low light mixes

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Ambient music mixes for a chaotic world

Episodes

Sunday Nov 28, 2021

absolutely ambient

Sunday Nov 28, 2021

Between work and Thanksgiving I didn't have time to put together a new mix this week. But then I remembered I had another in the "simply ambient" series waiting in the wings. So here it is - "absolutely ambient."

Like the the others in this series there is no overall theme other than a nice collection of excellent ambient music. With so much new music being released every week it's difficult to keep up and difficult to get it all into mixes. This series allows me to get some of that new music out there.

Links to all the albums used in this mix in the order that they appear:

Links to some of the excellent record labels this music was released on:

I can't believe we are almost to December and I haven't even thought about year-end lists or mixes. Hopefully over the next few weeks I can sort through all the music I've collected, knowing it barely scratches the surface of everything that is out there.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Tapes & Topographies - Bathed in Color and Light (Monomials 2021)
05:12 Andrew Heath - Melancholia (Drawings from Imagined Cities 2021)
14:55 Fields We Found - Time (Thanks 2021)
19:48 kj - Saturnalia (Saturnalia 2021)
24:51 Dirk Serries - Recloose (Recloose 2021)
34:47 Sonmi451 - Split Second (Seven Signals in the Sky 2021)
39:15 Ultramarine - Signals Into Space (The Sun in the East 2020)
44:55 Sofie Birch - Whisper Fold Brush Side B exerpt (Whisper Fold Brush 2021)
47:40 Maps and Diagrams - Mazinggarbe (Teygja Part B 2021)
50:00 Wodwo - Airlifted (Thistledown 2021)
53:00 Ishmael Cormack - Ōe (Ōe 2021)
56:15 Ian Nyquist - Sanctuary(Epilogue) (Endless, Shapeless 2021)
60:00 end

Sunday Oct 31, 2021

always ambient

Sunday Oct 31, 2021

This is mix #3 in the "simply ambient" series. It started with "simply ambient" then "purely ambient" and now "always ambient."

I listen to a ton of new music every month and this series gives me a chance to get some of that new music into mixes without having to wait for an appropriate theme. It's just straightforward ambient tracks, no theme, no big concept no story to tell - just excellent ambient music, always.

Music used in the mix:

https://vaagner.bandcamp.com/album/when-the-night-ends

https://polarseasrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/still-life

https://ambientologist.bandcamp.com/album/maritime

https://lontanoseries.bandcamp.com/album/stanotte

https://archivesdubmusic.bandcamp.com/album/slow-morning

https://rhucle.bandcamp.com/album/cycle

https://innesti.bandcamp.com/album/in-letters

https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/siberia

https://asc77.bandcamp.com/album/the-moons-of-saturn

https://devendrabanhart.bandcamp.com/album/refuge

https://keepsleep.bandcamp.com/album/past-life-memories

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Jens Pauly & Stijn Hüwels - The Leaves Will Fade (When The Night Ends 2021)
11:00 Igor Yalivec - Viola (Still Life 2021)
15:35 anthéne - juniper (maritime 2021)
19:10 Michele Andreotti - Ovunque (Stanotte 2021)
25:10 Robert Farrugia - Coastal (Slow Morning 2017)
32:00 Rhucle - Distance (Cycle 2021)
35:15 Rhucle - Tone (Cycle 2021)
38:40 Innesti - Narrative Forms (In Letters 2021)
42:40 Glåsbird - Thermokarsts (Siberia 2021)
46:40 ASC & Inhmost - Sunrise On Titan (The Moons Of Saturn 2021)
53:20 Devendra Banhart, Noah Georgeson - A Cat (Refuge 2021)
57:30 KeepSleep - 上次会议 Farewell (Past Life Memories 2021)
62:00 end

Friday Oct 29, 2021

Out Past Dark

Friday Oct 29, 2021

pexels-tatiana-9954199%2B%25282%2529.jpg

I'm getting this mix up & running just in time for Halloween. This one, while it does have a bit of a nighttime feel to it, is a little less creepy than some past Halloween mixes.

For this collection I looked for titles that fit the theme of night to day. The mix moves chronologically from sunset to night to moonrise and set to darkness to dreaming and finally to light and dawn.

Grab a pumpkin spice beer and...UGH, no don't do that! Grab a normal beer, like a refreshing Hamm's, and sit on the porch, in the dark, listening to this mix. Happy Halloween.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Eli Keszler - Civil Sunset (Icons 2021)
03:55 Seabuckthorn - It Will Be Dark By Then (Other Other 2020)
06:49 Zoe Keating - Hello Night (Into The Trees (2010)
10:21 A-Sun Amissa - Outr Past Dark (Black Rain 2020)
14:53 Wodwo - that full-mooned night (Filey Bay 1978 2018)
18:06 Loren Connors - Moon Gone Down (Night Through: Singles and Collected Works 2003)
19:45 Observatories - Visible Darkness (Flowers Bloom, Butterflies Come 2021)
22:42 Robert Davies - Nocturnal Reverie (Shadow Dreams 2009)
29:20 Ki Oni - Dream World (A Little Night Music Aural Apparitions from the Geographic North 2020)
33:35 Ben Salisbury & Geoff Barrow - Other Dreamers (Black Mirror: Men Against Fire 2016)
34:18 ASC & Sam KDC - Another Evasive Dream (A Restless Mind 2020)
39:00 Andrew Heath - There’s a Ghost in My House (The Alchemist’s Muse 2020)
40:00 Olga Wojciechowska - Nothing To Be Afraid Of (Salaam For Yemen 2018)
43:38 Windy & Carl - Will I See the Dawn (Allegiance and Conviction 2020)
48:40 Adrian Lane - The Dawn Seems Reluctant To Come (Ennio's Muse 2021)
51:15 Hipnotic Earth - Where Night Sky Meets Day (HomeWorld 2021)
56:00 Observatories - I Knew I Was Close When I Saw The Bloom Of Your Light (Flowers Bloom, Butterflies Come 2021)
59:35 Ecovillage - Break Of Dawn ft. Gallery Six (Clouds And Waves 2020)
62:45 end

Sunday Oct 17, 2021

Music for Covered Airports

Sunday Oct 17, 2021

Eight years ago I did a mix with covers of Eno tunes - UNDER ENO'S COVERS

Since then I've collected a few more that I was planning to use for a follow up. I found the most covered Eno album is Music for Airports. So I decided to recreate the album with covers. Hence the title of the mix - Music for Covered airports.

The tracks follow the same order as the original album - 1/1, 2/1, 1/2, 2/2. I made the first track with two covers because each was relatively short so I just combined them into one.

I found a great cover by Psychic Temple but it's a very loose cover. One can hear parts of 1/1 in it, but like I said it's very loose and improvisational. It didn't really fit with the flow of recreating the album so I tacked it onto the end. It actually seems like a nice way to end this experiment.

Some of the covers came from YouTube and haven't been formally released.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Alexander Elliott Miller - Music for Airports 1/1 guitar
03:19 Dan Piccolo - Music for Airports 1/1 percussion
08:03 Sean O'Neill, Ben Witt & Daniel Fragomeni - Music for Airports 2/1
16:30 Kai Schumacher - Music for Airports 1/2
26:30 Ambientorg - Music for Airports 2/2 pipe organ with electronics
35:18 Psychic Temple - Plays Music for Airports
48:33 end

Sunday Oct 03, 2021

The wind blows, just off-kilter

Sunday Oct 03, 2021

This mix started with one album - Goats & Distortions 5 by Dictaphone. It's one of my 2021 favorites. I began a new mix project with one song from that album as the starter, not knowing where it would go but the vibe was off-kilter. Then I heard a new album on Lost Tribe Sound, Departures by mastroKristo, and I knew where the mix would go.

This mix features a lot of wind instruments, although I'm not sure exactly what any of them are - clarinet, sax, soprano sax, oboe? A lot of the tracks are a bit askew, this is not smooth jazz. The music is atmospheric, moody, odd but the tracks all work perfectly together.

All the music is from 2021 and a few tracks are from some of my favorite albums of the year. I've already mentioned Dictaphone - Goats & Distortions 5. Another fav is Pino Palladino & Blake Mills - Notes with Attachments. And then there are two albums from Lost Tribe Sound that haven't been released yet but they will both be on my year-end favorites list. They are mastroKristo - Departures and Alapastel - Ceremony. They are both part of Lost Tribe Sound's Salt & Gravity series, which is fantastic.

Here's what LTS says about the series - "The Salt and Gravity Series is by far our most classical / ambient / drone adjacent collection yet. This series showcases some the most texturally pungent music we've ever released. A life long fascination with low end, blurred, battered and subterranean type sound has led us to this point... sound that you can feel rumbling up through the earth... the good stuff that makes your whole body hum versus just rattling around inside your head."

Go here to check it out... https://losttribesound.bandcamp.com/album/salt-and-gravity-series

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Dictaphone - O. (Goats & Distortions 5 2021)
04:00 mastroKristo - Gionis (Departures 2021)
08:02 Frieder Nagel - Para live version (The Arrival 2021)
11:15 Josiah Steinbrick - Mouthfeel 5 (Mouthfeel 2021)
14:24 Pino Palladino & Blake Mills - Notes with Attachments (Notes with Attachments 2021)
15:57 William Ryan Fritch - Cited (Freeland 2021)
17:34 William Ryan Fritch - Dropped (Freeland 2021)
20:06 Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes - Cold Pocket (Music for Saxofone and Bass Guitar More Songs 2021)
23:15 Eli Keszler - All the Mornings in the World (Icons 2021)
28:27 Masayoshi Fujita - Cumulonimbus Dream (Bird Ambience 2021)
32:00 Knower - As the Night Climbed, a Band of Raccoons Started Hastily to Perform their Nocturnal Jam (Curiosity Is Not Dead 2021)
36:05 Soft Generator - Asclepeion Process (A Carefully Controlled Space 2021)
39:22 Simon McCorry - Ocean Song (All Creatures 2021)
42:57 Hawsepiper - Air Stones (Red Knot Returns 2021)
47:00 Dictaphone - Goats & Distortions 2 (Goats & Distortions 5 2021)
49:11 Alapastel - New World Healing Centre (Ceremony 2021)
58:58 end

Sunday Sep 19, 2021

Always Autumn by Paul Asbury Seaman

Sunday Sep 19, 2021

Autumn seems perfectly suited to ambient music, especially ambient with a tinge of melancholy. I was thinking about doing an fall-themed mix when Paul approached me with his fully curated mix for autumn. Perfect!

Here's what Paul says about this mix:

“Dedicating this one to my sister, Miriam Walter, professor of nursing at Chico State University in Northern California. Her birthday is today, September 19th.

This turned out to be mostly guitar and piano, although I always (and still) intended it to be a going-to-sleep mix. Like most of my playlists for LLM, it starts out moderately slow and gets progressively slower and quieter. Just a bunch of beautiful tunes, with a touch of melancholy that I always associate with fall, and surrendering into tranquility.”

Thanks for another excellent mix, Paul!

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Peter Chilvers & Jon Durant - Always Autumn (Always Golden Sands 2020)
05:10 Will Ackerman, Jeff Oster, Tom Eaton - The Golden Hour (Brothers 2021)
09:52 Jeff Johnson & Phil Keaggy - Mosaic 7 (Ravenna 2021)
16:27 Between Interval - The Tides Of Time (Autumn Continent 2006)
20:50 Uman - Somewhere On Earth (You Are Here 1999)
24:41 Ken Verheecke - Falling Leaves (Autumn Reflections 2011)
28:23 Jeff Pearce - A Walk Through The Leaves (From the Darker Seasons 2017)
32:15 Calm Whale - Blue Moon Wind Chimes Meditation (Blue Moon Meditation 2017)
39:30 Altus - Green to Gold (Autumn Breeze 2005)
46:09 Beltone - Autumn (Blind Concert 2017)
50:52 Chinmaya Dunster - Sight Meditation (Meditation Ragas 2014)
57:45 Astropilot & Kaya Project - Wind of Change, Pt. 2 (Wind of Change, Pt. 2 2021)
62:13 Cousin Silas - Lost In Autumn (Blue Ice Beyond 2019)
68:15 Kamal - The Quiet Earth (The Quiet Earth - Dusk 1993)
72:14 Ron Boots - Lingering On (Autumn Moon 2016)
76:28 end

Sunday Sep 05, 2021

Slow Road - The Endless Potential of the Pedal Steel Guitar

Sunday Sep 05, 2021

This mix is pretty much what the title says - a collection of quiet/ambient tracks featuring the beautiful sounds of the pedal steel guitar.

I did another pedal mix two years and since then it seems to be easier to find practitioners of the ambient steel guitar sound. Only one artist, Chuck Johnson, is repeated from that mix in this one. Here's the first mix: http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2019/09/ambient-twang.html

All that's left to say is go relax with some steel guitar & maybe a good bourbon around a campfire.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Devendra Banhart & Noah Georgeson - In a Cistern (Refuge 2021)
04:03 Saariselka - Shepherd Canyon (Thousands of Eyes in the Dark 2019)
07:40 The Howard Hughes Suite - Vanishing Point (Smoke from a Future Fire 2020)
13:18 SUSS - Drift (Promise 2020)
17:55 North Americans - Yearling (Roped In 2020)
20:30 Raymond Richards - Paradise, California (The Lost Art of Wandering 2020)
25:45 Trond Kallevåg Hansen - Kapellet (Bedehus & Hawaii 2019)
28:35 susan alcorn - first turning of the wheel(for bob graettinge) (and i await..the resurrection of the pedal steel guitar 2007)
30:18 Chuck Johnson - The Laurel (The Cinder Grove 2021)
38:50 William Tyler - Slow Night's Static (New Vanitas 2020)
48:20 SUSS - Salt (Ghost Box 2018)
51:40 Raymond Richards - Astoria, Georgia (The Lost Art Of Wandering 2020)
55:06 Light of Woods - Sparrow (Field Notes 2016)
56:45 Chuck Johnson - Serotiny (The Cinder Grove 2021)
63:33 end

Sunday Aug 29, 2021

Vantage - Curated by Time Rival

Sunday Aug 29, 2021

I love guest mixes because they expose me to tracks I might have otherwise missed in the monthly deluge of new releases. This new mix comes to us from Michael Southard(Time Rival) of Triplicate Records. I've included a few Time Rival tracks in mixes over the years so I was excited when Michael agreed to put together a mix of some of the best his label has to offer.

Here's a blurb from Michael about this guest mix:

Triplicate Records is an artist run independent record label founded in 2018 by Michael Southard (Time Rival), Bryan Kraft (BVSMV), and George Ernst (Suncastle). We cover a lot of ground in regard to genres, but mostly stick to electronica, ambient and experimental. “Vantage” is a collection of music from our back catalog that highlights the softer side of what we do. Mixed and curated by Time Rival and featuring phenomenal new music from Ian Hawgood, Belly Full of Stars, Chris Randall, and much more.

All of this music is available through our Bandcamp page: https://triplicaterecords.bandcamp.com/

Thanks for an excellent set!

Triplicate has also made a small run painted CD - R version of the mix available at their bandcamp page... https://triplicaterecords.bandcamp.com/merch/vantage-limited-edition-painted-cd-r

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

Ian Hawgood - Flutter Echo Refrain – 0:00:00
Belly Full of Stars - Pattern 4 – 0:05:20
Time Rival – Beech – 0:09:37
Belial Pelegrim – Subtext – 0:12:53
BVSMV, Running in Slow Motion - Memory to Media – 0:18:00
Acef Stripe - Image 7: Dagobah – 0:22:20
Suncastle - The Rooms in Here are Enveloped – 0:24:51
Chaircrusher – Insular – 0:32:22
SURVEY CHANNEL - Outside the Coding Region – 0:39:02
Crest of the Syndicate – Lattermath – 0:44:58
Station Zero - Numb Hand - 0:46:34
Minimal_Drone*GRL - Raspberry Ripple – 0:50:24
Chorchill - Tea Bags – 0:52:46
Chris Randall - Synthetic Instinct – 0:54:59
End – 1:00:00

Sunday Aug 08, 2021

purely ambient

Sunday Aug 08, 2021

Last year at this time I did a mix called "simply ambient" which was a nice, straightforward mix of ambient tracks. This mix is a sort of follow up titled "purely ambient." There is no theme, no story being told by the music, no big concepts. Just ambient music, pure and simple.

This might be the start of a series of mixes - utterly ambient, perfectly ambient, naturally ambient, totally ambient, etc. This would be allow me to get some of the tons of new music that I listen to every month into mixes without having to wait for an appropriate theme. Every track in this mix is from 2021.

So kick back and relax to some purely ambient music.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Ambalek - In the Curled Combes (Fremder 2021)
05:36 Pruski - Horizon (Whispers 2021)
10:40 O Yuki Conjugate - Antonym (A Tension of Opposites Vols 1 & 2 2021)
14:48 Martin Nonstatic - Fading Mist (Reflecting Glaciers 2021)
21:00 Robert Davies - Nocturnal Deliquescence (Arcadia 2021)
27:50 Sailcloth - Great Lakes (Woodcut 2021)
30:20 Konstruct - Nostolgia (Three (squared) 2021)
36:00 Free Dust - Earl Grey (Woo'd Early 2021)
40:00 Erik Wollo - Afterprints (Recurrence 2021)
45:00 Rosales - Nest (Still, Tomorrow 2021)
53:15 anthéne & Simon McCorry - lucid (the equation of time 2021)
60:31 end

Sunday Aug 01, 2021

Chill Summer Guitars

Sunday Aug 01, 2021

I few weeks ago the good folks over at The Slow Music Movement sent me a couple tracks by Wiki Chaves. After listening I immediately knew I had to construct a mix around the laid back guitar style. A style The Slow Music Movement calls - "Perfect for all your beach lying, garden barbecuing, hammock slouching, sunbathing, holiday taking soundtrack needs."

Here's a link to the latest Wiki Chaves release: https://wikichaves.bandcamp.com/

From there I listened to guitar music for a couple of weeks, collecting tracks with a similar vibe. There were some artists I knew right away that I would include like Khruangbin, Bill Frisell & William Tyler. Some were new discoveries like Tommy Guerrero & Jeffrey Silverstein. While others were older tracks I was happy to rediscover such as Steve Hiett, Pat Metheny, Durutti Column and Yo La Tengo.

I like how the mix takes a more acoustic turn about half way through. Starting with new music from The Phonometrician then an old track from Calexico to even older tracks from Charlie Haden & Pat Metheny and Yo La Tengo.

Many of the mixes I do tend to focus on new music because that's what I'm listening to at the time. This mix, however, hits on 5 decades of music and it's pretty cool how they mesh together.

Artist/album links:

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Wiki Chaves - Pleasure Point (Raiz 2021)
04:16 Khruangbin - Father Bird, Mother Bird (Mordechai 2020)
07:17 Steve Hiett - Blue Beach (Down on the Road by the Beach 1983)
11:21 Bill Frisell - The Shortest Day (Guitar in the Space Age! 2014)
14:05 William Tyler - Highway Anxiety (Modern Country 2016)
19:27 Tommy Guerrero - Sun Rays Lie Stilts (Perpetual 2015)
21:15 Jeffrey Silverstein - This and Also (Future Folk: Friendly Faces; Different Spaces 2021)
25:15 Durutti Column - Sara E Tristana (Amigos Em Portugal 1983)
28:03 Bexar Bexar - n.r.o.t. (haralambos 2003)
31:17 Trond Kallevåg Hansen - Bedehus og Hawaii (Bedehus & Hawaii 2019)
36:15 The Phonometrician - Campos de Trigo (El Mar Convertido en Oceano 2021)
39:45 Calexico - Above the Ranch (Tool Box 2007)
42:50 Charlie Haden & Pat Metheny - Cinema Paradiso (Beyond The Missouri Sky 1997)
46:33 Yo La Tengo - Green Arrow (I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One 1997)
51:40 The Green Kingdom - Sol 1 (Solaria 2021)
55:09 Steve Hiett - Standing There (Down on the Road by the Beach 1983)
58:27 Helios - Emancipation (Eingya 2006)
60:50 Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays - September Fifteenth (As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls 1980)
62:47 end