low light mixes

subatomic dubscapes

The term "dubscapes" in the title of the mix pretty much says it all.  This is dub mix.  I've used dubby style songs in mixes before but never did a whole dub mix. Of course after setting out to do an all dub mix, I veered off course pretty quickly by including a cover of the Twin Peaks theme &  track from Vangelis.  I'd been looking for a way to work those two tunes into a mix & they seem to fit pretty well here. The Twin Peaks cover is by Talvihorros.  He has an excellent recording out on Hibernate called "Music in Four Movements".  After buying that album Ben Chatwin(Talvihorros) was kind enough to send me a copy of his cover of the Twin Peaks theme.  I liked this version immediately & knew I had to find a home for it in a mix. One track in the mix is from an album that will end up in my top ten list this year.  The album is Deepchord presents Echospace - Liumin/Liumin Reduced.  It's a double album with the first being great ambient dub/techno and the second an album of field recorded treatments made by Rod Modell in Tokyo.  An immersive record that I highly recommend. The dub used in this mix is fairly ambient, especially towards the end where the ambient drones & washes come in & the beats slow way down. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Fluxion - Field
• 03:25    Polmo Polpo - Rottura
• 08:55    Marconi Union - Temperature Drop
• 13:28    Talvihorros - Twin Peaks Theme
• 17:55    Deepchord presents Echospace - In Echospace
• 21:30    Vangelis - Antartica
• 26:30    The Orb - Slug Dub
• 31:25    Rod Modell - Mars Oil
• 36:16    Fluxion - Plain
• 38:50    Mokira - Lord, Am I Going Down
• 42:00    Wixel - You're Inside Your Own shadow
• 44:45    Sval - Valldal
• 51:20    end

positively ambient

As most readers of this blog probably know, I cross-post these mixes over at Mixcloud.  Recently I got a request from listener, TikTaalik.  This is part of his post, "I was wondering if you could compile a mix that is optimistic throughout. The sort of ambience that I tend only to hear once or twice in a set. Can you get a solid hour of calm ambient music with a euphoric undertone?" At Low Light Mixes we give the people what they want, so here it is...Positively Ambient.  I'm not sure if all of the music qualifies as "optimistic" or "euphoric" but it is all calm & beautiful.  I start things off with Eno's "An Ending(ascent)" because I think it's one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written.  Although it may work better as "an ending" than as a beginning, I wanted it up front so everyone that plays the mix is guaranteed to hear it. I hope the rest of the mix doesn't get too sweet or too pretty sounding.  I don't want it to dissolve into new age crapola.  I dug into the archives for some of the tunes like James Johnson's "Entering Twilight" from 2000, Jim Cole from 2002, Diatonis from 2003, Fox & Budd from 2003, Jeff Pearce from 1999 and Stephen Bacchus from 1998. The feel of this mix is definitely soothing, no dissonant chords to be found.  It works well as sleep music, meditation music, , etc.  Just good 'ole traditional ambient music. T R A C K L I S T :

• • 00:00 Brian Eno - An Ending(ascent)
  • 04:00 Arc of Doves - Reverie
  • 09:00 James Johnson - Entering Twilight
  • 14:45 Diatonis - Winding Road
  • 18:00 Hammock - Maybe they will sing for us tomorrow
  • 23:10 Stephen Bacchus - The Returning
  • 30:25 John Foxx & Harold Budd - A Delicate Romance
  • 36:45 Jim Cole - Light Shines in Your Heart
  • 43:10 Jeff Pearce - Daylight Slowly
  • 44:45 Hammock - Three Sisters
  • 48:50 d_rradio - Into the Morning
  • 54:05 Quosp - Quosp
  • 57:30 end

far from home

Picture yourself floating in space.  Whether you like to think of it as drifting alone, in a spacesuit, looking out at the stars all around.  Or instead imagine yourself as Bowie said "Here am I floating round my tin can, far above the moon."  Either way, the music in this mix should make you feel "far from home". I like to envision a small craft in the middle of nowhere, drifting...waiting.  Waiting for rescue?  Waiting for contact?  Waiting for main power to come back online?  Hopefully the music will generate a feeling of weightlessness, of drifting in the vast expanse of space, without being too dark or dissonant. I did not pick the tunes based on titles.  I just did a quick sampling of some of my ambient collection to come up with possible tracks.  But it's interesting how many of the song titles fit right in with the "outer space" theme. Titles like Meissa, Deep Sky Time, 1st Lite & Asteroid Dawn work perfectly for this motif. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Lunar Testing Lab - Space Traffic Control
• 01:00 Brian Eno - Asteroid Dawn
• 04:40 A Produce - The Big Sleep
• 09:40 Harmonia - Weird Dream
• 11:10 Wouter Veldhuis - 1st Lite
• 18:30 Steve Roach - Deep sky Time
• 24:40 Austere - Lid
• 28:00 Mike Griffin & A Produce - Altara
• 31:45 Lunar Testing Lab - Paaliaq
• 33:05 Sonmi451 - Orange
• 38:45 Thomas Fehlman - in the wind
• 43:10 Spheruleus - Disintegrate
• 48:30 Fripp & Eno - Meissa
• 55:30 Sonmi451 - Blue
• 1:00:00 end

silent sorrow in empty boats

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

A to Z ambient - n thru z

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

ambient A to Z

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

a vibration of strings

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

breathe in, breathe out

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

lost at sea

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

beneath the surface

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