low light mixes

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Ambient music mixes for a chaotic world

Episodes

Sunday Nov 21, 2021

A Tender Loneliness: Native American-style Flute — by Paul Asbury Seaman

Sunday Nov 21, 2021

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I kind of overdosed on Native American flute music back in my new age days in the late 80s and 90s. So I don't listen to this style very often. But Paul has pulled me back in with his excellent collection of tracks.

It starts off with new music from Sherry Finzer so I'm in automatically. From there Paul uses a variety of artists and styles to carry us through the hour-long mix. Here's what Paul says about this mix:

“The Native American flute is one of those instruments that instantly has cultural associations. Intertwined with and beyond that, its wistful, haunting tone is a sound that evokes gratitude and reverence. It is with those qualities in mind that I selected tracks for this mix.”

Thanks again Paul for another beautifully curated set.

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

Cheers!

T R AC K L I S T :

00:00 Sherry Finzer - Red Hawk Hill (Connections 2022)
03:18 Peter Kater & Michael Brant DeMaria - Heart of Silence (Heart of Silence: Piano and Flute Meditations 2015)
10:09 Ah Nee Mah - Ceremony (Ancient Voices 2001)
15:20 Mary Youngblood - Flute Circle (The Offering 2002)
17:52 Suzanne Teng & Gilbert Levy - White Buffalo (Whisper 2021)
21:54 Peter Phippen - Returning Home (Summerland)
27:27 Randy Granger - Oh Shenandoah (Cloudwalker 2006)
30:18 Randy Granger - Chaco Moon Meditation (Handpan Music for a Pandemic 2020)
35:12 David & Steve Gordon - Daybreak Appears (Gratitude – Relaxing Native American Flute Music 2010)
40:51 R. Carlos Nakai - Shining Mountains (Sanctuary 2003)
44:22 Johnny Whitehorse - Cougar (Totemic Flute Chants 2007)
47:33 Gary Stroutsos - Adobe Walls (Night Chants: Native American Flute 2018)
50:39 Tony Gerber & Phil Keaggy - Mare Nectaris (Sea of Nectar) (Red Lunar 2019)
55:48 Dreamhub & Tony Gerber - Welcome Wind (Night Cathedral 2020)
59:12 end

Sunday Nov 14, 2021

DUNE - an alternative soundtrack

Sunday Nov 14, 2021

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Anyone who regularly follows this podcast and my mixes knows that I am a science fiction dork. So it should come as no surprise that I saw Dune on opening weekend. I loved the film and have been thinking about an alternative soundtrack mix ever since.

There's not much to say other than this mix is a collection of tracks that remind me of the film. Most of the tracks are fairly new but a few older ones sneak in there, such as the one from Robert Rich & Lustmord, which goes back to 1995. The opening cut is the newest as it was written and produced by my son, who records as Just A Human, a couple of days after seeing the film.

If you see the film, see it in a theater. It's big and loud and really needs to be seen on a big screen.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Just A Human - Messages from the Deep
01:00 Ben Chatwin - Nordsjøen (Drone Signals 2018)
05:10 Serena Gabriel & Steve Roach - From The Sea (Seeing Inside 2021)
12:00 Murcof - Ideology Storm (The Alias Sessions 2021)
16:27 A Winged Victory for the Sullen - Thirteenth Century Travelogue (Invisible Cities 2021)
18:22 Robert Rich & B. Lustmord - Undulating Terrain (Stalker 1995)
22:12 Hibernis - The Grape Leaves (Middle of the Meds 2018)
27:00 Soriah - Uger-Khan Kargyraa (Gnostic 2019)
28:51 Rapoon - Don't Come Out At Night (Melancholic Songs of the Desert 2009)
32:40 Michel Banabila - Our Alien Voice (Trespassing 2017)
35:12 Brett Janzen - Penumbra (Aphelion 2021)
37:55 Arrowounds - Antarctica's Spherical Anomalies Leave Residual Trails (The Rise and Fall of the Melting World 2021)
41:55 Strië - Test for Ability (Perpetual Journey 2018)
44:44 Loscil - Zephyr with wind and strings
47:25 Tineidae - Epilogue (Exo 2020)
50:55 Jim Cole & Spectral Voices - Hear Earth (Innertones 2006)
52:35 Hanno Leichtmann - Wind (Nuit Du Plomb 2006)
57:00 end

Sunday Nov 07, 2021

The Restless Thrum

Sunday Nov 07, 2021

I have done several train mixes over the years. They basically come about because I hear a tune and think - Hey, that would be great in a train mix. So it was with this one. I heard the track "A.O.E." by Portico Quartet and I knew immediately that I need to build a mix around it.

This mix differs from most of my other train mix(except one) because it's mostly a jazz influenced mix. Berlin-school sequencers have been replaced by a drum kit and synth washes are now horns. I folded in some recordings of trains and subways but I didn't want to over do it so I kept to 3 spots in the mix.

Links to all the albums used in order of how they appear in this mix:

The mix has some good energy and I could see it being a great companion for bike riding.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Portico Quartet - A.O.E. (Monument 2021)
05:30 Nick Garbett & Mike Majkowski - Aerial (The Glider 2021)
11:35 Snow Palms - Kojo Yakei (Land Waves 2020)
15:08 Tangents - Terracotta (New Bodies 2018)
21:20 Elskavon & John Hayes - Vermilion (Du Nord 2020)
23:23 Nala Sinephro - Space 6 (Space 1.8 2021)
26:50 Portico Quartet - Terrain: III (Terrain 2021)
36:30 Olafur Arnalds - Undir (re:member 2018)
39:27 Bell Orchestra - Movement (House Music 2021)
45:00 Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society - Shadow Conductor (Mandatory Reality 2019)
52:42 Daniel Brandt - Eternal Something (Eternal Something 2017)
58:45 Alapastel - Transmission (Ceremony 2021)
64:16 end

Sunday Oct 31, 2021

always ambient

Sunday Oct 31, 2021

This is mix #3 in the "simply ambient" series. It started with "simply ambient" then "purely ambient" and now "always ambient."

I listen to a ton of new music every month and this series gives me a chance to get some of that new music into mixes without having to wait for an appropriate theme. It's just straightforward ambient tracks, no theme, no big concept no story to tell - just excellent ambient music, always.

Music used in the mix:

https://vaagner.bandcamp.com/album/when-the-night-ends

https://polarseasrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/still-life

https://ambientologist.bandcamp.com/album/maritime

https://lontanoseries.bandcamp.com/album/stanotte

https://archivesdubmusic.bandcamp.com/album/slow-morning

https://rhucle.bandcamp.com/album/cycle

https://innesti.bandcamp.com/album/in-letters

https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/siberia

https://asc77.bandcamp.com/album/the-moons-of-saturn

https://devendrabanhart.bandcamp.com/album/refuge

https://keepsleep.bandcamp.com/album/past-life-memories

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Jens Pauly & Stijn Hüwels - The Leaves Will Fade (When The Night Ends 2021)
11:00 Igor Yalivec - Viola (Still Life 2021)
15:35 anthéne - juniper (maritime 2021)
19:10 Michele Andreotti - Ovunque (Stanotte 2021)
25:10 Robert Farrugia - Coastal (Slow Morning 2017)
32:00 Rhucle - Distance (Cycle 2021)
35:15 Rhucle - Tone (Cycle 2021)
38:40 Innesti - Narrative Forms (In Letters 2021)
42:40 Glåsbird - Thermokarsts (Siberia 2021)
46:40 ASC & Inhmost - Sunrise On Titan (The Moons Of Saturn 2021)
53:20 Devendra Banhart, Noah Georgeson - A Cat (Refuge 2021)
57:30 KeepSleep - 上次会议 Farewell (Past Life Memories 2021)
62:00 end

Friday Oct 29, 2021

Out Past Dark

Friday Oct 29, 2021

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I'm getting this mix up & running just in time for Halloween. This one, while it does have a bit of a nighttime feel to it, is a little less creepy than some past Halloween mixes.

For this collection I looked for titles that fit the theme of night to day. The mix moves chronologically from sunset to night to moonrise and set to darkness to dreaming and finally to light and dawn.

Grab a pumpkin spice beer and...UGH, no don't do that! Grab a normal beer, like a refreshing Hamm's, and sit on the porch, in the dark, listening to this mix. Happy Halloween.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Eli Keszler - Civil Sunset (Icons 2021)
03:55 Seabuckthorn - It Will Be Dark By Then (Other Other 2020)
06:49 Zoe Keating - Hello Night (Into The Trees (2010)
10:21 A-Sun Amissa - Outr Past Dark (Black Rain 2020)
14:53 Wodwo - that full-mooned night (Filey Bay 1978 2018)
18:06 Loren Connors - Moon Gone Down (Night Through: Singles and Collected Works 2003)
19:45 Observatories - Visible Darkness (Flowers Bloom, Butterflies Come 2021)
22:42 Robert Davies - Nocturnal Reverie (Shadow Dreams 2009)
29:20 Ki Oni - Dream World (A Little Night Music Aural Apparitions from the Geographic North 2020)
33:35 Ben Salisbury & Geoff Barrow - Other Dreamers (Black Mirror: Men Against Fire 2016)
34:18 ASC & Sam KDC - Another Evasive Dream (A Restless Mind 2020)
39:00 Andrew Heath - There’s a Ghost in My House (The Alchemist’s Muse 2020)
40:00 Olga Wojciechowska - Nothing To Be Afraid Of (Salaam For Yemen 2018)
43:38 Windy & Carl - Will I See the Dawn (Allegiance and Conviction 2020)
48:40 Adrian Lane - The Dawn Seems Reluctant To Come (Ennio's Muse 2021)
51:15 Hipnotic Earth - Where Night Sky Meets Day (HomeWorld 2021)
56:00 Observatories - I Knew I Was Close When I Saw The Bloom Of Your Light (Flowers Bloom, Butterflies Come 2021)
59:35 Ecovillage - Break Of Dawn ft. Gallery Six (Clouds And Waves 2020)
62:45 end

Sunday Oct 24, 2021

Quiet Indie Songs #3 - Autumn 2021

Sunday Oct 24, 2021

WORLDS COLLIDE! In this mix I combine my love for new indie music with my love for all things quiet. The third installment of the Quiet Indie Songs series is here.

All tracks are from 2021 and it features artists like Jose Gonzalez, Billy Bragg, Matt Maltese, Cassandra Jenkins, Big Red Machine, Big Thief and more.

Go for a nice walk in the woods while listening to some quiet indie songs.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Jose Gonzalez - Swing
03:25 Chorusing - Watching the Beams
06:43 Art School Girlfriend - Eyes on You
11:10 Slow Meadow - Artificial Algorithm Snorri Hallgrímsson Rework
15:39 Sandrayati Fay, JFDR, Damien Rice - Song for Berta
18:53 Cassandra Jenkins - New Bikini
23:00 Big Red Machine - New Auburn feat. Anaïs Mitchell
26:14 Big Thief - Change
31:00 Matt Maltese - Oldest Trick in the Book feat. Bedouine
34:15 Cande y Paulo - Treaty
38:44 Allison Russell - Montreal
42:11 Billy Bragg - I Will Be Your Shield
45:36 Big Red Machine - Hoping Then
49:24 Avocet - Callina
51:28 Sun June - Colors
54:11 Jose Gonzalez - En Stund På Jorden
56:48 end

Sunday Oct 17, 2021

Music for Covered Airports

Sunday Oct 17, 2021

Eight years ago I did a mix with covers of Eno tunes - UNDER ENO'S COVERS

Since then I've collected a few more that I was planning to use for a follow up. I found the most covered Eno album is Music for Airports. So I decided to recreate the album with covers. Hence the title of the mix - Music for Covered airports.

The tracks follow the same order as the original album - 1/1, 2/1, 1/2, 2/2. I made the first track with two covers because each was relatively short so I just combined them into one.

I found a great cover by Psychic Temple but it's a very loose cover. One can hear parts of 1/1 in it, but like I said it's very loose and improvisational. It didn't really fit with the flow of recreating the album so I tacked it onto the end. It actually seems like a nice way to end this experiment.

Some of the covers came from YouTube and haven't been formally released.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Alexander Elliott Miller - Music for Airports 1/1 guitar
03:19 Dan Piccolo - Music for Airports 1/1 percussion
08:03 Sean O'Neill, Ben Witt & Daniel Fragomeni - Music for Airports 2/1
16:30 Kai Schumacher - Music for Airports 1/2
26:30 Ambientorg - Music for Airports 2/2 pipe organ with electronics
35:18 Psychic Temple - Plays Music for Airports
48:33 end

Sunday Oct 03, 2021

The wind blows, just off-kilter

Sunday Oct 03, 2021

This mix started with one album - Goats & Distortions 5 by Dictaphone. It's one of my 2021 favorites. I began a new mix project with one song from that album as the starter, not knowing where it would go but the vibe was off-kilter. Then I heard a new album on Lost Tribe Sound, Departures by mastroKristo, and I knew where the mix would go.

This mix features a lot of wind instruments, although I'm not sure exactly what any of them are - clarinet, sax, soprano sax, oboe? A lot of the tracks are a bit askew, this is not smooth jazz. The music is atmospheric, moody, odd but the tracks all work perfectly together.

All the music is from 2021 and a few tracks are from some of my favorite albums of the year. I've already mentioned Dictaphone - Goats & Distortions 5. Another fav is Pino Palladino & Blake Mills - Notes with Attachments. And then there are two albums from Lost Tribe Sound that haven't been released yet but they will both be on my year-end favorites list. They are mastroKristo - Departures and Alapastel - Ceremony. They are both part of Lost Tribe Sound's Salt & Gravity series, which is fantastic.

Here's what LTS says about the series - "The Salt and Gravity Series is by far our most classical / ambient / drone adjacent collection yet. This series showcases some the most texturally pungent music we've ever released. A life long fascination with low end, blurred, battered and subterranean type sound has led us to this point... sound that you can feel rumbling up through the earth... the good stuff that makes your whole body hum versus just rattling around inside your head."

Go here to check it out... https://losttribesound.bandcamp.com/album/salt-and-gravity-series

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Dictaphone - O. (Goats & Distortions 5 2021)
04:00 mastroKristo - Gionis (Departures 2021)
08:02 Frieder Nagel - Para live version (The Arrival 2021)
11:15 Josiah Steinbrick - Mouthfeel 5 (Mouthfeel 2021)
14:24 Pino Palladino & Blake Mills - Notes with Attachments (Notes with Attachments 2021)
15:57 William Ryan Fritch - Cited (Freeland 2021)
17:34 William Ryan Fritch - Dropped (Freeland 2021)
20:06 Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes - Cold Pocket (Music for Saxofone and Bass Guitar More Songs 2021)
23:15 Eli Keszler - All the Mornings in the World (Icons 2021)
28:27 Masayoshi Fujita - Cumulonimbus Dream (Bird Ambience 2021)
32:00 Knower - As the Night Climbed, a Band of Raccoons Started Hastily to Perform their Nocturnal Jam (Curiosity Is Not Dead 2021)
36:05 Soft Generator - Asclepeion Process (A Carefully Controlled Space 2021)
39:22 Simon McCorry - Ocean Song (All Creatures 2021)
42:57 Hawsepiper - Air Stones (Red Knot Returns 2021)
47:00 Dictaphone - Goats & Distortions 2 (Goats & Distortions 5 2021)
49:11 Alapastel - New World Healing Centre (Ceremony 2021)
58:58 end

Sunday Sep 19, 2021

Always Autumn by Paul Asbury Seaman

Sunday Sep 19, 2021

Autumn seems perfectly suited to ambient music, especially ambient with a tinge of melancholy. I was thinking about doing an fall-themed mix when Paul approached me with his fully curated mix for autumn. Perfect!

Here's what Paul says about this mix:

“Dedicating this one to my sister, Miriam Walter, professor of nursing at Chico State University in Northern California. Her birthday is today, September 19th.

This turned out to be mostly guitar and piano, although I always (and still) intended it to be a going-to-sleep mix. Like most of my playlists for LLM, it starts out moderately slow and gets progressively slower and quieter. Just a bunch of beautiful tunes, with a touch of melancholy that I always associate with fall, and surrendering into tranquility.”

Thanks for another excellent mix, Paul!

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Peter Chilvers & Jon Durant - Always Autumn (Always Golden Sands 2020)
05:10 Will Ackerman, Jeff Oster, Tom Eaton - The Golden Hour (Brothers 2021)
09:52 Jeff Johnson & Phil Keaggy - Mosaic 7 (Ravenna 2021)
16:27 Between Interval - The Tides Of Time (Autumn Continent 2006)
20:50 Uman - Somewhere On Earth (You Are Here 1999)
24:41 Ken Verheecke - Falling Leaves (Autumn Reflections 2011)
28:23 Jeff Pearce - A Walk Through The Leaves (From the Darker Seasons 2017)
32:15 Calm Whale - Blue Moon Wind Chimes Meditation (Blue Moon Meditation 2017)
39:30 Altus - Green to Gold (Autumn Breeze 2005)
46:09 Beltone - Autumn (Blind Concert 2017)
50:52 Chinmaya Dunster - Sight Meditation (Meditation Ragas 2014)
57:45 Astropilot & Kaya Project - Wind of Change, Pt. 2 (Wind of Change, Pt. 2 2021)
62:13 Cousin Silas - Lost In Autumn (Blue Ice Beyond 2019)
68:15 Kamal - The Quiet Earth (The Quiet Earth - Dusk 1993)
72:14 Ron Boots - Lingering On (Autumn Moon 2016)
76:28 end

Sunday Sep 05, 2021

Slow Road - The Endless Potential of the Pedal Steel Guitar

Sunday Sep 05, 2021

This mix is pretty much what the title says - a collection of quiet/ambient tracks featuring the beautiful sounds of the pedal steel guitar.

I did another pedal mix two years and since then it seems to be easier to find practitioners of the ambient steel guitar sound. Only one artist, Chuck Johnson, is repeated from that mix in this one. Here's the first mix: http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2019/09/ambient-twang.html

All that's left to say is go relax with some steel guitar & maybe a good bourbon around a campfire.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Devendra Banhart & Noah Georgeson - In a Cistern (Refuge 2021)
04:03 Saariselka - Shepherd Canyon (Thousands of Eyes in the Dark 2019)
07:40 The Howard Hughes Suite - Vanishing Point (Smoke from a Future Fire 2020)
13:18 SUSS - Drift (Promise 2020)
17:55 North Americans - Yearling (Roped In 2020)
20:30 Raymond Richards - Paradise, California (The Lost Art of Wandering 2020)
25:45 Trond Kallevåg Hansen - Kapellet (Bedehus & Hawaii 2019)
28:35 susan alcorn - first turning of the wheel(for bob graettinge) (and i await..the resurrection of the pedal steel guitar 2007)
30:18 Chuck Johnson - The Laurel (The Cinder Grove 2021)
38:50 William Tyler - Slow Night's Static (New Vanitas 2020)
48:20 SUSS - Salt (Ghost Box 2018)
51:40 Raymond Richards - Astoria, Georgia (The Lost Art Of Wandering 2020)
55:06 Light of Woods - Sparrow (Field Notes 2016)
56:45 Chuck Johnson - Serotiny (The Cinder Grove 2021)
63:33 end