ELISCHA HELLER — Breathing Soil

Elischa Heller – Breathing Soil appears on Hallow Ground as catalogue HG2605, a 12-inch clear vinyl that expands the label’s experimental roster. The Swiss musician’s third full-length album arrives as two side-long drone pieces, each designed as an invitation to deep listening and a meditation on the materiality of sound. Within Hallow Ground’s recent output, Breathing Soil follows a series of immersive releases such as Amosphère’s Cosmogonical Ears (HG2503), Steve Fors’ It’s Nothing, But Still (HG2201) and Lawrence English’s Observation of Breath (HG2103). These earlier titles, all issued in 2026, share a focus on extended, contemplative forms, positioning Heller’s record as a continuation of the label’s commitment to probing the boundaries of acoustic perception. Side A opens with “↓↓↓ + ↑↑”, a sustained drone that unfolds through subtle accelerations and decelerations. The piece’s gradual shifts in dynamics encourage a heightened awareness of the listening environment, allowing the vibrations to interact with the room’s own resonances. The second movement, “↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑ + o o o”, extends the meditative approach, offering a complementary tonal field that deepens the sense of shared presence. Together, the two tracks function as a continuous sonic landscape, inviting DJs to employ them as atmospheric bridges or as immersive moments within a set where texture outweighs rhythm. In the context of Heller’s practice, Breathing Soil reflects the artist’s long-standing interest in physical and temporal presence, a concern also evident in his work with groups such as Film 2, Beurre and 222Rn. While those collaborations have explored multi-genre territories, this album distills his approach to radical reduction, treating sound as raw vibration. The record thus occupies a distinctive place in his discography, foregrounding the metaphysical dialogue between matter and resonance that Heller describes as “the soil breathing” and “the soil itself breathing”. For collectors and DJs attuned to experimental drone, the release offers a unique tool: its expansive, slowly evolving textures respond to the acoustics of any space, making it suitable for sound-system installations, late-night set closers, or as a backdrop for immersive performance contexts. The clear vinyl format adds a visual cue to the music’s transparency, reinforcing the notion of sound as an unmediated conduit between listener and environment. Breathing Soil is presented as a 12-inch clear vinyl, the format specified by the label. Its side-long compositions are intended for playback on speakers that can reveal the nuanced dynamics and timbral shifts embedded in the material. Elischa Heller – Breathing Soil, Hallow Ground, catalogue HG2605, 12-inch clear vinyl, two tracks. Tracklist: A1. Elischa Heller – ↓↓↓ + ↑↑ A2. Elischa Heller – ↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑ + o o o