Anders Ilar makes the kind of warm, dreamy, melodic techno that evokes the wintry landscapes of his homeland. His love of the genre stems from his early interest in ambient pioneers such as Tangerine Dream and Jean Michel Jarre, by way of the dark (Skinny Puppy, Front 242), the moody (Cocteau Twins, Lush) and the tech-obsessed (Aphex Twin, early Cologne records).

At RA Towers, we especially notice that Cologne connection—although Ilar has never released on Kompakt, we feel he really should have. Over a couple of dozen 12-inches and a handful of CDs on labels such as Shitkatapult, Echocord and Narita, Ilar has built up a catalogue of lush, deep, and occasionally glitchy electronic records that are both useful techno tools and excellent Sunday morning home listening material. Perfect podcast material then.

If you’re not familiar with Ilar’s work, his RA podcast is a good place to start. The second half of this intriguing and original set is a mini-mix of his own material—six recent and unreleased Ilar cuts. Before all of that, though, there’s a bit of dub and ambient underground to get you in the mood, including cuts from the Tomas Jirku, Rod Modell and Ezekiel Honig. Enjoy.

What have you been working on recently?

I've been kind of bored lately and haven’t made many new tunes. I did a couple of new remixes and finished up my new album Sworn that will be out on Level Records in April.

Where was the mix recorded?

I made this mix in my bedroom. I only have one record player right now, so I couldn’t make a real mix. So, to do this I recorded some vinyl and mixed them with some of my tracks in FL Studio.

What are you up to next?

Up next is a new CD on Narita. It's an Ilar & Hedvall collaboration album called Melt. It will be available exclusively in Japan.