Gydja curates Cold Spring ‘Aquaeous Mix’
Gydja put together the “Aquaeous Mix” for Cold Spring Records, a free, pay-what-you-want 15-track selection on the theme of water, released 23 October 2026.
Gydja curated the “Aquaeous Mix” for Cold Spring Records, released 23 October 2026 as a free, pay-what-you-want streaming and download release on Bandcamp. The 15-track mix is built around water as a theme, drawing on the label’s catalogue and related artists.
The mix opens with Bestia Astrum’s “The Blood-Dimmed Tide Is Loosed,” from the album “Fury 161,” and closes with TenHornedBeast’s “Hilnaric,” from “Hunts & Wars,” a piece inspired by Lord Dunsany’s short story “Poltarnees, Beholder of Ocean.” Between them, it runs through 400 Lonely Things’ “Dark and Lonely Water” and “The Lake” (both from “The New Twilight”), Llyn Y Cwn’s “Du y Moroedd,” Dead Voices on Air’s “Water Waetr” (from “Abrader Redux”), Sleep Research Facility’s “Sargo,” T.A.G.C.’s “Union with Sirens,” Coil’s “The Lost Rivers of London,” Burial Hex’s “Lost Sailor” (from “Gauze”), Common Eider, King Eider’s “Blood .:. Water” (from “Égrégore”), Lull’s “Expanse,” The Circular Ruins and Mystified’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues,” Martyn Ware, Charles Stooke and Gabriel Ware’s “Part Two – The Water Circle,” and The Sea of Wires’ “An Endless Rainy Day.”
The “Aquaeous Mix” is the fifth in Gydja’s series of curated mixes for Cold Spring, following the label’s Japanoise, Chthonic, Dark Folk and Deep Space mixes.
About Gydja
Gydja is the dark ambient project of Abby Helasdottir, a musician and graphic artist based in Wellington, New Zealand, who also records as Bestia Astrum. The name is an Old Norse word for priestess. The project dates to 2001, when Helasdottir released the CDR “The Darkness Gathering” on Mediatrix, followed by “Umbilicus Maris” in 2007 and “Helchemy” in 2009. She contributed to Cryo Chamber’s “Nyarlathotep” collaboration in 2016, previously covered by Side-Line, and has designed cover art for releases on several labels, including Cold Spring.
Through the Dutch label Winter-Light, Helasdottir has released a trilogy under the Gydja name: “Ár Var Alda” (2021), “Þjóðáar Fnæstu Eitri,” and “Níu Kom Ek Heima Fyr Niflhel Neðan,” issued on CD and digitally on 8 May 2026 and reviewed by Side-Line. For Cold Spring, Gydja curates a recurring series of themed mixes drawing on the label’s roster and related dark ambient, neoclassical and industrial artists, including the Japanoise, Chthonic, Dark Folk and Deep Space mixes. The “Aquaeous Mix,” released 23 October 2026, continues that series with a 15-track selection centred on water.
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
