{"id":428578,"date":"2026-05-15T07:12:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/428578\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T07:12:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:12:24","slug":"fifteen-years-of-hands-in-the-darks-beautiful-lucid-dreaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/428578\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifteen Years of Hands In The Dark\u2019s Beautiful Lucid Dreaming"},"content":{"rendered":"

LABEL PROFILE<\/a><\/p>\n

Fifteen Years of Hands In The Dark\u2019s Beautiful Lucid Dreaming<\/p>\n

By <\/p>\n

Louis Pattison<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00b7
\n May 14, 2026<\/p>\n

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Morgan Cuinet and Onito, the two co-conspirators behind the label Hands In The Dark<\/a>, met at a party in their home city of Besan\u00e7on and immediately hit it off. A historic city in eastern France not far from the Swiss border, Besan\u00e7on has a thriving underground punk and DIY scene, and the pair were both active participants, playing in bands, running labels, and booking shows and tours. \u201cOur friendship blossomed in bars and at concerts, where we quickly discovered our mutual appreciation for similar musical styles,\u201d says Cuinet.<\/p>\n

But Hands In The Dark didn\u2019t grow out of the Besan\u00e7on scene so much as it sprang from the methods and strategies that the pair learned along the way. In fact, the label didn\u2019t really come into being until both left town\u2014Cuinet to Ornans, a small French town famed as the birthplace of painter Gustave Courbet, and Onito overseas to Canterbury, a picturesque cathedral city a short drive southeast of London. \u201cLife took us geographically apart,\u201d says Onito. \u201cBut we used the label as a way to keep our connections alive\u2014even to enhance and strengthen them over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Now, 15 years old and approaching a hundred releases, Hands In The Dark remains a firmly DIY enterprise\u2014albeit one that has long departed any punk rock orthodoxy. \u201cOur musical preferences have evolved a fair bit,\u201d acknowledges Cuinet. \u201cYet we hope and believe a certain coherence emerges.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days, Hands In The Dark\u2019s releases explore a space somewhere between ambient, kosmische, electroacoustic music, and free improvisation\u2014an intrepid and exploratory sound, often with the strangely vivid quality of a lucid dream, or a Pavlovian jolt of memory. Groups like Tomaga<\/a> and Selvhenter<\/a> toy with abstraction and deconstruction, even as their music ripples with emotion or sparkles with the dynamism of in-person collaboration. One throughline is a fascination for sonic manipulation, be it the tape looping and collage techniques employed by L\u00e4uten der Seele<\/a>, or recordings that exploit the characteristics of defunct or vintage machinery\u2014like Andrea Taeggi\u2019s Nattdett,<\/a> made using an analog computer at the Willem-Twee synthesis studio in the Netherlands that was initially employed for flight simulation in the Cold War era.<\/p>\n

A key early connection for the label came shortly after Onito moved to the UK in 2011. There, he caught a gig by space-rock group The Oscillation<\/a> and became fast friends with the group\u2019s Tom Relleen. Relleen was a force of nature on the London experimental scene, a co-founder of the record shop Phonica<\/a> and a booking agent for DIY agency Julie Tippex<\/a>. \u201cWe ended up working on a certain number of projects together,\u201d says Onito. \u201cEither touring with the Oscillation\u2014I\u2019d be doing their live sound\u2014booking tours for some of the bands of his delightful roster, or releasing music together.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Relleen soon became an unofficial third member of Hands In The Dark, and an influence on its evolving direction. When he and his Oscillation bandmate, the drummer and percussionist Valentina Magaletti<\/a>, decided to begin their new duo project, Tomaga, Hands In The Dark was a natural home. Releasing their debut album Futura Grotesk<\/a> was a turning point for the label, says Cuinet. \u201cIt was the beginning of our collaboration with this extraordinary group. And it made us realize that we should offer even more innovative, radical, and avant-garde visions. Without this album, I\u2019m not sure we would have released albums by Brian Case<\/a>, Valby Vokalgruppe<\/a>, Razen<\/a>, Piotr Kurek<\/a>, Selvhenter<\/a>\u2026 It helped break down a lot of barriers in our minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tragically, Relleen died of cancer in 2020. But before that, he was a prolific contributor to Hands In The Dark, not just through Tomaga, but through side projects like Staran Wake<\/a> and Papivores<\/a>\u2014or simply recommending new music that might fit the label. Many acts on the label\u2019s roster have come through a recommendation from a trusted source, although the pair are still open to chance encounters\u2014the surprise demo that lands out of the blue, or the live performance that takes you by surprise. Onito recalls stumbling on the Lithuanian electronic duo ugne&maria<\/a> playing at a church in Belgium in 2024 and being feeling awestruck. \u201cIt was one of those rare gigs with a particular kind of mystical aura around it,\u201d he remembers. \u201cThe band playing in the middle of a misty concrete room, by the natural light of the stunning sunset coming through the glass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the several hundred miles that separate them, Cuinet and Onito have found a way to operate the label mutually in the day-to-day. They\u2019ve found a natural separation of tasks\u2014Morgan handles artwork, promo, social media, distribution, and shipping orders, while Onito handles communications and masters some releases. It\u2019s a mark of their hive mind that they still operate from a single email address. \u201cWhen we see each other, three or four times a year, we talk very little about the label\u2019s business,\u201d says Cuinet.<\/p>\n

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Hands In The Dark\u2019s longevity, thinks Onito, is that it remains a labor of love. \u201cWe run it as a non-profit organization\u2014hence free of financial pressure, since we don\u2019t rely on its success for our livelihood,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though the last few years have been somewhat very challenging regarding the costs of running our operation and the public\u2019s changing relationship with music\u2014and art in general\u2014we continue to hold dear that romantic notion of culture as a fundamental expression of humanity,\u201d adds Cuinet.<\/p>\n

The shared goal, he says, remains the same: \u201cTo consistently release projects that genuinely inspire us, things that are original, singular and adventurous\u2014and occasionally even turn out to be radical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are seven highlights from the Hands In The Dark catalog.<\/p>\n

Tomaga
Intimate Immensity<\/a><\/p>\n

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Without hesitation, Cuinet and Onito point to Intimate Immensity as the most special record in the Hands In The Dark catalog. The product of two years of recording in Tomaga\u2019s bunker space, it was completed shortly before Tom Relleen\u2019s death from stomach cancer in 2020. Despite the sadness of the occasion, Intimate Immensity captures exactly what made the duo great. Valentina Magaletti\u2019s drumming is astonishing throughout\u2014sometimes coolly metronomic, other times improvisatory, other times gesturing in the direction of West African music or gamelan. Relleen, meanwhile, reaches for a mixture of analog instruments, electronics, and found sounds, conjuring up alien timbres or melodies that linger in the memory like a half-remembered dream. \u201cTomaga was a way for Val and Tom to create music without any pressure or artistic limitation\u2014to be who they totally wanted to be as musicians,\u201d says Onito. \u201cI spent hours and hours listening to demos at Tom\u2019s, where they often recorded. They were really prolific and absolutely brilliant in every way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Case
Tense Nature<\/a><\/p>\n

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As well as recording for Hands In The Dark, Relleen was a trusted confidant who recommended artists to the label. One such artist was Brian Case, already something of a legend in alternative rock circles, due to his role in bands including Disappears<\/a>, 90 Day Men, and The Ponys<\/a>. Case was looking for a home for his debut album of solo music, which was something of a departure from his previous work: A set of circling abstract electronic pieces pieced together from fragments of sampled guitar or drums. \u201cWe were immediately drawn to this music, made up of loops somewhere between ambient and minimal techno,\u201d says Cuinet. Hands In The Dark went on to release four of Case\u2019s solo albums. \u201cBrian has always been adventurous in his musical propositions\u2014it\u2019s this creative freedom that we admire in him.\u201d<\/p>\n

L\u00e4uten der Seele
Die Reise zur Monsalw\u00e4sche<\/a><\/p>\n

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Sometime around the middle of the last decade, Cuinet got hooked on the music of Brannten Schn\u00fcre<\/a>, a shadowy and obscure experimental folk duo from Bavaria. He decided to make contact with the group\u2019s Christian Schoppik\u2014which was easier said than done. \u201cHe had no website, no Instagram, no Facebook,\u201d says Cuinet. \u201cI finally managed to send him a message to tell him how special I found his music, and he replied that he was starting to work on his first solo album. The timing was perfect!\u201d Schoppik\u2019s solo work as L\u00e4uten der Seele blends acoustic instrumentation with samples drawn from film and classical music to create dense, phantasmagoric audio collages with a haunting, nostalgic quality. \u201cSince 2022, we have released three L\u00e4uten der Seele albums, and I hope we will have the chance to release more,\u201d says Cuinet. \u201cThey are all fantastic, but the narrative, diversity, and depth that this one offers make it stand out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schatterau
Wir gingen durch leere Stunden<\/a><\/p>\n

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Another aficionado of Christian Schoppik\u2019s work is Daniel Jahn, operator of the Hamburg record shop<\/a> and label<\/a> Bureau B and curator of the compilation Gespensterland<\/a>, which brought together haunting music by Schoppik and other fellow travelers. Jahn is also a member of Schatterau, whose music feels like a fresh manifestation of the sort of melancholy, nostalgic music collected on Gespensterland. Working with tape loops, hushed voice, and live instrumentation, the duo assemble a suite of music that works to a kind of dream logic, mysterious and evocative. Wir gingen durch leere Stunden is their third album for Hands In The Dark. \u201cWe are stunned and excited about the constant progression of their music with each album release,\u201d says Onito. \u201cThey really blossomed with this new album, which brings a lot of refreshing ideas, departing a bit from lo-fi and loops and drawing inspiration from classical music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valby Vokalgruppe
Solids For Voices<\/a><\/p>\n

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Much of the music on Hands In The Dark employs sonic processing of some sort, so on the surface, an album like Valby Vokalgruppe\u2019s Solids For Voices feels like a departure of sorts: A collection of largely a cappella music made by an all-female vocal ensemble from Denmark. Still, Valby Vokalgruppe are closely aligned with Hands In The Dark\u2019s mission to foreground boundary-pushing sounds. Solids For Voices feels geometric in its design, using repetition and layering to create complex, interlocking pieces with a trance-inducing quality. Much of the album was composed by ensemble leader Anja Jacobsen,<\/a> but on \u201cDelfisk Hymne\u201d they look back, interpreting a piece by Greek composer Ath\u00e9naios, who inscribed it on a stone in Delphi in 128 BC. \u201cIt\u2019s quite different from all our previous releases, but in reality, we\u2019ve always sought to explore other aesthetics,\u201d says Cuinet. \u201cSince the album\u2019s release, they\u2019ve performed two live shows, and I had the chance to attend one of them in Geneva, in a former factory that has been transformed into a contemporary art center\u2014one of the most beautiful concerts I\u2019ve experienced in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Razen
Robot Brujo<\/a><\/p>\n

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Hands In The Dark\u2019s first experience of Razen came at Belgium\u2019s Meakusma Festival<\/a> back in 2018, where the group played a Sunday morning set at the Neo-Gothic Friedenskirche in Eupen to an audience still shaking off their hangovers from the night before. \u201cTheir blend of ancient instruments and more modern, electronic sounds completely captivated us at the time,\u201d recalls Cuinet. Two years later, Hands In The Dark released Robot Brujo, on which Razen further honed their deep listening style\u2014a set of six improvisations for strings and wind instruments that explored minuscule variations in timbre, timing, and vibration. \u201cIt is, in our humble opinion, an overlooked masterpiece of rare intensity, leading to four more fantastic releases with the band and its members,\u201d says Cuinet.<\/p>\n

Josiah Steinbrick
Meeting Of Waters<\/a><\/p>\n

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Josiah Steinbrick<\/a> is a skilled multi-instrumentalist and producer who\u2019s worked with everyone from Danger Mouse<\/a> to Devendra Banhart<\/a> to Charlotte Gainsbourg<\/a>. But Meeting Of Waters captures him flying solo, working with a small assembly of instruments\u2014synthesizers, vibraphone, marimbaphone, idiophone, bells, and gongs\u2014with production assistance and guidance from friend and collaborator Cate Le Bon. The result is a minimalist, somewhat hermetic sound that sits at the crossroads of ambient music and free improvisation. It first saw the light of day as a limited cassette on Leaving Records<\/a>, before Hands In The Dark prepared it for a wider vinyl issue in 2019. \u201cWe obsessively listened to this album for several weeks following its release,\u201d says Cuinet. \u201cWe feel privileged to have the chance to prolong the existence of these extraordinary sonic creations, crafted with such precision and skill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aaron Moore & Erik K Skodvin
Instead of rain i bring a hat<\/a><\/p>\n

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Instead of rain i bring a hat found its way to Hands In The Dark through the label\u2018s friendship with the Norwegian musician Erik K Skodvin<\/a>. \u201cErik runs the label Miasmah<\/a>, which we\u2019ve long loved and highly recommend\u2014he has released incredible artists, including Gabriel Saloman<\/a>, Andrea Belfi<\/a>, Marcus Fjellstr\u00f6m<\/a>, and many more,\u201d says Cuinet. One day Skodvin mentioned his ongoing remote collaboration with Aaron Moore,<\/a> a member of the UK improvisational unit Volcano The Bear.<\/a> What had started as a tentative email correspondence had gradually grown into a darkly cinematic orchestral piece, weaving together piano, cello, drums, harp, keening vocals, and a mix of homemade and electronic instruments. Hands In The Dark released it back in 2018. \u201cIt\u2019s a perfect reflection of what the label stands for and how it works,\u201d says Cuinet. \u201cExploring fascinating universes, without artistic, physical, or geographical constraints.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LABEL PROFILE Fifteen Years of Hands In The Dark\u2019s Beautiful Lucid Dreaming By Louis Pattison \u00b7 May 14,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-428578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}