The Color of Space guest mix by Mike G of Ambient Music Guide

I've done a lot of mixes over the last ten years.  Obviously I try to have a theme or mood for each mix.  It can get difficult come up with new motifs.  That's why I love the idea that Mike G of Ambient Music Guide had last year.  We decided to trade guest mixes and he suggested we each send each other a few mix titles and that we select one and build the mix off of that title.  It really gets me thinking differently and can help get me out of a rut when looking for mix inspiration.

This mix is the second guest mix from Mike.  I love getting these mixes because so often there are artists or genres I normally don't use but that I love listening to.  This mix exemplifies that perfectly.  I don't listen to as much "space" music as I used to and as I lost myself in this mix I realized that I really need to revisit this style of ambient more often.  I am looking forward to using this as a stargazing soundtrack when I vacation in northern Wisconsin later this summer.

This is what Mike had to say about The Color of Space...

"Space is a theme with multiple meanings and is woven throughout much 

modern ambient and downtempo instrumental music. My mix The Color Space 

is a soundtrack of the cosmos.  All the music has a cosmic feel, whether 

it be one of inner space, outer space or the indefinable regions between."

Thanks Mike!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Michael Stearns - Encounter
• 03:16 Michael Stearns - Scared Site theme(extended)
• 06:23 Oliver Lieb - Dimension X(edit)
• 14:30 Upper Astral - Massage One(edit)
• 24:20 Healer - Speaking With A Def Man(edit)
• 31:50 Stellardrone - Eternity
• 37:45 Alpha Wave Movement - Travel Into The Nexus
• 42:30 Jonn Serrie - The Far River
• 51:35 Boris Lelong - Oxygen
• 63:07 Jon Jenkins - Ebb(extended)
• 67:32 Solar Quest - Trisine(edit)
• 72:08 Michael Stearns - Star Dreams
• 
  

Lapse Into Reverie complied & mixed by Mike G

fripp_2015 by Ambient Landscape

A couple of posts ago I mentioned a favorite new ambient blog - Ambient Landscape.  I visit quite often, usually finding new music, interesting links and good mixes.

I reached out to Gene, who runs the blog and asked if he would do a guest mix for Low Light and I'm happy to say that he agreed.  The result is this Robert Fripp themed mix - "fripp_2015."

I love listening to well done mixes where I'm not entirely familiar with all the tunes.  That way everything just blends seamlessly, one track into another, I can't tell where one begins and another ends.  Being a long time Fripp fan, any mix that features his music immediately gets my attention and this one does that and more.  This is a great collections of tunes whether you're a Fripp fan or not.

Check out the Ambient Landscape Mixcloud page as well.

Enjoy

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Marcus Fischer - Nearly There
• 04:43    1605_Munro - Oscila34 (feat. Robert Fripp)
• 12:33    Microvolt - Dissipate
• 16:12    Theo Travis & Robert Fripp - Improvisation.1
• 19:51    Illuha - Relative Hyperbolas of Amplified and Decaying Waveforms
• 28:25    Marcus Fischer - Monocoastal (Part 2)
• 34:23    Metropole Orkest & Robert Fripp - Pie Jesu
• 43:37    Johan Troch - The Enlightened
• 47:05    Peter Davidson - Grand Theft Saucer 1960
• 50:29    Robert Fripp - My Mother's Birthday
• 53:40    Frore - A Name On The Wind
• 61:25    Robert Fripp - Affirmation_Imac
• 67:18    Robert Fripp - Let The Power Fall/1987
• 78:27    Memnon Sa - Titans Sleep
• 83:08    A Produce - The Golden Needle
• 89:36    end

halftribe September Ambient Mix

Back in July I featured a guest mix from halftribe.  It was an excellent mix & a nice break for me.  Well, Ryan Bissett(halftribe) has kindly offered another mix and I jumped at the chance to post it.

This mix is absolutely pure ambient bliss.  A beautiful collection perfect for any time of year or any time of day.  I've been listening to it at work and have used it as sleep material as well.  Give it a listen/download, I'm sure any ambient lover will enjoy this mix.

Also swing by Ryan's halftribe pages:

Halftribe Bandcamp

Halftribe Soundcloud

Halftribe Mixcloud

 T R A C K L I S T :

• 00'00 Steiner - Happiness And The Longing For Repetition (Unfinished)
• 05'30 SandStars - Finally Night (Original mix)
• 12'07 Stabilo - Viridity
• 19'00 Brandon Hurtado - Merci Et Bonne Nuit
• 21'50 Massergy - Baptisia
• 27'48 Halftribe - Holy Ground
• 33'25 Rdei - Untitled
• 36'16 SandStars - Cold Voice (Original mix)
• 41'21 Masaya Ozaki - Alkaline Days
• 45'17 Halftribe - The Secret Garden
• 51'10 Gareth Dickson - Harmonics
•  

Halftribe ambient mix

The timing on this could be better.  I've been very busy lately and haven't been able to do a mix.  So it's the perfect time for a guest mix.

This mix comes to us from Ryan Bissett who produces ambient music as Halftribe.  What I love about guest mixes is that I'm usually unfamiliar with many of the tracks.  And this mix does exactly that.  Only two artists were known to me before I heard this mix.  Thanks to Ryan for introducing me to even more new music that I'll never have enough time to listen to. LOL!

Halftribe music is one of the discoveries in this mix.  Any ambient music fan will appreciate the music of Halftribe.  Here are some useful links to Ryan's music...

Halftribe Bandcamp

Halftribe Soundcloud

Halftribe Mixcloud

Thanks for the mix!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00'00   Halftribe - Excursion 40
• 06'48   Pines - Dowsing Rod
• 09'06   Letna - Koritnik
• 13'22   Ex Confusion - Two Things 
• 15'19   Lost Trail - A Stained August For The Jetcrash
• 18'36   Moshimoss - Homeland
• 21'30   Letna - Mokra Gora
• 24'50   Halftribe ft OJWoods - Sleep Song
• 29'10   Sandstars - Separation Anxiety (original mix)
• 32'15   Izzard - Airways
• 35'15   Caught In The Wake Forever - Meditation In Exile #2
• 37'15   Linear Bells - L'Oisseau
• 48'36   Ben Woods - No Word From Above, 
• 50'00   Easychord - With Your Feet On The Dash
• 53'20   Tone Color - Drone, 55'09 Milkky Wayy - Drone Me
• 57'52   Zudi - Thank You Mr Karoshi

Across the Water

One of the benefits of making & posting mixes for all these years is getting to know some like-minded folks from around the world.  One of those is my good friend, Jason O'Gorman, from the city of Cork in Ireland.

Jason did a guest mix for me way back in 2008.  Wow, typing that just made me realize that Low Light Mixes has been around for a long time - 8 years this month, an eternity in internet years.

Anyway, back to Jason.  You can find his 2008 mix called Satellite here... Satellite.  I really like that mix and have always wanted Jason to do another.  And now, 6 years later, we have "Across the Water."  Jason describes it this way - "There's a lot of contrast in this mix due to the theme, but it still flows. The mix is a 'journey' across an ambient ocean, to dark and beautiful places."

When I listen to my own mixes I always hear every transition which at times can distract from the music.  But with Jason's mix I get lost in the flow as one tunes blends into the next.  I love not knowing what's coming next.  Jason's mix does is wonderful at transporting you from one place to another.  I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have.  And hopefully Jason won't another 6 years to produce another gem.

Cheers

T R A C K L I S T:

• 00:00 King Creosote & John Hopkins: First watch
• 02:10 Mountains: Sand
• 05:20 Stephan Mathieu: Promenade
• 08:30 Ólafur Arnalds: Carry me anew
• 10:07 Ólafur Arnalds: We (too) shall rest
• 11:10 Apparat: K&F Thema (pizzicato)
• 13:45 Lustmord: Babel
• 17:45 Eluvium: Warm
• 22:00 Mer-A: Aeolis Mons
• 28:30 Mowgli: Canaan
• 29:20 Ólafur Arnalds: Sudden throw
• 32:35 White Moth Black Butterfly:Reluctance
• 33:40 The Fun Years: Re: We're again buried under
• 35:45 Goldmund: Downward to darkness on extend
• 38:30 Mulm: Mørke
• 41:50 Lustmord: Chorazin
• 46:10 Murcof: Oort 1
• 48:40 Bvdub & Loscil: Hespiredes
• 53:00 Mer-A: Quasi Stellar
• 56:10 Apparat: 44 (noise version)
• 57:55 Apparat: 44
• 60:55 Lustmord: Goetia
• 63:30 Mountains: Circular C
• 69:00 Jasper TX & Anduin: Walking in snow

Venice

I am very excited to present this next mix. It's a guest mix by longtime listener/downloader, Ron Sylvester.

Ron was the inspiration for a couple of my mixes that used old 78rpm recordings as a basis for the mixes "Sustain & Decay" and "Revenants of the Past". Ron sent me some mix cd's which I really enjoyed & I told him he really should do a proper mix someday.

Well I am delighted that Ron has allowed me to present his first mix here for everyone to enjoy. I'll let Ron describe the mix...

"A week or so ago I stumbled upon the album Salicornie Areavirus by Enrico Coniglio; his website says the album is meant to be a sort of ‘collection of "sound tales" dedicated to Venice’. I thought I recognized his name from somewhere, and back-tracked it to a Lost Children netlabel release featuring Italian artists entitled Underwater Noises, which had been curated by Coniglio. Two other Lost Children Releases featuring Italian artists, Con Fuoco d'Occhi un Nostalgico Lupo volumes I and II, gave me most of what I needed to complete the mix. I finished it off with work by Ulises Conti, Lodovico Einaudi, Paolo Fresu, a Sub Rosa compilation of ritual music entitled Illuminated, and a handful of ambience from Soundtransit and the storehouse of opera 78s at archive.org.

Anyhow, for me this mix is simply entitled Venice, though the musicians are not necessarily from Venice, nor are the field recordings strictly from Venice. Apart from Nguen Le, who is playing with Paolo Fresu (who is Sardinian), I think all the artists or field recording locales are at least Italian. Actually, now that I think of it, the recordings from Illuminated are not necessarily Italian. Catholic, though; that’s something. At any rate, and as usual, the mix is more about a sort of Venetian feeling: canals, Carnevale, the Grand Lagoon, a certain slow sinking. I’ve never been to Venice, though, so what do I know about it?

I was really taken by Enrico Coniglio’s album and it sort of got this mix started. Here’s his website, but as in all things ambient, you are probably way ahead of me on this:

http://www.enricoconiglio.com/

Here are the links for the Lost Children compilations:

http://www.archive.org/details/Lc-eph01UnderwaterNoises

http://www.archive.org/details/TheSilentBallet-ItalianCompilation-ConFuocoDocchiUnNostalgico

http://www.archive.org/details/TheSilentBallet-ItalianCompilation-ConFuocoDocchiUnNostalgico_90

Ron says "The track list is as follows; some editing of tracks has been done in the mix, and I processed the bejeezus out of La Traviata. There’s a lot of overlap in this mix."

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 venice canal - derek holzer [soundtransit]
• 00:12 salicornie - enrico coniglio
• 03:10 bells in Fiesole - thomas andre [soundtransit]
• 03.13 chioma - obsil
• 03:57 excerpt from la traviata - lucrezia bori
• 04: 02 tocco libero - tiziano milani
• 07:14 alpen tower - enrico coniglio
• 12:35 pagetos - francesco giannico / luca mauri / matteo uggeri
• 19:15 hopeless - passo uno
• 26:15 medio evo tecnologico - folk cinema [soundtransit]
• 26:45 restless - ornitology
• 26:47 in prinicipio - unknown from illuminated
• 27:12 gloria - unknown from illuminated
• 32:18 girl from murania - enrico coniglio
• 37:00 half water - allessio ballerini
• 40:20 el dolor implicito de la belleza - ulises conti
• 43:15 palermo without hands - folk cinema [soundtransit]
• 44:00 fish market ambience - palix [soundtransit]
• 44: 05 andare - lodovico einaudi
• 50:50 salicornie (reprise) - enrico coniglio
• 54:50 hydrocoma - un vortice di bassa pressione
• 55:45 lacrima christi - paolo fresu and nguen le
• 56:10 night sea - marco caorle
• 58:45 venice canal (reprise) - derek holzer

Reflections

My output hasn’t been great the last couple of months but thanks to some talented guest mixers Low Light Mixes has new material to post.  This is the third guest mix in the last 4 or 5 months and they are all greatly appreciated.

For this mix Muttley presents – Back to Mine Pt. 2 – Reflections.  This is our second mix from Mick, who did “Drones in Duality” back in June.  He describes "Reflections" as “music for healing bereavements, remedying mental disorders brought to light, enacting occupational therapy, and cherishing the good memories that can sometimes be hard to reach.”

Mick has other fine mixes floating around the intertubes.  You can find some at Subversion and his Ambient Lovers thread(congrats on 300 posts!).  Soon he will have mixes available at Hydrogen Cafe and Presto Samo.  Mick also collaborated with Rick at Hydrogen Cafe on a great mix called “Transference”.  Check out all of the Muttley mixes, wherever you may find them.

T R A C K L I S T :

01. Brian Mcbride - The Guilt Of Uncomplicated Thoughts (from the album "When The Detail Lost Its Freedom" - Kranky) 02. Philip Jeck - Wholesome (from the album "7" - Touch) 03. Rameses III - The Kindness Of Letting Go (from the album "I Could Not Love You More" - Type) 04. Mogwai - Aidan's Waltz (from the album "Come On Die Young" - Chemikal Underground) 05. Hilmar O Hilmarrson & Sigur Ros - Degradation (from the album "Angels Of The Universe" - Import) 06. Olafur Arnalds - Lost Song (from the album "Found Songs" - Erased Tapes) 07. ASC - Highbrow (from the Warm008 12' - Warm Communications) 08. Autechre - Nil (from the album "Amber" - Warp) 09. The Drift - Noumena (from the album "Ceiling Sky" - Temporary Residence) 10. The Alpha Rhythm - The Return (from the album "Proof Of Concept" - Seedknowledge) 11. The Cinematic Orchestra - Diabolus (from the album "Motion" - Ninja Tune) 12. Badmammal - Sending And Taking (goodluck/badluck unreleased) 13. Glint - Double Vision (from the album "Sound In Silence" - www.glintonline.com) 14. A Silver Mount Zion - The Triumph Of Our Tired Eyes (from the album "Born Into Trouble As The Sparks Fly Upward" - Constellation)

gravity

I have been very busy this summer and I haven't had time to even think about a new mix.  So it's perfect timing that I have a new guest mix to present.

"Gravity" is a fantastic new mix by Jason O'Gorman.  Jason did a mix called "Satellite" for us in March of last year.  I really enjoyed that mix & was always hoping he'd do another and here it is.

About the mix, Jason says...

"Think I'll call it "gravity", my head's stuck into plenty of books about quantum mechanics, parallel universes and all that at the moment - so gravity fits - or does it? :-p LOL. The vast majority of the tracks are fed through lots of reverb and eq feedback - giving a nice wash of sound during the crossover stages of the mix, therefore "blurring" the boundaries, so to speak. And I've selected tracks which are pretty much "in key", or work musically. Suffice to say, Im pretty happy with the final result "

I think everyone will be happy with the final result.   One look at the tracklist & I knew it was going to be good then I heard the long, wonderful segues & I was hooked.  Jason added this about the segues & start times...

"One thing, the track times listed - are the times they start, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll "hear" them at that time, but they're there, creeping in. Sometimes they're are 4 tracks playing together -  the transitions are pretty long!"

Enjoy!

t r a c k l i s t :

• 00.00 Like The Foot Prints Of An Invisible Man - Jasper TX & Anduin
• 00.20 A Box of Wood in the Storm - Jasper TX
• 05.00 Excerpt 2/3 - ww.lowman
• 05.10 Cosmos 1 - Murcof
• 08.30 Pillar - David Daniell
• 11.40 Everything Disappears In A Tunnel Of Light- Jasper TX & Anduin
• 15.20 In a Stony Place - Mira Calix
• 18.45 Still Upon the Ocean Floor - Loscil
• 20.00 Invocation - Gregg Kowalsky
• 20.10 Auf der Gasse - Stephan Mathieu
• 23.15 Stele - David Tagg
• 28.00 Mulm Og Mørke - Mulm
• 31.40 Untitled 3 - William Basinski & Richard Chartier
• 35.10 Opening Sky - Steve Roach
• 37.00 Nocturne - Stephan Mathieu + Taylor Deupree
• 37.30 Pictures from Airplanes - David Tagg
• 41.45 The Sirens - St. Kilda
• 45.40 Filitosa - Melodium
• 47.15 A Stop at the Chord Cascades - Tim Hecker
• 47.33 V - Gregg Kowalsky
• 49.15 Vi-Vii - Gregg Kowalsky
• 52.00 Monochrome 1 - Tu M'

Drone in Duality

My last mix was done for SubVersion and now Mick was kind enough to return the favor with a mix for Low Light Mixes. It's an excellent mix which Mick describes this way...

"Drones In Duality" is the first in a series of mixes dedicated to Bridewell Gardens, which I visit every week to engage in therapeutic conservation and decorating work. The name is a reference to the double meaning properties of each track title, and the transference of a gesture in two different timeframes - before mucking in, and after a days' graft.

For instance, Bibio's "Cherry Blossom Road" encompasses the ability to walk down roads adorned with flowers, to and from the bus trip to Bridewell, while "Sleep In The Eyes" identifies the product of doing much work on the premises, or getting cobwebs out on the journey in. Hammock's "We Will Say Goodbye To Everyone" nods to the friendly atmosphere I've encountered, and the desire to wish well each person I meet there. Pan American's "So That No Matter" curtails an extended metaphor for "so that no matter what problems I face, I can get through the day, with help from my friends and family".

This is segued into Hakobune's "Realization At Dusk", which symbolises the enjoyment factor I weigh up the evening prior (getting sorted to make a stop) and heretofore the welcoming in of darkness (post-assignments and seeing everyone off). Oophoi's "Beyond These Skies" is the subsequent result of thinking forward, to what can be sentimental gold beyond nostalgic trifles. Then "Diamonds In The Sky" arrives to calm the listener: "They shine in the night / The diamonds in the sky / The sweet dreaming girl's paradise". "Softkiller" harks back to my relationship with the woman I've been so preocuppied with. Incomprehensible lyrics act as the undertow to ethereal guitar noodling and hushed chants.

Grouper is juxtaposed with the grainy metamorphosising of Evangelista to end, "The Frozen Dress" a direct correlation to the freeze-frame behaviour of "Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping". All in all, "Drones In Duality" is a 23-minute endeavour into fresh ground for me.

There's lots of drones, granted, but these are counterbalanced with an accessibility from the vocals and brimming harmonies. Next up: "Time Heals All Wounds".