I’ve sent off my track choices for this week’s FreakZone Playlist on BBC 6Music, along with some spoken links I recorded over Christmas with my head in an airing cupboard.

I landed on ‘space music’ as my chosen theme for no good reason other than I like the sound of the words; I think the music that I make fits into them beautifully, and it made sense to choose music that inspires me. The FreakZone Spacelist, if you will. So imagine my horror at reading the description of this genre on Wikipedia, which makes it sound like you’re going to be treated to an hour of gopping amorphous lift muzak. Not on my watch. I hereby attempt to rehabilitate its image by putting together my idea of space music: a smorgasbord of tracks both electronic and instrumental, jumping between sequential repetition, polyrhythms, galaxies of delay, drones, and Kosmiche-splattered wig-outs –– music based around orbits and cycles; sounds that connect us to the drum of the earth while keeping one eye on the stars.

Herewith the tracklist, as well as the script I wrote for the links. I tried not to overthink the links too much and ended up recording them on my phone, later using Adobe Podcast to take out the hum of the boiler in the background and generally round off the edges. They’re far closer to broadcast quality than the originals but the process did have the effect of making my voice sound like it was moving around in some way; like there’s a gentle filter sweeping around the frequency spectrum from high to low and back again or something. I can’t quite put my finger on it. There’s a past version of me who’d have recorded and re-recorded those links ad infinitum, each attempt being rejected for some perceived wrongness different from the last. In the event, I did one run-through to work out the breathing spaces and went with the second takes of all of them.

Making the programme took about 3 days in total, from formulating the theme to getting a massive long-list of music down to a more sensibly-sized selection, plus writing and recording a script for links, editing down the music files so they came in and out at the right times, and making it all fit into 59’43. Thanks to the producer, Peter Hardy, for collaging together all my patchwork squares to create the final quilt. I’m so grateful to have been asked to contribute to the FreakZone. I’m able to take up opportunities like this due to the generosity of my Bandcamp subscribers and all the listeners who buy my music.

TRANSCRIPT

Links to listen and buy via Buy Music Club

LOULA YORKE An instrument for the care of the self

You’ve been listening to a track of mine called An instrument for the care of the self, which is how I feel about my modular synth. The next piece I’m going to play you is by digital synthesist Bea Brennan, who creates so much drama and emotion out of one repeating pattern. The track is called Can You? from her recent album on Old Technology, Trances We Live.

BEA BRENNAN Can You?

FIELD LINES CARTOGRAPHER Excitation

You’re listening to the freakzone playlist with me loula yorke, as I delve into music that plays with space; trance-inducing sequences that connect us to the drum of the earth while keeping one eye on the movement of the stars. You just heard Cobalt by Material Object and before that Excitation by Field Lines Cartographer. Next I’m going to turn to artists using more traditional instrumentation to lure us into the trance, starting with Ex Easter Island Head’s Magnetic Language, which combines live percussion, guitar and sampling to create a glorious rhymthic cycle that gradually reveals itself over the course of the track

MATERIAL OBJECT Cobalt

EX EASTER ISLAND HEAD Magnetic Language

BRIGDHE CHAIMBEUL A’Chailleach

NIHILOXICA Supuki

You just heard the polyrhythmic assault of Nihiloxica, Bugandan drums meet UK bass, with their track Supuki, before that the epic drone tones of Skye smallpiper Brigdge Chaimbeul, both fully leaning into a kind of pulsating mesmeric geometry through repetition. Next up, no exploration of spacey sounds would be complete without dub. Sparse, heavy bass and clattering galaxies of delay. With a contemporary take, here’s Paul St Hilaire from his new album of production collabs, this one with Priori called Send Them On.

PAUL ST HILAIRE & PRIORI Send Them On

SEICHE Wembley Sound Tunnel

We’re nearing the end of the freakzone spacelist as chosen by me, loula yorke, i hope you’ve enjoyed the ride. before the luscious kosmiche-splattered breaksy wig-out that is common land by james holden, we heard Wembley Sound Tunnel by Seiche, maximising the acoustic powers of physical space, the sounds of a yamaha CS60 synthesiser and Roland 808 drum mchine reamped and recorded down a one hundred metre-long sound tunnel at sunrise. I’d like to finish with a track from my latest album, which I hope this spacelist has now placed squarely in context. This is Fontana from my new album Hydrology. Thanks for listening.

JAMES HOLDEN Common Land

LOULA YORKE Fontana

LAURA CANNELL Archive Energy of Long Gone Forests

I tried out a lot of new stuff. Some things worked and some of them fell by the wayside. The first half of the year was characterised by the monthly mixtapes and the liner notes. I tried my hand at some spin-off things: handmade zines and home-dubbed tapes; I pressed flowers and sent them to people in the post. I started and then abandoned a podcast idea. I recorded my daily life and created sprawling sound collages. I recorded hours and hours of improvised music based on sequential sequences.

Some of this music made it into my albums released via Truxalis this year, The Book of Commonplace and Time is a Succession of Such Shapes. Some of it made it into my debut album for DiN, Hydrology. One piece, SICL, even made it into my live-set.

I was offered some incredible gigs in 2025. I was flown to Spain to play in a glass atrium on a rooftop at night! I played to 750 people in a circular chapel in East London and to 500 people in romantic Regency splendour in Bristol! I started mentoring a degree student in modular synth performance! (Email me if you’d also like this to be you. I’m loving it.) I was interviewed by Mylar Melodies, 12k people watched it! And nobody said anything weird in the comments!

I made a couple of big adjustments to my Eurorack that gave my gigs in the latter half of 2025 a far more confident energy. I completely changed my approach to transitioning between tracks. I thought a lot about stage monitoring. I met a lot of beautiful musical souls, both in my phone and IRL. I started recording myself play the parlour organ and improvising with an absolute demon on the clarinet. I joined a music library.

I’m rushing headlong into 2026 in much the same way as I arrived into 2025: by releasing an EP of my best recordings from the year, the Live Compendium 2. I had a ‘works Christmas do’ with fellow East Anglian music-maker, Laura Cannell, who took some photos of me larking about. I decided to use these for the cover art. It feels very much the vibe I want to take into 2026. A little fuzzier and more chaotic. Blurry energy. Green.

Thanks to Electronic Sound and Moonbuilding for their unwavering support this year including interviews, reviews, and for including my albums in their 2025 AOTY lists. And thanks to all the artists who continue to wow and inspire me (special shouts to the powerhouses that are Laura Cannell and Jo Johnson on this one.)

It just leaves me to say HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone who subscribes to the Cottage Studio on Bandcamp, and to everyone who buys music – no matter the platform or the artist – YOU are literally holding the universe up right now. YOU ARE AMAZING. THANK YOU.

Best wishes for the coming year, Loula

The first sunset of 2026, from my garden looking out onto the green. Suffolk, England.