low light mixes

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Ambient music mixes for a chaotic world

Episodes

Friday Sep 22, 2017

A Distant Pulse

Friday Sep 22, 2017

Who remembers what a big thing tribal ambient was for awhile back in the 90s? The first time I heard "Fearless" from the album Strata by Steve Roach & Robert Rich I was hooked. There were many Roach albums from that time period that drew on the tribal ambient sound - World's Edge, On This Planet, Soma, Australia: Sound of the Earth, Forgotten Gods, Cavern of Sirens, Earth Island, Well of Souls, The Serpent's Lair, - oh heck there's too many to keep track of!

I loved that sound. But as so often happens I grew tired of it. Part of that was just me overdosing on that style and part of it was as the style proliferated we ended up with crappy new age versions of tribal ambient. So I stayed away for a long time while still revisiting the classic Roach recordings occasionally.

Earlier this year I discovered the music of Al Gromer Khan, thanks to Paul Asbury Seaman. I was listening to a few cuts from Lexus and I enjoyed the tribal sound and realized that I hadn't listened that style very much lately. But those tracks got me going and the next thing you know, I'm collecting tacks for a mix.

The tracks in this mix are a good sampling of new cuts, older cuts from the tribal heyday and a few really old cuts from the early 80s. The tracks are also a mix instrumentation from drum sounds to gamelan to marimba. I love how this turned out and hope you do too.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Al Gromer Khan - Air Wave(Lexus 2002)
04:30 Eno & Hassell - Chemistry(Fourth World 1 - possibles musics 1980)
09:35 Steve Roach, Byron Metcalf & Mark Seelig - Six(Mantram 2004)
17:50 Peter Gabriel - Slow Marimbas(Birdy 1985)
20:40 Terje Isungset - Sunrise Horizon(Hibernation 2009)
23:15 DavidParsons - Laplapan(Ngaio Gamelan 1999)
28:15 SVLBRD - Hvit(Svalbard 2017)
33:20 Michael Brook - Distant Village(Hybrid 1985)
36:39 Wuhan Wuchang - Total Art of Percussion(Tropical Drums of Deutschland 2017)
38:25 Uakti & Philip Glass - Paru River(Aguas da Amazonia 1999)
41:52 Jon Iverson - Metalanguage(Alternesia 1999)
47:10 Rapoon - Sanctum(Fallen Gods 2000)
50:10 Eno & Hassell - Delta Rain Dream(Fourth World 1 - possibles musics 1980)
52:50 Byron Metcalf - As Clouds Dance(Inner Rhythm Meditations 2016)
61:25 Jonatan Bengta - Homerun(David Lynch: The Art Life 2016)
62:30 Byron Metcalf - Presence of Longing(Inner Rhythm Meditations 2016)
75:30 Loren Nerell - Tasku(Tasku 2003) mashed up with Evan Chapman playing Opening by Philip Glass
81:41 end

Sunday Aug 20, 2017

In the Shadow of the Moon - Solar Eclipse 2017

Sunday Aug 20, 2017

With all the space themed mixes I've done over the years, there was no way I was going to miss making one for this solar eclipse. So here it is - In The Shadow Of The Moon.

This mix is similar to the Juno mix in that it moves chronologically from sun to total eclipse back to sun. The titles of the tracks describe the journey.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Arp - The Rising Sun
05:30 Vidna Obmana & Jan Marmenout - Traveling Moon
07:20 Max Richter - Falling Shadow
08:58 Harold Budd & Robin Guthrie - Turn Off the Sun
11:35 Goldmund - Shadow
13:23 Ramin Djawadi - Blackhole Sun
15:43 Johann Johannsson - the sun's gone dim and the sky's turned black
21:10 STRSGN - Full Eclipse
23:45 Marsen Jules Trio - Eclipse
28:52 Marconi Union - In Shadows
36:14 Horizon Fire - Pinhole Yellow Point
41:45 Eno Moebius Roedelius - The Shade
44:46 Max Richter - Shadow Journal
49:46 Lisa Gerrard - See the Sun
52:52 Jim Cole - Sun Showers
54:25 The Beatles - Sun King(vocal remix)
56:23 Vir Unis - Infinite Sun
59:51 end

Sunday Jul 09, 2017

Floating Through Moonlight

Sunday Jul 09, 2017

My musical friend, Paul Asbury Seaman, has given us another gift in this beautiful collection. Paul picked out the tunes and the order & I stitched them together to form the mix. It was a joy to assemble.

Here's what Paul had to say about the mix:

"This is another bedtime, dreaming, unwinding, floating-away-on-an-interior-journey mix. The starting inspiration came from Michael DeMaria’s piece, “Moonlight” from his 2004 album The River. I was so struck by how precisely the music evoked the image of moonlight on water. I have always been drawn to rivers and from the early days of ambient/electronic music more than forty years ago, with the likes of Kitaro and Tangerine Dream, I have described this genre as “journey music”—Silk Road journeys, interstellar journeys and journeys down a moonlit river."

Thanks to Paul for another Stellar collection of tunes.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Byron Metcalf - As Clouds Dance(Inner Rhythm Meditations
07:40 Erik Wollo - Sepia(Blue Radiance)
10:45 Meg Bowles - Between, Shadows and Prayers(From the Dark Earth)
14:20 Michel Banabila - Sana's(Float)
18:55 Michel Banabila - Fragments of Memory(Float)
25:40 Michael DeMaria - Moonlight(The River)
35:20 Michael DeMaria - Moonlit Sea(In the Flow)
37:35 Erik Wollo - Revealed in Time(Ble Radiance)
41:30 Darshan Ambient - Tears to Rain(Songs From The Deep Field)
43:45 Meg Bowles - Undulant Sea(The Shimmering Land)
48:15 Erik Wollo - Blue Radiance(Blue Radiance)
52:13 end

Sunday May 21, 2017

Ocean Echoes

Sunday May 21, 2017

The Ocean is a mighty harmonist.

- William Wordsworth

This is pretty straight forward - a collection of tunes that will make you feel as if you are drifting along on ocean currents. Almost all of the ocean sounds in this mix are in the original pieces of music. I only added a bit of wave sounds around the 39 minute mark. Enjoy the float.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Alonefold - Wanderer & Stone(Wanderer & Stone 2014)
07:31 Riverrun - Conover Beacon(Romer Shoal 2016)
11:15 Keenya - Remember Smiles(Moment Invisible 2016)
14:35 Helios - Ebb/Flow(Rememberance 2016)
18:18 Igneous Flame - North Sea Siren(Ocean Sighs 2016)
22:05 Gareth Davis - Filament(Filament 2016)
30:40 Brian Eno - The Secret Place(Apollo 1983)
33:20 Urenga - Seafloor(Undercurrents 2015)
39:15 Billow Observatory - Plum(Plains/Patterns 2017)
44:20 Barry Lynn - Alpha Tauri(Taurus Tapes Vol. II 2017)
46:36 Dolphins Into The Future - Lone Voyager(On Sea-Faring Isolation 2009)
54:15 Riverrun - Dubos Point(Romer Shoal 2016)
77:00 end

Tuesday May 16, 2017

Vox Eterna - A Wordless Hymn to a Luminous World

Tuesday May 16, 2017

I'm not sure where this mix originated. It may have started with Johann Johannsson's Kangaru from the Arrival soundtrack, God knows I listened to that a ton over the last 6 months. Maybe it was Max Richter.

Whatever it was I found myself collecting vocal tunes. The kind of tracks that have vocals but many times no words or lyrics. If there are words it's usually unintelligible or a language like Latin. Once I gathered enough music then wa-lah here's an ethereal vocal mix.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Max Richter - Sketch for a Portrait #1(Morgan OST 2016)
01:06 Olafur Arnalds - Raddir(Island Songs 2016)
05:00 Ashera - Lullaby for Mother Earth(Ambient Selections 1997)
08:00 Tim Hecker - Utropics(An Imaginary Country 2009)
08:53 Jonsi & Alex - Boy 1904(Riceboy Sleeps 2009)
11:30 Jim Cole - Astral(Godspace 2002)
15:18 Jim Cole - The Way Beyond #10(The Way Beyond 2003)
17:30 Brian Eno - 2-1(Music for Airports 1978)
22:30 Melanie Pappenheim and Jocelyn Pook - Blow the Wind/Pie Jesu(Deluge 2009)
24:50 Max Richter - Path 5(Sleep 2016)
31:00 Johann Jphannsson - Odi Et Amo(Englaborn 2002)
33:50 Murcof & Vanessa Wagner - Farewell, O World, O Earth(Statea 2016)
41:00 Peter Gabriel - Dressing the Wound(Birdy 1985)
44:20 Alio Die & Amelia Cuni - Churning the Ocean(Apsaras 2001)
49:20 Johann Johannsson - Kangaru(Arrival 2016)
51:50 Jon Anderson - Bless This(Global Communication Remix)(The Deseo Remixes 1995)
57:44 Trio Mediaeval & Arve Henriksen - St. Birgitta Hymn(Rimur 2017)
61:48 Voces8 - Vasks: The Fruits Of Silence(Winter 2016)
66:30 end

Monday May 01, 2017

The Memory of Trains

Monday May 01, 2017

I wonder why the sound of trains is so evocative. Even for folks who have never been on a train there is something about the sound of a train on the tracks that stirs the imagination. This mix will hopefully have the same effect.

I was surprised to find that I've only done two previous train themed mixes. It sure seems like I've done more. Maybe it's the use of train sounds in filed recording mixes that has me confused. Anyway, here are the two previous mixes...

http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2014/08/leaving-station.html

http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2015/01/points-of-departure.html

This mix began with a recommendation from a follower on Mixcloud, Paul Asbury Seaman. I asked for any other train tunes he could suggest and he came through in a big way. He did all the hard work and mapped out the whole mix for me. I had a great time mixing it and discovering new music along the way.

Here's what Paul had to say about the mix...

"Berlin School synth/electronica can be pretty kinetic and thus an obvious source for a train mix, but I was going for a more melancholy sound, the wistful feeling evoked by the sound of Far Away Trains Passing By (the title of the Ulrich Schnauss album represented here). My working title for this mix was "Locomotive Lullaby."

While I was on the subject, I made a list of classic train songs (the sung kind) and came up with more than sixty--about three CDs worth! Here's a great article to start your playlist with: http://harpers.org/blog/2014/06/the-twenty-three-best-train-songs-ever-written-maybe/ Or contact Low Light Mixes for a copy of mine. Thanks, new friend Dave, for putting this together."

Thanks Paul, for all work on this excellent mix! I still have more tracks to use so the next train mix will be more jazzy.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Erik Wollo - Church Mountain(Different Spaces 2017)
04:04 Johan Agebjörn - Sleepless On The Kostomuksha-Petrozavodsk Night Train(We Never Came to the White Sea 2017)
10:20 Between Interval - On Track(Legacy 2017)
13:10 David Parsons - The Himgiri(Yatra 1990)
18:40 Ulrich Schnauss - Nothing Happens in June(Far Away Trains Passing By...2001)
24:25 Ascendant - Ephemeris(Source Transmission 2014)
31:30 Mark Ward - Universal(Universal 2017)
40:15 Hollan Holmes - Enduro(The Spirits of Starlight 2014)
46:25 Erik Wollo - Rundreise(Different Spaces 2017)
51:05 Al Gromer Khan - Stamboul Train(Turya 2006)
62:15 end

Saturday Apr 22, 2017

Pale Blue Dot - Earth Day 2017

Saturday Apr 22, 2017

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives."

- Carl Sagan

I have always loved Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" essay. It's even better hearing his voice reading it. In the Cosmos reboot from a couple of years ago, when they played a clip of Carl I actually cried. Yes, I am a huge dork. So needless to say, Sagan reading about the pale blue dot gets me every time.

There are a ton of videos on youtube combining his quotes with music & images. Some are quite good, some use horrible cheesy music or hokey stock photos. I thought, heck I'm a video editor, I'll make my own video. But then I realized how sometimes the images can detract from the prose.

So I decided to combine Sagan's Pale Blue Dot with one of my all-time favorite pieces of music - Max Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight." The next step was to use that mashup to lead off a mix dedicated to Earth Day 2017 & the coinciding March for Science. If you look at the track titles the theme is obvious.

I eventually did make a video to go with the mashup. But it's just one image. It's a pic taken by the Cassini spacecraft from just beyond Saturn. It's Pale Blue Dot 2.0 if you will. The video is just one long slow pull from earth out to the full image.

Take a look here...

Enjoy the mix, Earth Day and remember - Science not Silence.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Carl Sagan & Max Richter - Pale Blue Dot & On the Nature of Daylight
05:05 Jim Cole & Spectral Voices - Hear Earth
08:00 Steve Roach - On This Planet
15:20 Map & Diagrams - Particles of Earth
18:10 A Small Good Thing - Scorched Earth
23:15 Adam Pacione - Warming Trend
25:27 Shuttle358 - Melt
30:10 Jeff Greinke - Changing Skies
32:50 Brian Eno - Climate Study
35:30 J. Ralph - The Glaciers Are Telling
37:20 Michael Brook - Earth Alone
39:20 Mathias Grassow - Planetary Consciousness
43:45 Lav & Purl - Earthship
49:50 Robert Scott Thompson - Pale Blue Dot
65:00 end

Saturday Apr 01, 2017

Off_Worlder

Saturday Apr 01, 2017

One of my favorite things about making these mixes for ten years is the people I've come in contact with. I stay in touch with folks from Ireland, The Netherlands, Canada, Brazil or just down the road in Chicago.

This mix comes from one these online friends, Josh Furey. He did a previous guest mix for Low Light Mixes called Cartridge, which you can find here...

Cartridge - an 8-bit Adventure He recently reached out about a new mix & I of course jumped at the chance to showcase another of his mixes.

I'll let Josh tell you about it...

As a relative newcomer to ambient music in 2012, I was immensely lucky to stumble across Low Light Mixes. It can be pretty overwhelming when you start to explore a new genre of music and over the years Low Light Mixes has supplied me with a wildly diverse mix of ambient music to enjoy while also serving as an amazing resource for the genre music that now dominates any playlist I put together.

If you are a frequent listener to Low Light you will recognize a lot of the artists I chose for this mix and hopefully there are some new names for you to check out as well. Off Worlder is my way of saying thank you to Dave for introducing me to so many amazing artists over the years and keeping Low Light going for over 10 years.

I hope you enjoy.

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 - Exerpt from Blade Runner
00:19 - Vegyn - Unknown (https://soundcloud.com/Vegyn)
03:19 - Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein- In Pursuit (https://survive.bandcamp.com/)
0:4:30 - 36 - Shadow Play (http://3six.net/album/shadow-play)
08:23 - Goldmund - Turncoat (https://goldmund.bandcamp.com/track/turncoat)
11:29 - Suplington - Love (https://soundcloud.com/suplington)
15:27 - Julie London - Bouquet Of Blues (https://www.discogs.com/Julie-London-bout-The-Blues/release/1378929)
16:14 - Burial - Forgive (https://burial.bandcamp.com/track/forgive)
17:48 - Mark Pritchard - ? (https://markpritchard.bandcamp.com/)
22:15 - In Aeternam Vale - Drones (https://dement3d.bandcamp.com/track/drones)
24:17 - Ben Salisbury & Geoff Barrow - Ava (https://www.discogs.com/Ben-Salisbury-And-Geoff-Barrow-Ex_Machina-Original-Motion-Picture-Soundtrack/release/7007937)
26:35 - Vangelis - Spiral (https://www.discogs.com/Vangelis-Spiral/release/1493684)
27:11 - Biosphere - Sphere Of No-Form https://biosphere.bandcamp.com/track/sphere-of-no-form)
29:29 - Thore Pfeiffer - Good Life (https://kompakt.bandcamp.com/album/pop-ambient-2017)
34:53 - Aphex Twin - Stone In Focus (https://boomkat.com/products/selected-ambient-works-volume-ii-limited-triple-vinyl-reissue)
36:55 - Corey Allen + Marcus Fischer - Two/Twenty-Two/Eighty-Two(https://twotwentytwo.bandcamp.com/album/two-twenty-two)
39:27 - Murcof - Una (https://murcofmusic.bandcamp.com/album/martes-utop-a)
41:02 - Offthesky & Pleq - A Thousand Fields https://infraction.bandcamp.com/album/a-thousand-fields)
43:02 - 2814 - 新しい日の誕生 (https://dreamcatalogue.bandcamp.com/album/--18)
44:10 - Marsen Jules - Through Blood and Fire (https://marsenjules.bandcamp.com/track/through-blood-and-fire)
46:40 - The Beautiful Schizophonic - Prayers (https://dynamophone.bandcamp.com/album/belkiss)
48:22 - Nils Frahm - Says(https://nilsfrahm.bandcamp.com/album/spaces)
51:57 - Synkro - Overture (https://synkro.bandcamp.com/track/overture)

Thursday Mar 09, 2017

a slow thaw 2017

Thursday Mar 09, 2017

I haven't had time lately for new mixes but I wanted to get something up on Mixcloud so I thought I'd resurrect an old mix. This mix was originally done 10 years ago. Yikes! I can't believe I've been doing this that long.

There were a few tracks in the original mix that I didn't really like anymore so I added a few new ones and took out a few old cuts. The new tracks are by Tilman Robinson, Loess, Murcof & Venessa Wagner, and Delia Derbyshire Appreciation Society.

I hope to get back on track with new mixes coming more frequently. There's also a guest mix coming very soon.

Cheers!

T R AC K L I S T :

00:00 Tilman Robinson - Bathed in Her
05:55 Michael Brook - Earth Alone
07:25 Windy & Carl - Akimatsuri
12:25 Underworld & Gabriel Yared - St. Pancras
15:45 Loess - Striae
20:15 Oblong - Rendevous
23:22 Rafael Anton Irisarri - Waking Expectations
29:25 Green Kingdom - Autumn Toadlick
35:15 Xela - Bobble Hats in Summer
40:20 Chihei Hatakeyama - Granular Haze
43:10 Daisuke Miyatani - Yu
44:10 Eluvium | Requium on Frankfort Ave.
46:25 Dollboy | Hatterjax
51:25 Murcof & Vanessa Wagner - Aphex Twin Avril 14th.
55:10 Delia Derbyshire Appreciation Society - Half Light

Monday Jan 09, 2017

Gently Falling Snow

Monday Jan 09, 2017

I think the last time I posted a snow mix I said that when I think of music to go with snow I think of piano music. Maybe it's from years of hearing Vince Guaraldi's Peanuts Christmas album or George Winston's December album. Whatever the reason, I immediately go to the piano for snow music.

So that is again the dominant instrument in this mix. Most of the music here is fairly new which includes the Roedelius tune from 2015 - "Gently Falling Snow." Obviously I stole the title for this mix but I think this collection really does have a nice feeling of "gently falling snow."

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Sonmi451 - I Didn't Know That Cats Could Grin
05:00 Olafur Arnalds - Dalur
08:10 Johann Johannsson - The Drowned World
10:12 Rachel's - NY Snow Globe
12:30 Roedelius - Gently Falling Snow
14:33 Jason Van Wyk - Kept
17:50 Olafur Arnalds - For Now I Am Winter
21:35 Chihei Hatakeyama - Coastal Railroads in Memories
27:10 Andrew Heath - Requiem
34:15 James Murray - Particles
39:21 Sonmi451 - Oh My Ears & Whiskers
43:30 James Murray - Eyes to the Height
47:39 Mike Lazarev - Absent
50:00 Taylor Duepree - Snow(dusk dawn)
55:20 Jason Van Wyk - Stay
58:18 Nils Frahm - Less
63:40 end