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Ambient music mixes for a chaotic world
Episodes
Monday Sep 13, 2010
Monday Sep 13, 2010
I have always loved a little known Genesis tune called "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats". The last song on the end of side three(vinyl), it's a 3 minute instrumental that is more ambient than old prog rock.
I remember a thread at the Hypnos forum, a long time ago, that was asking for a list of the best ambient tracks by non-ambient artists. I can't find the list or the thread but I think I added artists like Radiohead, Daryl Hall, Peter Gabriel, etc. I think "Silent Sorrow" may be the best ambient track by a non-ambient artist.
I'm working on a mellow prog rock mix that I'm sure will include this Genesis tune as well.
Anyway, I've always wanted to use it in a mix so here it is. I used the track as the title for this mix but the music doesn't necessarily take on the sorrowful feel that the title suggests. I can personally attest to the fact that this mix works very for sleeping. Enjoy.
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 Genesis - Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats
- 02:45 Slow Dancing Society - and to the dust shall we return
- 08:45 Alio Die - In the Labyrinth Garden
- 15:00 Christopher Willits - Flowers into Stardust
- 19:45 Pulusha - Isolation, pt. 1
- 29:25 Christopher Hipgrave - Time & Distance
- 30:45 Tim Hecker - Incurably Optimistic
- 35:45 36 - Lightout
- 37:35 Deepchord presents Echospace - untitled #5
- 40:15 John Foxx & Harold Budd - Raindust
- 45:25 Celer - A Lifetime of Wasted Breaths
- 49:45 Gareth Hardwick - 5 points
- 59:36 Genesis - reprise of Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats
- 1:00:46 end
Friday Jul 30, 2010
Friday Jul 30, 2010
Here is vol. 2 in the A to Z ambient mix. This one will take you from N thru Z. Enjoy.
T R A C K L I S T I N G :
-----N to Z-----
- 00:00 Nelson Foltz & Tom Lynn - Still Life Vol. 3
- 05:00 O Yuki Conjugate - track 6 from Euphoria of Disobedience
- 08:30 Pan American - Lights of Little Towns
- 15:30 Quosp - Beechwood
- 21:50 Robin Guthrie - Harold Budd - a minute, a day, no more
- 26:45 Solyaris - Night's Waltzloop
- 29:30 Tom Heasley - Western Sky
- 36:15 Ulf Lohman - untitled #11
- 40:10 Vir Unis & Christopher Short - On the Threshold of Eternity
- 43:40 Williams Basinski - Disintegration Loops 2.1
- 48:00 Xela - Her Eyes Sparkled and She Walked Away
- 53:30 Yagya - Snowflake 10
- 57:00 Zero Ohms - Unafraid of the Impending Silence
- 00:00 end
Friday Jul 30, 2010
Friday Jul 30, 2010
I usually try to have some sort of theme for each mix. But lately my creativity has dried up. I wanted to do a new mix but had no new ideas. I was staring at my computer monitor with it's big folder full of ambient music, all of it in alphabetical order. Then it hit me, I'll just do a nice, simple A to Z mix of a variety of ambient tunes.
It was fun because I ended up using some tracks & artists that I've never put in a mix before, such as Eberhard Schoener, Christopher Short, Nelson Foltz & Tom Lynn, Quosp, Ulf Lohman. Of course I also worked in old standbys like Basinski, Goldmund, Loscil, and Yagya.
I had to split the mix into two separate tracks to keep it from being 2 hours long. So part 1 is A thru M & part 2 is N thru Z.
If any readers/listeners have ideas for mixes please let me know. A few ideas in the early stages are and ambient vocal mix &/or slow/quiet vocal tunes, alien landscapes, slow beats, sleep tunes, progressive rock vol. 2. Anyway any ideas would be appreciated. In the meantime, enjoy A to Z.
T R A C K L I S T I N G :
------A to Z------
- 00:00 A Produce - I Woke Up Dreaming
- 06:20 Bass Communion - Ghosts on Magnetic Tape II
- 09:50 Christopher Short - Twilight
- 12:30 David Sylvian - The Beekeepers Apprentice
- 16:15 Eberhard Schoener - Meditation part 1
- 22:10 Fabio Orsi - Lost Love
- 23:15 Goldmund - 25 thousand miles away
- 26:40 Hakobune - Melting Reminiscence
- 30:15 Irezumi - Endurance III
- 37:50 Jeff Greinke - Rolling Black Clouds
- 41:00 Loscil - Rorschach
- 48:00 Marconi Union - Debris
- 51:15 Manual - Last Light
- 57:04 end
Friday Jul 23, 2010
Friday Jul 23, 2010
I ran into the track "The Last Message" by John Murphy on a mix at A Strangely Isolated Place, and it got me thingking about doing another classical-ish mix.
The Murphy track is in there, along with new tunes(Maya Beiser, Max Richter, Nils Frahm, etc) and old tunes(Steve Reich, Peter Gabriel, Gavin Bryars, etc).
There's really not much more to say except that I hope you enjoy this collection of ambient, soundtrack, minimal & neo-classical tunes.
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 David Byrne - The Lodger
- 04:15 Maya Beiser - Memories
- 08:45 Max Richter - The Haunted Ocean 2
- 09:05 Nils Frahm & Anne Müller - Reminds to Teeth
- 13:15 Olan Mill - Country
- 16:30 John Murphy - The Last Message
- 18:00 Chihei Hatakeyama - Light Drizzle
- 20:30 Hummingbird - Starfish Seastar
- 22:30 Tarwater - Clock
- 23:30 Terry Riley - is in c in f (r. luke dubois remix)
- 25:30 Steve Reich - Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices & organ
- 34:50 Sufjan Stevens - Movement III - Linear Tableau With Intersecting Surprise
- 39:15 Max Richter - Infra 2
- 40:50 Kyle Bobby Dunn - The Tributary (for voices lost)
- 46:20 P Jorgensen - Palimpsest II
- 48:15 Gavin Bryars - Epilogue from Wonder Lawn
- 52:20 Peter Gabriel - The Nest that Sailed the Sky
- 54:55 end
Tuesday Jun 22, 2010
Tuesday Jun 22, 2010
Breathing is rhythmic process of expansion and contraction, in & out, inhale & exhale. Breathing is one example of the cycles we see in nature such as night and day, wake and sleep, seasonal growth and decay, tides going in & out. And like waves in the tides, the rhythmic nature of breathing can be very calming.
Some of my favorite sleep music has this cyclic, breathing quality to it. I made my first breathing mix almost three years ago. Wow! Has it really been that long? I can't believe I've been posting these mixes for 4 years. Anyway, back to this mix, I had a few breathing tunes that I'd been meaning to use, some old some new, and the result is "breathe in, breathe out".
On many of these mixes, there are sections where two or more pieces are playing simultaneously. But this one may have the longest section of combined playing. At about 4:30 into the mix, Bang on a Can's version of Music for Airports 1-2 comes in over the peter Broderick piece. The two continue playing at the same time until somewhere around 10:00, when Airports fades out and the Broderick cut goes solo for a minute or two. I wasn't planning on doing it that way, the two tracks just blended nicely.
There's a track from Foci's Left in the middle of the mix that is from a new netlabel, Audio Gourmet. The label has been running for less than two months but already they have 7 fine releases. Definitely take some time & download some these excellent EPs.
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 Peter Broderick - Music for a sleeping sculpture of Peter Broderick
- 04:30 Bang on a Can - Music for Airports 1-2
- 10:00ish Music for a sleeping sculpture comes back to the fore
- 11:45 Panoptique Electrical - Glacier Show 1
- 20:00 Porzellan - Rosen
- 25:45 Lucette Bourdin - Through Empty Heaven
- 31:00 Robert Rich - Never Alone
- 35:40 Foci's Left - Regurgitated Impulses(David Tagg remix)
- 37:10 Olan Mill - Country
- 40:30 St. Kilda - You are in Every Dream
- 43:20 Language of Landscape - Contemplating Departure In Wake of Clear Light
- 47:45 Austere - Lid
- 54:40 Lexithimie - Another Minute for a Never Ending
- 1:00:00 end
Sunday Jun 13, 2010
Sunday Jun 13, 2010
What the heck? Two sea/water mixes in a row? I didn't plan it this way. It just sort of happened that I collected a few sea songs, then the library/soundtrack mix got done, then I found a few more sea songs and this mix happened.
"lost at sea" is very similar to "a solitary sea" from last year. Some nice drifting, flowing tunes with a definite sea/ocean feel to them. And of course all the tunes have the word "sea" in the title. The mix works really well on foggy mornings, standing out on the deck letting the music flow all around you.
There's not much else to say except that I hope you enjoy this latest collection.
Download (right click/save as) : 75mb, 54:30 lost at sea
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 Milieu - the singing waters of an endless sea
- 07:30 Aless - inborn sea flowing
- 12:30 offthesky - sea ghosts
- 17:50 Jonsi & Alex - Daniell in the sea
- 25:40 Duncan 'O Ceallaigh - the sea and the sand
- 27:35 The Humble Bee - a century of sea stories
- 29:20 Sawako - april from sea shell
- 32:10 Arovane - seaside
- 35:30 Aglaia - the sea hides his secret selves
- 45:00 Seas - blue dub
- 53:15 Milieu - seashell breeze
- 54:30 end
Saturday Jun 05, 2010
Saturday Jun 05, 2010
Right off the bat, I have to come clean. I stole something. I stole the idea for this mix. But I'm glad I did because I'm very excited to post this new track.
Over at SoundCloud I ran into some mixes by Astromatt. He uses sounds from music libraries and soundtracks of '60's and '70's to create great underwater themed mixes. I love the sound of these old tracks & how they work together in a mix. Who knew that these old library albums even existed?! After some research & digging, I decided to try my hand at a similar mix.
With a lot of this music, it's very easy to cross the line into cheesy/kitchy territory. I tried to find tunes that had that old 70's undersea soundtrack feel but was still listenable by today's ambient standards. I think it works pretty well as an ambient mix, very relaxing, with a cool watery vibe. It was a lot of fun discovering some of these old albums & I'm sure I'll visit them again.
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:13 Amedeo Tommasi - Acque Tranquille
- 02:20 Eugene Thomass - Magic World of the Sea
- 04:50 Michel Redolfi - Music for Fresh Water
- 08:40 Franco Tamponi - Submarino
- 10:35 Gaston Borreani - Cirrus
- 13:40 Gaston Borreani - Entrelacs
- 17:16 Franco Tamponi - Stelle Marina
- 20:05 Amedeo Tommasi - Correnti Sottomarine
- 21:45 Piero Umiliani - Eliogabalus
- 24:00 Gaston Borreani - Rave Abyssal
- 26:10 Patchwork Orchestra - Brumes sur Mars
- 28:00 Franco Tamponi - Profundita
- 30:05 Fabor - Angelo di Mare
- 33:25 Gaston Borreani - Port Cross
- 36:53 end
Sunday May 30, 2010
Sunday May 30, 2010
Modern-classical, neo-classical, acousmatic, electro-acoustic, ...whatever you want to call the genre, I think this mix fits.
You'll hear lots of strings, some piano, some beats and more strings. It has a vague sort of chamber music feel to it. The mix takes a detour about halfway through with the Pjusk track. It's a good tune but doesn't necessarily fit the modern classical theme of the mix. But I think it flows well with the other tracks around it.
A lot of music I have been listening to sort of falls into this neo-classical/acoustic category so this was just a chance to get some of it out there in a mix.
Enjoy.
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 Panoptique Electrical - Framed by Clouds
- 07:23 Bersarin Quartet - Was uns Bleibt
- 10:45 Murcof - Rios
- 18:40 Olan Mill - Flume
- 21:00 Talvihorros - Thoughts of Violence
- 24:45 M. Ostermeier - Competing Memories, Both Correct
- 30:00 Part Timer - Orchard (scrumped)
- 31:00 Pjusk - Sus
- 35:25 M. Ostermeier - September Again
- 39:20 Danny Norbury - Speak, Memory
- 44:00 Panoptique Electrical - The Free Form
- 50:40 Loscil - Endless Falls
- 58:06 end
Saturday May 22, 2010
Saturday May 15, 2010
Saturday May 15, 2010
I recently was given a box of old sound effects records like the one in the picture. These albums brought back a lot of memories. As a kid I would go to the public library down the street and borrow their sound effects records. I guess that was an early sign that I'd end up with music tastes that were a bit different.
This new mix is perfect for my new vinyl sound effects collection, unfortunately I finished the mix before I got the records. So I'll have to save them for the next installment in the field mixes.
For this mix, the 3rd in the field music mixes, I tried to use more natural sound and less music. There are definitely musical elements here, thanks to Spheruleus, Nigel Samways and others. I tried to pick field sounds that weren't too obtrusive. There are many sounds that are interesting to listen to, but don't work as ambient "music". After a nice quiet section of wind blowing through bamboo, hearing fireworks exploding wouldn't work for me.
I'd like to bring attention to to releases used in this mix. They both come from a new netlabel, Audio Gourmet. "Rust" by Spheruleus & "Momentary" by Darren Harper are the first two releases. They are excellent recordings & they are free so check them out. Each one has a cut in the new field mix.
The tracklist is a bit vague, as the times are even more nebulous than normal. I hope you enjoy this latest field mix.
Download (right click/save as) : 82mb, 60min thru the field
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 Chihei Hatakeyama - Distant Sound of a Bustle
- 04:00 Loren Nerell - Wind Through Bamboo Forest
- 06:00 The Black Dog - M1
- 08:30 Jason Kahn - Transit
- 10:00 Framework podcast 11-5-09 excerpt
- 13:30 Seattle Phonographers Union - Hollow Earth Radio(excerpt)
- 15:30 Nigel Samways - City of Gas Street Lamps
- 19:00 Spheruleus - it sits on a shelf inside my skull
- 25:00 Mister Vapor - Rain 1
- 31:00 Chihei Hatakeyama - Dance of the Sea
- 33:00 Chris Watson - Vatnajokull
- 35:00 Quiet American - Khulna Station
- 37:00 Thomas Koner - 45_26n, 12_20e (hour three)
- 40:00 Steve Bradley - SO2 Emissions
- 41:30 Cecile Le Prado - Passages
- 43:30 Spheruleus - Rusting
- 47:30 Richard Chartier - Fields for Recording (excerpt)
- 52:00 Chris Watson - Bucaneve
- 53:00 Spheruleus - A Hindered View
- 55:30 Darren Harper - Field & Glass
- 60:00 end