Two new albums are out tomorrow. Lateral, a sublime hour-long ambient drift subtitled Big Empty Country, serves as the analog counterpart to Eno and Wolfe’s Luminal, bathing in the near-still sonic waters Eno first conjured nearly fifty years ago. On their debut collaborative LP, Eno and fellow conceptualist Beatie Wolfe deliver ambient-tinged Americana lullabies that echo Lou Reed and late-era Spiritualized — forming the full-voiced companion to the atmospheric purity of Lateral.
Possession (1981)
June 04, 2025
Just picked up the 4K edition of this movie in its uncut form of just over two hours. This film has been on my list for quite some time, so I am glad to finally get to see it.
Abul Mogard - Quiet Pieces
June 04, 2025
On his first solo album in five years, Abul Mogard unveils Quiet Pieces a deeply personal ambient suite shaped by memory, emotion, and rediscovered family relics. Sampling his late uncle’s collection of 78rpm records, Mogard breathes new life into old sketches, blending nostalgia with spectral synthwork. The result is a graceful drift through loss, reverie, and renewal — a hushed, haunting meditation for fans of Eno, Cortini, and Jeck.
Image Fixes
June 03, 2025
Version 1.10.0 introduces comprehensive automatic image format conversion. Supported image types (JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF) are now seamlessly converted to optimised WebP during the build, eliminating the need for manual preprocessing. The system detects and handles transparency in PNGs, applying white backgrounds to maximize compression. These enhancements are fully integrated into the responsive image workflow, offering detailed logging, smart caching to skip unchanged files, and output quality tuning—set at 85 for large images and 80 for smaller ones.
The responsive image generation pipeline has also been significantly upgraded. Each image now automatically produces multiple sizes (400w, 800w, 1200w, 1920w) using srcset and sizes for efficient loading across devices, cutting mobile bandwidth use by up to 95%. Original files are preserved for lightbox viewing, and lazy loading has been added to further optimise performance. Enhancements to image_processor.py and ResponsiveImageGenerator enable smart, conditional processing, while maintaining backward compatibility with existing WebP assets.
Earlier improvements in 1.9.0 and 1.8.0 focused on development workflow and performance. A new watch mode monitors project directories and triggers automatic rebuilds on file changes, streamlining live development. The build system now uses watchdog for reliable file monitoring with detailed logging and configurable behaviour. In 1.8.0, Lightbox2 script loading was fixed to run only when image links are present, reducing load times and eliminating redundant script execution on text-only pages.