low light mixes

illusions of autumn

I wanted to get this mix in while it is still autumn.  I originally did this mix last fall for the good folks over at Headphone Commute. If you've not been there, head over to their great site for reviews, news, sound clips & of course mixes.

The music in the mix sort of has an autumnal feel to it at least I hope so considering the title is “Illusions of Autumn.”  Not sure what qualifies a tune as being autumnal, I guess it’s a case of “I know it, when I hear it.”

I was glad to use the Arve Henriksen tune, I love his stuff but sometimes it doesn't fit in a straight ambient mix.  But it works well here, it really has a nice fall color feel to me.

Enjoy autumn while you can, winter is will be here soon.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Nils Frahm - Old Thought
• 04:00    Cliff Martinez - Rubber Head
• 06:25    Benoît Pioulard - Malick
• 08:45    Daniel Lanois - Matador
• 13:05    King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - First Watch
• 15:10    Harold Budd - Come Back to Me in Dreams
• 16:55    Arve Henriksen - Sorrow and It's Opposite
• 19:00    Steve Tibbetts - Nine Doors Breathing Space
• 20:55    Arve Henriksen - Sorrow and It's Opposite(continuation)
• 21:40    Andrey Kiritchenko - Agravic Illusion
• 26:50    Animal Hospital - Nostalgia
• 28:00    The Fun Years - Fucking Milwaukee's Been Hesher Forever
• 31:15    Bexar Bexar - n.r.o.t.
• 34:05    Daniel Lanois - Sketches
• 38:00    Antonymnes meets Slow Dancing Society - A Feeling of Being Closer
• 46:55    Maps & Diagrams - When the Night Came
• 50:15    Emanuele Errante - Counterclockwise
• 55:40    Cliff Martinez - Wrong Floor
• 57:05    end

Favorite Ambient Artists

There is a new release from Loscil called "Sketches from New Brighton." And of course it's excellent, everything from Loscil is excellent.  As I listened to it I figured that Loscil would have to be one of my favorite ambient artists of all time. That got me thinking...what are my top ten ambient artists of all time?  The artists on the list are ones I come back to again and again.  And also ones that have a decent sized body of work.  Scott Solter did one of my favorite ambient albums of all time, "One River." But that was pretty much it from him.  So to make the list it was important to have a fair number of releases. Well, here's the list, in no particular order:

1. Stars of the Lid
2. Brian Eno
3. Steve Roach
4. Loscil
5. Harold Budd
6. Maps & Diagrams
7. Alio Die
8. Sonmi451
9. William Basinski
10. Kyle Bobby Dunn

This mix is a collection of tracks from each of those artists.  The cuts used in the mix are not necessarily my favorite track from that artist, just tunes that worked well within the mix.  I did want to use something new from Loscil but something old from Eno & Harold Budd. Honorable mentions might be:

• Marconi Union
• Robert Rich
• Taylor Deupree
• Saul Stokes
• Gas
• Hammock
• Aglaia
• Marsen Jules
• Spheruleus
• Windy & Carl
• David Tagg
• A Produce
• 36

If any listeners would like to leave their lists in the comments that would be very cool. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Loscil - Prairie Trains
• 07:15    Steve Roach - Tranquility Base
• 13:55    Stars of the Lid - The Atomium, part 2
• 21:00    Harold Budd - Balthus Bemused by Color
• 25:25    Brian Eno - Slow Water
• 28:00    Maps & Diagrams - Secrets of the Shore
• 30:45    Kyle Bobby Dunn - The Tributary(for voices lost)
• 38:03    Alio Die - Ultima Latet
• 50:40    William Basinski - 92982.3
• 55:30    Sonmi451 - Ruis
• 1:03:33    end

daylight fades

This is a mix I did for my good friends at acloserlisten.com and lostchildrennetlabel.com The mix is called “daylight fades” because as I was listening to “Olancha Farewell” by Harold Budd [off Lovely Thunder]  it made me think of sitting on the front porch watching the sky begin to darken as daylight fades.  Once I had that feeling in mind I just kept my ears open for a couple of weeks listening for tracks that would work well with that theme.  The cuts are mostly newer music with the exception of a couple Harold Budd tunes.  I’ve be digging through my collection of Harold Budd music & kind of re-discovering pieces that I haven’t heard for years. I really like this mix and hope you all connect with it like I did.  I'm working on some new mixes, a piano mix, sustain & decay vol. 3 and one of ambient music from non-ambient artists.  Hopefully  those will come to fruition in the next month or so two. T R A C K L I S T :

· 00:00  Harold Budd - olancha farewell

· 02:04    *AR - Inception

· 03:45    Vieo Abiungo - Insincerity Peeked Through Cloudlessly (Upward Arrows Remix)

· 06:15    Wolfgang Voigt - Fresko 1

· 09:08    Willits + Sakamoto - Completion

· 13:30    d_rradio - Falling Light

· 16:30    Alessio Ballerini - Night in Day

· 19:10    Plinth - the sunken carillon

· 23:45    Harold Budd with Zeitgeist - I blink and she's gone

· 25:20    Marconi Union - part 4(from weightless)

· 32:00    Chihei Hatakeyama - Road After Rain

· 37:12    Willamette - images dune longueur de cheveux

· 43:40    Kyle Bobby Dunn - An Evening with Dusty

· 47:05    36 - Levitate

· 51:10    Christopher Willits - Olancha Hello

· 53:42    Brian Eno - For Real

· 1:00:24    end

Music for a Mars landing

Back in November I did a mix for the launch of Curiosity, NASA's newest Mars rover.  Now 8 months later, Curiosity has arrived at Mars.  So this mix is music for landing on Mars, in honor of Curiosity's EDL or entry, descent and landing.

As I write this, the landing has not taken place yet.  But I wanted to get the mix uploaded on the day of the landing.  I'll update the post depending on the result of the EDL.

I started off this mix just picking electronic tunes I liked for this theme then quickly realized that many of the titles fit perfectly.  Track titles such as "We Travel", "Bold Advances" "Flying (in crimson skies)" and "Arrival".  So I looked for a few more with appropriate names, kept a few that had titles that didn't matter and the mix was launched.

Enjoy.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Marconi Union - We Travel
• 06:55    Tycho - Adrift
• 14:40    Dub Trees - Dreamlab
• 17:35    Loops of Your Heart - End
• 22:50    Ricardo Donoso - conditional formatting descent
• 24:55    Lunar Testing Lab - Slinky Antenna
• 26:45    Bersarin Quartet - Der Mond, der Schnee und Du
• 30:47    Stendec - Descent
• 32:05    Helios - Bold Advances
• 34:15    Anenon - The Sea and The Stars
• 35:44    Clark - Skyward Bruise/Descent
• 37:15    Daft Punk - Arrival
• 38:56    Marconi Union - Flying (in crimson skies)
• 45:10    Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm - b1
• 52:15    Altus - The Awe and Wonder
• 58:40    Wixel - Surface Dust
• 1:00:18    Hecq - Red Sky

The God Particle

Those of us who are science dorks were fascinated earlier this month when it was announced that the discovery of a new particle was very likely the elusive Higgs-Boson.  The particle has been the subject of a nearly 50 year hunt to explain why matter has mass. This mix is a celebration of that discovery.  With titles like "Particle," "Sweet Collision," and "Magnetic Fields," all the track titles work very well with a Higgs-Boson, high energy physics theme. Enjoy. [ s t r e a m ] [ d o w n l o a d ] [ i t u n e s ] T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Miles Tilman - Particle
• 03:33    Saul Stokes - Vapor Trails
• 07:30    Mr. Projectile - Tiny Distances
• 08:30    Can - Quantum Physics
• 09:44    Baffo Banfi - Love Magnetic Research
• 14:23    Burial - Shell of Light
• 18:27    John Adams - Short Ride in a Fast Machine
• 23:05    Cliff Martinez - Hi Energy Proton Accelerator
• 25:05    Benjamin Dauer - Sweet Collision
• 30:20    Loren Dent - Sub-Atomic Love Song
• 32:45    Spheruleus - Suspended Particles
• 35:30    Martin Herterich - Silent Fields 2
• 42:25    Maps & Diagrams - Particles of Earth
• 44:44    Pale Sketcher - Tiny Universes
• 48:52    Dub Trees - Magnetica
• 52:21    Jean Michel Jarre - Magnetic Fields part 1
• 59:00    Vir Unis - They Call It The God Particle
• 1:04:11    end

Every day is like Sunday - Sunday morning music vol. 3

Sunday mornings in summer...put on some coffee even though the temps are already climbing. Sunday mornings in summer...are spent on the deck with the paper & the birds. Sunday mornings in summer...slow motion start to a slow motion day. This is the third in my unplanned Sunday morning music series.  I hadn't intended to more than one of these mixes but the first was so popular on Mixcloud that I couldn't resist doing more.  I was amazed at how many listens it got and to be honest, I liked that popularity, so I became a bit of a ratings whore & went back to that same well again. As with the others in this series, this mix is a collection of instrumentals, acoustic tunes, jazz & other oddballs.  I am happy to have squeezed in the tune, The Farther Away I Am, from Daryl Hall.  Yes that's Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates.  It's from a 1980 solo album he did that was produced by Robert Fripp, thereby assuring it would be a commercial bomb.  The album was kind hit & miss but I've always loved that song. Other favs in the mix are the ones by Sun Kil Moon & Keola Beamer and of course the Colin Meloy cover which I stole as the title for volume 3 in this series. I know the Beamer tune borders on new age.  But I think this cut doesn't go over the edge into new age crap.  It just has this nice breezy feel which perfect for sitting on the deck with the sun on your face. Enjoy. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Daniel Lanois - Steamdog
• 02:00    Sun Kil Moon - Sunshine in Chicago
• 04:30    Keola Beamer - `Imi Au Io `Oe
• 07:27    Colin Meloy - Every day is  Like Sunday(Morrissey cover)
• 10:40    Brian Eno - Silver Morning
• 12:50    Foreign Fields - From the Lake to the Land
• 15:20    Daryl Hall - The Farther Away I Am
• 17:40    Sigur Ros - varðeldur
• 23:25    Bill Nelson - Your Morning Blessing
• 26:05    Wolfgang Voigt - Fresko 1
• 29:05    Nora Jones - Good Morning
• 32:10    Uakti - Japura River(philip glass cover)
• 36:41    Steve Tibbetts - kili-ki drok
• 37:45    Jeff Pearce - With the Morning Light
• 42:20    Jan Garbarek - Ov zarmanali
• 45:00    Chet Baker - Early Morning Mood
• 52:20    Steve Tibbetts - Drawing Down the Moon
• 57:05    Sufjan Stevens - The Lord God Bird(live on NPR)
• 1:00:37    end

Transit of Venus

A mix in honor of the recent transit of Venus across the face of the sun. It won't happen again until 2117. All the tracks have Venus, sun or transit in the title.

Enjoy.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Casino Versus Japan - Names on Maps of Venus part 6
• 01:27    Laurie Anderson - Transitory Life
• 02:39    Ishq - Diving into Sun
• 8:33    Glen Velez - In Transit
• 10:50    Jon Hopkins - The Wider Sun
• 12:15    Steve Hauschildt - Overnight Venusian
• 16:15    Paul Ellis - Dialing in  the Sun
• 24:00   Ishq - The Sun Arcs a Smile
• 26:15    Jim Cole & Spectral Voices - Sun Shower
• 27:40    Motion Sickness of Time Travel - Late Day Sun Silhouettes
• 36:00    Stars of the Lid - Sun Drugs
• 45:40   Montauk - Setting Sun(fragment 1)
• 46:50    Steve Roach & Kevin Braheny - In the Heat of Venus
• 51:10    Casino Versus Japan - Names on Maps of Venus part 1
• 55:55    Biosphere - As the Sun Kissed the Horizon
• 57:24    end

on the behavior of radio waves

Shortwave radio signals spread across the planet, the signal fades in & out, washes of static mix with music & voice, creating an eerie mashup of music & electronics.

This is the latest mix in a series, going back years, that utilizes shortwave broadcasts & music that already has a noisy, grainy tone. That combination of sounds creates a strange, other-worldly feel, transporting the listener around the globe and back again.

As with the other shortwave mixes, this one makes use of source material from Myke Dodge Weiskopf & his website of shortwave recordings found here... http://www.myke.me/wordpress/

Enjoy.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    The Humble Bee - Titles
• 00:46    William Basinski - Particle Showers
• 02:40    BSKSA Saudia Arabia 11785 kHz, 8_14_10 (1610UTC)
• 04:10    Andrew Chalk - Violin by Night
• 07:00    Andrew Pekler - Nocturne 3
• 09:00    Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier - Main Jungle
• 10:50    The Caretaker - The Quilter Standard
• 11:55    Markus Mehr - Komo
• 13:50    Ran Slavin - Wayward Initial
• 14:24    Call to Prayer at Dawn, Sultanahmet Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey
• playing under the Ran Slavin cut
• 16:48    Depatterning - Instow, SK. Bone Creek No. 108
• 18:50    Pawn - untitled(from Islet)
• 24:05    Maps and Diagrams - Looks Simple Enough
• 26:23    unknown time & frequency (2002)
• 27:10    The Humble Bee - The Collecting Plate
• 28:00    WEWN:Radio Catolica Mundial 5810kHz
• 28:40    Mokira - Harold Dubb
• 33:05    Radio Bulgaria 5800kHz
• 34:04    Stephan Mathieu - Gabriel
• 37:55    Gultskra Artikler - Vsegda Krasni Cvetok
• 39:30    Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto - Reverso
• 45:15    Kane Ikin - short wave fade
• 47:12    Quinn Walker - The Quiet Passage
• 50:40    Melton - Northern Fields
• 53:05    I've Lost - A Study in Departure
• 54:27    end

alien architecture

The music in this mix has a strange, sort of alien feel to it.  The pieces are a bit darker, but not creepy or annoying.  But they do all have a weird other-worldly sense to them. This started with the first track, "We Swallowed the Night" by Anduin.  It just sounded vaguely alien and a bit threatening.  So from there I decided to construct a mix around that feeling. When I make mixes I collect tracks over time & toss them into a folder to sort through later.  Sometimes I'll bring the folder of music to work with me & make the mix there(shhhh, don't tell anyone).  The problem with doing that is I have to convert the mp3's to wav or aiff files and in the process the tracks can lose the artist identifier.  So I only know the track title but not the artist.  That's how I ended up with 4 tracks from Robert Rich & Ian Boddy in one mix.  I usually don't like to have that much from album or artist.  That's also how the mix ended up with two Pjusk cuts back to back.  Oh well, Guess I'll just have to be more careful next time. I didn't want to go the Lustmord "where black stars hang" route and have the mix be scary alien.  I just wanted unearthly alien.  Hopefully I hit that tone pretty well. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Anduin - We Swallowed the Night
• 01:56    Harold Budd - Dark Star
• 04:16    Hecq - aback
• 06:23    Pjusk - Kram
• 11:44    Robert Rich & Ian Boddy - Threshold
• 12:28    nebulo & druc drac - rive nord - rive sud
• 14:30    EU - 60 Planets
• 16:37    Monolake - phenomenon
• 19:10    Robert Rich & Ian Boddy - Methane
• 22:10    Anduin - The Voyeurs Wall of Glass
• 25:25    Lights Out Asia - All These Worlds Are Yours
• 27:15    Jon Hopkins - Cold Out There
• 30:16    Pjusk - Granitt
• 33:33    Pjusk - Flint
• 37:15    Loscil - Pressure
• 39:55    Roly Porter - Arrakis
• 42:05    Loren Connors - Red Mars
• 43:15    Robert Rich & Ian Boddy - Ice Fields
• 48:05    Saul Stokes - We Resolve
• 53:10    Robert Rich & Ian Boddy - Last Outpost
• 55:04    end

Sunday Morning Music Vol. 2

On Sundays I don't do anything useful until noon.  I read the paper, listen to music, read a book, sort & catalog my mp3's, sit out on the deck, etc.

This mix is a soundtrack for Sunday mornings.  Some instrumental tunes, some vocal tracks.  All of it mellow & laid back.  Perfect for a lazy Sunday morning.

When I did my first Sunday morning mix I wasn't really sure if I even liked it.  Then it turned out to be the most listened to mix I've ever had at Mixcloud.  Go figure.

Vol. 2 starts with one of my favorite songs of all time, John Martyn's "Small Hours".  I think that was the tune that got me into John Martyn in the first place.  There are several covers in the mix.  The most unusual being Evan Chapman's percussion cover of Bon Iver's Holocene.  Evan has a bunch of videos up on his youtube channel that are worth watching.  One of my favorites is "Opening" by Philip Glass.  I'll definitely have to work some more Evan's covers into other mixes.

Speaking of Bon Iver, there's another cover in the mix with Peter Gabriel doing "Flume" and then Gabriel gets covered by Twin Shadows doing "Here Comes the Flood."  And we have another Bon Iver tune, this time done live by Justin Vernon & Sean Carey for 4AD sessions.

There are two other tracks also taken from live sessions, Daughter - In The Shallows from a Daytrotter session and Iron & Wine - Tree by the River from a 4AD session.  All three live tunes are cool because they are so organic & intimate.

Enjoy volume 2 in the Sunday morning music series.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    John Martyn - Small Hours
• 08:25    Brian Eno - and then so clear
• 13:55    Evan Chapman - Holocene (Bon Iver cover)
• 17:40    Iron & Wine - Tree by the River (4AD session)
• 21:05    Bill Frisell - Arkansas (part 1)
• 22:52    Sun Ra - Yesterdays
• 26:48    Twin Shadows - Here Comes the Flood (Peter Gabriel cover)
• 30:36    Vieo Abiungo - 12 Drowsy Salted Mornings (Tokyo Bloodworm Remix)
• 34:33    Daughter - In The Shallows (Daytotter session)
• 40:10    JBM - Sunset Rocks
• 42:00    David Holmes - The Ballad of Sarah & Jack
• 46:18    Peter Gabriel - Flume (Bon Iver cover)
• 49:05    Nils Frahm - For
• 52:35    Bon Iver - Hinnom, TX(4AD/Jagjaguwar session)
• 55:35    Vijay Iyer Trio - The Village of Virgins
• 1:00:46    end