Magic Hollow

Magic Hollow is a new record label. It is not organised around self-expression, yet it is intensely personal.

The idea began in 2024 when I was invited to curate a series for the German production music library Sonoton following the completion of my first large-scale ensemble album, Eros. What started as a commission became a framework, a space to invite artists I respect to work within the conditions of library music.

Library music, as I understand it, is not background. It is functional, but function is not a limitation. It is a discipline. Its constraints demand clarity, compression and purpose. Pieces are short, direct and built to act. Each work operates as a self-contained environment, precise, economic and structurally intentional.

Magic Hollow is not organised around genre or personal mythology. It resists sonic self-portraiture. Instead, it treats utility as a creative catalyst. The aim is music that can hold space, shift atmosphere and coexist with image, text or lived experience without dominating them. The catalogue accumulates as a set of tools and propositions rather than statements of identity. This is Deep Wallpaper™. Music that embeds itself in memory while remaining open, adaptable and available. Immersive without being invasive.

A distribution partnership secured last year ensures these works will also exist on vinyl, giving them a second context beyond their functional origins.

Honoured to be of service.

DOS, February 19, 2026

A Magic Carpet Ride

I’m deeply grateful to the writers and publications who’ve taken the time to sit with Persian Carpets and reflect on it. When you release long-form, patient music into the world, you never quite know how it will be received so it means a great deal when people engage carefully and generously.

If you’d like to read the reviews:

• HHV Mag:
  https://www.hhv-mag.com/review/daniel-osullivan-richard-youngs-persian-carpets/?lang=en

• The Quietus:
  https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/daniel-osullivan-richard-youngs-persian-carpets-review/

• MAGNET Magazine:
  https://magnetmagazine.com/2026/02/02/essential-new-music-daniel-osullivan-richard-youngs-persian-carpets/

• Boomkat:
  https://boomkat.com/products/persian-carpets-95b964a0-1966-4d4b-bffc-03d2fba2ce1b

• Uncut

For live bookings, we’re very happy to be working with Exform Agency.
Contact details here:
https://www.exform.net/contact/

The album is available directly from VHF Records via Bandcamp:
https://vhfrecords.bandcamp.com/album/persian-carpets

Thank you to everyone who’s listened, written, shared, and supported the record. Richard and I truly appreciate it.

PERSIAN CARPETS

NEW DUO LP WITH RICHARD YOUNGS ON VHF!!!

The holy blurb sayeth: Second LP of duets by these longtime VHF family staples, here delivering 2 side-long epics of “minimalist” bliss. Both sides feature Daniel on piano and Richard on zither, with rippling waves of sound recalling classics like Charlemagne Palestine’s “Strumming Music” (Dan is a frequent collaborator with C.P.) and Richard’s “Advent.” “Persian Carpets I” is a real-humans performance full of tiny variants in rhythm and attack, rising and falling in intensity – sometimes a rush of sound, sometimes a cloud of soft overtones and phantom notes. “Persian Carpets II” is more spare, with quiet and careful piano alongside Richard’s subdued accompaniment – a gorgeous bath of pointillist sound that rewards close listening. A glorious balm for dark and weird times. Superb, quiet pressing by Smashed in Chicago.

LISTEN EAR!!!

PRE-ORDER ERE AND SUPPORT TOTAL DUDE AND VISION LIFER BILL KELLUM!!

PERFECT INTERVALS ONLY!!!

Eros

New music for large ensemble.

Pre-order here

Ticket links here

The Pastoral Machine

Fourth volume of Library Music miniatures by Daniel O’Sullivan (Ulver, Æthenor, This is Not This Heat, etc) for VHF, this time commissioned by the legendary German Music Library, Sonoton. Another sampling of Dan’s versatility and brilliance as a composer, performer, and sound designer, the focus on The Pastoral Machine is more “electronic” compared to the three previous albums Dan recorded for KPM (also issued on LP by VHF), with simpler arrangements and a focus on gentle and emotive synthesised soundworlds. Even without as many full ensemble arrangements, there’s still a wealth of diversity – ‘Empathogen’ opens the record with latticed arpeggiating sequences recalling Japanese “environmental music” or Persian Surgery-era Terry Riley, ‘Fruit of Stream Entry’ burbles with gentle ripples evoking the LP’s title, while ‘The Silversmith of Space’ mines a simple chord sequence evoking Eno’s 70’s classic short instrumentals. ‘Superstrings’ is a series of hypnotic overlapping guitar patterns, like a lost Ash Ra or Achim Reichel track. The brief ‘Star Lore’ is a heavy highlight with deep bass washes and grainy, tape-laminated melodies, followed immediately by Rose Keeler Schaffeler’s vocal feature on ‘The Oscillating Love’ recalling futurist new-age pop in the vein of Enya or Virginia Astley. Housed in a jacket and heavy euro-style inner featuring collages by Daniel, soon to be the subject of an art book published by Timeless Editions in mid-2024.

credit

All music composed by DOS
Recorded at Dream Lion Studio, 2022
Vocals on 5 and 11 and reverse piano on 5 by Rose Keeler Schaffeler
Mastered by Noel Summerville
Originally composed for the Sonoton Music Library
Collages by DOS
Design & layout by Yum Yum
Special thanks to Bill Kellum, Iain Roberton, Alex Black, Mark Titchner, Paul Sandell
Dedicated to Parsifal Emanuel

license

Listen here

Rosarium

 

Rosarium is the third solo album by English composer, Daniel O’Sullivan. After releasing two albums of experimental songwriting (VELD, 2017; Folly, 2019) and four instrumental collections for the KPM Music Library, O’Sullivan has devoted the past five years to composing a suite of chamber music for the Belgian classical ensemble Echo Collective. The result is a mosaic of self-possessed, elegantly latticed arrangements for strings, woodwinds, piano, harp, choir, and percussion, sculpted with a deep emphasis on texture and counterpoint. 

Drawing on a period of solitude, introspection, dream journaling and the insight of raising young children, the influences on this music can be felt more as an internalised elegy rather than musical ancestry. The title of the work is an homage to the mystery schools from Greco-Roman antiquity to modern day psychedelic research and ethnobotany. 

There is an opaque sonic lineage at work here as meticulous intervals and shapes are dreamt and sought, mirroring elements of high renaissance music, the late orchestral suites of Duke Ellington, modern sacred music, village green minimalism and hauntological English wyrd. Rosarium is a hybrid music and a new benchmark for O’Sullivan who has diligently scouted musical treasures for over two decades. 

 Rosarium was recorded at Decca/Jet Studios in Brussels and engineered by Timothy Lewis aka Thighpaulsandra of Spiritualized, Coil, etc. Alongside Echo Collective the ensemble on Rosarium is augmented by American multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick, English vocalist Astrud Steehouder, and poems read by O’Sullivan’s daughter Ivy. 

Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis, London

Composed by Daniel O'Sullivan 

Performed by Daniel O'Sullivan, Peter Broderick, Astrud Steehouder and Echo Collective 

Peter Broderick • Voice and Bass Synthesizer 

Margaret Hermant • Violin and Harp 

Yann Lecollaire • Bass Clarinet and Baritone Saxophone 

Neil Leiter • Viola 

Annemie Osborne • Cello 

Daniel O'Sullivan • Voice, Piano, Drums, Bass and Flute 

Ivy O'Sullivan • Narration 

Astrud Steehouder • Voice 

Thighpaulsandra • Modular Synthesizer 

Recorded at Jet Studios, Brussels 

Mixed by Thighpaulsandra at Aerial Studios, Carmarthenshire 

Cover illustration by Jenny Hirons 

Photography by Lewis Hayward 

Design and layout by Mark Titchner 

Published by Mute Song

Order from House Of Mythology here

14.07.23

 

Lifetones Lives

 

In the past I was that way

Now I’m this way

No one is to blame

I’m very happy to announce the resurrection of Lifetones; Charles Bullen’s short-lived but seminal project after This Heat. Charles and I have been discussing this concept since This Is Not This Heat drew to a close. We’ve since assembled a group of seasoned musical adepts and have meticulously arranged the recorded repertoire as well as some new music. Ticket links for Paris, Munch and London are all available on the venue websites and can be accessed via my linktree here. Lifetones is managed by IDA Projects, please forward any PR/booking enquiries here. 

15th March - Bourse de Commerce, Paris

16th March - Bourse de Commerce, Paris

17th March - Haus der Kunst, Munich

18th March - Haus der Kunst, Munich (solo & talk)

15th April - Cafe Oto, London

16th April - Cafe Oto, London

Charles Bullen - Guitar / Voice

Daniel O’Sullivan - Guitar / Voice

Charles Stuart - Keys / Voice

Rose Keeler-Schaffeler - Viola / Voice

Caius Williams - Bass

Frank Byng - Drums

Enquiries: @ida_projects

Please note, there will be more Lifetones performances beyond these initial dates so we ask you kindly to avoid unnecessary air travel

Normal Service May Never Resume

He stood on the precipice of a new Mercury

A filmy liquid sphere 

Unbound by immutable elements

Elements like will

A rose bloomed in ether

Cloaked in red

Curled in black

As far as the I could see

But underneath lay prophecy

A proserpine

Faces groaned

Limbs contorted

Children quiet

He ligatured the years spent 

And eternity earned

How strange it was

To be so loose and slippy in space

Once so defined

Now a trace

He would plunge into petals

Sloped and parched

For the slaking of a hard won newness

Aboard the mothership

He saw the life web voyager

In him self and in her self

In time was a slur

A bridge between stars

But who remains?

Did he ever even need the frame?

Standing guard for some flittering ill

Grasping the stem

So thornless

So still

Fourth Density

Dear world, here's the second in a series of LP's made for the KPM Music Library issued on vinyl by VHF Records. Fourth Density is out September 23rd 2021. Pre-order, sounds and semantic inquiry into the hermetic nature of library musick over here. 

Also check out Ivy's trailer. 💙

Cafe Oto Residency

Cafe Oto have kindly invited me to play a few shows in August. Limited capacity. Tickets available HERE.

Night #1

DOS & Dream Lion Ensemble

The No Show

Tim Burgess (DJ)

Night #2

Mothlite performs 'The Colour Of Entropy'

Merlin Nova

Secluded Bronte (The Bohman Brothers and Richard Thomas)

Night #3

Microcorps (Alexander Tucker)

DOS, Charles Bullen & Joseph Carvell

Serena Korda

Hope you can make it.

 

Remain The Fool

Another song from my forthcoming record with Richard. Another magic carpet ride directed by Harry Miller. Pre-order the album here.

 

Don't Hang With Angels

Very pleased to announce a new collaboration with my friend Richard Youngs. Our debut album 'Twelve Of Hearts' is out December 1st (somebody's birthday) on O Genesis Recordings. Enjoy Harry Miller's video for 'Don't Hang With Angels'. Pre-order the album here.

DO'S /// Electric Māyā Tees

Designed by the great Mark Titchner. To accompany the release of Electric Māyā: Dream Flotsam & Astral Hinterlands on VHF Records. Organic cotton in vintage white, sky blue and spectra yellow. Order direct from Print Social, HERE.

 

When I Miss This Is Not This Heat

all photos by Fabio Lugaro

Electric Māyā

Dear world, here's the first in a series of LP's made for the KPM Music Library issued on vinyl by VHF Records. Electric Māyā: Dream Flotsam and & Astral Hinterlands is out October 23rd. Pre-order, sounds and semantic inquiry into the hermetic nature of library musick over here.

 

The Colour Of Entropy (In Three Stages)

I have a new record coming out. A fourteen minute song made of three songs. One red, one blue, one yellow. Primary school. Featuring Dream Lion and Echo Collective alumni, this music was made in response to a ring. A series curated by Sleeperhold Publications of Antwerp. Artwork and etchings by Felicia Atkinson. Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis. This will not be available on digital platforms for the time being. Limited to 350 copies.

Pre-order and audio link HERE.

 

Ivy on the air

Ivy made this podcast for Soho Radio in 2018 (she was 7). Playing her favourite tunes by kids and adding some "fun facts, fun facts, fuuunnn faaaccctttsss". Talking about Jackson 5, The Shaggs, The Wouldbegoods, Shirley Temple, Langley Schools Music Project, Slint, etc. Plus she interviews The Honey Hahs in their native suburban Nunhead. Gawd bless her.

Musick For Ark Todd

Music originally issued on a limited edition cassette by Strange Attractor Press to accompany a book of drawings by my dear friend and incredible multi-disciplinary artist, Ian Johnstone. Now available digitally from my bandcamp page.

Swarming Shapes: Musick For Ark Todd
By Daniel O’Sullivan

A: The Levitating Moon Piece
B: Black Egg / Orpheus

I wrote several pieces of music for Ian’s ‘Ark Todd’ static levitation performance over the years. Each setting provoked a different approach. The collaboration with Ulver at the Norwegian Opera house in Oslo was well documented but this particular version, composed for the exhibition of his Stab Wounds at the Horse Hospital gallery in Bloomsbury, has been resting dormant until now.

The second piece was a commission for The Place Theatre, also in Bloomsbury. An unfinished piece of choreography with dancer and vocalist Francois Testory. Like all of Ian’s work, this was a singular vision probing the human condition and meticulously scratching for truth under every surface.

Born in Cumbria, September 2nd, 1967, year of the goat, raised by his loving parents Herbert and Muriel Johnstone. He graduated in fine art at Middlesex university, where he cultivated Mr. Todd - a recurring performance motif hybridising the hunted fox, the poisoned seagull, the Edwardian philanthropist in Disneyland biting at the moon in perpetual levitation and static petrification. Partner of body artist Alan Oversby (Mr. Sebastian). Partner and muse of Geoff Rushton (Jjohn Balance). Made several costumes and artworks for Coil including Black Antlers, the Racing Green box and The Ape Of Naples. He performed live on stage with Mothlite and Ulver, the latter of which was a performance of Mr. Todd's levitation piece and The Leg Cutter at the Norwegian National Opera house. He was a radical permaculturalist, beekeeper and savant of medicinal plants. The main concern in his later years was Cantu Fermusu, Several acres of woodland in the Asturian mountains which he cultivated with Mikel Quirós. He was a master craftsman, discerning to the finest detail, humble and kind, self-critical and irreverent, in love with nature, at war with the patriarchy. A good animal, true to his animal instincts. He passed away under an Acer tree in Asturias, June 30th, 2015.

Order the book/tape here: strangeattractor.co.uk/shoppe/23-stab-wounds-julius-caesar/

Honour Wave in British Animation Awards

A few months back, The McLeod brothers surprised me with an animated video for a song called Honour Wave from my last album Folly. It's a beautiful dream world and now it's a finalist in the British Animation Awards. Good luck boys! I forgot to post it here, so check it out.