low light mixes

Rivers Flow

Cedar Creeek in Cedarburg, WI.

This mix ended up in a different place than when it started.  I have folder in my prospective mix bin called "just plain old good ambient."  It had a few tracks in it & I sat down with it intending to make a mix with that "theme" in mind. But then when I got to tracks #5, the Jasper, TX track, I started to hear something else happening.  It was the title of track #5, "Rivers Flow," that gave me the idea of where this mix really wanted to go. I listened to the cut already laid down and sure enough they did fit with a river theme.  After deciding on the new direction I sought out a few more tracks and.. TA DA!  A new mix with a flowing river theme. The mix contains some low light regulars like Eno and Maps & Diagrams.  The Kiln track I've been hanging on to for a long time, waiting for the right spot & I think this is it.  The first cut is from Lowercase Noises, an artist I discovered on Bandcamp.  Check him out here...Lowercase Noises. Next up, a Sci Fi mix for Josh at Nocturne Records. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Lowercase Noises - Ambient songs 01
• 05:15    Kiln - Drala
• 07:15    Michael Brook - Mimosa
• 12:40    Filed Rotation - Repetition of History
• 17:00    Jasper, TX - Rivers Flow
• 21:45    Xela - The Only Rose
• 24:10    Gagarin - An Tarbet
• 28:50    Maps & Diagrams - Searching Faraway Places
• 30:50    Brian Eno - Unfamiliar Wind
• 35:10    Benoit Pioulard - If I could possibly tell the difference
• I wouldn't care anyway
• 39:40    The Green Kingdom - Kalimba Sketch
• 43:05    Noto & Sakamoto - By This River (phantom)
• 46:00    Aglaia - On the Banks of a River
• 49:33    Martin Herterich - Silent Fields 2
• 55:15    Brian Eno - Riverside
• 58:37    end

Ambient by Non-Ambient Artists

Ambient music will never be a popular genre.  We all know the kind of looks we get from people when they hear some of our ambient tunes.  But over time ambient sensibilities have crept into a lot of modern music.  And artists that normally don't do ambient music have dipped their toes into a droning sea. So that's where this mix takes us, to tunes that are fairly to very ambient, by non-ambient artists.  Many of the artists on this tracklist aren't exactly big surprises, Sylvian, Bowie, Gabriel & Boards of Canada have done many ambient-like tracks over the years.  But they are not known primarily as ambient artists.  I didn't include the Genesis tune that inspired this mix, mainly because it was the featured track in an earlier mix.  But I did manage to sneak in another Genesis tune from the same album. Thanks to everyone for all the great suggestions.  I think 6 made it into the final mix.  I am saving some of the recommendations for the next Sunday morning mix.  Thanks! T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Andrew Bird - Belles
• 02:20    U2 - 4th of July
• 04:00    David Sylvian - Answered Prayers
• 06:39    S. Cary - Rothko Fields
• 07:44    Peter Gabriel - Slow Marimbas
• 10:30    Mercury Rev - Pickup if you're there
• 12:00    Radiohead - Treefingers
• 15:17    Boards of Canada - Over the Horizon Radar
• 16:05    Boards of Canada - Heard from Telegraph Lines
• 17:00    Nine Inch Nails - A Warm Place
• 19:33    David Bowie - Art Decade
• 22:45    Genesis - Ravine
• 24:15    Andrew Bird - Yawny at the Apocalypse
• 27:00    Trespassers William - Just Like This(disinterested remix)
• 31:45    Peter Gabriel - The Nest That Sailed The Sky
• 36:08    Richard Hawley - Last Orders
• 40:55    Unkle - The Piano Echoes
• 45:30    David Bowie - The Mysteries
• 51:50    Peter Gabriel - Powerhouse at the Foot of the Mountain
• 52:50    Laurie Anderson - Walking and Falling
• 54:20    John Martyn - Small Hours(instrumental version)
• 1:04:10    end

dubscapes & dreamscapes

I love the end of the year because of all the lists that get posted all over the place.  I love discovering releases that I knew nothing about.  The folks over at Headphone Commute have started their mammoth collection of 15 best of lists here. Over at A Closer Listen they have lists for best field recordings, modern composition, experimental, post rock, overall, etc. and guest lists. Secret Thirteen has a ton of guest lists where I found a bunch of stuff I'd never heard of. There is a nice eclectic list over at Textura that is worth checking out. While cruising these list I came across some excellent electronic music.  Some of techno, some idm, some dub.  I found enough ambient/dub stuff to make me want to do a new dubby & dreamy mix.  So that's what this new mix is, a collection slow beats with a dubby feel with some ambient synth washes to keep things dreamy. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Ezekiel Honig & Morgan Packard - Balm
• 02:15    Submersion - Erosion II
• 04:00    Ezekiel Honig & Morgan Packard - Hibernate
• 06:55    Silent Harbour - Descending Radius Curve
• 09:00    Kabana - Reflex
• 13:55    Ghosting Season - Through Your Teeth
• 18:00    DJAx - Machines
• 21:00    Deepchord - Rippling
• 22:00    Arc of Doves - Arabesque
• 24:45    1991 - High-Tech Slow-Life
• 28:00    Andy Stott - Luxury Problems
• 30:30    Deepchord - Theme from Silent World
• 36:40    Alteria Percepsyne - Circumvent
• 39:10    sonmi451 - Vladivostok
• 44:00    Coppice Halifax - Dusk II (axs silent night breathing)
• 49:50    Voice from the Lake - Hgs
• 53:55    Lee Gamble - 3,4 synthetics
• 54:25    Willits & Sakamoto - I Don’t Want To Understand
• 1:00:33    end

Headphone Commute ...and darkness came

The awesome folks over at Headphone Commute asked me to do a special mix for them and of course I could not refuse. The mix is special because it is helping promote a fantastic new compilation they have put together.  It's called "...and darkness came" and you can find out about it here... Headphone Commute ...and darkness came. The compilation features 80 tracks(yes, 80 tracks!) from great artists in ambient, modern classical and experimental music.  Artists like Max Richter, Clint Mansell, offthesky, Julien Neto, Ólafur Arnalds, Dakota Suite, Christopher Willits, Loscil, Lawrence English, Maps And Diagrams, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Nils Frahm, Talvihorros, Bersarin Quartett, Antonymes, Simon Scott, Dustin O’Halloran, Machinefabriek, :papercutz, and many, many, more. 100% of the proceeds are donated to two charitable organizations, Doctors Without Borders and The Humane Society, to help all those affected by Hurricane Sandy. Please head over to Headphone Commute and think about picking up this excellent compilation. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Yuki Murata - Prologue
• 04:34    James Murray - Still Waters Rise
• 08:55    Monolyth & Cobalt + Évo Lüthi - Dust Off
• 13:25    riverrun - Maallinen Kuu
• 16:00    Antonymes - Elegy IV
• 20:05    Julien Neto - Los Cien Enamorados
• 23:15    M.Cadoo - a.m.
• 26:45    Jóhann Jóhannsson - Melodia (iv) (Live at Ancienne Belgique)
• 28:15    Brambles - Reflected Consciousness
• 30:45    Tomoyoshi Date, Corey Fuller, Marcus Fischer and Simon Scott - Quartet(intro)
• 33:20    Simon Scott - For Betty
• 35:15    offthesky - Still Breathing
• 38:50    Dakota Suite - Now I Am Lost
• 44:20    Christoph Berg - Silence
• 46:56    Erik K Skodvin - Amber & Glass
• 49:05    Honig + Templeton - Reginald Cousins
• 52:10    Takahiro Kido - Sweet Silince
• 55:45    Minus Pilots - Illuminating The Dark Fields
• 58:30    Dustin O'Halloran - Fragile #2
• 1:01:15    end

asleep at the piano

Looking back over the last six years of mixes, the piano has been the featured instrument in many of the the tracks.  I guess it goes all the way back to Ambient #1 : Music for Airports.  The piano is a perfect instrument for the contemplative, ambient music in the mixes found here.

As far as I can tell, I've done four mixes devoted exclusively to the piano.  They are...

1) Piano Mix

2) Piano Mix 2007

3) Antique Sunlight

4) pno 2010

This fifth installment, "asleep at the piano," is very similar to the others.  Although this one may be a bit more ambient in nature.

I was happy to squeeze in two tracks related to Harry Towel, the man behind the brilliant net label Audio Gourmet.  The first by Talvihorros is from the 2011 Audio Gourmet release "Just a Moment" which you can find here...Just a Moment.  The other cut is from Harry's recording artist guise, Spheruleus.  The track, Blueprint, is from his album on Tessellate Recordings called Cyanometry.  You can find that one here...Cyanometry at Bandcamp.  You can find some of Harry's excellent mixes on Mixcloud here...Spheruleus on Mixcloud and here...Groundingsounds on Mixcloud.

Enjoy.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Sissors & Sellotape - untitled #1
• 01:51    Cepia - Malcesine
• 03:23    Jon Hopkins - water
• 04:20    Cluster & Eno - ho renomo
• 07:45    Ruben Garcia - Rainy Day
• 13:15    Tim Hecker - sketch 1
• 17:20    Tomoyoshi Date - the sound of the moon
• 20:10    Antonymes - 301210
• 24:50    Loscil - City Hospital
• 28:28    Willitts & Sakamoto - Reticent Reminiscence
• 32:00    Talvihorros - Hallowed
• 33:15    A Winged Victory for the Sullen - minuet for a cheap piano
• 36:00    The Beautiful Schizophonic and Yui Onodera - nubian clouds over Saskia
• 41:00    Spheruleus - Blueprint
• 44:25    Janek Schaefer - eyrie of the phoenix
• 45:30    Harold Budd & John Foxx - After all this Time
• 50:25    Sissors & Sellotape - untitled #4
• 52:15    Tape Loop Orchestra - the word on my lips is your name
• 57:25    Jon Hopkins - the end
• 02:06    END

s t r e t c h e d beyond recognition

This is a very slow, droney kind of mix.  All the music has been stretched or slowed down so much that the tunes are unrecognizable from the originals. I used a great little program called Paul Stretch which you can find here... http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/ It take music and stretches or slows it down dramatically but still keeps it very musical.  I've used the program a few times for mixes in the past but never for creating an entire mix. All the tracks are slowed by at least 10x to 15x.  The slowed down result is perfect for meditation, sleeping or daydreaming.  It's kind of amazing to me how it was possible to create something entirely new from the source material. Enjoy. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Cliff Martinez - First Sleep
• 05:30    Steve Reich - Six Marimbas
• 12:15    Noto & Sakamoto - By This River
• 21:00    Anonymous 4 - medie noctis tempus
• 21:40    Tangerine Dream - Tangram
• 34:45   Steve Reich - Six Marimbas
• 52:50    Budd & Eno - A Stream with Bright Fish
• 1:00:00    end

illusions of autumn

I wanted to get this mix in while it is still autumn.  I originally did this mix last fall for the good folks over at Headphone Commute. If you've not been there, head over to their great site for reviews, news, sound clips & of course mixes.

The music in the mix sort of has an autumnal feel to it at least I hope so considering the title is “Illusions of Autumn.”  Not sure what qualifies a tune as being autumnal, I guess it’s a case of “I know it, when I hear it.”

I was glad to use the Arve Henriksen tune, I love his stuff but sometimes it doesn't fit in a straight ambient mix.  But it works well here, it really has a nice fall color feel to me.

Enjoy autumn while you can, winter is will be here soon.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Nils Frahm - Old Thought
• 04:00    Cliff Martinez - Rubber Head
• 06:25    Benoît Pioulard - Malick
• 08:45    Daniel Lanois - Matador
• 13:05    King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - First Watch
• 15:10    Harold Budd - Come Back to Me in Dreams
• 16:55    Arve Henriksen - Sorrow and It's Opposite
• 19:00    Steve Tibbetts - Nine Doors Breathing Space
• 20:55    Arve Henriksen - Sorrow and It's Opposite(continuation)
• 21:40    Andrey Kiritchenko - Agravic Illusion
• 26:50    Animal Hospital - Nostalgia
• 28:00    The Fun Years - Fucking Milwaukee's Been Hesher Forever
• 31:15    Bexar Bexar - n.r.o.t.
• 34:05    Daniel Lanois - Sketches
• 38:00    Antonymnes meets Slow Dancing Society - A Feeling of Being Closer
• 46:55    Maps & Diagrams - When the Night Came
• 50:15    Emanuele Errante - Counterclockwise
• 55:40    Cliff Martinez - Wrong Floor
• 57:05    end

Favorite Ambient Artists

There is a new release from Loscil called "Sketches from New Brighton." And of course it's excellent, everything from Loscil is excellent.  As I listened to it I figured that Loscil would have to be one of my favorite ambient artists of all time. That got me thinking...what are my top ten ambient artists of all time?  The artists on the list are ones I come back to again and again.  And also ones that have a decent sized body of work.  Scott Solter did one of my favorite ambient albums of all time, "One River." But that was pretty much it from him.  So to make the list it was important to have a fair number of releases. Well, here's the list, in no particular order:

1. Stars of the Lid
2. Brian Eno
3. Steve Roach
4. Loscil
5. Harold Budd
6. Maps & Diagrams
7. Alio Die
8. Sonmi451
9. William Basinski
10. Kyle Bobby Dunn

This mix is a collection of tracks from each of those artists.  The cuts used in the mix are not necessarily my favorite track from that artist, just tunes that worked well within the mix.  I did want to use something new from Loscil but something old from Eno & Harold Budd. Honorable mentions might be:

• Marconi Union
• Robert Rich
• Taylor Deupree
• Saul Stokes
• Gas
• Hammock
• Aglaia
• Marsen Jules
• Spheruleus
• Windy & Carl
• David Tagg
• A Produce
• 36

If any listeners would like to leave their lists in the comments that would be very cool. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Loscil - Prairie Trains
• 07:15    Steve Roach - Tranquility Base
• 13:55    Stars of the Lid - The Atomium, part 2
• 21:00    Harold Budd - Balthus Bemused by Color
• 25:25    Brian Eno - Slow Water
• 28:00    Maps & Diagrams - Secrets of the Shore
• 30:45    Kyle Bobby Dunn - The Tributary(for voices lost)
• 38:03    Alio Die - Ultima Latet
• 50:40    William Basinski - 92982.3
• 55:30    Sonmi451 - Ruis
• 1:03:33    end

daylight fades

This is a mix I did for my good friends at acloserlisten.com and lostchildrennetlabel.com The mix is called “daylight fades” because as I was listening to “Olancha Farewell” by Harold Budd [off Lovely Thunder]  it made me think of sitting on the front porch watching the sky begin to darken as daylight fades.  Once I had that feeling in mind I just kept my ears open for a couple of weeks listening for tracks that would work well with that theme.  The cuts are mostly newer music with the exception of a couple Harold Budd tunes.  I’ve be digging through my collection of Harold Budd music & kind of re-discovering pieces that I haven’t heard for years. I really like this mix and hope you all connect with it like I did.  I'm working on some new mixes, a piano mix, sustain & decay vol. 3 and one of ambient music from non-ambient artists.  Hopefully  those will come to fruition in the next month or so two. T R A C K L I S T :

· 00:00  Harold Budd - olancha farewell

· 02:04    *AR - Inception

· 03:45    Vieo Abiungo - Insincerity Peeked Through Cloudlessly (Upward Arrows Remix)

· 06:15    Wolfgang Voigt - Fresko 1

· 09:08    Willits + Sakamoto - Completion

· 13:30    d_rradio - Falling Light

· 16:30    Alessio Ballerini - Night in Day

· 19:10    Plinth - the sunken carillon

· 23:45    Harold Budd with Zeitgeist - I blink and she's gone

· 25:20    Marconi Union - part 4(from weightless)

· 32:00    Chihei Hatakeyama - Road After Rain

· 37:12    Willamette - images dune longueur de cheveux

· 43:40    Kyle Bobby Dunn - An Evening with Dusty

· 47:05    36 - Levitate

· 51:10    Christopher Willits - Olancha Hello

· 53:42    Brian Eno - For Real

· 1:00:24    end

on the behavior of radio waves

Shortwave radio signals spread across the planet, the signal fades in & out, washes of static mix with music & voice, creating an eerie mashup of music & electronics.

This is the latest mix in a series, going back years, that utilizes shortwave broadcasts & music that already has a noisy, grainy tone. That combination of sounds creates a strange, other-worldly feel, transporting the listener around the globe and back again.

As with the other shortwave mixes, this one makes use of source material from Myke Dodge Weiskopf & his website of shortwave recordings found here... http://www.myke.me/wordpress/

Enjoy.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    The Humble Bee - Titles
• 00:46    William Basinski - Particle Showers
• 02:40    BSKSA Saudia Arabia 11785 kHz, 8_14_10 (1610UTC)
• 04:10    Andrew Chalk - Violin by Night
• 07:00    Andrew Pekler - Nocturne 3
• 09:00    Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier - Main Jungle
• 10:50    The Caretaker - The Quilter Standard
• 11:55    Markus Mehr - Komo
• 13:50    Ran Slavin - Wayward Initial
• 14:24    Call to Prayer at Dawn, Sultanahmet Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey
• playing under the Ran Slavin cut
• 16:48    Depatterning - Instow, SK. Bone Creek No. 108
• 18:50    Pawn - untitled(from Islet)
• 24:05    Maps and Diagrams - Looks Simple Enough
• 26:23    unknown time & frequency (2002)
• 27:10    The Humble Bee - The Collecting Plate
• 28:00    WEWN:Radio Catolica Mundial 5810kHz
• 28:40    Mokira - Harold Dubb
• 33:05    Radio Bulgaria 5800kHz
• 34:04    Stephan Mathieu - Gabriel
• 37:55    Gultskra Artikler - Vsegda Krasni Cvetok
• 39:30    Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto - Reverso
• 45:15    Kane Ikin - short wave fade
• 47:12    Quinn Walker - The Quiet Passage
• 50:40    Melton - Northern Fields
• 53:05    I've Lost - A Study in Departure
• 54:27    end