low light mixes

Launch of Curiosity

This past Saturday NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory known as "Curiosity" on a 9 month journey to the planet Mars.  As I was watching video of the launch, I was thinking about music that would work well with a launch & space voyage.  I quickly collected some appropriate tune & cranked out this mix at escape velocity speed.

The tracks are all electronic/electronica cuts that I thought seem to fit the theme.  As it turns out, many of the tunes have titles that are perfect for a mix like this.  Titles such as "Towards Unknown Space", "Solar Sailer", "Born to Fire", "Your Wings Make You Fly" and of course "Phobos & Deimos Go To Mars".

That "Phobos & Deimos" tracks was one of my absolute favorite tracks in college.  I had a clear vinyl version of the Synergy album "Cords".  There aren't going to be too many times that I can sneak that cut into a mix so I'm glad I got that one in here.

The NASA audio is all from the actual launch of the Curiosity Mars rover mission.

In the coming months maybe I'll do "Flight of Curiosity" & "Curiosity Lands" mixes.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    M83 - Another Wave from You
• 01:55    Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy
• 04:40    Saul Stokes - Greys
• 08:25    Pinch & Shackleton - Monks on the Rum
• 13:07    Synergy - Phobos & Deimos Go To Mars
• 17:40    Brad Smith - Any Colour You Like (8-bit Pink Floyd cover)
• 21:05    Balam Acab - Apart
• 23:30    Jumpel - Lissabon
• 26:20    Daft Punk - Solar Sailer
• 28:25    Steve Roach & Vir Unis - Born to Fire
• 36:15    Delta M45 - Towards Unknown Space
• 41:00    Winterlight - Your Wings Make You Fly
• 46:20    Jumpel - Arles
• 49:25    Rena Jones - Helix
• 54:28    Plumbline - 66 w12
• 58:51    end

the stars above us

"Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another." -- Plato (427-347 B.C.) I realized that I hadn't done a stargazing mix in quite awhile and with the weather getting warmer & spending more time outside, I figured a new star mix was in order. So here it is... T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Sonmi451 - Cumulonimbus
• 05:30 Manual - As the moon Spins Around
• 09:35 Cyber Zen Sound Engine & Matt Borghi - Mars Infers
• 15:40 Robert Davies - Beneath Strange Stars
• 24:55 sgnl fltr - kwon
• 25:30 Frederico Durand - Mi Pequeno Mundo De Papel
• 26:25 Frederico Durand - El Mundo Secreto De La Montana
• 29:30 Staffan Wessman - Unison
• 34:50 The Winterhouse - Lost
• 42:50 Jonathan Hughes - Monoline
• 45:15 Kyle Bobby Dunn - Statuit
• 50:05 Loscil - Cheekye
• 55:50 Matt Thomas Wilson - Aviation Jargon
• 58:00 Jonn Serrie - Continuum
• 03:15 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

sea of stars

This is a mix from our annual trip to the Wisconsin northwoods.  As the title suggests it's a mix for star gazing. As I have mentioned in other posts, Rick, who runs the Hydrogen Cafe blog, and I sit out at the end of the pier and watch for shooting stars and satellites.  We each make a soundtrack for the experience.  Rick's are usually much more thought out than mine(he mix this year was great!). I limited myself to fairly new music, stuff I have been listening to a lot lately.  I knew I wanted to include new music from Area C - Sea of Rains.  It was commissioned by the NASA RI Space Grant Consortium and the Museum of Natural History in Providence, RI as an original score for their "Mission Moon: past, present, future" exhibit at the Museum of Natural History.  It has some Nasa recordings mixed in with the music so it was a natural for this mix. After that the other tracks are just tunes that are kind of new, sound a bit spacey and flow well together. t r a c k l i s t :

• 00:00    bvdub - You'll miss me when I'm gone
• 06:19    Area C - Mare Imbrium
• 11:30    Kyle Bobby Dunn - Furthest From It
• 18:10    Emmanuel Errante - Radio Hopes
• 23:40    Parks - Trains
• 29:50    Kode - Movements #6
• 35:30    Shirk - Itchytime
• 38:55    Deaf Center - Close
• 40:55    The Caretaker - Lacuna Amnesia
• 44:05    Area C - Sea of Clouds
• 51:15    Kabana - dubru
• 56:15    Shirk - Riesal
• 00:09   Le Chat Blanc Orchestra - She Left This Morning