low light mixes

a further sea

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

1969 - trans lunar injection

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 :

1. Bowie - Space Oddity
2. King Crimson - Moonchild
3. Miles Davis - Sanctuary
4. Pink Floyd - Sysyphus
5. Terry Riley - Poppy Noggod
6. Genesis - In the Beginning
7. Soft Machine - Spaced
8. Don Cherry - Man on the Moon
9. Philip Glass - Music in Contrary Motion
10. Mort Garson - Walking in Space
11. 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

imaginary soundtracks

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

dubby & dreamy

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Ambient dub, minimal dub, ambi-dub, whatever you want to call it, is something that I listen to every now & then.  I like making mixes with this music because the tracks flow so well together. I've done three previous dub mixes and while they are all laid back, this one may be more so.  It collects some dubby cuts & weaves in some noise & washes of field recordings from the fantastic ambi-dub recording, "DeepChord presents Echospace - Liumin."  The bonus cd for that album is all the field recordings that were the source material for the tracks on the other disc. Not all the cuts are straight up dub tracks, but they do all fit together nicely.  Almost all the tracks are new with the exception of the krill.minima & Plastikman tunes.

Enjoy. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Andy Stott - Submission
• 01:10    Sven Schienhammer -  Sound Signals for Other Planets
• 04:15    Bop - My Heart in a Freezer
• 06:10    Demdike Stare - Matilda's Dream
• 09:50    Resoe - Edith's Serenade(r.i.p)
• 13:52    Overcast Sound - Devil's Mountain
• 14:25    Robag Wruhme - Brucke Eins
• 14:25    Deepchord - Untitled #1 (runs concurently)
• 15:50    Vatican Shadow - missing hmm364 squadron purple foxes assassins
• 18:05    Moritz Von Oswald Trio - Pattern #4
• 20:35    Demdike Stare - Nothing But The Night 2
• 22:50    Marow - Iridescence
• 24:15    Coppice Halifax - Sunken Dancehall
• 29:35    Sven Schienhammer - Being Immersed in Another World
• 35:55    Deepchord - Untitled #7
• 36:40    krill.minima - Princess of the Undersea Gardens
• 40:35    Koss - Monday Conversations
• 42:55    Coppice Halifax - Luxury
• 47:50    Plastikman - cor ten
• 50:10    Sven Schienhammer - Back Into The Here & Now
• 54:30    krill.minima - sommerdellen
• 57:45    end

sunday morning music

I absolutely love NPR music.  The host of their All Songs Considered podcast is Bob Boilen.  I've heard him describe music as "Sunday morning music."  I'm not exactly sure what that is but I think I know when I hear it.

I'd been thinking about doing a Sunday mix for some time and then I heard Wilco's song "One Sunday Morning" & immediately loved it & had to start a mix so I could use that tune in it.

This mix is a collection of both vocal & instrumental tunes, that hopefully will work well with sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee & reading the paper.  Sunday mornings always make me think of jazz so I included a couple of jazz tracks in the mix.

Time to go brew another pot.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Chandanam - Silk
• 02:00    Bon Iver - Perth (the Polish Ambassador remix)
• 08:23    Wilco - One Sunday Morning
• 16:53    Daniel Lanois & the MDH Band - The First Time(reprise)
• 18:55    Nick Drake - From the Morning
• 21:17    Keith Jarrett & Jack DeJonette - Pastel Morning
• 23:12    Charlie Haden & Hank Jones - Going Home
• 27:12    Gem Club - Twins
• 31:20    Harmonia 76 - When Shade was Born
• 32:35    Harold Budd & Clive Wright - Sunday After the War
• 36:15    Marsen Jules - Lazy Sunday Funerals #3
• 38:12    Dizzy Gillespie - Come Sunday
• 41:00    Leonard Cohen - Going Home
• 44:10    S. Carey - Move
• 46:52    Seu Jorge - Life on Mars(Bowie Cover)
• 50:12    Charlie Haden & Hank Jones - Come Sunday
• 53:43    end

The Mellow Side of Prog

Back in 2007 I did a Prog Rock mix that is still one of my favorite low light mixes.  You can find the original post & download here...PROG ROCK '07.

I've always wanted to do another prog mix.  While on a pro rock binge I came across "For Absent Friends" by Genesis and that gave me the idea of doing a mellow prog mix.

In the original mix I tried to stay away from prog rock mainstays like Genesis & Yes & King Crimson.  This time I couldn't resist some big names like Pink Floyd, Genesis, Brian Eno & Crimson.  Those well known artists combine with some Cantebury scene music from National Health, Soft Machine & Hugh Hopper and Al Gowen.  Most of the tunes are vintage 70's music, with only a couple newer tracks from Willowglass & David Gilmore.

I included kind of an oddball cut from Tony R. Clef.  It's an acoustic cover of Genesis' "Undertow."  He has a few other Genesis tunes that he covers on his YouTube channel here.

I know this mix is a bit different than the usual Low Light Mixes fair, but it was fun to put together and I hope you enjoy it.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Genesis - For Absent Friends
• 01:40    Pink Floyd - If
• 06:05    Soft Machine - Carol Ann
• 09:33    Genesis - Hairless Heart
• 11:45    Strawbs - You & I(when we were young)
• 15:40    Phil Manzanera - Diamond Head
• 19:57    Willowglass - The End
• 21:09    David Gilmore - The Blue
• 26:25    King Crimson - Starless
• 30:54    Brian Eno - Golden Hours
• 34:30    Genesis - Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats
• 36:42    Anthony Philips - Which Way the Wind Blows
• 42:25    National Health - Arriving Twice
• 44:35    Hugh Hopper & Al Gowen - Morning Order
• 50:57    Chris Squire - Lucky Seven
• 57:45     Soft Machine - Virtually Part 4
• 1:01:02    Tony R. Clef - Undertow(acoustic Genesis cover)
• 1:05:54    Pink Floyd - Pigs on a Wing, Pt. 2
• 1:07:18    end

starry starry night

"I, the fiery life of divine essence, am aflame beyond the beauty of the meadows, I gleam in the waters, and I burn in the sun, moon and stars."

- Hildegard von Bingen

Electronic & ambient music seems perfectly suited for stargazing.  So you really could use just about any ambient mix for night sky viewing and it will work just fine.  But sometimes it's nice to do a mix specifically geared towards astronomical awe.

It's always interesting to see how the song titles match the theme of the mix.  Sometimes I pick tunes precisely because the titles match but most of the time it's accidental.  In this mix we have titles like "Alpha Centauri", "Polaris", "After Midnight", "One Starry Starry Night" and "Encounter in an unexplored nebula."

As usual the music is a mix of old & new, with most tunes being from the last couple years.  I was happy to sneak in an old track from Jean-Michel Jarre.  Different from his normal berlin-school stuff, this one is a nice long ambient cut from 1990.

As with a lot of stargazing mixes, this one works well as a sleep mix too.  I can testify to it's effectiveness.

On a side note...thanks to anyone who voted for Low Light Mixes in the Mixcloud best of 2011 poll.  We came in 78th.  Doesn't sound like much but considering they have thousands of "cloudcasters", coming 78th was great.  Thanks for all your support last year & over the last 6 years.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Lunar Testing Lab - Paaliaq (I, Absentee)
• 01:35    Sonmi451 - Alpha Centauri (Time Released Sound)
• 04:40    Digitonal - Polaris (Leaves)
• 07:20    Diatonis - One Starry Starry Night (Diatonis)
• 12:15    The Winterhouse - Clearing (DataObscura)
• 18:00    Frederico Durand - El Mundo Secreto De La Montana (Spekk)
• 21:30    A Produce & Loren Nerell - Intangible (Hypnos)
• 28:20    Maps & Diagrams - The Infinite Delay (Handstitched Recordings)
• 30:45    Thom Brennan - Pulse
• 31:55    Aglaia - After Midnight (Hic Sunt Leones)
• 37:30    Sonmi451 - Blue (U cover)
• 43:05    Biosphere - Warmed by the Drift (Touch)
• 48:20    Jean Michel Jarre - En Attendant Cousteau (Disques Dreyfus)
• 55:10    The Civilized Electrons - Encounter, In an Unexplored Nebula (Databloem)

fire and ice - an Icelandic mix

For such a small country, Iceland has produced a surprising number of excellent artists.  From Bjork to Mum to Seabear to Olaf Arnalds to Sigur Ros, it's really extraordinary the amount of wonderful music that comes from that island.

This last mix of 2011 is an Icelandic journey.  All the music is created by artists from Iceland.  The brilliant idea for it came from loyal listener, Kevin.  I wasn't sure how much music of Iceland I had in my collection but I was surprised to find quite a bit.

Icelandic music for me begins & ends with Sigur Ros & Bjork.  They are both in the mix, with Jonsi, from Sigur Ros, making multiple appearances.  In addition to the Sigur Ros tune, Jonsi contributes "Stokkseyri" from Riceboy Sleeps & "9" by Frakkur.

When Kevin suggested the mix & the title, he was thinking of Iceland as a land of extremes...glaciers & volcanoes, 24hr days & 24hr nights.  This mix doesn't swing too wildly from one extreme to another.  It's more ice than fire.  A few of the tunes do build in typical post-rock fashion, but generally things are fairly subdued.

I used two Johann Johannsson tracks fairly close together, which I normally don't like to do but the IBM track just seemed to fit perfectly with the preceding cut.  Plus I was just happy to be able to use that IBM track again because I LOVE it!

The pic in this post is from a terrific blog called "Stuck in Customs." Check out the blog or go to his Flickr stream to see some amazing photos.  I'm a little tired of the HDR effect in photos but Tret Ratcliff does a really nice job with it & it definitely helps that he is shooting in unbelievable locations.

This was a fun mix to put together & I'd like to thank Kevin for suggesting it, I'm very happy with how it turned out.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Amiina - Boga (from kurr 2007)
• 06:01    Johann Johannsson - The Flat (from And In The Endless Pause There Came The Sound Of Bees 2009)
• 08:15    Olafur Arnalds - Himininn er a hrynja, en stjornurnar fara per vel (from Variations Of Static 2007)
• 12:05    Johann Johannsson - Part 2 Ibm 1403 Printer (from Ibm1401-A Users Manual 2006)
• 15:50    Stafraenn Hakon - Veggur (from Gummi 2007)
• 18:55    Valgeir Sigurðsson - Equilibrium is Restored (from Ekvilibrium 2007)
• 30:54    Jonsi & Alex - Stokkseyri (from Riceboy Sleeps 2009)
• 37:49    Sigur Rós - Álafoss (from () 2002)
• 46:15    Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson - Sudurgata (from Children of Nature 1996)
• 49:08    Bjork - Cosmogony (from Biophillia 2011)
• 53:40    Frakkur - 9 (from songs for the little boy 2008)
• 1:01:23   end

I can hear the snow fall

For some reason,when I think of falling snow, the instrument that comes to mind is the piano.  Maybe it's from years of listening to Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas album.  So it's no surprise that there is a fair amount of piano music in this "snow" mix.

We didn't have any snow yet but I had been thinking about doing a "first snow" mix for awhile & decided to throw one together Friday night.  Then I woke up Saturday morning to a light dusting of snow on the ground.  Maybe next I should do a mix for winning the lottery. ;)

As I said there is a lot of piano music in here.  Led by Nils Frahm, from his excellent Felt album.  A release that will end up on my best of the year list & one which everyone needs to hear.  I think this mix works well as an early season "snow" mix versus the more bleak mid winter drones that will show up later.

I expect to crank out at least one more mix before the end of the year.  Plus I'll have a year-end top 20 list, so start thinking of your own lists if you'd like to contribute.

Enjoy.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Nils Frahm - less [erased tapes]
• 05:20    Bernocchi, Budd, Guthrie - Heavy Heart Some More [Rarenoise Records]
• 09:35    Deepspace - Whisper
• 12:50   The Humble Bee - Sky Litter [cotton goods]
• 15:22    Willamette - Echo Park [infraction]
• 18:10    Pleq + Lauki - II (antonymes remix) [somehow recordings]
• 24:44    Cliff Martinez - Wrong Floor [lakeshore records]
• 25:45    Max Richter - eternal flowers question stars [Metropolis Movie Music]
• 27:48    e and i - Pearls for Alma [cotton goods]
• 29:40    Isnaj Dui - Always Close [hibernate]
• 32:48    I've Lost - in this cold, empty place [future sequence]
• 36:35    Diatonis - Whiring Above Our Heads
• 40:00    Nils Frahm - Pause [erased tapes]
• 44:25    Cliff Martinez - He Had A Good Time [lakeshore records]
• 45:39    Harold Budd - Three-Fingered Jack [darla]
• 47:40    Maps & Diagrams - Groghe(fort) [nomadic kids republic]
• 51:00    S. Carey - Rothko Fields [jagjaguwar]
• 54:50    Part Timer - seed collection [mobeer]
• 58:20    Nils Frahm - Keep [erased tapes]

Launch of Curiosity

This past Saturday NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory known as "Curiosity" on a 9 month journey to the planet Mars.  As I was watching video of the launch, I was thinking about music that would work well with a launch & space voyage.  I quickly collected some appropriate tune & cranked out this mix at escape velocity speed.

The tracks are all electronic/electronica cuts that I thought seem to fit the theme.  As it turns out, many of the tunes have titles that are perfect for a mix like this.  Titles such as "Towards Unknown Space", "Solar Sailer", "Born to Fire", "Your Wings Make You Fly" and of course "Phobos & Deimos Go To Mars".

That "Phobos & Deimos" tracks was one of my absolute favorite tracks in college.  I had a clear vinyl version of the Synergy album "Cords".  There aren't going to be too many times that I can sneak that cut into a mix so I'm glad I got that one in here.

The NASA audio is all from the actual launch of the Curiosity Mars rover mission.

In the coming months maybe I'll do "Flight of Curiosity" & "Curiosity Lands" mixes.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    M83 - Another Wave from You
• 01:55    Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy
• 04:40    Saul Stokes - Greys
• 08:25    Pinch & Shackleton - Monks on the Rum
• 13:07    Synergy - Phobos & Deimos Go To Mars
• 17:40    Brad Smith - Any Colour You Like (8-bit Pink Floyd cover)
• 21:05    Balam Acab - Apart
• 23:30    Jumpel - Lissabon
• 26:20    Daft Punk - Solar Sailer
• 28:25    Steve Roach & Vir Unis - Born to Fire
• 36:15    Delta M45 - Towards Unknown Space
• 41:00    Winterlight - Your Wings Make You Fly
• 46:20    Jumpel - Arles
• 49:25    Rena Jones - Helix
• 54:28    Plumbline - 66 w12
• 58:51    end