low light mixes

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Ambient music mixes for a chaotic world

Episodes

Sunday Aug 05, 2012

Music for a Mars landing

Sunday Aug 05, 2012

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

Sunday Jul 22, 2012

The God Particle

Sunday Jul 22, 2012

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

Sunday Jul 08, 2012

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

Sunday Jul 08, 2012

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

Wednesday Jun 06, 2012

Transit of Venus

Wednesday Jun 06, 2012

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

Thursday May 31, 2012

on the behavior of radio waves

Thursday May 31, 2012

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

Sunday Apr 22, 2012

alien architecture

Sunday Apr 22, 2012

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

Saturday Apr 07, 2012

Sunday Morning Music Vol. 2

Saturday Apr 07, 2012

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

Friday Mar 23, 2012

a further sea

Friday Mar 23, 2012

This is my 5th "sea" mix. I guess ambient artists really like the imagery & sounds of the sea. Me too.

This one is very similar to the other "sea" mixes. A lot of white noise accompanies you as you drift on the swells of "a further sea."

Most of the music is fairly new, especially nice is the new release from 36 - "Lithea". It's another excellent recording from Dennis Huddleston. Definitely check out all the releases by 36!

Also playing a prominent role in this mix is music from Maps & Diagrams - "Get Lost". I love this album from Time Released Sound. The whole recording is like an ambient sea voyage.

The "sea" mixes are some of my favorites and I hope you enjoy this addition to the series.

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Vieo Abiungo - A Sad Swell (Humble Remix)
03:15 Maps & Diagrams - Floating Sculptures
07:45 M. Ostermeier - Underwater Drifting
10:20 Jeff Greinke & Rob Angus - harbor island
15:30 36 - Lithea
19:00 the humble bee/e and i - Pearls for Alma
25:35 Willamette - un court thme pour lyla
26:55 Maps & Diagrams - Timelines
29:30 Radere - Lost at Sea
36:33 Vieo Abiungo - Feast Before Havest (Green Kingdom - greenfeast Remix)
38:38 36 - Susurrus
44:44 Willamette - portrait of a sleeping girl with radio
47:45 Maps & Diagrams - Unordinary People
49:30 Marcus Fischer - Span
53:25 Loscil - Fromme
1:00:04 end

Sunday Mar 04, 2012

1969 - trans lunar injection

Sunday Mar 04, 2012

I've been on kind of a moon binge lately. It started with watching HBO's excellent series, "From the Earth to the Moon." Then I read "We Reach the Moon," a book written in 1969 by John Noble Wilford, the NYT science reporter. Next I moved on to the wonderful film, "For All Mankind." It's the story of the men who went to the moon, told in their own words. Beautiful images and of course Eno's remarkable soundtrack, "Apollo : Atmospheres & Soundtracks".

So my head has been stuck on the moon in 1969. And that is the genesis of this mix, 1969. All the music used in this mix is either from 1969, related to the moon or both. I know it may a bit of a cliche to start with Kennedy's moon speech at Rice University but I love that speech & that part still gives me chills. 11 of the tunes are actually from 1969 :

Bowie - Space Oddity
King Crimson - Moonchild
Miles Davis - Sanctuary
Pink Floyd - Sysyphus
Terry Riley - Poppy Noggod
Genesis - In the Beginning
Soft Machine - Spaced
Don Cherry - Man on the Moon
Philip Glass - Music in Contrary Motion
Mort Garson - Walking in Space
Beatles - Across the Universe (covered by Phosphorescent)

It's interesting how many of them had moon or space themes. I guess that is where everyone's mind was at the time. I just had to include a couple of cuts from Eno's "Apollo:Atmospheres & Soundtracks" and from the new Air release, "Le Voyage Dans La Lune." It's a soundtrack Georges Méliès’ short classic, "A Trip to the Moon." It was originally released in 1902 & has been restored in color with Air's new soundtrack. Also included in the mix are three tunes from a netlabel album by Re-Drum called "1969". All the tracks on the album were made by using sampled music from the year 1969. These are the cuts that I used & the source material used to make those cuts... 1. Time : King Crimson - Moonchild Including The Dream And The Illusion Herbie Hancock - The Prisoner (Alternate Take) Sly & The Family Stone - You Can Make It If You Try Quincy Jones & Bill Cosby - Hikky-Burr Frank Zappa - The Gumbo Variation Booker T & The MG's - Michelle Zephyr - Hard Chargin' Woman Lou Donaldson - Donkey Walk John MacLaughlin - Pete The Poet Herbie Hancock - The Prisoner The Doors - The Soft Parade 2. The Last Breath : The Moody Blues - Eyes Of A Child, Part 1 Zephyr - Somebody Listen Isaac Hayes - By The Time I Get To Phoenix (voice) Internet Anticipation 1969 3. Armstrong : Lonnie Smith - Eleanor Rigby Kool And The Gang - Give It Up Pink Floyd - The Narrow Way (Part 3) The Rolling Stones - Live With Me Voice: First Moon Landing This was another fun mix to put together, I hope it's a fun listen as well.

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 John Kennedy - "We choose to go to the moon" speech
00:00 Apollo 11 l- anding on the moon
00:58 Boards of Canada - 1969
04:47 David Bowie - Space Oddity (Sébastien Bédé Remix)
07:20 David Bowie - Space Oddity continues (demo version)
09:50 King Crimson - Moonchild
13:25 Miles Davis - Sanctuary
18:00 Air - Moon fever
21:12 Pink Floyd - Sysyphus part 4
23:20 Terry Riley - Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band
28:25 Genesis - In The Beginning
31:55 Soft Machine - Spaced Seven
33:10 Re-Drum - Time
36:45 Don Cherry - Man on the Moon
39:10 Air - Seven Stars
42:50 Re-Drum - The Last Breath
46:15 Philip Glass - Music in Contrary Motion
48:10 Mort Garson - Walking in Space
50:10 Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois - Silver Morning
52:26 Phosphorescent - Across the Universe(Beatles cover)
57:21 Re-Drum - Armstrong
1:00:03 Eno - Always Returning
1:03:46 end

Thursday Feb 23, 2012

imaginary soundtracks

Thursday Feb 23, 2012

I guess you could say that all the music I listen to is a soundtrack of one sort or another. Soundtrack for cleaning the house, soundtrack for sleeping, for biking, for reading, for living. Most of my mixes could be considered to be mini soundtracks.

So what makes this one different? I guess the tracks collected here just sort of had that "soundtrack" feel when I first heard them. I imagined a scene from a film with the tune as the soundtrack. The tracklist then becomes a set of "imaginary soundtracks."

Some of the cuts, such as those from Cliff Martinez & Clint Mansell, are from actual soundtracks. The others just seemed to fit the mood.

Enjoy.

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Cliff Martinez - First Drive Home
00:40 James Murray - Greenlands
04:25 Vieo Abiungo - Insincerity peeked through Cloudlessly...
06:51 Roly Porter - Caladan
09:20 Jacaszek - Orszula
12:22 Olafur Arnalds - lag fyrir oemmu
15:45 Craig Armstrong - Starless
20:00 Max Richter - Fictions & Data
21:40 Popol Vuh - Grab der Mutter
23:55 Jon Hopkins - Opalescent
25:10 Emanuele Errante - Memoirs
30:25 Ryan Teague - Cell Cycle
34:16 Clint Mansell - We're Not Programs Gerty
36:55 Peter Broderick - No More Space
37:36 Johann Johannsson - They Being Dead yet Speaketh
40:35 Biosphere - Iberia
44:07 Maya Beiser - Only Breath
45:50 Cliff Martinez - See You in Four
47:33 Jon Hopkins - Fairytale
52:15 end