In October 2014, three friends packed a car with synths and drum machines and headed to a barn in the English countryside. Over two days, Kommune, comprising George Thompson, Kyle Martin, and Jonathan Nash, pushed their machines into deep, freeform territory. More than a decade later, these recordings resurface as Oast, an EP released via Second Circle, the club-minded offshoot of Amsterdam’s Music From Memory.
Kommune formed at a time when each member was deep in their own musical orbit. Jonathan Nash and Kyle Martin had just wrapped their debut as Land Of Light; George Thompson, better known as Black Merlin, was finishing Hipnotik Tradisi and working with Martin as part of Spectral Empire. Sharing gear, studio space and musical obsessions, Kommune emerged as a loose but focused side route, a channel for live, hands-on experimentation.
Though the project was short-lived, it left behind something singular. Between gigs at LN-CC and Hamburg’s Golden Pudel, the trio's sound took shape in real time. The barn session, a two-day escape to the English countryside in October 2014, became their only full recording. Captured in the moment and with no overdubs, Oast unfolds through four long-form compositions. Each flows into the next, guided by three long-aligned minds wired to the same current.
Fittingly, Oast finds its home on Second Circle, the club-minded sibling of Music From Memory. Known for pairing dancefloor sensibility with leftfield edge, the sublabel offers a space for records that resist the binary of functional or abstract.
Minimal Collectives premiere track IV opens with weight: a driving kick, a restless bassline, and the unmistakable presence of a TR-808 at the controls. It’s unfiltered and full-bodied, looping with intention over eighteen minutes. At the ten-minute mark, something soft creeps in: pads that open the track outwards, letting light through. The mood shifts. The structure holds. From minimal pressure to industrial sheen, the track glides through form after form.
Full tracklist
1. I
2. II
3. III
4. IV
Oast will be out on July 25th, 2025. Pre-order a copy via Bandcamp.
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