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Ambient music mixes for a chaotic world
Episodes
Sunday Jan 30, 2022
Sunday Jan 30, 2022
Since that first mix two years ago I have totally bought into wind instruments in ambient and modern composition music. That's why my fav album from last year was "Departures" by mastroKristo(who makes an appearance in this mix). From Clariloops to Sam Gendel to Dirk Serries to Andrew Heath, sax and other woodwinds have become a big part of my ambient listening habit.
All the tracks in this mix are excellent but I especially love the cut from Matt Borghi & Michael Teager and the cut from Dirk Serries. Perfect combo of sax and ambient. I also have to mention the final track Max Richter's On the Nature of Daylight by Signum Saxophone Quartet. That track is one of my favorites of all time so when I found a sax quartet cover of it I nearly lost my mind. Perfect way to end the mix.
Cheers!
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 Ethan Braun + Sam Gendel - 1/2 SCULPTURE [Rio Nilo 66 2021]
- 04:14 mastroKristo - The Breath [Depatures 2021]
- 07:05 Phillip Schroeder - On Occasion [Passage Through a Dream 2015]
- 10:25 Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - For Mothers [A Little Night Music Aural Apparitions from the Geographic North 2020]
- 14:15 Matt Borghi and Michael Teager - Stationary Voyage [Subterranean Bearings 2020]
- 19:25 Dirk Serries & Trösta - Oceanus [Island On The Moon 2021]
- 26:22 Night Gestalt - Between Two Breaths [Thousand Year Waves 2021]
- 31:34 Fuubutsushi - Cicada Season [Fuubutsushi 2020]
- 34:00 Carmen Villain - Agua Azul [Sketch for Winter IX: Perlita 2021]
- 38:25 M. Sage - Spinnaker on a Southerly [The Wind of Things 2021]
- 41:14 Klaus Gesing, Björn Meyer, Samuel Rohrer - What We Leave [Amiira 2016]
- 45:52 Pino Palladino, Blake Mills - Notes with Attachments [Notes with Attachments 2021]
- 47:37 Sam Gendel & Shin Sasakubo - Reeds [Sam Gendel & Shin Sasakubo 2021]
- 49:54 Okomotive, Joel Schoch - Sail, my Friend! [FAR: Lone Sails Soundtrack 2018]
- 53:00 Signum Saxophone Quartet - On the Nature of Daylight for Saxophone Quartet and Cello [Echoes 2021]
- 59:13 end
Sunday Jan 23, 2022
Sunday Jan 23, 2022
A million miles from Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope has arrived at it's parking spot at Lagrange Point #2, the perfect place to search the heavens for faint light from the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe. This mix tells the story of the Webb observatory as it seeks to "Unfold the Universe."
The telescope, like its mission, is big. When expanded to full size, it can’t fit into the nose cone of any available launch vehicle. One of Webb’s main components, sunshield, is the area of a tennis court. It was carefully folded and packed to fit inside the Ariane 5 rocket. In space, the sunshield will expand and separate into five distinct layers. The telescope's primary mirror, the largest mirror ever flown into space, is also too wide to fit into the rocket in one piece. So it is segmented into 18 hexagonal pieces on a hinged structure so it can fold up for launch and unfold in space.
Sunday Jan 02, 2022
Sunday Jan 02, 2022
A few things I noticed from my year-end list - no berlin-school music, very little what I would call 'space' music, a fair amount of dusty, loop music like Maps & Diagrams or Tapes & Topographies, several guitar based albums like Dave Depper, Dave Nelson, SUSS, and Devendra Banhart, and lastly, a lot of modern classical/modern composition albums from Mastrokristo & Alapastel to Max Richter and Viktor Orri Árnason and Glåsbird.
That collection of favorites is nothing new for me. I've been a big fan of that dusty, noisy, loop-based style for a long time & as modern composition has grown over the years, so has my interest. Although, I may need to dive back into spacey, droney ambient like the stuff in the stargazing mixes.
I guess there's not much else to say for this post other than here is part 2 of my favorite ambient albums of 2021.
Cheers!
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 Ben Seretan - Cicada Waves 1 [Cicada Waves on NNA Tapes]
- 05:45 Sonmi451 - Lampenfiber [Seven Signals in the Sky on Laaps]
- 10:10 Bombay Dub Orchestra - Cultivating Compassion (Instrumental Version) Part 3 [Cultivating Compassion (Instrumental Version) on Six Degrees]
- 15:08 Glåsbird - Last Ritual [Siberia on Whitelabrecs]
- 24:26 Sailcloth - Red Woods [Woodcut on Lost Tribe Sound]
- 27:00 Dave Nelson - Easy and Preferred Answers [The Act of Vanishing]
- 29:52 Devendra Banhart, Noah Georgeson - Three Gates [Refuge on Dead Oceans]
- 33:25 Jens Pauly, Stijn Hüwels - The Leaves Will Fade [When The Night Ends on Vaagner]
- 39:36 Dirk Serries - Recloose(excerpt) [Recloose]
- 48:26 anthéne - Winter Sun [maritime on Ambientologist 2021]
- 53:17 Wil Bolton - Unraveling [Cumulus Sketches on Home Normal]
- 59:05 Jeannine Schulz - River [Luminous on Polar Seas]
- 63:17 Just a Human - Revive(Outro) [Hibernate]
- 65:25 Enrico Coniglio - Everything and Nothing [Alpine Variations on Dronarivm]
- 68:50 Asc & Inhmost - Obscured Form [Dimensional Space on Auxilairy]
- 75:07 Peter Gregson - Over [Patina on Deutsche Grammophon]
- 76:51 end
Saturday Jan 01, 2022
Saturday Jan 01, 2022
These year-end lists seem to be getting harder and harder to curate. The sheer number of releases makes it nearly impossible to keep up and listen to all the music. Through Spotify and Bandcamp most of this music is available immediately, which is great, but it can also foster a severe case of FOMO, fear of missing out. Whether it's ambient music or indie rock/pop I am on a constant prowl for new music, sometimes at the disservice of current music which I have not given time to sink in.
A list like this is obviously not a definitive "Best of" list. These are just some of my favorites from this year. Sometimes an album happens to catch me in the right mood, in the right place and it hits home. Is it better than all the other releases? Maybe. But all I know is it caught my ear at the right time, I latched on, listened, and it became one of my favorites.
I made the list with a top 5 and then listed everything else alphabetically. It's way too hard to say this one is #14 while that one is #22. That being said I totally loved the top 3 on this list.
FAVORITE AMBIENT ALBUMS OF 2021:
1. Mastrokristo - Departures [Lost Tribe Sound]
2. Dictaphone - Goats & Distortions 5 {Denovali]
3. AlaPastel - Ceremony [Lost Tribe Sound]
4. Max Richter - Voices 2 [Decca]
5. Loscil - Clara [Kranky]
-------------
AES DANA - (a) period. [Ultimae]
Andrew Heath - Drawings from Imagined Cities [Elm Records]
anthéne - maritime [Ambientologist 2021]
Arovane - Reihen [12k]
ASC & Inhmost - Dimensional Space [Auxilairy]
Ben Seretan - Cicada Waves [NNA Tapes]
Bombay Dub Orchestra - Cultivating Compassion(instrumentals) [Six Degrees Records]
Calm Whale - Breathing Earth Meditation
Christian Loffler - Parallels [Deutsche Grammophon]
Clariloops - Sun//Rain
Darkroom - The Last Sense To Fade [Whitelabrecs]
Dave Depper - Europa [Jealous Butcher Records]
Dave Nelson - The Act of Vanishing
Devendra Banhart & Noah Georgeson - Refuge [Dead Oceans]
Dirk Serries - RecloosE
Enrico Coniglio – Alpine Variations [Dronarivm]
Glåsbird - Siberia [Whitelabrecs]
Gray Acres - Dreams and Phantoms [Archives]
Igor Yalivec - Still Life [Polar Seas Recordings]
Jeff Parker - Forfolks [International Anthem]
Jeaninne Schulz - Luminous [Polar Seas]
Jens Pauly & Stijn Huwels - When the Night Ends [Vaagner]
Just a Human - Hibernate
Maps & Diagrams - Teygja Parts A & B [Handstitched]
Merope - Salos [Stroom]
Peter Gregson - Patina [Deutsche Grammophon]
Sailcloth - Woodcut [Lost Tribe Sound]
Sonmi451 - Seven Signals in the Sky [laaps]
SUSS - Night Suite
Tapes & Topographies - Monomials [Simulacra Records]
Tapes & Topographies - In Muted Forms [Shimmering Moods]
Taylor Deupree - Mur [12k]
Toumani Diabate & London Symphony Orchestra - Korolen [World Circuit]
Viktor Orri Árnason - Eilífur [PentaTone]
Wil Bolton - Cumulus Sketches [Home Normal]
William Ryan Fritch - Built Upon a Fearful Void [Lost Tribe Sound]
That's too much for one mix so I'll post part 1 and part 2. I also plan on doing a mix of favorite jazz-ish tracks from this year. I have a list of several non-ambient instrumental/jazz releases that I really liked so I'll post the list and a mix of fav tracks.
But first, my favorite ambient music, part one. Enjoy.
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 Max Richter - Psychogeography [Vpices 2 on Decca]
- 06:30 mastroKristo - Ocean [Departures on Lost Tribe Sound ]
- 09:53 Dictaphone - Griot Dub [Goats & Distortions 5 on Denovali]
- 14:05 Alapastel - Releaseness [Ceremony on Lost Tribe Sound]
- 18:48 Loscil - Vespera [Clara 0n Kranky]
- 22:45 Arovane - Sicht [Reihen on 12k]
- 25:38 Aes Dana - Haphazard [(a) period. on Ultimae]
- 28:18 Calm Whale - Breathing EARTH [Breathing EARTH Meditation]
- 31:05 Merope - Vilnia [Salos on Stroom]
- 35:13 Dave Depper - Vienna Five [Europa on Jealous Butcher Records]
- 41:11 Christian Löffler - Pastoral [Parallels on Deutsche Grammophon]
- 44:42 Tapes and Topographies - Spec Work as Magic [Monomials on Simulacra Records]
- 47:23 Map & Diagrams - Mutability [Teygja Part B on Handstitched]
- 50:50 Igor Yalivec - Nymphaea [Still Life on Polar Seas]
- 55:40 Andrew Heath - Drawings from Imagined Cities [Drawings from Imagined Cities on Elm Records]
- 65:02 end
Sunday Nov 28, 2021
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:
- https://tapesandtopographies.bandcamp.com/album/monomials
- https://andrewheath.bandcamp.com/album/drawings-from-imagined-cities
- https://ambientologist.bandcamp.com/album/thanks
- https://polarseasrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/saturnalia
- https://dirkserries.bandcamp.com/album/recloose
- https://laaps-records.com/album/seven-signals-in-the-sky
- https://real-soon.bandcamp.com/album/the-sun-in-the-east
- https://sofiebirch.bandcamp.com/album/whisper-fold-brush
- https://handstitched.bandcamp.com/album/teygja-part-b
- https://soundtrackingthevoid.bandcamp.com/album/thistledown
- https://fallowrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/e
- https://laaps-records.com/album/endless-shapeless
- https://ambientologist.bandcamp.com/music
- https://polarseasrecordings.bandcamp.com/music
- https://laaps-records.com/music
- https://real-soon.bandcamp.com/music
- https://seilrecords.bandcamp.com/
- https://handstitched.bandcamp.com/music
- https://soundtrackingthevoid.bandcamp.com/music
- https://fallowrecordings.bandcamp.com/music
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
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
Friday Oct 29, 2021
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
Sunday Oct 17, 2021
- 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
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
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.”
- 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