low light mixes

Favorite ambient albums of all time

About a year ago I did a mix of my favorite ambient artists of all time.  I have been meaning to do a mix of my favorite ambient albums of all time ever since.  And now here it is.

I did not go back and look at my favorite artist list.  I sorted through my ambient collection and came up with my fav albums.  Then I compared the two lists and not surprisingly they are almost identical.  Basically I substituted Scott Solter for Alio Die when I made the fav album list.  At least I didn't repeat any tunes from one mix to the next.

Choosing a favorite album from some of these artists was difficult.  Steve Roach has some many recordings that it was tough to know where to start but I kept coming back to the one that gets the most play and that is "The Dream Circle."  I wonder how many other folks like this album as much as I do.  I'm not e really sure why I like it more than his other releases, it definitely sounds similar to a lot of his other output.  I guess over the years it's become like a comfy sweatshirt.

Stars of the Lid & Eno were both hard to choose a favorite as well.  With SOTL I ended up going with the album that I first discovered them with.  In choosing "On Land" from Eno I really could have just flipped a coin to choose between it and "Music for Airports," "Apollo" and "Music for Films."  

The one favorite that probably doesn't make a lot of lists is "One River" by Scott Solter.  Using mostly processed guitars this album ebbs & flows beautifully from one tracks to the next.  I was happy to see that it's available on Bandcamp, although it's one long track instead of separate tracks like the original.  You can find it HERE.  

Enjoy.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Scott Solter - Cypress Road from One River
• 04:38    Stars of the Lid - Dust Breeding from Avec Laudenum
• 11:45    Maps & Diagrams - Honeycomb Archipelago from Get Lost
• 14:45    Brian Eno - Unfamiliar Wind(leeks hills) from On Land
• 19:25    Loscil - Lucy Dub from First Narrows
• 25:25    Sonmi451 - Orange from Spectrum
• 31:00    Steve Roach - The Dream Circle from The Dream Circle
• 40:45    Kyle Bobby Dunn - Empty Gazing from A Young Person's Guide to
• 46:35    Harold Budd & Brian Eno - Against the Sky from The Pearl
• 50:00    William Basinski - 1.2 from The Disintegration Loops
• 1:01:00    end

distant crossroads

As I have said many times before on this blog, a new mix is very often born when a track or two inspires me to create something new.  In this case it was the new album by Esmerine called "Dalmak."

The group recorded the new tracks in Instanbul and the whole album definitely has the texture and feel that one would associate with Turkish music.  The Constellation Records website describes it perfectly... 

 

"As a title for Esmerine's new album, "dalmak" refers in a literal sense to immersion in the culture and music of Istanbul but also appropriately evokes the range of music that emerged from this immersion: a collection of songs that shift between meditative pulsing and enveloping restraint to headlong flights into rhythm and groove."

 

With Esmerine as I starting point I went to some familiar sources.  One being the wonderful recordings of Myke Dodge Weiskopf. I excerpted part of his Field Recordings & Global Ambience mix and also used a cut from his latest release - "The Muezzins of Mali."

I also worked in some Byrne & Eno early mixes from the "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" sessions.  As well as some early mixes and extracts from Peter Gabriel's "Passion."

 

I enjoy these musical treks, I hope you do too.

 
 

 

 T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Esmerine - Lost River Blues I
• 07:30    Isnaj Dui - Quarter Wave
• 11:55    David Byrne & Brian Eno - Breathing Once a Minute
• 15:00    Myke Dodge Weiskopf - Field recordings & Global Ambience(excerpt)
• 15:25    Peter Gabriel - Passion extras #3
• 17:15    Saltland - But It Was All of Us
• 21:30    Penjaga Insaf - Keinsafan
• 24:20    The Guo Brothers & Shung Tıan - Soldiers of the Long March
• 26:15    Rapoon - Dream Dance
• 28:55    Huren - The Shroud
• 30:30    Chronomad - se
• 34:00    Bielka Nemirovski - Akh Ti Notchenka
• 39:00    The Rustavi Choir - Orovela(with Peter Gabriel mixed under)
• 43:55    Rapoon - Hey...Drifting
• 48:30    David Bryne & Brian Eno - Shaking With My Voice
• 50:50    Jon Hassel - Map of Dusk
• 52:30    Myke Dodge Weiskopf - The Muezzins of Mali - San - Adhan al-Fajr
• 55:25    Ry Cooder & Ronu Majumbar - Hollow Bamboo
• 1:00:20    Peter Gabriel - Unlocking the Door
• 1:02:22    end

 
 
 

Sunday Morning Music vol. 7 - The Sun King

 found a cool clip on YouTube from the Beatles Abbey Road album.  It is the 16 minute medley that closes the album but it's only the vocals.  It's fascinating to listen to familiar vocals in a new way.  Here's a link to the YouTube clip... Abbey Road vocals.

The vocals for "The Sun King" caught my attention and I thought they'd make a nice start to a new Sunday morning mix.  I couldn't resist messing with the track a little bit so I slowed it down and mixed part of that slowed down track under the normal one  I like the way the sowed track fills the space between vocals.  Then I brought the slow track up full to finish off The Sun King.  It's really kind of amazing how beautiful the track still sounds even when slowed way down.

As I was adding tracks to the mix I stumbled upon the Sun Kil Moon song "Sunshine in Chicago" and it hit me that the mix should revolve around the sun.  So every song on the tracklist has "sun" in the title.

I love using a keyword to narrow a musical search because it always turns up cuts I had completely forgotten about.  In this case I was very excited to have dug up "Eternity's Sunrise" from the "Children of Men" score.  I'm pretty happy with how this "sunny" mix turned out.

Enjoy.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    The Beatles - The Sun King(vocals only)
• 01:51    Lights Out Asia - Birds Sing Sun-Rising Hymns
• 04:55    Jon Hopkins - Sun Harmonics
• 12:10    Phosphorescent - Sun, Arise
• 15:05    Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross - Painted Sun in Abstract
• 18:00    Boards of Canada - Turquoise Hexagon Sun
• 23:00    Popol Vuh - Morning Sun
• 26:17    Alexi Murdoch - Towards the Sun
• 30:25    Ben Howard - Under the Same Sun
• 32:45    M. Ostermeier - Sunlight on My Desk
• 35:15    Underworld - capa meets the sun
• 37:00    Max Richter - Sunlight
• 42:28    Jon Hopkins - The Wider Sun
• 44:48    John Tavener - Eternity's Sunrise
• 47:10    Vir Unis - Infinite Sun
• 50:20    David Sylvian - Sunlight seen through towering trees
• 52:55    The Seven Fields Of Aphelion - Sunburst Chemicals
• 55:33    Sun Kil Moon - Sunshine in Chicago
• 57:55    The Beatles - The Sun King
• 1:00:20    end

dub transmissions

I happened to come across a new tune from Moritz Von Oswald Trio.  The song, Blue Dub, has this great, slow, sparse dub thing going on that I love.  I knew as soon as I heard it that I'd have to make a new mix of dub related tunes.

So, "dub transmissions" is, duh, is mix of dub tunes.  I've done them before & this one is similar to the others.  I think the previous ones have had parts that are a little noisier & spacier than this mix.  Most of these tunes have a beat, although that beat can be very laid back and muffled.  

Enjoy.

T R A C K L I S T :

1. 00:00    Moritz Von Oswald Trio - Blue Dub
2. 05:30    The Black Dog - Sleep Deprivation 1
3. 09:30    krill.minima - Kalypso
4. 12:50    Holger Flinsch - Navigator
5. 19:10    Massive Attack - Cool Monsoon
6. 23:00    Deepcord - Theme From Silent World
7. 32:20    Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement - The Spirit Wore the Shoes of the Boy
8. 37:10    Iminazole - Sunny
9. 41:20    The Green Kingdom - dustloop4
10. 44:05    Deadbeat - Portable Memory
11. 47:30    As If - Crumble to Dust
12. 54:30    Pablo Bolivar - Walk Man Fever
13. 1:05:05    As If - To Be Ground
14. 1:09:30    Bjorn Rohde - Forest of Forgotten Hearts
15. 1:15:35    end

 

 

 

A Glitch in Time

Sometime around 2001 I discovered the album Tides by Arovane.  I'm not sure if it qualifies as "post-digital" or "blip hop" or "micro" music but it was through that album that I began a brief love affair with the style of music known as "glitch."

I have always loved electronic & ambient music but at the end of the 1990s I had lost interest in berlin style electronics and mostly listened to straight ambient.  But with the emergence of glitch, and it's use of complicated beats, noise and samples, I found a new rhythmic electronic music to dive into.

The biggest purveyor of glitch music back then was the Mille Plateaux label.  With their Click & Cuts series they introduced me to a whole new range of sound in music.  There is definitely a lot of music from that time period that, while interesting, could become annoying as well.  I'm not a fan of loud and aggressive glitch.  I definitely am more in tune with the sort of stuff put out by 12k.

Over time I grew tired of much of the glitch scene and the never ending little pops & clicks & wee little sounds intruding on the music.  Although I still enjoy much of 12k music.

Recently I was organizing some of my collection & revisited some old glitch material.  I found that I am still very fond of some of it.  I started collecting tracks for this mix and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

So this mix is a little step back in time to the early 2000s.  A small glitch in the passing of time to when glitch ruled, for me anyway.

Enjoy.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Arovane - Tides (2000)
• 04:45    Carpet Musics - Phone Lines (2001)
• 08:24    Clickits - No Clickedy (2003)
• 11:35    Xela - Impulsive Behavior (2002)
• 15:30    offthesky - Down the Stream (2005)
• 20:50    Shuttle358 - I'm Not Afraid (2003)
• 25:05    Twerk - From Brown to Green (2003)
• 29:55    Jan Jelinek - Facelift (2003)
• 34:55    Bexar Bexar - Kt (2002)
• 38:30    Christopher Willits - The Seaweed Machine (2003)
• 40:45    Christian Kleine - Several (2002)
• 47:15    Arovane - Ambelio (1999)
• 52:20    Shuttle358 - Calty (2000)
• 57:11    end

Movement & Location - music for biking

This mix is completely different from anything that I've posted here.  It's not ambient, or electronic or Sunday morning jazz.  This is music for motion.

This is a mix I made last summer to listen to while biking.  I liked it so much that I added some new tunes this year and made it longer.  All of the songs have a propulsive, forward-moving feel to them.  There are some oddball choices in there but generally most of the music would fall under the heading of indie rock.  Artists include Yacht, Vampire Weekend, Japandroids, Lord Huron, Rural Alberta Advantage, Jonathan Boulet, Underworld, Shearwater, Givers, etc.

I like the fact that it's 2 hours long so I can go out on an hour long ride and still have enough left for the next ride.  The mix also works well on a treadmill.  I wanted to post this before now so anyone who downloads it hopefully can make good use of it before summer disappears.

Enjoy.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Patrick Watson - Blackwind
• 03:45    Punch Brothers - Movement & Location
• 06:45    Willy Porter - Breathe
• 10:15    Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man
• 14:09    Givers - Up up up
• 18:30    Jinja Safari - Mermaids
• 22:22    Benny Goodman - Sing, Sing, Sing
• 27:20    Mother Falcon - Dirt Summer
• 30:35    The Killers - Human
• 34:30    Yacht - Utopia
• 37:30    Shearwater - Animal Life
• 40:55    The Rural Alberta Advantage - Tornado '87
• 44:32    Matt & Kim - Don't Slow Down
• 47:33    The Boxer Rebellion - Organ Song
• 50:50    Lord Huron - Time to Run
• 55:20    Underworld - Dark & Long
• 1:02:15    Tilly And The Wall - Heavy Mood
• 1:05:20    Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - Can't Hold Us
• 1:09:35    Vampire Weekend - Unbelievers
• 01:12:55    Jonathan Boulet - You're a Animal
• 01:16:20    Underworld - Downpipe
• 01:23:30    Jens Lekman - An Argument With Myself
• 01:27:10    Kate Bush - Cloudbusting
• 01:32:10    Jon Hopkins - Open Eye Signal
• 01:39:52    Avett Brothers - Kick Drum Heart
• 01:42:30    Jonathan Boulet - Mangle Trang
• 01:45: 55   Japandroids - The House that Heaven Built
• 01:50:35    The Rural Alberta Advantage - Barnes' Yard
• 01:52:48    Vampire Weekend - A Punk
• 01:55:00    Andrew Bird - Fitz and the Dizzyspells
• 01:58:20    faltyDL - She Sleeps
• 02:02:38    Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place
• 02:07:31  end

Under Eno's covers

At the suggestion of a listener I set out to do a mix of ambient covers.  Not so easy.

But I did find a bunch of Brian Eno cover tunes.  Some I was familiar with, Bang on a Can & Sakamoto, but many of the others were new discoveries made by cruising the web. 

The mix starts with probably the most covered Eno tune - An Ending (Ascent), from Apollo.  The cover of that song comes from a new album by Icebreaker & BJ Cole which covers the entire Apollo album.  It's excellent and any Eno fan will definitely enjoy it.

About a third of the way through the mix, the tunes shift to a few vocal songs. I wasn't sure at first if I wanted go this route but the more I listened to these vocal covers the more I liked them.  From there we switch back into ambient mode.

I think this turned out pretty well and makes for a nice change of pace in the land of Low Light Mixes.

Enjoy.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Icebreaker & BJ Cole - an ending (ascent) ii
• 03:50    Teen Daze - Always Returning
• 07:55    Dan Piccolo - Music for Airports 1.1
• 13:30    Bang On A Can - Music for Airports 2.1
• 17:30    Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto - By This River
• 21:15    Ida - Golden Hours
• 25:35    Irene Coco & Giovanni Sala - And Then So Clear
• 29:00    St. Vincent - Some of Them are Old
• 31:55    Unknown - Spider & I (ona banjo ukulele)
• 33:15    Band On A Can - Music for Airports 2.2
• 38:00    Doron Diamond - Music for Airports 1.1 (acoustic)
• 41:15    AcousticLabs - And Ending (Ascent) (solo guitar)
• 45:00    Icebreaker & BJ Cole - Drift
• 47:45    Nathan Fake - Music for Airports 1.1
• 53:00    Ryosuke Tomita - Becalmed (acoustic)
• 56:52    end

Infinite ambient

I usually keep different folders of music for different types of mixes.  I have a "sea" folder.  And one called "dub & stuff."  Another is "piano."  And of course several "Sunday morning" folders as well.

The folder for this mix was called "just plain old good ambient."  And that's a pretty darn good description of this mix.  There's no special theme or concept other than the fact that these cuts are all excellent ambient tunes.

The mix has a classic sound, classic feel.  However, only one track is old - that's the Aphex Twin song.  I love how the cuts flow together, making it a perfect mix for sleeping if you use these mixes like I do.  I can also see listening to this while sitting on the front steps watching the sun set(unfortunately now instead of my nice farm across the street I have a subdivision of McMansions)

Five or six of the tracks in this mix came from Bandcamp, which I love for buying music & discovering new things via collections.  I really have to control myself when I'm on that site or I'd be spending all sorts of money.  My collection there is not really that large, partly because I really don't buy as much ambient music as I used to.  If you're interested, here's a link to my Bandcamp collection... Dave's Collection

Enjoy the mix!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00    Marsen Jules Trio - Œillet Parfait

04:34    Harold Budd - Jane 8

09:20    Caught in the Wake Forever - Chopin's 2 Nocturnes op. 48 no. 2 in F sharp minor

11:22    Taylor Deupree - Shutter

16:45    Aphex Twin - stone in focus

23:00    Dakota Suite - Things We Lost Along the Way (Loscil remix)

27:20    Maps & Diagrams - Utgores

29:15    Infinite Coil - Transmit 2

32:40    Unrecognizable Now - Two Rooms - One

39:50    Wouter Veldhuis - Side-effects of diversity

44:00    33 Bowls - Morning

46:00    Slow Dancing Society - After Twilight Takes Us

50:40    Ten and Tracer - By Twirling the Strong History

56:35    Cyber Zen Sound Engine - Mottomo Kodokuna Basho

1:00:00    end

a leaf on the wind - field recordings & ambience 2013

The title pretty much says it all - this mix is a field recording mix.  I think I've done 3 field mixes in the past but haven't done one in a long time.  So I thought it was time for another sonic exploration. The track that got me thinking about doing a new field mix was "El Divisader" by Chris Watson from the excellent "El Tren Fantasma" album.  Really a phenomenal track. The mix starts with some church bells that I slowed down & messed with, the we get the Chris Watson track and from there the mix uses a variety of artists a field recordings to make an interesting(I hope) journey through various sonic landscapes. I'm not going publish a formal tracklist because there is just too much stuff going on to keep track of. There are lots of other sounds and recordings mixed through out this collage.  Some are mine, some are just random things I found.  I hope it all flows well together. This is a list of the artists, and approximate times, that have tracks appearing for more a few seconds: 03:35  Chris Watson - el divisadero 10:30  Forrest Fang -  home in exile 15:00  Vangelis - Nocturnal Rain 18:00  David Chapman - an east wind through bomb ballistics and lab 2 21:00  Collin Thomas - blackjack afternoon 31:30  Moniek Darge - solstice sample 35:00  Rapoon - Melancholic Songs of the Desert 38:30  Chris Dooks - For Wolfgang Voight 40:00  Field Rotation - watermusic 45:20  Simon Scott - sealevel.6 50:00  Chris Dooks - Sola 53:45  Linda Aubry Bullock - near There are lots of other sounds and recordings mixed through out this collage.  Some are mine, some are just random things I found.  I hope it all flows well together. Enjoy.

Sunday Morning Music - 1970s Recollections

More Sunday morning music - this time all the tracks are from the 1970s.  In collecting these cuts I discovered two albums that I somehow missed - Kraftwerk - Ralf & Florian and Cluster - Sowiesoso.  I have plenty of Kraftwerk & Cluster in my collection but I didn't have those two albums &  they are both wonderful.  So thanks to Matt for suggesting those two records.  Also thanks Matt for suggesting the Nue! track.  That one was "new" to me and it fit perfectly. I know the Nick Drake tune was technically not the 1970s but I had already fallen in love with it & put it in the mix before I realized that it was released in 1969.  Oh well. I went back and forth about using the Ralph Towner cut.  It's a bit too pretty, almost new age-like, but I used to love that song.  Along with Eberhard Weber, Towner's Icarus was my introduction into the wonderful world of ECM records back when I was in college.  So I had to include it for nostalgia sake.  I'm glad I did because it really is a beautiful tune. I wasn't able to squeeze in all of the great suggestions from listeners so I'm definitely going to have to do a second mix with this theme.  I really want to work that Kris Kristofferson tune into the next one.  And I didn't get a chance to work in Josh's suggestions of electronic library music.  I sought out the Monkman album & it's so cool, it just has to be included next time.  Too many good tunes left on the cutting room floor!  I better get started on the next mix. Enjoy. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Kraftwerk - Heimatklange[1973]
• 03:31    King Crimson - Peace a Theme[1970]
• 04:40    Nick Drake - Riverman[1969]
• 08:50    Cat Stevens - The Wind[1971]
• 10:22    Ralph Towner - Icarus[1974]
• 16:27    Nue! - Leb Wohl[1975]
• 24:50    Cluster - in ewigkeit[1976]
• 31:25    Miles Davis - Recollections[1970]
• 38:25    Kraftwerk - ananas symphonie[1973]
• 45:30    Brian Eno - Julie With[1977]
• 50:30    Eberhard Weber - Moana I[1976]
• 55:22    Genesis - Horizons[1972]
• 56:55    Loudon Wainwright III - Lullaby[1973]
• 59:45    Steve Tibbetts - The Secret[1977]
• 04:25    Heldon 2 - In the Wake of King Fripp[1975]
• 08:30    Brian Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain[1974]
• 13:20    end