Our latest isolatedmix comes from Mark Nelson, who as Pan•American, or as part of Labradford or even Anjou, has garnered relative cult status amongst the ambient and experimental lifers and tape community. Forming a big part of the Kranky label history from its very first release, Mark recently returned with a new album after a three-year hiatus, and the mature, refined instrumentalism on The Patience Fader is a subtle reminder of the quality Mark has retained over the years - quite an achievement, given his first Pan•American record on Kranky goes back to 1997. I took the chance to send over some questions to Mark to shed some light on the new record and the music that exists in his life right now, alongside his tasteful and electic isolatedmix. The Patience Fader by Pan•AmericanHi Mark, where are you right now and what have you been listening to lately? I'm at home in Evanston IL-just north of Chicago. Drinking coffee after work and listening to the water running through the filter of our pet turtle's tank and the music of Mette Henriette. If you're not familiar with her she's a Norwegian composer and saxophone player who put out a  record on ECM a couple of years ago it’s so beautiful-one of those records I only let me listen to occasionally because I don't want to become too familiar with it. worried the magic might lessen-but magic never really does. Last few days I've been listening to lots of the music that made it onto the mix-Mike Cooper, African Head Charge, Ulla, my friend Robert Donne's incredible track Touch my Camera Through the Fence, Takagi Masakatsu.  The most recent music that I've really liked are the 3 cd comp by Fubutsushi on Cached Media and my friend Francis Harris' beautiful new record Thresholds that I was lucky enough to contribute to. Running a label myself, and given you had the honor of being the very first release on Kranky, with Labradford, I’m interested in the details of how that very first album and relationship came about? It's hard to believe but back then you could put out a 7" single-maybe 300 copies-and be pretty confident all the key distributors, zines, record store buyers and radio stations would find out about it and boost it up if they liked it.  Joel and Bruce worked at Cargo-an independent distributor based in Chicago.  Our single came across Joel's desk and he felt good enough about it to set in motion the plan he'd been forming to start a label.  I remember my friend Andrew who put the single out told me a guy from Cargo was going to call me and I stayed close to the (landline) phone for the next couple days.  Joel called, we talked and the rest has unfolded very naturally. A blend of luck and trying to manifest something in the world around the music. “Romantic minimalism” is used in the text for your new album The Patience Fader, and it’s an apt term for the delicate, perhaps even more ‘focused’ approach on this one. Do you think there is a clear connection between the effects of the past year and the type of music it inspires? Was that the case here? Yes-absolutely in my case.   Both from within and without.  Not consciously of course, but Patience Fader was made during the summer and fall of 2020, so  Covid,  Trumpism, BLM/George Floyd protests were all in full flight.  At the same time, my father was dying in a hospice in Virginia that we couldn't visit because of Covid.  In some respects, emotions were very simple for me in this time. Right and wrong, life and death joy and sorrow seemed very plainly mapped out. The album features some smaller ‘vignette’ type tracks, which I personally love. What was your intention behind these as part of the greater album flow? Is there a hidden narrative? Not a narrative really, no. I would say there's a theme of Roots throughout the record and trying to find different ways to approach what roots and being grounded can mean. So guitar and harmonica as the instrum