian Hawgood)
Release date: 20 November 2026
Label: Home Normal
Formats: CD, digital
Following on from ‘Inertia’, ‘Surroundings’ is the second collaboration between Ian Hawgood and Jason van Wyk.
Where ‘Inertia’ is built around deeply melodic modular forms, ‘Surroundings’ opens the frame into four long-form pieces shaped by deep field recordings, tape loops and vast synthesiser textures. The recordings move slowly and patiently, allowing place, atmosphere and sound to become inseparable. Field recordings are not simply set behind the music here; they become part of its structure, with large waves of tone rising through them like memory, weather and distance.
01 Surroundings I
02 Surroundings II
03 Surroundings III
04 Surroundings IV
Written and produced by
Ian Hawgood & Jason van Wyk
Recorded throughout the UK and in Cape Town, South Africa
between 2022-2025
Mastered by
Ian Hawgood at Mokoshi Mastering
Cover photo by
Gabrielle Guy — Hail Monolith, Berlin, 2017
CONTRASTS – Collected Works 2015-2017
Release date: 19 December 2025
Label: Home Normal
Formats: 3x CD, digital
Three-CD set including remastered versions of 2016’s Attachment and 2017’s Opacity, as well as a third disc of variations, sketches and previously unreleased material from the Attachment and Opacity recording sessions.
CD 1
01 Kept
02 Before
03 Coherence
04 Unsaid
05 Return
06 Stay
07 Red
08 Found
09 Evanesce
10 Outset
11 Away
12 Depart
CD 2
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
CD 3
01 Blinded (Piano Only)
02 Blinded (Variation)
03 Clouds (Piano Only)
04 Distant
05 0905
06 Kept (Alternative)
07 For Now (Alternative)
08 Before (Alternative)
09 Outset (Alternative)
10 Stay (Alternative)
11 Belong (Sketch)
12 Time Passing
Written and produced by Jason van Wyk
Recorded during 2015-2017 in Cape Town, South Africa
Strings performed by Brittany Dilkes, Gavin Clayton, Lynne Donson
Mastered by Ian Hawgood
Cover art by Ross Millam
South African composer and music producer Jason van Wyk has been releasing music since the mid-2000s. Producing mostly club music during this period, van Wyk found a home on the Dutch label Black Hole Recordings, where numerous singles, collaborations and remixes were released.
The next decade, however, saw him incorporating elements of electronica, modern classical, and ambient into his music, bringing his sound to where it is today.
The music appearing on both Attachment and Opacity came from the same recording sessions that took place from 2015 to 2017. Van Wyk had just moved into a new studio and purchased a fully restored 1920s Grotrian Steinweg upright piano. A few of his vintage synthesisers had recently returned from being serviced and were added back into his setup. Many months were spent on the first few tracks, with van Wyk still unsure what they would become.
Session musicians came in for violin and cello parts, all of which were recorded separately and then manipulated through chains of analogue and digital processors. The tracks slowly started to take shape.
In 2016, Attachment was put together for the French-based Eilean Records, a 100-release concept label by Mathias Van Eecloo, which ran from 2014 to 2019. Ian Hawgood, who mastered this album, connected with van Wyk and offered to reissue it a year later on his revered label, Home Normal.
Examining van Wyk’s control of time and space among the pieces, Attachment lulls the listener with its simple and unabashed beauty. Bittersweet melodies are rendered on dampened piano, interwoven with soft melancholic drones and a variety of sonic ephemera in the form of incidental sounds and field recordings.
A year later, van Wyk returned to Home Normal with its follow-up, bringing twelve new pieces to light. On Opacity, slowly rising ambient swells brush along their acoustic string counterparts. The closely-miked piano offers the listener a binding structure among all the shimmering sounds. This organic and synthetic treatment of textures puts the keys slightly more in the background, still confident, gentle and vital. Throughout the album, even listening to it again all these years later, I find myself being mesmerised into a state of slight melancholy. I’ve always felt that Opacity is an evident development of the themes explored in Attachment, so I tend to listen to these albums back-to-back.
In addition to my high praise for the albums (Attachment and Opacity both ranked among my favourites, appearing on Headphone Commute’s Best of 2016 and Best of 2017 lists), I wasn’t alone, as compliments poured in from every corner of the music journalist community.
Here we are almost a decade later, and I’m delighted to see this three-CD set appearing on Home Normal. Gathering the first two albums along with a third compilation of variations, sketches and unreleased pieces from those 2015-2017 sessions – expanding the world these albums reside in and giving the listener a glimpse into how they were initially composed. This beautiful collection of music is a time capsule of the emotions I experienced when I first discovered these two albums. I sincerely hope that their timelessness and beauty will enrich your memories as well.
Mike Lazarev, September 2025
headphonecommute.com
INHERENT
Release date: 13 June 2025
Label: n5MD
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
South African composer and producer Jason van Wyk is continuously honing his craft, with each consecutive release feeling like a clear evolution of its predecessor. Through his albums and soundtrack commissions, van Wyk’s technique at perfectly balancing melody and atmosphere is now more apparent than ever.
Inherent, his sixth aptly named album, finds van Wyk distilling his sound to where each note seems to have implicit cinematic intent, revealing intricate new details with every listen. Inherent features large swaths of warm, wispy ambient, ghostly piano and widescreen drone. Yet, at the very moment when all seems to apex, van Wyk presses on by mining his past endeavors in club music, neo-classical and scoring work to create something else entirely. Distorted guitars, percolating synth arpeggios and poignant beat design propel the contemplative ambient sections into the light, bringing van Wyk’s sound into previously unexplored territory.
“A masterclass in cinematic minimalism.” – Igloo Magazine
“Emotionally rich, intricately designed compositions, confirming that van Wyk remains a leader of his craft.” – DestroyExist
“A hypnotising cocktail of spatial ambience and pulsating rhythms.” – Headphone Commute
“A beautifully produced work of mystery, exploration and reflection.” – Monolith Cocktail
01 All Visible
02 Inner
03 There Again
04 Remnants
05 If Only
06 Shine
07 Cascades
08 Still Visible
Written, produced and performed by
Jason van Wyk
Recorded during 2022-2024 in
Cape Town, South Africa
Mastered by
Ian Hawgood
Cover photography by
Gabrielle Guy
HORIZON
Release date: 12 August 2025
Label: n5MD
Formats: Digital
With Horizon, South African composer Jason van Wyk returns to his Inherent material in a new light. Three tracks, Inner, Shine, and Cascades, are transformed through an ambient lens, trading rhythmic momentum for expansiveness and contemplation. The result is a companion piece that spotlights the latent tranquility and emotional resonance of the originals, reframing familiar melodies as immersive sonic landscapes. Horizon confirms van Wyk’s evolving artistry and his uncanny ability to deconstruct and reassemble his work into something renewed, introspective, and deeply felt.
01 Inner (Horizon)
02 Shine (Horizon)
03 Cascades (Horizon)
Written, produced and performed by
Jason van Wyk
Recorded during 2022-2024 in
Cape Town, South Africa
Mastered by
Ian Hawgood
Cover photography by
Rebecca Hauri
It’s such a pleasure to announce that I’ll be a part of Headphone Commute’s Headphone Community Patreon as their featured artist for the month of July. They’ve profiled some of my favourite musicians working today over the last few months, so it’s a real honour to be a part of it.
There will be in-depth interviews, unreleased tracks, discussions about my studio, and I’ll also be answering questions. I hope to see you there.
“To learn more about the process and inspiration behind this stunning new work, we asked Jason five questions—diving into his influences, creative approach, and the sonic evolution that led to Inherent.” — Don Haugen, Igloo Magazine
TU CONNAIS L’AMOUR
Premiered as part of the Nikon Film Festival, January 2025.
Director: Chloé Boreham
Starring: Emilie Piponnier, Chloé Boreham
Director of Photography: Mickael Delahaie
Sound Design and Mix: Robin Nugue
Music: Jason van Wyk
A one-hour mix compiled for the Home Normal label’s 15th anniversary mixtape series.
Mixes from a selection of their artists are available through their Bandcamp on a pay-what-you-like basis, with each mix put together exclusively from the label’s own catalog over the past fifteen years.
Mix and production by
Jason van Wyk, April 2024
Cover photography by
Rebecca Hauri
DEEPRIVER – VOLUME ONE
Release date: 16 June 2023
Label: n5MD
Formats: Vinyl, digital
Deepriver is the recently formed intercontinental project of Cape Town-based Jason van Wyk and long time Stockholm-based collaborator Joni Ljungqvist. Having worked previously in collaboration mining the more introspective side of trance, Deepriver’s inaugural aural statement, “Volume One”, finds the two experimenting with atmosphere and composition to maximal effect. Van Wyk’s recent viscerally experimental direction seamlessly coalesces with Ljungqvist’s conceptually reflective approach in a way that recalls the sounds and nostalgia of electronic music from decades past. Having slowly formed through many iterations, “Volume One” is out now on limited edition clear-vinyl and digital formats.
“The sheer emotional weight and gristling static these pieces carry make it something much more than ambient music.” – Elsewhere Magazine
“Sign me up for Volume Two.” – [sic] Magazine
“Lush and enveloping.” – Stationary Travels
“Magnificent electronic composition.” – DestroyExist
Year End List – Best of 2023 – Igloo Magazine
Year End List – Best of 2023 – Headphone Commute
01 Tides
02 Coastal
03 Home
04 Valley
05 Slower Waves
06 Motion Blur
07 Hours
08 Divided
Written and produced by
Jason van Wyk and Joni Ljungqvist
Recorded during 2022 in
Cape Town, South Africa and Stockholm, Sweden
Mastered by
Ian Hawgood, Mokoshi Mastering
Cover art by
Karen Lynch, Leaf and Petal Design
Photography by
Nanje Nowack
INERTIA (with Ian Hawgood)
Release date: 6 November 2026
Label: Home Normal
Formats: CD, digital
‘Inertia’ is the first collaborative album from Ian Hawgood and Jason van Wyk.
Recorded between their respective homes in the UK and South Africa from 2022 to 2025, ‘Inertia’ is a deeply melodic work of textured modular ambient, shaped through synthesisers, tape looping, Ciat-Lonbarde modular processing and field recordings. Across eight pieces, small melodic phrases emerge through layers of grain, movement and softly shifting tone, with each track finding its own balance between layered structures and tonal drift.
There is a gentle tension at the heart of the album. The music often feels suspended, yet never static; sounds slowly gather, loosen and fall away, while melodies remain just within reach. The modular elements bring an organic unpredictability to the recordings, while the field recordings hold the music within a sense of place, distance and memory.
‘Inertia’ feels both intimate and expansive, its deeper electronic textures carrying a warmth that remains beneath the surface throughout. It is ambient music built from movement, yet anchored by a clear melodic centre — music that changes slowly while retaining something familiar within it.
01 Inertia
02 Retrograde
03 Semblance
04 A Life Elsewhere
05 Residual
06 Places We’ll Go
07 Moments Apart
08 Into View
Written and produced by
Ian Hawgood & Jason van Wyk
Recorded throughout the UK and in
Cape Town, South Africa between 2022-2025
Mastered by
Ian Hawgood at Mokoshi Mastering
Cover photo by
Gabrielle Guy — Untitled, Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, 2015
SURROUNDINGS (with Ian Hawgood)
Release date: 20 November 2026
Label: Home Normal
Formats: CD, digital
Following on from ‘Inertia’, ‘Surroundings’ is the second collaboration between Ian Hawgood and Jason van Wyk.
Where ‘Inertia’ is built around deeply melodic modular forms, ‘Surroundings’ opens the frame into four long-form pieces shaped by deep field recordings, tape loops and vast synthesiser textures. The recordings move slowly and patiently, allowing place, atmosphere and sound to become inseparable. Field recordings are not simply set behind the music here; they become part of its structure, with large waves of tone rising through them like memory, weather and distance.
01 Surroundings I
02 Surroundings II
03 Surroundings III
04 Surroundings IV
Written and produced by
Ian Hawgood & Jason van Wyk
Recorded throughout the UK and in
Cape Town, South Africa between 2022-2025
Mastered by
Ian Hawgood at Mokoshi Mastering
Cover photo by
Gabrielle Guy — Hail Monolith, Berlin, 2017
CONTRASTS – Collected Works 2015-2017
Release date: 19 December 2025
Label: Home Normal
Formats: 3x CD, digital
Three-CD set including remastered versions of 2016’s Attachment and 2017’s Opacity, as well as a third disc of variations, sketches and previously unreleased material from the Attachment and Opacity recording sessions.
CD 1
01 Kept
02 Before
03 Coherence
04 Unsaid
05 Return
06 Stay
07 Red
08 Found
09 Evanesce
10 Outset
11 Away
12 Depart
CD 2
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
CD 3
01 Blinded (Piano Only)
02 Blinded (Variation)
03 Clouds (Piano Only)
04 Distant
05 0905
06 Kept (Alternative)
07 For Now (Alternative)
08 Before (Alternative)
09 Outset (Alternative)
10 Stay (Alternative)
11 Belong (Sketch)
12 Time Passing
Written and produced by
Jason van Wyk
Recorded during 2015-2017 in
Cape Town, South Africa
Strings performed by
Brittany Dilkes, Gavin Clayton, Lynne Donson
Mastered by Ian Hawgood
Cover art by Ross Millam
South African composer and music producer Jason van Wyk has been releasing music since the mid-2000s. Producing mostly club music during this period, van Wyk found a home on the Dutch label Black Hole Recordings, where numerous singles, collaborations and remixes were released. The next decade, however, saw him incorporating elements of electronica, modern classical, and ambient into his music, bringing his sound to where it is today.
The music appearing on both Attachment and Opacity came from the same recording sessions that took place from 2015 to 2017. Van Wyk had just moved into a new studio and purchased a fully restored 1920s Grotrian Steinweg upright piano. A few of his vintage synthesisers had recently returned from being serviced and were added back into his setup. Many months were spent on the first few tracks, with van Wyk still unsure what they would become. Session musicians came in for violin and cello parts, all of which were recorded separately and then manipulated through chains of analogue and digital processors. The tracks slowly started to take shape.
In 2016, Attachment was put together for the French-based Eilean Records, a 100-release concept label by Mathias Van Eecloo, which ran from 2014 to 2019. Ian Hawgood, who mastered this album, connected with van Wyk and offered to reissue it a year later on his revered label, Home Normal. Examining van Wyk’s control of time and space among the pieces, Attachment lulls the listener with its simple and unabashed beauty. Bittersweet melodies are rendered on dampened piano, interwoven with soft melancholic drones and a variety of sonic ephemera in the form of incidental sounds and field recordings.
A year later, van Wyk returned to Home Normal with its follow-up, bringing twelve new pieces to light. On Opacity, slowly rising ambient swells brush along their acoustic string counterparts. The closely-miked piano offers the listener a binding structure among all the shimmering sounds. This organic and synthetic treatment of textures puts the keys slightly more in the background, still confident, gentle and vital. Throughout the album, even listening to it again all these years later, I find myself being mesmerised into a state of slight melancholy. I’ve always felt that Opacity is an evident development of the themes explored in Attachment, so I tend to listen to these albums back-to-back.
In addition to my high praise for the albums (Attachment and Opacity both ranked among my favourites, appearing on Headphone Commute’s Best of 2016 and Best of 2017 lists), I wasn’t alone, as compliments poured in from every corner of the music journalist community.
Here we are almost a decade later, and I’m delighted to see this three-CD set appearing on Home Normal. Gathering the first two albums along with a third compilation of variations, sketches and unreleased pieces from those 2015-2017 sessions – expanding the world these albums reside in and giving the listener a glimpse into how they were initially composed. This beautiful collection of music is a time capsule of the emotions I experienced when I first discovered these two albums. I sincerely hope that their timelessness and beauty will enrich your memories as well.
Mike Lazarev, September 2025
headphonecommute.com
INHERENT
Release date: 13 June 2025
Label: n5MD
Formats: Vinyl, CD, digital
South African composer and producer Jason van Wyk is continuously honing his craft, with each consecutive release feeling like a clear evolution of its predecessor. Through his albums and soundtrack commissions, van Wyk’s technique at perfectly balancing melody and atmosphere is now more apparent than ever.
Inherent, his sixth aptly named album, finds van Wyk distilling his sound to where each note seems to have implicit cinematic intent, revealing intricate new details with every listen. Inherent features large swaths of warm, wispy ambient, ghostly piano and widescreen drone. Yet, at the very moment when all seems to apex, van Wyk presses on by mining his past endeavors in club music, neo-classical and scoring work to create something else entirely. Distorted guitars, percolating synth arpeggios and poignant beat design propel the contemplative ambient sections into the light, bringing van Wyk’s sound into previously unexplored territory.
“A masterclass in cinematic minimalism.”
– Igloo Magazine
“Emotionally rich, intricately designed compositions, confirming that van Wyk remains a leader of his craft.”
– DestroyExist
“A hypnotising cocktail of spatial ambience and pulsating rhythms.”
– Headphone Commute
“A beautifully produced work of mystery, exploration and reflection.”
– Monolith Cocktail
01 All Visible
02 Inner
03 There Again
04 Remnants
05 If Only
06 Shine
07 Cascades
08 Still Visible
Written, produced and performed by
Jason van Wyk
Recorded during 2022-2024 in
Cape Town, South Africa
Mastered by
Ian Hawgood
Cover photography by
Gabrielle Guy
HORIZON
Release date: 12 August 2025
Label: n5MD
Formats: Digital
With Horizon, South African composer Jason van Wyk returns to his Inherent material in a new light. Three tracks, Inner, Shine, and Cascades, are transformed through an ambient lens, trading rhythmic momentum for expansiveness and contemplation. The result is a companion piece that spotlights the latent tranquility and emotional resonance of the originals, reframing familiar melodies as immersive sonic landscapes. Horizon confirms van Wyk’s evolving artistry and his uncanny ability to deconstruct and reassemble his work into something renewed, introspective, and deeply felt.
01 Inner (Horizon)
02 Shine (Horizon)
03 Cascades (Horizon)
Written, produced and performed by
Jason van Wyk
Recorded during 2022-2024 in
Cape Town, South Africa
Mastered by
Ian Hawgood
Cover photography by
Rebecca Hauri
It’s such a pleasure to announce that I’ll be a part of Headphone Commute’s Headphone Community Patreon as their featured artist for the month of July. They’ve profiled some of my favourite musicians working today over the last few months, so it’s a real honour to be a part of it.
There will be in-depth interviews, unreleased tracks, discussions about my studio, and I’ll also be answering questions. I hope to see you there.
“To learn more about the process and inspiration behind this stunning new work, we asked Jason five questions—diving into his influences, creative approach, and the sonic evolution that led to Inherent.” — Don Haugen, Igloo Magazine
TU CONNAIS L’AMOUR
Premiered as part of the Nikon Film Festival, January 2025.
Director: Chloé Boreham
Starring: Emilie Piponnier, Chloé Boreham
Director of Photography: Mickael Delahaie
Sound Design and Mix: Robin Nugue
Music: Jason van Wyk
A one-hour mix compiled for the Home Normal label’s 15th anniversary mixtape series.
Mixes from a selection of their artists are available through their Bandcamp on a pay-what-you-like basis, with each mix put together exclusively from the label’s own catalog over the past fifteen years.
Mix and production by
Jason van Wyk, April 2024
Cover photography by
Rebecca Hauri