low light mixes

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Ambient music mixes for a chaotic world

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Sunday Aug 21, 2022

Summer Stargazing

Sunday Aug 21, 2022

I have been making stargazing and space themed mixes for a long time. But I realized that I haven't posted a straightforward stargazing mix for almost two years. So this mix fixes that.

All the tracks are fairly new, with half of them being from this year. Some tracks are from low light mixes regulars like Loscil, Loneward and Hipnotic Earth alongside new discoveries like RIKAAR, Tone Color and Audio Obscura.

Here are links to all the albums used in this mix in the order in which they appear:

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 RIKAAR - Future Hope to Past Lightyears (Malin 1 2022)
12:15 Loneward - Star Portal (Our Unyielding Sky 2022)
11:58 Hipnotic Earth - Full of Stars (Starfish and Giant Foams 2021)
16:45 Alva Noto - Xerrox Neige (Xerrox Vol. 4 2020)
20:40 Alpha Wave Movement - Timeless Starfields(Infinite Realms 2021)
27:50 Tone Color - The Beauty of Not Knowing (Dwelling in Light 2022)
30:50 Motionfield - Evolve (Evolve 2022)
36:00 Tapes and Topographies - The Worn Surface of Heart (Modalities 2022)
41:40 Pruski - Moment V (Moments of Immersion 2022)
46:00 Audio Obscura - The Quiet Night (Triplicate Tapes Vol. 2 Space Invaders 2021)
49:50 Machinefabriek - Waqūr (To Yemen With Love 2020)
53:14 Loscil - Swipe Enforce (Lifelike 2019)
58:11 end

Sunday Aug 14, 2022

Undeniably Ambient

Sunday Aug 14, 2022

Here's a new mix in the "Simply Ambient" series. There is no theme, no story, no big concept - just straightforward ambient music. All the tracks are from 2022 and all the tracks are...Undeniably Ambient.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Innesti - A Collection of Ideas (Folding, A Study 2022)
04:50 Andarctica - Basalt (Basal 2022)
09:00 Gylden - Into The Night (Island Friend 2022)
13:15 Jogging House - Low (Fiber 2022)
20:22 S. van der Toorn - vervlogenheid v (vervlogenheden i-xi 2022)
22:30 halftribe - Concept of Happiness (Elegant, Golden 2022)
26:55 Christopher Hanlon - Light Returning (Dreaming of Summer in Winter 2022)
29:41 Loris S. Sarid - Yellow Lines (Seabed-Sunbath 2022)
32:20 Toàn - Ambre (Phonolite 2022)
36:46 Pruski - Moment III (Moments of Immersion 2022)
41:05 Erik Wøllo - Inversion, part 5 (Inversions 2022)
45:25 ASC - Solitude (Ultimae Records - Isolated 2022)
50:55 David Cordero - Snoqualmie Falls(feat. Carlos Ferreira) (And Stillness Came 2022)
55:20 Alio Die & Dirk Serries - The Shadow Is Slow, The Hour Is Fleeting (The Chapters Of The Eclipse 2022)
64:29 end

Sunday Aug 07, 2022

Train Six-56 by Paul Asbury Seaman

Sunday Aug 07, 2022

Yes, another train mix. They are just too intriguing and cinematic to pass up. This one come from friend of the blog, Paul Asbury Seaman. Paul has given us some excellent train mixes in the past and this one continues that tradition. This one clocks in at just a bit under 100 minutes! So much great music in one mix.

Here's what Paul says about this set:

“A special summertime extended-play mix… almost 100 minutes of long-distance bliss. This is my sixth train-themed production for Low Light Mixes. (The #‘56’ is just for alliteration.) The Zen concept of “stillness within motion” has long been one of my guiding principles and it struck me recently that train travel is a great illustration of this: You can sit quietly while the world literally rushes by.

Trains are a central part of modern history and continue to be woven into the cultural landscape, whether in the movement of consumer goods or the daily commute of suburban workers to desperate families displaced by war. There are many kinds of associations with trains—all vivid, some very dark—and now with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, trains have become not just a symbol of nostalgia, romance and travel, but literally instruments of salvation for millions of people. I have no such pretensions here, but as always, I hope it will sooth and refresh. Once again, sequencers dominate this mix, with their obvious match with the fast clickity-clack of train tracks.”

Thanks again to Paul for this wonderful trip.

Here are links to all the albums used in this mix in the order in which they appear:

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 SiJ - Inkerman - Sevastopol #1 (From Inkerman To Sevastopol)
00:46 Trevor Jones - Runaway Train (Runaway Train 1985)
03:00 Paul Speer - Tornado Warning (Ax Inferno 2013)
07:30 Gert Emmens - At the end of the track (On the Edge of Nowhere 2022)
12:50 David Parsons - Perhatian (Atmanaut 2018)
19:38 Mercan Dede - Kapadokya
26:25 Manuel Göttsching - And Sovereignty (E2-E4 1984)
29:12 Andrew Lahiff - Scalar Fields (Outward Currents 2021)
37:05 SiJ - Inkerman - Sevastopol #2 (From Inkerman To Sevastopol)
37:50 Solar Fields - Mountain King (Ourdom 2018)
46:25 Shamans Dream - The Way Through (Prana Pulse 2012)
52:40 Redshift - Vampyre (Life to Come 2015)
58:00 Tangerine Dream - Dreaming In A Kyoto Train (Summer In Nagasaki 2007)
60:45 Johan Tronestam - Deep Field (Space Collection 2017)
67:20 Erik Wøllo - Viewpoint (North Star 2021)
73:00 Thom Brennan - Eventide Pt.3 (Eventide 2022)
77:50 Lars Leonhard - Physical Objects (GRAVITY 2022)
83:50 LAD - Spectral Lines (Quasar 2022)
88:20 Cheryl B. Engelhardt - The Zephyr Remembers (The Passenger 2022)
91:15 Divine Matrix - Journey's End (Journeys 2022)
97:18 end

Sunday Jul 31, 2022

That Beautiful Land of Nod Vol. 2

Sunday Jul 31, 2022

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About a month ago I presented a guest mix of sleep music from Brian Bieniowski, whom I knew from the heyday of the Hypnos Records forum in the mid 2000s. "That Beautiful Land of Nod" is indeed a beautiful sleep mix.

Thankfully, back in 2007 Brian created two Land of Nod mixes. So here is volume 2 for your listening and sleeping pleasure.

Here is what Brian said about the Land of Nod mixes back in 2007:

"It wasn't until the early nineties when I discovered real ambient music suited for the purpose of lying down and listening. It felt finally natural to take to my bed after starting the CD player and allowing the soft music to carry my mind forth for a while until sleep took hold. This mix, That Beautiful Land of Nod, is the product of over twelve years of "field research" in ambient sleep music. All of the selections, new and old, on these two discs, are pieces of music I have personally played in the times before and during sleep. Each track is special to me, these soothing zones, as they have not only brought me hours of comforted sleep, but also tantalizing, never-lasting minutes of wild and wonderful imagery in those moments before unconsciousness occurs. Each track maps a route across my consciousness over twelve years of sleep listening. It is my honest hope that this becomes the mix you never fully listen to—if you are at all like me, you'll be asleep by track five or six every time. So, please, draw the shades, relax, pleasant dreams...."

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Jochem Paap - Dx-Snth (Vrs-Mbnt-Pcs 9598 2)
05:45 Jason Sloan - The Color of Wind 1 (Still)
11:45 Sam Rosenthal & VidnaObmana - Dark Mist, Rain (Terrace of Memories)
16:15 Bill Nelson - Crimsworth(edit) (Crimsworth)
22:30 James Johnson - Surrender(edit) (Surrender)
26:20 Aphex Twin - #19(edit) (Selected Ambient Works, Vol. 2)
29:10 Rod Modell & Michael Mantra - Vitamin K(edit) (Sonic Continuum)
33:30 Ruxpin - Autocaz (Midnight Drive)
38:30 Never Known - Spheres (On the Edge of Forever)
43:10 Oöphoi - Let the Nightsky Envelope Us (Hymns to a Silent Sky)
49:40 Mathias Grassow - Through the Void (The Fragrance of Eternal Roses)
55:12 Aloof Proof - The Ghost Ship(edit) (Expo Two: Piano Text)
58:55 David Sylvian - Approaching Silence(edit) (Approaching Silence)
65:00 Steve Roach - Towards the Blue (Quiet Music)
68:23 end

Sunday Jul 24, 2022

Time to Listen - by Peter van Cooten of Ambientblog

Sunday Jul 24, 2022

Peter van Cooten runs the excellent Ambientblog website which has great reviews and, of course, wonderful mixes. Anytime Peter reaches out with a mix idea or a a set he'd like to cross-post on both of our platforms, I will always jump at the chance.

As I said on Peter's last guest mix, his sets are different from mine in that they are more intricate. He does not use full tracks, instead opting for excerpts and samples piled on each other, sometimes 2, 3, or 4 tracks play simultaneously, to create a new sound collage.

Here's what Peter says about this mix:

"Apart from its opening sample – ‘It is time to stop seeing. It is time to stop speaking. It is time to listen’, from David Cronenberg’s Crimes Of the Future – this mix has no central theme or story. It’s up to you, the listener to take the time to listen and go with the flow. Let your fantasy tell you the story. And, after you did, I’d love to hear what you heard.

This mix is created using many fragments and samples from longer pieces of music, often presented in multiple layers. Check the original compositions using the tracklist below."

Here's a map of the mix, layer upon layer of the 31 tracks used in the collage.

Check out Peter's work here:

https://www.ambientblog.net/blog/ He also does surround sound mixes, which you can find here: https://www.ambientblog.net/blog/the-surround-mix-versions/

And Peter is on Mixcloud - https://www.mixcloud.com/ambientblog/

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T - Start time - Sample Length - Artist - Title

Album - Year - Label

00:00 01:12 David Cronenberg - Time To Listen Sample

Crimes Of The Future, 2022

00:04 03:35 Dronny Darko & Protou - Sin Eater

Liberty: Compilation Of Experimental Music From Ukraine, 2022, Flaming Pines

02:28 02:42 William St. Hugh - Voice Of The Dolphins

Dominion, 2022, self-released

04:31 02:16 Tapani Rinne & Teho Majamaki - Lucid Dream

On The Border, 2022, Signature Dark

06:13 02:36 Ivan Cebrian & Victor Cerdan - Enemigo Intimo

Inside // Outside, 2022, Oigovisiones

06:40 02:30 Park Jiha - At Dawn

The Gleam, 2022, Glitterbeat

08:49 02:39 Benedicte Maurseth - Eidfyrder

Hárr, 2022, Hubro

10:47 03:51 Bill Fontana - Imaginary Sonic Visions

MSCTY Expo Unknown Pleasures Zone, 2022, MSCTY Editions

12:40 02:18 Alva Noto - Odradek (for Jhonn Balance)

For, 2006, Line

13:31 01:50 Jacek & Ewa Doroszenko - Night Masque

Bodyfulness, 2022, Audiobulb Records

14:17 02:27 Higher Intelligence Agency - The Black Patch

Song Of The Machine, 2022, self-released

15:58 02:50 Siddhartha Barnhoorn - Final Ascension

Out There, Oceans Of Time, vol. 1, 2022, self-released

18:27 02:24 Mike Lazarev - All That Remains

When You Are, 2022, Slowcraft Recordings

20:27 03:17 Orghanon - Dronework V

Droneworks I-V, 2022, St.An.Da

22:13 03:27 Aleksi Myllykoski ft Wimme - Composition VI: Inherently Destructive Contamination

St. Virus, 2021, Signature Dark

24:37 04:13 Peter Phippen, Rahbi Crawford, Invar Lunde Jr. - Andromeda

Galaxies, 2022, Projekt Records

28:46 02:30 Jóhann Jóhansson & Echo Collective - Shell

12 Conversations With Thilo Heinzmann, 2019, Deutsche Grammophon

29:46 05:29 Maggi Payne - Distant Thunder

Arctic Winds, 2010, Innova Recordings

33:08 03:07 Leo Kupper - Litanea 1987

Complete Electronic & Voices Works 1961-1987, 2022, Sub Rosa

36:22 04:35 Monty Adkins - Remote Communion

Remote Communion, 2020, Cronica

38:56 01:28 Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet - Thunder Continues In The Afternoon

Landfall, 2018, Nonesuch

40:11 04:35 Cell - Passive Control Part 1

Onwards System, 2022, Ultimae Records

43:27 03:59 Alphaxone & Protou - Sub Signal

Stardust, 2017, Cryo Chamber

45:51 03:03 Wil Bolton & Francis Gri - The Ripples Theory

Imaginary Tales, 2022, Krysalisound

47:54 02:11 Xqui - Narrator

Pieces Part 2, 2022, Somewherecold Records

48:45 03:57 Michel Banabila - Alienation

Monochromes, 2022, Tapu Records

52:21 00:55 Stuart A. Staples - Fluids

Music For Claire Denis' High Life, 2019, Lucky Dog

52:31 01:13 Helge Sten - Quad 2

Monochromes, 2014, Bôlt

52:45 02:29 Dean Hurley - Girl Appears /Black Smoke

Anthology Resource Vol. I: △△, 2017, Sacred Bones Records

54:00 01:55 I Wound - To Wind, Wound, Wound

Homework Year 1, Taâlem

54:52 05:07 Francois Robin & Mathias Delplanque - Le Puits

L'Ombre De La Bête, 2022, Parenthèses Records

60:00 end

Sunday Jul 10, 2022

Sunday Morning Music Vol. 22 - Warm Waves

Sunday Jul 10, 2022

It was a little more than ten years ago that I posted my first Sunday Morning Music mix. I had not intended on making it a regular series but the mix did very well on Mixcloud and is partially responsible for starting the explosion of followers the Low Light Mixes feed got in the following years. So I've been creating roughly two per years for 10 years. Yikes! It's kind of crazy to think about how long I've been making these mixes.

This one follows the same formula - some ambient cuts, some jazzy tracks, a few vocal tunes, all resulting in a mellow vibe perfect for sipping coffee on a Sunday morning.

Here are links to all the music used in this mix in the order in which they appear:

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Time Rival - Breakfast with Birdsong (Fell 2020)
02:40 Turn On The Sunlight - Warm Waves (Warm Waves 2020)
08:33 Damian Dalla Torre - Where to Go (Happy Floating 2022)
12:27 Cole Pulice & Nat Harvie - Dream Days (Strawberry Roan 2022)
16:27 IDRA - Air and Salt (Duet 2022)
19:03 Peter Banks - No Place Like Home (Be Well, Be Safe, Be Lucky 2018)
20:34 Peppermoth - Sun Dreamer (Ventrilokissed 2021)
24:45 David Byrne And Yo La Tengo - Who Has Seen The Wind (2022)
27:20 Shearwater - Wind Is Love (The Great Awakening 2022)
31:33 The Smile - Open The Floodgates (A Light For Attracting Attention 2022)
35:35 Kittylung - Garden Abandoned (Of Context 2021)
38:07 Charles Rumback & Ryley Walker - Self Blind Sun (Little Common Twist 2019)
42:13 Björn Meyer - Provenance (Provenance 2017)
48:04 SiP - Alice (Leos Naturals 2020)
54:00 Loris S. Sarid - Tano (Music for Tomato Plants 2020)
56:40 Jon Hopkins - Ascending, Dawn Sky (Music For Psychedelic Therapy 2021)
65:03 end

Sunday Jul 03, 2022

The Beautiful Land of Nod

Sunday Jul 03, 2022

Set the wayback machine to 2007.

I started creating ambient mixes back in the mid-2000s. Those were the days before social media had taken over our lives, before Bandcamp was such a great resource for ambient music. Back then I spent a lot of time on the Hypnos Records forum. There, a bunch of like-mined music nerds shared comments about new recordings, gear, movies, books, tv, music trends, etc.

We also shared mixes. That was one of the first places I tried to promote my mixes online. Back in 2007 fellow forum member, Brian Bieniowski, created a couple mixes under the Asphalt Eden moniker. These mixes, The Beautiful Land of Nod 1 & 2, are some of my all-time favorites and I've used them as sleep soundtracks for years.

With that as background, a few weeks ago a loyal listener reached out with this request - "Could you post some of the Asphalt Eden super-classics like The Beautiful Land of Nod I and II to your Mixcloud as guest mixes/classics in the field/inspirations to your mixes please? I think your fans would be overjoyed by this, and it would be sheer cultural maintenance."

I contacted Brian and he was kind enough to give the thumbs up to posting these classic mixes. He did not have the original tracklists but somehow was able to reconstruct them by listening to each set. Impressive! Thanks Brian for the mixes and for your memory. Here's a link to his website - https://www.handsometechnologies.com/

So kickback and remember a time before credit default swaps almost cratered the economy, before a reality show host became president, before a coronavirus swept around the globe, before....ugh...I'll stop now. Just sit back and drift away to The Beautiful Land of Nod 1.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

Robert Rich -Seascape (Trances/Drones)
Koda - Where the Morning Light Exits (Movements)
Scott Solter - Wave and Sepia Wire (The Brief Light)
Thom Brennan - Raingardens (Mist)
Robert Fripp and Jeffrey Fayman - The Sky Below (A Temple in the Clouds)
James Johnson?
MLO - Noodle #1
Heavenly Music Corp - Ambient to Be Here (In a Garden of Eden)
Tetsu Inoue & Pete Namlook - 2350 Broadway 2 - Art of Dream
Klaus Wiese - Soma
Rameses III - Queens Road Cemetery - 28th March 2005 (Matanuska)
Brian Eno - Discreet Music (Discreet Music)
Jonn Serrie - Stratos (And the Stars Go With You)

Sunday Jun 26, 2022

Guitarissimo Vol. 3

Sunday Jun 26, 2022

I made the first Guitarissimo mix 5 years ago. I followed it up a year or so later. But then for some reason it took me 4 years to get to volume 3.

This version is similar to the others the vibe is a bit spaghetti western and dusty, moody, twangy with a little Latin feel. But of course much of it has an ambient vibe.

One of my favorite discoveries while making this mix was Hermanos Gutiérrez. As the name implies the band is brothers - Alejandro and Estevan Gutiérrez. They create beautiful Latin landscapes with their guitars. Check out their stuff here - https://hermanosgutierrez.bandcamp.com/

Here are links to the two previous Guitarissimo mixes:

Links to the albums used in this mix in order of appearance:

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Pan American - Sleepwalk Guitars (A Son 2019)
03:24 Brightblack Morning Light - Miwok Shapes (Brightblack Morning Light 2006)
09:00 Richard Thompson - Glencoe (Grizzly Man 2005)
10:40 Khruangbin - A Calf Born in Winter (2014)
13:37 Hermanos Gutiérrez - Hombre Honrado (El Camino de mi Alma 2018)
17:13 Yo La Tengo - Tired Hippo (And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out 2000)
21:51 Gary McFarland Gabor Szabo - Simpatico (Simpatico 1966)
26:29 SUWI - Dessert (Sumi 2020)
30:52 Supergombo - Le reve de Kovacks (Sigi Tolo 2020)
35:10 David Sylvian - The Stigma Of Childhood(Kin) (Rarities 1988-1993)
42:26 Bobby Beausoleil - Saundaria Lahari (Voodoo Shivaya 2018)
50:40 SUSS - Laredo (Ghost Box 2018)
54:20 Hermanos Gutierrez - Railroad Vista (Hijos Del Sol 2020)
56:49 Pan American - Outskirts, Dreamlit (The Patience Fader 2022)
63:16 end

Sunday Jun 19, 2022

The New World of Deutsche Grammophon

Sunday Jun 19, 2022

I've been a fan of the Deutsche Grammophon label for a long time, ever since I got this Steve Reich box set back in the early 80s in college.

I've collected quite a few DG recordings over the years. Over the last 5 years or so I've noticed them branching out and releasing music by a wider variety of artists and music that isn't strictly classical. From Moby to Christian Löffler to Olafur Arnalds to Brian Eno to Clark, the music is surprising for DG but also seems to fit well. After a lot of listening to Parallels by Christian Löffler, I decided to do a mix of recent DG favs. I hope you enjoy it.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Peter Gregson - Opening (Blackbird 2020)
02:34 Johann Johannsson - Divine Objects pt. 1 (Drone Mass 2022)
05:00 Agnes Obel - Can’t Be(Instrumental (Myopia 2020)
08:20 Christian Löffler - Dir Jehova (Parallels 2021)
12:25 Signum Saxophone Quartet- 1957 award montage (Quartet Echoes 2021)
15:41 Tale Of Us - definizione dell impossibile (Endless 2017)
19:46 Joep Beving - Morpheus' Dream (Henosis 2019)
21:36 Olafur Arnalds - Still _ Sound (Some Kind of Peace 2020)
25:45 Alex Baranowski - Constellations (Project 12 2019)
28:13 Benjamin Gustafsson - Silent In A World Of Talking (Project 12 2019)
31:02 Clark - Citrus (Playground in a Lake 2021)
33:20 Max Richter - War Anthem (Three Worlds Music From Woolf Works 2017)
40:05 Moby - God Moving Over the Face of The Waters (2021)
43:17 Peter Gregson Gifts at Dinner (Blackbird 2020)
47:23 Roger Eno & Brian Eno - Marble (Mixing Colours 2020)
53:20 Johann Johannsson & Yair Elazar Glotman - Slow Destruction Of Neptune (Last And First Men 2020)
56:58 Hildur Guðnadóttir - 12 Hours Before (Chernobyl 2019)
59:19 end

Sunday Jun 12, 2022

Soothing Sequencers by Paul Asbury Seaman

Sunday Jun 12, 2022

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I am always pleased to present a new mix from Paul Asbury Seaman and this one is no exception. It's a great collection of sequencer tracks that hits the ideal vibe. Coming on the heels of my Stranger Synths mix, I was still in a electronic, sequencer mood and this mix kept me in that zone perfectly.

Here's what Paul says about this mix:

“For a lot of people, the term ‘electronic music’ still brings to mind the chaotic synthesizer experiments of its early years, highly abstract and moody ‘space music,’ or the techno dance music that grew out of a merger of ‘70s disco with ‘80s pop. Or the characteristically propulsive textures associated with em godfathers Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream, where a simple sequence of repeating notes provided both rhythm and melody. But some artists (including the aforementioned two) are able to infuse their beeping machines with warm emotions and heartfelt melodies, as presented here—a softer side of the electronic universe. If you like a steady, waterwheel flow and bell-like tones, this one’s for you.”

Paul mentions Klaus Schulze which is appropriate because we timed this mix to be posted just days after the release of the final Klaus Schulze album. I grabbed the last track from that album and made it the final track in this mix as one last tribute to Klaus.

Links to the albums used in this mix in the order in which they appear:

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Andy Pickford - Temple of the Wonklord (RadioSilence: Objective Linearity 2022)
07:52 Lars Leonhard - Moon Gravity (Gravity 2022)
15:35 Mac of BIOnighT - Auralities (Auralities 2017)
20:36 Klaus Schulze - Fm Delight (En=Trance 1988)
28:00 Hollan Holmes - The River (Emerald Waters 2022)
33:22 State Azure - Ricochet (Dreams 2020)
41:45 Steve Roach - We Continue (Spiral Revelation 2016)
48:45 SpiralDreams - Pearl in the Sand part1 (Journey to Infinity II 2021)
54:30 Fritz Mayr - North Coast Night Lights (Milky Way 2021)
59:42 Johan Tronestam - Home Sweet Home (Next Step 2021)
66:06 Klaus Schulze - Der Hauch des Lebens Pt. 5 (Deus Arrakis 2022)
71:14 end