Best Ambient of 2018

As much as I like end-of-the-year lists, I also get a bit anxious about them. As I compile them I keep thinking that I've missed something. Then as I'm re-listening to albums I start thinking "Is this one really that good?" & "Maybe this one deserves a slot...or this one...or this one..." Eventually I realize that these lists aren't anything definitive that I'll be judged on. Unless there's an ambient god in ambient heaven who will let me in or cast me out based on a lifetime of music choices. In that case I will pay for having listened to so much Enya in the 90s.

So after that meandering introduction, here is my Best of 2018 list and mix. As you'll see, the list is longer than the mix. That's mostly due to not wanting a 4 hour mix and also to some stuff just not fitting sonically. 

It was another good year for music. Between my ambient/electronic fandom and my continued obsession with indie music, I barely have time to breathe sometimes. I'll post some links to Spotify playlists that kept me going this year.

In alphabetical order, here's the list of my favorite ambient albums of 2018:

1. A Strangely Isolated Place - Full Circle

2. Albrecht La'Brooy - Tidal River [2018]

3. Christina Vantzou - no. 4 [2018]

4. Dean McPhee - Four Stones [2018]

5. Delia Derbyshire Appreciation Society - Wow and Flutter [six degrees 2018]

6. Eli Keszler - Stadium

7. Frank Bretschneider - Lunik

8. From the Mouth of the Sun - Sleep Stations

9. G. B. Beckers - Walkman

10. GiGi Masin - kite

11. Halftribe - For The Summer - Or Forever

12. Helios - Veriditas

13. Hibernis - Middle of the Meds

14. Joseph Shabason - Anne

15. Kasper Bjorke Quartet - The Fifty Eleven Project

16. Khruangbin - Con Todo El Mundo

17. Klangriket & Sjors Mans - The Amsterdam Sessions

18. Leon Vynehall - Nothing Is Still

19. Lost Tribe Sound - We Stayed The Path That Fell To Shadow

20. Luton - Black Box Animals

21. Markus Guentner - Empire

22. Monty Adkins - Empire

23. Ocoeur - Inner

24. Olafur Arnalds - Re;member

25. Rival Consoles - Persona

26. Robert Davies - Elemental Shimmer

27. TAYLOR DEUPREE - Fallen

28. The Advisory Circle - Ways of Seeing

29. Triac - departure

30. William Selman - Musica Enterrada

The Dreamer Descends - InSight Lands on Mars

After six months of travel from Earth, NASA's InSight spacecraft is on a precise trajectory to land on Mars. If all goes well it should be touching down on the surface of the red planet about 6 hours after this mix is initially posted.

The tracks for this mix have all been selected to tell the story of InSight and its journey to Mars. The track titles take us chronologically from Farewell, O Earth to Between Two Worlds to Arrival to Descent to Landing to Sunrise on Mars.

Godspeed InSight!

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Murcof & Vanessa Wagner - Farewell, O World, O Earth
• 07:15     Warmth - Insight
• 14:50    Moon Wiring Club - Between Two Worlds
• 15:52    Rival Consoles - Untravel
• 21:10    Johann Johannsson - Arrival
• 23:27    Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Mars
• 27:05    Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Mars Theme
• 28:40    Ohrwert - Angle of Incidence
• 30:05    Pye Corner Audio - Descent
• 31:15    Steve Roach - The Dreamer Decends
• 35:30    Seabuckthorn - Blackout
• 38:08    Tonepoet & Cloudfall - Free Falling Through Life's Cavernous Atmosphere
• 43:25    Porya Hatami - Landing
• 45:25    The Future Sound Of London - The Dust Settles
• 48:25    Dirac - Elysium
• 51:56    Lights Out in Asia - All Is Quiet In The Valley
• 55:18    Heavenchord - Sunrise on Mars
• 60:13    Julien Marchal - Insight XIV
• 62:45    end

Breathe Deep

I work in TV news so as you can imagine with the midterm elections, wildfires, mass shootings, presidential tweets, etc., things can get pretty crazy. Sometimes you need to step back and take a breath. That's where this new mix comes in.

This collection is called "Breathe Deep" because all the tunes have a pace to them that sort of mimics breathing. In and out, back and forth, ebb and flow. It's similar to three other mixes I've done that follow the same path. This works very well as a sleep mix because it follows the slow breathing of a sleepy human(and dog).

Breathe deeeeeep.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Helios - Mulier
• 06:25    Deepspace - Dark Dark Blue
• 14:25    Max Corbacho - Starlight Grace
• 20:12    Chequerboard - A Field of Night
• 26:07    Tonepoet & Cloudfall - A Recollection of Distances
• 34:08    Time Rival - Thorn Bird
• 40:04    Billow Observatory - Montclair
• 44:20    Steve Roach - Magnificent Gallery
• 52:45    Laraaji - Introspection
• 63:16    end

Shimmering Land

I have collaborated with Paul Asbury Seaman and several mixes and I look forward each and every one. Paul's mixes tend to be more ethereal, spiritual than mine and that's why I enjoy them so much. they take me on journeys I would go on otherwise.

They way Paul and I work on these mixes is he sends me his well thought out tracklist in order. Then I just mix them together so they flow well. Essentially, Paul does all the heavy lifting.

So here is our latest collab - Shimmering Land. Paul had this to say about it:

"Meg Bowles is one of the few (prominent) female artists working in the ambient/electronic genre. She has only released five albums, including Evensong earlier this year, seven years after her last one, so there’s cause for celebration. All her albums are top-notch ethereal/soothing journeys similar to the tracks by other artists featured here. This mix includes a beautiful piece by Deborah Martin from her recent compilation."

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Meg Bowles - Into the Gloaming (The Shimmering Land 2013)
• 08:25    Sherry Finzer & Tom Moore - Infinite Space (Whispers From Silence 2016)
• 14:30    Alio Die - Radiance Revealed (Time Zone Portal 2017)
• 22:25    Ishq - Scielienta (Lyght 2018)
• 27:30    Jeff Greinke - High Flyers of the Night Sky (Before Sunrise 2018)
• 35:50    Meg Bowles - The Forgotten Valley (From the Dark Earth 1999)
• 42:55    Zero Ohms - Glimpsing the Eternal (Process of Being 2014)
• 55:00    Deborah Martin - Blue Lake (Selections 2018)
• 61:10    bvdub - Rainless [R]ivers (A Different Definition of Love 2018)
• 72:07    end

mental medication

My hometown baseball team, the Milwaukee Brewers, had a fantastic finish to close the regular season. They captured the central division title and are now in the playoffs. I am loving every minute of it but it's also stressful as heck! I am definitely too old for this kind of roller coaster ride.

I went to the first two games of the playoffs and between standing for half the game, clapping on every pitch, screaming my head off and the adrenaline rush of close games, I am exhausted! I don't know if I'll last the whole post-season.

So I figured I needed a little "mental medication" and came up with this mix. It's even more soothing than my normal ambient mix. This is music for meditation. Music for contemplation. Music for concentrating...on destroying the Dodgers. Oops! See that's exactly why I need this mix. Haha! This mix actually is a meditative type of mix that you could almost play in a spa. If that spa was way cooler than a normal spa and it played good music.

Cheers and Go Brewers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Sonmi451 - Angel
• 05:22    Bengalfuel - Arcs
• 09:40    Julia Rovinsky - An Arc of Doves
• 15:40    Ruven Nunez - As Above, So Below
• 26:05    The Heart is Awake - Ec
• 30:35    Spheruleus - Saturday Drones
• 37:35    Hiroshi Yoshimura - Clouds
• 42:30    Alex Crispin - Rosewater
• 47:00    Raul Lovisoni & Francesco Messina - Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo
• 58:45    Eternell - Resting On The Surface Of A Stream
• 74:30    Ruven Nunez - As Below, So Above
• 96:00    end

Memories are an old film

The idea for this mix came from a track by Andrew Sherwell on his wonderful new album, Orthodox Tales, released by the excellent label Whitelabrecs.

https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/orthodox-tales

The song, "And the Smoke of the Incense," starts off with the sound of a film projector. That sound is strangely evocative and I love how it sounds in that cut. After hearing that tune I created a folder called "My Life is an Old Film" and I would occasionally toss in similar sounding tracks. Eventually I collected enough cuts for a mix and decided to change the name to "Memories are an Old Film."

Many of these tracks have a bit of noise and scratchiness that one would associate with an old 8mm film. I added a few film projector sound fx here and there to continue the vibe.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Andrew Sherwell - And the Smoke of the Incense(2018)
• 03:15    L. Pierre - 1948 part 2(2017)
• 08:45    Ghost And Tape - Eostre(2017)
• 13:25    Luton - Spectres of Mark(2018)
• 15:38    Masaya Kato - Desensitization(2018)
• 18:05    Max Richter - Old Song(2004)
• 19:55    The Caretaker - Synapse Retrogenesis(2018)
• 21:30    Parallelism - Tapes(2018)
• 25:30    Lusine - drip(2004)
• 27:25    Clem Leek - Rogers Park(2018)
• 30:50    Aaron Martin - Memories are Drifting Bells(2018)
• 32:15    Ashlar - Same Fate(2018)
• 36:15    Tape Loop Orchestra - Inner Voice(2018)
• 43:30    Time Rival - Carbon Fever pt. 3(2018)
• 49:55    Max Richter - Shadow Journal(2004)
• 52:10    The Caretaker - Advanced Plaque Entanglements(2018)
• 53:55    Kilchhofer - Nihic(2018)
• 57:41    Dakota Suite - De Ziekte Van Emile(2018)
• 61:04    end

dubstrates & dreamstates

Ambient dub is one of my favorite sub-genres. I've done several "dubby & dreamy" mixes over the years. Such as:

http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2015/09/dubby-rainy.html

http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2016/05/dubscapes-seacapes.html

http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2013/01/dubscapes-dreamscapes.html

http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2012/02/dubby-noisy.html

http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2013/08/dub-transmissions.html

http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2010/12/subatomic-dubscapes.html

http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2008/12/motion-for-relief.html

There could be a couple more mixes floating out there but those are the ones that I could recall.

This new mix follows in that same dubby/dreamy mode that I love. Also I have found that these ambient dub mixes work well as stargazing companions. So the timing for this one is good as the Perseid meteor shower is at it's peak tonight & tomorrow night.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Halftribe - Balm
• 03:13    Docetism - One Forest
• 06:55    Segue - Vapour Trails
• 09:55    Pan American - Double Rail
• 13:39    Hannu Karjalainen - Love Unconditional
• 17:00    Martin Goodwin - Fifty
• 19:45    Radius - Always Dreaming
• 24:25    Dub Surgeon - Crazy Dub
• 26:10    Yagya - Very Long Daydream
• 28:30    Lars Leonhard - Circular
• 32:10    Lee Gamble - Helicopter
• 33:30    Ohrwert - Sonometric
• 40:00    SVLBRD - Vessel
• 45:00    Snufmumriko- Eterspar
• 50:15    Fluxion - Moving On
• 54:20    Joergmueller - DFM #8
• 59:15    Mokira - Untitled #6
• 62:20    Gray Acres - A Beauty Not Theirs
• 65:55    Purl & Hivetribe - Airwaves
• 74:38   end

Galaxy Express

Welcome to another great collaboration with my cosmic friend, Paul Asbury Seaman. The term "collaboration" gives me too much credit because Paul does the heavy lifting of finding the tunes and deciding on a sequence. I just mix them together.

This is another mix with a train-like propulsive feel but this one also has more space travel vibe. I like this mix more and more with each listen.  Here's what Paul has to say about it:

Like with Dave, my mixes often build on a single track (or title) I like, in this case a piece of artwork by Jon Lomberg, going back several decades, that was used to illustrate one of the chapters of Carl Sagan’s first book, THE COSMIC CONNECTION: “The Night Freight to the Stars.” 

This is an interstellar tribal/trance mix, with the emphasis not on nostalgia but a forward-looking magical realism. The ASC piece reflects an adrenaline-infused take-off (after Jon Serrie sets the space-travel motif and Adam Fielding sets the train motif). But then things settle down for the long haul between stars…

Harold & Durango Budd

A few months ago when I reached out to a few folks to create guest mixes, one of the first people I contacted was Matt Borghi. I've been listening to Matt's music for a long time and with him running the Ambient Soundbath Podcast it would be a perfect fit.

I absolutely adore the mix he has come up with as Harold Budd is one of my all-time favs as well.

I'll let Matt tell you about the mix:

I was very pleased when Dave invited me to submit a guest mix to the Low Light Mixes. Dave's mixes are as diverse as they are interesting and they're always chill with good vibes. I spent quite a bit of time thinking about what I might contribute that could hang with so many great mixes. I have a certain thing I do with the Ambient Soundbath Podcast, but the Low Light Mixes are more all-encompassing. 

After a couple months of deliberation, I decided that I would feature the work of my favorite composer, Harold Budd and newcomer, Durango Budd. Harold Budd's fantastic catalog of work very much informs the work of Durango Budd (https://durangobudd.bandcamp.com), and both of these artists have the piano at the center of most of their creative pursuits. Harold Budd has a well-publicized and longstanding love/hate relationship with the piano, yet he manages to coax such beautiful music out of a wood box filled with felt-tipped hammers and strings. Durango Budd, similarly, takes the same instrument and through experimentation and synthesis manages to coax out equally beautiful, distressed tones that evoke melancholic nostalgia (as Mike Carss, the artist known as Altus, put it - https://www.altusmusic.ca/).

In any case, many thanks to Dave for letting me do this mix and I hope that folks enjoy what I've put together. 

Thank you and enjoy.

-Matt Borghi

www.ambientsoundbath.com

www.mattborghi.com

Thanks Matt! I recommend both his music and his podcast - check them out.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

⦁ 00:00 – 06:00 - The Child with a Lion – Harold Budd – The White Arcades

⦁ 06:00 – 09:30 - Piano Drone 4 – Durango Budd – Drones for Prepared and Synthesized Piano

⦁ 09:30 – 12:30 - A Child in a Sylvan Field – Harold Budd – By the Dawn’s Early Light

⦁ 12:30 – 31:00 - Bismillahi’ Rrahman Rrahim – Harold Budd – The Pavilion of Dreams

⦁ 31:00 – 33:00 - Piano Drone 5 – Durango Budd – Drones for Prepared and Synthesized Piano

⦁ 33:00 – 39:00 - The Room of Ancillary Dreams – Harold Budd – The Room

⦁ 39:00 – 46:30 - Piano Synthesis Drone 3 – Durango Budd – Drones for Prepared and Synthesized Piano

⦁ 46:30 – 59:00 - Agua – Harold Budd - Agua

⦁ 59:00 – 61:30 - Piano Drone 1 – Durango Budd – Drones for Prepared and Synthesized Piano

Warming Trend

As I have said about 8 million times before, many mixes start with a single track. In this case it was the rediscovery of the track "Warming Trend" by Adam Pacione. It's a gentle, droning track that reminds me of Eno's Discreet Music.

I knew I wanted to use the tune in a mix and then realized that the track name would make a good title for a mix. From there I went in search of cuts that made me think of rising temps as we move from spring to summer. 

So a natural first selection would be "For the Summer, Or Forever" from Halftribe's excellent new album. Most of the tunes are new, predominantly from 2017 & 2018. And they all have a lazy, slow feel that works well with the title.

Grab a cool drink(personal fav would be a tequilla mule) and hang out with this new mix.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Halftribe - For the Summer, Or Forever(2018)
• 03:46    36 - Ego Death(2018)
• 09:19    Off Land - Off Spring(2018)
• 13:24    Adam Pacione - Warming Trend(2007)
• 15:40    The Green Kingdom - Photic Zone(2018)
• 22:39    Segue - Westcoast Trail(2013)
• 27:20    Sawako - jupiter c.cloud(2018)
• 31:00    Moss Covered Technology - Sea #4(2018)
• 40:42    Tonepoet - Cosmic Blue(2018)
• 47:07    Christopher Willits - Return(2017)
• 52:40    Snufmumriko - Still Early Days(2017)
• 58:15    Valotihkuu - The Wind Caresses the Treetops(2017)
• 62:33    end