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Ambient music mixes for a chaotic world
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Thursday May 13, 2021
Thursday May 13, 2021
The origin of this mix is very simple - I simply wanted a new collection of meditative tunes to sleep to or zone out to while sipping tequila on the deck.
Once I decided to go with a meditation mix I immediately thought of a recent purchase of music from an artist known as Calm Whale. You can't go wrong with any of their releases. Just close your eyes and pick one and it will be beautifully calm and meditative.
The rest of the mix is almost all new stuff except for one random track from 1980 sneaking in.
Go sit in your comfy spot of choice and zone out to Meditation & Solace.
Cheers!
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 Lab Cloud - Serenity 5am (The Structure Of Emotions 2021)
- 06:00 Don Slepian - Sea of Bliss (New Music for Digital Orchestra 1980)
- 13:03 Hipnotic Earth - Sadness Too Deep (HomeWorld 2021)
- 21:41 Calm Whale - Flowing In Harmony - Tibetan Bowls & RAV (Flowing In Harmony - Tibetan Bowls & RAV 2021)
- 29:33 Clariloops - Solace (Sun-Rain 2021)
- 32:32 zakè & City of Dawn - Fragile Dreaming In A Fragile Mind (Frizzell & Duque: A Sorrow Unrequited 2021)
- 39:27 the heart is awake - the Return ii(Healing Arts reMix) (the Healing Arts reMIXES Vol III 2020)
- 45:11 jarguna - My Temple (My Temple 2020)
- 50:15 Calm Whale - Breathing EARTH (Breathing EARTH Meditation 2021)
- 62:17 end
Sunday Apr 25, 2021
Sunday Apr 25, 2021
After the craziness of the last mix it's nice to slow down. And what better way to slow down than with a guest mix from James over at The Slow Music Movement. They have a wonderful new album called "Future Folk: Friendly Faces; Different Spaces."
https://theslowmusicmovement.bandcamp.com/album/future-folk-friendly-faces-different-spaces
After I heard it I asked James to do a guest mix featuring some tracks from that album along with other cuts that fit the vibe. The result is a unique journey through folk-influenced ambient and ambient-influenced folk.
While this mix only has three tracks from the new album they share a similar vibe and outlook. Here's what James has to say about his new compilation:
"This compilation came about with my increasing interest in folk music after years of focusing on the 25 year old golden age of musical fusion that is still playing out. Having ridden the industry waves and ripples since the MP3 & digital stones were rudely thrown into the music pond, I am constantly fascinated by 20th century holdouts looking back wistfully to the good old, bad old days of smoky venues, hounding newsagents for music magazines, easily damaged vinyl, ancient instruments, terrible sounding tapes, label dependency, photocopied fanzines and stamp licking.
So I contacted a few of the artists that had lit my folk flame to see what they had to say? Artists that know their roots, but who are keeping their eyes on the road ahead and the world of possibility they now enjoy. Shortly after, from home studios in spare rooms and internet enabled remote collaborations, wildly processed instruments from hazy late night jam sessions, digitally mutated acapellas and 13th century songs covered in an age that the long dead and sadly forgotten writer could never have imagined, started to drift into my inbox.
Is an evolutionary leap the key to folk’s survival? Time, the whims of the coronavirus gods, the folk community’s response to today’s existential stresses, adaptation to changing media consumption habits, marketing decisions and ultimately, people’s decisions on what style of music suits them best, will decide."
Here are some important links:
Future Folk on Streaming Services
Cheers!
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 El Conejo - Tres Tigres Tristes
- 05:40 Jörgen Kjellgren - Dulcet,
- 08:32 Adeline Hotel - Reliable Feelings,
- 11:10 Kerry Devine - Vehicle,
- 15:43 John Stammers - Waiting Around,
- 20:00 The Howard Hughes Suite - Smoke from a Future Fire,
- 24:08 Tim Linghaus - You Called it Love,
- 27:07 Boduf Songs - Unseen Forces and How to Use Them,
- 32:40 Roddy Woomble - Everday Sun,
- 36:50 Black Brunswicker - Black Grouse Raag,
- 41:25 M. Grig - Call, (45.50) Lightbath - Insinyur Cahaya,
- 49:00 Ben McElroy - The Silence Has Spoken,
- 52:00 Cynefin - Ffarwel I Aberystwyth,
- 56:00 Burnt Paw - Arthur's Sea,
- 58:40 Andreas Söderström & Rickard Jäverling - Klockan
- 62:53 end
Sunday Apr 11, 2021
Sunday Apr 11, 2021
It's funny how mixes come together sometimes. I started this one only knowing I wanted it to be pretty straightforward ambient. The easiest thing to do was to start with some new music from the last month or two. As I laid down a few tracks I started to get this feeling of the sea, of drifting on the water, of a quiet harbor. So I went with it.
Before long I had an entire mix of new music that hung together with this beautiful ebb & flow. The theme came about organically. The tracks themselves dictated what the mood would be. I've done other sea themed mixes over the years and this one could be the most subtle. I didn't add any field recordings - any wave sounds were already in a track. It's more about feel and vibe than sound fx.
All the cuts are from 2021 except for Bursts of Static by Olga Wojciechowska. I heard that on the BBC the morning after finishing the mix and knew immediately that I had to include it.
This mix might work well as soundtrack for a rainy spring day or for a nap in hammock as you dream of drifting out on the tide.
Cheers!
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 Jeannine Schulz - Riber (Luminous 2021)
- 04:35 The Green Kingdom - Atmosphere 1 (Solaria 2021)
- 09:21 Moss Covered Technology - Pressure Change (Seafields 2021)
- 15:43 Andrew Heath & Anne Chris Bakker - November (How To Breathe Like A Stone 2021)
- 26:18 Taylor Deupree - murmur (Mur 2021)
- 29:21 Daar - Waves Your Back Describes (Entire 2021)
- 34:25 Andrew Tasselmyer - What We Lost (Yesteryear 2021)
- 37:40 Observatories - Visible Darkness (Flowers Bloom, Butterflies Come 2021)
- 41:26 Jogging House - Between (Too 2021)
- 44:08 Olga Wojciechowska - Bursts of Static (Infinite distances 2019)
- 48:57 Tapes and Topographies - other distant mermaids (A Season of Loss 2021)
- 52:33 Spheruleus - Danse de Chambre (Canvas Homes + Supplémentaires 2021)
- 56:47 Masaya Kato & Valotihkuu - Viviante (Swallow 2021)
- 59:07 halftribe - Fern Moss (Lucent Forms Travelling 2021)
- 62:16 end
Monday Mar 15, 2021
Monday Mar 15, 2021
This year I've had the good fortune of posting several cool guest mixes and that continues with this excellent collection from Brad Deschamps of Polar Seas Recordings.
https://polarseasrecordings.bandcamp.com/
It's not a mix of all Polar Seas releases, in fact only the opening and closing tracks are from the label. But it is perfect timing for a mix from Brad because Polar Seas is releasing three excellent new albums on Friday March 19th.
https://polarseasrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/luminous
https://polarseasrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/ghost-bird
https://polarseasrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/and-where-are-you-really-from
I love getting guest mixes because there is always great music in them that I have never heard. And that's the case with this one. I think I was familiar with 4 of the 9 artists in the set. So thanks to Brad for exposing me to even more good ambient music. But even more important thanks to Brad for running the great ambient record label - Polar Seas Recordings.
Cheers!
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 - 03:38 Jeannine Schulz - Rooms and Surfaces I
- 03:38 - 10:53 Laura Luna Castillo - Eight Pounds of Tuberose
- 10:53 - 15:36 Sea Oleena - On Possession
- 15:36 - 20:50 Sachi Kobayashi - Nostalgia
- 20:50 - 29:38 Patricia Wolf - Position From the Sun
- 29:38 - 35:43 Claire M. Singer - Wrangham
- 35:43 - 40:01 Lisa Lerkenfeldt - Champagne Smoke
- 40:01 - 42:53 Sofie Birch - Kandisae
- 42:53 - 46:00 Clara Engel & Bradley Sean Alexander - Ghost Bird Alive, At Dawn
Sunday Feb 28, 2021
Sunday Feb 28, 2021
As I've said here before, solo piano is wonderfully evocative of falling snow. So this mix is a collection of piano tracks that remind me of snow.
All the tunes are new, being from 2020 or 2021. Including the opening track from a forthcoming album on Whitelabrecs, i=r by Lorenzo Masotto https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/i-r
There's not much else to say other than enjoy this last snow mix of the year. We still have a lot of snow on the ground but it's melting and I can sense spring just around the corner. Of course by saying that I probably just guaranteed that we'll get hit with another 12" storm by the end of month. Ugh. I think I continue to live in a cold, snowy environment just for the musical inspiration. ;-)
Cheers!
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 Lorenzo Masotto - i=r(lake) (i=r 2021)
- 03:58 Echoflex - D aeolian (Echoflex VI: Piano Net 2020)
- 09:42 Snorri Hallgrímsson - Landbrot (Landbrot I EP 2020)
- 12:19 Jon Hopkins - Dawn Chorus (2020)
- 15:24 James Murray & Mike Lazarev - Animitta (Sunnata 2020)
- 17:45 Nebel lang - Sigh (Hand in mine 2021)
- 21:52 Polaroid Notes - Down By The Sea (Ennio's Muse 2021)
- 25:04 Elskavon & John Hayes - L'etoile (Du Nord 2020)
- 28:28 Julia Gjertsen & Nico Rosenberg - Proper Time (Distant Fields 2020)
- 35:15 Ólafur Arnalds - Still _ Sound (some kind of peace 2020)
- 37:42 Belly Full of Stars - Pattern 4 (Aura 2021)
- 39:24 Snorri Hallgrímsson - Haustar (Landbrot I EP 2020)
- 42:35 Ian Hawgood - Dear Trish (Ennio's Muse 2021)
- 45:02 Echoflex - C aeolian (Echoflex VI: Piano Net 2020)
- 52:11 Nebel lang - Inwards (Hand in mine 2021)
- 67:51 end
Sunday Feb 21, 2021
Sunday Feb 21, 2021
- 00:00 Andrew Tasselmyer - Sleep Walking (Impulses 2021)
- 05:05 Arovane - 10 dezember 2019 (Wirkung 2021)
- 08:32 Crows Labyrinth & Wolfgang Merx - Ornaments I (Ornaments I 2021)
- 12:50 Chuck Johnson - Serontiny (The Cinder Grove 2021)
- 19:15 Free Dust - Early Gray (Woo'd Early 2021)
- 23:50 Hipnotic Earth - Repose Longplay edit (Sleeping Whales 2021)
- 29:25 Jazzdefector - Magomadas (Ennio's Muse 2021)
- 32:00 Jogging House - Farewell (Flaws 2021)
- 36:30 Maiya Hershey - What the Bearing Sea Takes (Music for Another Sky 2021)
- 40:25 Mehrdad Kanani - Nerves and Veins (Forgotten Conversation 2021)
- 44:30 Owl - Distant Transmissions (Infinite Horizon 2021)
- 48:06 Simon McCorry - Ocean Song (All Creatures 2021)
- 52:42 Thme - Acy (Ennio's Muse 2021)
- 56:03 William Ryan Fritch - Resurface (Freeland 2021)
- 57:40 zakè - Distant Shadow (Music for Another Sky 2021)
- 61:17 end
Sunday Feb 14, 2021
Sunday Feb 14, 2021
Somehow last year I missed the album Transcendence by Sherry Finzer.
https://heartdancerecords.bandcamp.com/album/transcendence
It's an album of solo flute improvisations recorded in an old water tank in Rangely, Colorado. It definitely has the same feel as Paul Horn's Inside the Great Pyramid from 1976. As I listened to it, I wondered if I could collect enough tracks to make a mix of music recorded in water tanks, silos and cisterns. Well, I guess I found enough because here's the mix - Resonant Spaces.
There were a few artists that I immediately knew I would include - Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Paul Horn, and Jim Cole. From there I did a bit of research, got a recommendation from Sherry, and ended up with a nice collection of tracks.
My first exposure to recording on-site, in an unusual location was Paul Horn's Great Pyramid album. I had that LP in college and it helped me through many nights of studying. Well, not that many because I didn't study a whole lot.
My next exposure was 1989's Deep Listening by Oliveros, Dempster, & Panaiotis. An iconic album recorded in a huge underground cistern in northwest Washington state. The space would eventually be known as Dan Harpole Cistern. Deep Listening is one of my favorite ambient albums of all time. It owes its unique sound to the incredible space in which it was recorded.
According to the liner notes they parked their van next to the cistern and began to drop cables into the 14-foot deep cavern. They then rigged up rope and harnesses to lower chairs, accordion, sea shells, trombone, garden hoses, didgeridoos, tarps, cleaning tools and people. It was very dark, contrasted with the daylight streaming in from the hatch where they had come down.
The liner notes continue - "The remarkable thing about the acoustic space is the long reverb, which could approach 45 seconds, and the lack of slap echoes and distinct early reflections that are often characteristic of large cathedrals; only pure, smooth reverb...the amplitude of which appears to begin at the sane decibel level as the source. Consequently, it is impossible to tell where the performer stops and the reverberation takes over."
Here's a list of each artist, their album & a pic of where the recording was made:
1. Sherry Finzer - Transcendence - recorded at The Tank in Rangely, Colorado.
2. Jim Cole & Spectral Voices - Innertones - recorded in a 120-feet-tall water tank.
3. Stuart Dempster - Underground Overlays from the Cistern Chapel - recorded in a 2 million-gallon concrete cistern, now empty, in the Pacific Northwest known as the Dan Harpole Cistern.
4. Jherek Bischoff - Cistern - also recorded in the Dan Harpole Cistern.
5. Paul Horn - Inside The Great Pyramid - Recorded in the King's Chamber inside The Great Pyramid of Gizeh.
6. Paul Kikuchi - Portable Sanctuary Vol. 2 - Live in the Great Hall - recorded in the Great Hall at Union Station, Seattle, WA.
7. Jherek Bischoff - Improvisations - recorded in the Dan Harpole Cistern in Fort Warden in Port Townsend, WA.
7. Bodhi - Inside - recorded inside an old military bunker. I could not locate a pic of the bunker so this is from the album cover.
8. The User - Silophone - recorded in an abandoned grain storage facility in the port of Montréal.
9. Brother Saturn - Live at The Tank - recorded at The Tank in Colorado.
10. Bob Guido - Silophonic - recorded in Silo #5, an abandoned grain storage facility in the port of Montréal.
11. Oliveros Dempster Panaiotis - Deep Listening - recorded in the Dan Harpole Cistern in Washington.
Cheers!
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 Sherry Finzer - Ancient Roots (Transcendence 2020)
- 05:18 Jim Cole & Spectral Voices - Hear Earth (Innertones 2006)
- 09:53 Stuart Dempster - Morning Light (Underground Overlays from the Cistern Chapel 1995)
- 17:20 Jherek Bischoff - The Sea's Son (Cistern 2016)
- 23:34 Paul Horn - Initiation (Inside The Great Pyramid 1976)
- 29:22 Paul Kikuchi - Union Pacific (Portable Sanctuary Vol. 2 - Live in the Great Hall 2016)
- 32:57 Bodhi - Relax (Inside 2020)
- 33:57 The User - Silophone (2001)
- 35:30 Brother Saturn - A Canopy Of Stars (Live at The Tank 2018)
- 39:50 Bob Guido - Silophonic
- 42:05 Oliveros Dempster Panaiotis - Lear (Deep Listening 1989)
- 52:05 Jim Cole & Spectral Voices - Spectral Winds, Inward Voices (Innertones 2006)
- 60:00 end
Sunday Feb 07, 2021
Sunday Feb 07, 2021
 |
| Photo by Nick Reynolds on Unsplash |
I am so psyched to have another excellent guest mix. This one comes from long-time friend of the blog, Innesti - innesti.bandcamp.com
I have featured a bunch of Innesti music over the years and have hosted guest mixes from him as well. A couple of days ago I got an email asking if I was interested in another guest mix of ambient vaporwave tunes. Aww, hell yeah, I'm interested. Although I'm not quite sure what Vaporwave is. No worries, Innesti explains it for us:
Vaporwave is a niche genre of electronic music that combines the visual aesthetic of meme culture with the glitched out and stretched sounds of 1980's mall and infomercial music. It is not the kind of music that you would expect to appeal to listeners who enjoy deep ambient soundscapes. Nonetheless, buried deep within this genre are some amazing beatless and atmospheric pieces. I am drawn to these because they capture the kinds of atmospheres that I enjoy, but emerge organically within a completely different musical tradition. This mix represents a sample of some of my favorite ambient vaporwave tracks.
Sounds great!
Cheers!
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 地球 - ジャングル PART 2
- 07:10 Subaeris - The City In Rain
- 12:50 Lindsheaven Virtual Plaza - Polynomial Voices
- 19:40 Corp. & t e l e p a t h - 進化 - 猫 シ
- 23:12 Corp. & t e l e p a t h - A New Life Awaits You
- 26:07 暗号零 - 我爱你我的孩子 (Mother)
- 30.59 SONYA™ SleepStation - [program b] - sleep
- 36:30 ∑ V ∑ R Y T H I N G - In this forest all of your problems become beautiful birds
- 42:25 Zadig The Jasp - (海の前で-In Front Of The Sea.)
- 52:12 ll nøthing ll - Cycle
- 60:00 end
Sunday Jan 31, 2021
Sunday Jan 31, 2021
As I type this we are getting pounded with another 9" of snow, the second pounding in less than a week. Combine that with semi-lockdown we are still under and it sort of feels like I'm in a research station outpost about to hunker down for The Long Polar Night.
Most of the titles fit the theme as well as the feel of the tunes.. I added some weather radio recordings throughout the mix which I think worked out pretty well.
One happy accident that happened while putting this together is I accidently left two tracks by two different artists in the same spot. I didn't even notice at first. They were playing simultaneously and it sounded like it was meant to be that way. This happens at 51:21 of the mix.
Cheers and stay warm!
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 Wind & Weather Radio
- 00:55 Owl - Moonshine Haze (Infinite Horizon 2021)
- 04:16 Esther Kokmeijer & Rutger Zuydervelt - Stillness #5 (Stillness 2013)
- 08:20 SineRider - Four Below Zero (Four Years Away 2018)
- 11:42 offthesky - cold front (studies of form in transit 2003)
- 14:40 John Butcher - wind piece (Resonant Spaces)
- 15:47 Hanno Leichtmann - wind (Nuit Du Plomb 2006)
- 19:00 Lauge - Icebound (Nothingness 2020)
- 25:30 Gailes - Surface Variations in The Snowfall (Seventeen Words 2017)
- 32:05 Marcus Fischer - Antarctic 3 (Arctic / Antarctic(version) 2020)
- 34:45 Polaroid Notes - Don't Be Afraid Of Darkness (Home Diaries 014 2020)
- 38:00 Rosalina Teche - Slightly Affected (Music for Another Sky 2021)
- 40:23 stormloop - in the frozen morning light (arctic conditions 2013)
- 48:25 Moss Covered Technology - Distant Station(Nocturne) (Once Hallowed 2019)
- 51:21 Sinderider & Polaroid Notes - Frost & Into The Black played simultaneously
- 55:35 Axs - Frozen Signpost (Arctic Circle 2011)
- 65:20 end
Sunday Jan 24, 2021
Sunday Jan 24, 2021
Great minds think alike. Both Paul and I had the idea of doing a "bell" based mix. I, however, am a procrastinator, and after creating a save folder for bell tunes 3 months ago, I have one track in it. So who knows when that puppy was going to get done.
Paul, on the other hand, sought out tracks and compiled them into a perfect playlist that became this mix - Bell Tone Meditation.
Here's what he has to say about it:
“For thousands of years bells, more than any other instrument, have been used to convey a sense of reverence and mystery, to represent clarity, to facilitate both quiet, solitary meditation and communal celebration. And, given the challenging artistic paradox of using sound to express silence, bells are the musical instrument used most often to express that, too. So it’s curious to me that bells (and their various metal/crystal-bowl cousins) are not used more often in ambient music, a genre defined, perhaps more than anything else, by subtle textures and tonal resonance over melody and rhythm.
Bells also have been the most common instrument to express cold and ice. Another reason this mix makes a perfect midwinter offering.”
Thanks Paul!
Cheers!
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 Cousin Silas - Derwent (Submerged 2021)
- 05:36 Andarctica - at rest (buried with the bells 2019)
- 11:40 Robert Rich - Belltone Glass (Alien Zoology - Live Archive Vol 4 2009)
- 15:37 Jack Hertz - Invisible Pyramid (Teoton 2020)
- 19:17 Andrew Lahiff - The Ringing of the Silent Bells (Slow Paths Beyond 2014)
- 25:47 Crown Of Eternity - New Dimensions in Infinite VIbrations (Universal Hum 2018)
- 31:50 The Heart Is Awake - Healing Sound Meditation(Healing Arts reMix) (the Healing Arts reMIXES Vol III 2020)
- 36:00 Steve Roach & Serena Gabriel - Nectar Meditation (Nectar Meditation 2020)
- 45:15 Glenn Sogge - Aether/Or -- A Non-Philosophical Disquisition (Musics for Long Thinkings, volume 4 2016)
- 53:30 jarguna - My Temple (My Temple 2020)
- 1:10:00 end