low light mixes

a canticle unfolds

I love all the mixes being posted on Mixcloud by Fluid Radio. They have a ton of neo-classical, Ambient, Modern Classical, Experimental Acoustic mixes on their Mixcloud page. So I set out to make my own "neo-classical" mix. And as I have said here before, sometimes mixes take you in directions that you weren't anticipating. With "a canticle unfolds", I discovered some vocal music as I was searching for tracks with a modern classical feel. Some of the tunes appear as recorded, others have been altered or remixed a bit. In the end, I ended up with 10 vocal cuts. This mix started out fairly straight forward, turned into an experiment and ended up as a nice listening experience. I hope you like it. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 The Hilliard Ensemble & Ivan Moody - Canticum Canticorum Remixed
• 03:40 Misound - sonno
• 05:30 Satie - Gnossienne Remixed
• 08:00 Nest - Marefjellet
• 12:00 Ambrose Field - La Dolce Vita
• 14:30 Gavin Byars Remixed
• 17:30 Morton Feldman - Rothko Chapel 5
• 21:00 Akira Rabelais - 1382_wyclif_gen._ii._7
• 24:30 Panoptique Electrical - the free form
• 29:40 Chorovaya Akademia - Nine Sili Nebesniye 1
• 32:40 Gavin Byars - Epilogue from Wonder Lawn
• 39:10 Bach Remixed
• 39:35 Roedelius - Lustwandel
• 43:15 Andrei Machado - ecce homo
• 47:30 Arvo Part - O Adonai
• 49:50 Annelies Monsere - 7
• 52:20 Debussy - des pas sur la neise
• 57:00 John Tavener - Mother & Child
• 60:12 end

It's the dead of winter, just trying to outlast the snow & cold, trying to make it to spring break. The music in this mix has a sort of lonely winter feel to it. The tracks are not too dark or depressing, they just seem to conger up images of vast, snowy landscapes. There are a few recordings in this mix from some of my recent favorite record labels. I'll just list some of those favorites... Low Point Experimedia Hibernate Under the Spire Home Normal Phantom Channel Dead Pilot Records Own Records Low Point, Phantom Channel, Home Normal, Infraction, Serein, 12k and Under the Spire all made it into the mix. Although no Hibernate recordings made it, I've really been enjoying all the output from them lately. Check out the releases from all these great labels. Next month I've got a mix coming out on Fluid Radio on MixCloud. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this newest mix. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Savvas Ysatis & Taylor Deupree - Hourglass
• 06:20 Kyle Bobby Dunn - Butel
• 11:15 Nest - Far From Land
• 15:30 Shaula - O
• 20:20 Shaula - Under a Palpebra
• 24:20 Ian Hawgood - Before I let the sunshine rot
• 30:45 Chihei Hatakeyama - Illusion of Memory 2
• 32:50 Kyle Bobby Dunn - There is no end to your beauty
• 42:10 Parks - Franja
• 47:50 Chihei Hatakeyama - The moon reflecting on the surface of the ocean
• 49:50 Marconi Union - Nothing ever happens in Tunguska
• 54:45 Coldstream - Alarums
• 1:00:00 end

Here's the first mix for 2010.  It's called slo_mo because all the tunes are slow & droney. One aspect of this mix that makes it a bit different is the use of a few "stretched" tracks.  I think I've mentioned this program here before, it's called "Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch".  I couldn't find a link to it, but at one time, on the web, there was a version of Beethoven's 9th Symphony that had been stretched to 24 hours. I stretched 3 songs for the mix, Eno - Music for Airports, Laetetur Cor (Choir of the Abbey of Saint Wandrille) and Budd & Eno - A Stream With Bright Fish.  Those tracks along with the others combine for a very slow mix that works pretty well for sleeping(I couldn't make past the 20min mark twice last night). Enjoy. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Eno - Music for Airports (s t r e t c h e d)
• 08:25    lexithimie - scale 1
• 12:35    Apalusa - Coventry, January 21, 2008
• 18:00    Laetetur Cor - Choir of the Abbey of Saint Wandrille (s t r e t c h e d)
• 22:20    Budd & Eno - A Stream with Bright Fish (s t r e t c h e d)
• 30:35    Celer - Gaited Florets
• 38:00    Porzellan - Rosen
• 47:10    Spheruleus - Time Fades
• 54:12    Language of Landscape - And The Rain Embraced Our Closing Words

I was listening to music from Lunar Testing Lab the other day.  The album, "Space Program", has a sort of retro/space/electronic feel to it.  Boards of Canada in space? I thought a whole mix of music with this kind of feel would be fun, so the result is "Remember Tomorrow".  I tried to use tunes that had that retro, space program vibe without being too kitschy or cheesy.  It's fine line & I hope I walked it successfully. Lunar Testing Labs of course makes several appearances in the mix and of course Board of Canada had to be included.  I am especially happy about being able to squeeze in the track "Cowboy" from The Units.  I remember listening to it in college and absolutely loving the tune, so it was was fun to get it into a mix.  I am also happy to have two Bowie cuts in there, "V-2 Schneider" & "Weeping Wall". I found some sound from a recording called "Bob & Betty go to the Moon" and I used a couple clips from that old, corny recording.  I tried not to use too much as it can easily distract from the music.  I ended up using 4 samples, the coundown open & three other quickies.  Using sound samples can be very tempting,  tt's fun to use some but they can quickly get in the way of the music. Although this mix is more beat-oriented than the typical Low Light offering, I think it's a fun trip. Download(right click/save as) :   93mb,  51:00 min Remember Tomorrow T R A C K L I S T I N G :

• 00:00    Countdown from "Lunar Adventure in 1985"
• 00:13    Belbury Poly - Adventures in a Miniature Landscape
• 06:05    Harmonic 33 - Departure Lounge
• 10:30    Lunar Testing Lab - Lunar Radio control
• 11:30    EU - New Osc's
• 13:00    Boards of Canada - Wildlife Analysis
• 13:50    Freescha - The Sun is Still
• 16:00    Lunar Testing Lab - Orbiting Lunar Observatory
• 16:40    TRS-80 - moon Patrol
• 22:30    David Bowie - V2 Schneider
• 25:10    Bochum Welt - interlude
• 28:25    Lunar Testing Lab - Phantom Cosmonaut
• 30:50    Signaldrift - Children of the 70's
• 32:20    Harmonic 33 - Planet 54
• 35:50    Frank Comstock - Music from Outer Space(when you wish upon a star)
• 37:50    Boards of Canada - Nova Scotia Robots
• 38:50    Bernard Szajner - A Kind of Freedom
• 41:30    Talvihorros - A Rural Place
• 43:35    David Bowie - Weeping Wall
• 46:35    Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy
• 51:05    end

I haven't had time to do anything new lately but today I'm home sick so I had some time in between naps.

I was listening to "Nautica" by krill.minima, and it got me in the mood for some "sea" music.

A few things came to mind immediately, such as Eluder, Loscil & a new track by Intrusion. From there I just searched for tunes with 'sea', 'water', 'ocean' or other watery words in the titles. I think the tunes work pretty well together. The first 20 minutes has a great ebb & flow, breathing-like quality which I love. Enjoy. Download(right click/save) :  110mb, 60:00 min. a solitary sea T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    krill.minima - Submarine Poetry
• 07:00    Intrusion - Under the Ocean
• 10:00    Eluder - The Most Beautiful Blue
• 14:30    Rod Modell - Cold Watery Depths
• 21:30    Jim Cole - Ocean Depths
• 25:00    Adam Pacione - Buoy
• 31:10    Loscil - Pressure
• 35:00    Thomas Koner - 31.46.n.35.13e(hour ten)
• 36:20    Milieu - Christening Ships at port
• 43:20    krill.minima - Surface from the Groundless Oceans
• 50:30    Shaula - Sea of Trees
• 53:30    Jeff Greinke - Over Water
• 1:00:00    end

Generally I like autumn.  I don't mind the colder temps, colors are great, don't have to mow the lawn anymore, etc.  But this year the weather has been nasty, too cold too soon & lots of rain. So I set out to do a bleak, cold October mix.  But as usually happens with mixes, they take on a life of their own and lead you in different directions.  I realized, as I was collecting tunes, that I didn't want the mix to turn into some dark, Halloween-ish affair. Ultimately I turned to all new music as source material.  While most of it is not all bleak & depressing, neither is it all sunny & bright.  I'm glad to have worked some currents favs into the mix, such as Leyland Kirby, Sufjan Stevens, Loren Dent & Volcano Choir. Even though today was a beautiful, sunny fall day, I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities for a hot cup of coffee, listening to this mix & gazing beyond this, or any, window. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    wind
• 00:30    Solo Andata - Beyond this Window (from the album Solo Andata)
• 04:00    David Tagg - Wind Blown Guitar (from the album Wind Blown Guitar)
• 07:50    Aidan Baker - Explosions (from the album Dry)
• 11:30    Segue - October (from the album Grey)
• 16:00    Ian Hawgood - Shore Peotry (from the album Snow Roads)
• 16:30    Isnaj Dui - That whgich was lost (from the album unstable equlibrium)
• 22:00    Leyland Kirby - Memories live longer than dreams (from the album sadly the future is no longer what it was)
• 27:20    Sufjan Stevens - Postlude - Critical Mass (from the album The BQE)
• 29:30    Talvihorros - Handwriting Pt. 1 (from the album Some Ambulance)
• 34:20    Loren Dent - Ecstasy of Morning (from the album Anthopology extras)
• 40:50    Ave Maria stretched
• 42:50    Billy Gomberg - Verse (from the album Days)
• 47:50    Volcano Choir - Husks & Shells (from the album unmap)
• 51:00    Chihei Hatakeyama - Landscape on a Hill (from the album Saunter)
• 59:22    end

One of my favorite mixes from last year was Sustain & Decay. It was fun digging up old recordings & mixing them with new releases.

So I decided to do a follow-up, with the result being "revenants of the past". It follows the same basic formula of last years mix(which was also released in October). I browsed through a ton of files at archive.org, looking for things like old vinyl records & Edison cylinder recordings from as far back as 1888. I mixed these recordings with current music that either sounds old or in some cases actually uses old recordings as a sound source to be manipulated into something new. In the last mix The Caretaker figured prominently and here too there is an extended track in the middle of this sequel mix. The track is an excerpt from a mix James Leyland Kirby, AKA The Caretaker, did for Fact Magazine. I think "revenants" is a good mix of familiar & unfamiliar artists here. I had to get William Basinksi's Disintegration Loops in somewhere & so the mix closes with a track from Loops #2. Enjoy the entropy. T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Around the world on a phonograph 1888
• 00:15 Szilágyi Imre Zenekara - kurucz motak (from 78rpm record)
• 02:25 SIGHUP - city heart (from the album "end of")
• 05:20 Cylon - 4feb1912pt12 (from the ep "winter")
• 12:30 Joe Belov - Air for G String 1920 Edison cylinder
• 12:30 Krzysztof Orluk - the girl the melody in the head (from the album "blurred reflection")
• 16:00 Glim - puszta (from the album "music for field recordings")
• 19:00 Okkyung Lee - sky (from the album "nihm")
• 25:30 Montauk - Tranquility (from the album "the moment lasts a second but the memory lives on forever")
• 26:15 Skye Boat Song (from 78rpm record, Edinburgh, Scotland)
• 26:30 The Caretaker - Fact Mix #45, May '09 (excerpt from Fact Magazine mix)
• 35:40 Asher - Minatures #11 (from the album "minatures")
• 38:00 Rae Eleanor Bal - Gypsy Love Song 1927
• 40:20 Lucky Pierre - velbon (from the album "touchpool")
• 42:40 Jaudas Society Orchestra - Beautiful Ohio Waltz 1919 Edison cylinder
• 43:10 Philip Jeck - 1986(Frank was 70 years old) (from the album "surf")
• 44:00 relmic statute - 1rhet ednalnge (from the album "sitting under the lantern's glow")
• 47:30 Bronnt Industries Kapital - maggots in the rice (from an untitled cd)
• 49:50 Alessandro Moreschi - Ave Maria 1904 Edison cylinder
• 51:50 36 - signal (from the album "Hypersona")
• 53:00 Sub Loam - ohr (part 3) stones, sunlight, morning (from the album "Ohr")
• 55:50 William Basinksi - dlp 3 (from "The Disintegration Loops")
• 1:00:00 end

I have been very busy this summer and I haven't had time to even think about a new mix.  So it's perfect timing that I have a new guest mix to present.

"Gravity" is a fantastic new mix by Jason O'Gorman.  Jason did a mix called "Satellite" for us in March of last year.  I really enjoyed that mix & was always hoping he'd do another and here it is.

About the mix, Jason says...

"Think I'll call it "gravity", my head's stuck into plenty of books about quantum mechanics, parallel universes and all that at the moment - so gravity fits - or does it? :-p LOL. The vast majority of the tracks are fed through lots of reverb and eq feedback - giving a nice wash of sound during the crossover stages of the mix, therefore "blurring" the boundaries, so to speak. And I've selected tracks which are pretty much "in key", or work musically. Suffice to say, Im pretty happy with the final result :-)"

I think everyone will be happy with the final result.   One look at the tracklist & I knew it was going to be good then I heard the long, wonderful segues & I was hooked.  Jason added this about the segues & start times...

"One thing, the track times listed - are the times they start, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll "hear" them at that time, but they're there, creeping in. Sometimes they're are 4 tracks playing together -  the transitions are pretty long!"

Enjoy!

t r a c k l i s t :

• 00.00 Like The Foot Prints Of An Invisible Man - Jasper TX & Anduin
• 00.20 A Box of Wood in the Storm - Jasper TX
• 05.00 Excerpt 2/3 - ww.lowman
• 05.10 Cosmos 1 - Murcof
• 08.30 Pillar - David Daniell
• 11.40 Everything Disappears In A Tunnel Of Light- Jasper TX & Anduin
• 15.20 In a Stony Place - Mira Calix
• 18.45 Still Upon the Ocean Floor - Loscil
• 20.00 Invocation - Gregg Kowalsky
• 20.10 Auf der Gasse - Stephan Mathieu
• 23.15 Stele - David Tagg
• 28.00 Mulm Og Mørke - Mulm
• 31.40 Untitled 3 - William Basinski & Richard Chartier
• 35.10 Opening Sky - Steve Roach
• 37.00 Nocturne - Stephan Mathieu + Taylor Deupree
• 37.30 Pictures from Airplanes - David Tagg
• 41.45 The Sirens - St. Kilda
• 45.40 Filitosa - Melodium
• 47.15 A Stop at the Chord Cascades - Tim Hecker
• 47.33 V - Gregg Kowalsky
• 49.15 Vi-Vii - Gregg Kowalsky
• 52.00 Monochrome 1 - Tu M'

I listen to ambient music every night when I go to bed. I usually browse my recent acquisitions to find something for sleep music. There are a few recordings which get used more than others.

Two recent releases by Steve Roach get regular airtime here at Low Light Mixes. Last year's "A Deeper Silence" and this year's "Dynamic Stillness".

There was a time when I played Deeper Silence in the background all around the house everyday for a week. It created this strange feeling like I was on a spaceship. Mostly this 73 minute-long tune gets used for sleep music. The same goes for "Slowly Revealed" off of "Dynamic Stillness". I have fallen asleep to this track many times.

Another nighttime favorite...the "Beautiful Land of Nod" mixes from Mr. Asphalt Eden(aka - Brian Bieniowski). I played these two mixes quite a bit when I first downloaded them & still return to them often. I remember Brian saying he liked sleep music that seemed to rise & fall like breathing. It was that idea that inspired a mix that I did called "breathing music". I use this mix fairly often for drifting off to sleep.

This brings us to the new mix. I wanted to do a new sleep mix so I could incorporate the Steve Roach cuts. So I dumped some tracks to a portable hard drive, brought it to work & starting mixing in between "real work". I had 4 or 5 tracks laid down & I was listening to one of the transitions & literally fell asleep at my desk, hence the title of the mix. A lot of the tracks sound very much like each other which I guess is good in this case because one track stretches into another, in a long, trance inducing, ambient lullaby.  At 90 minutes, the mix is longer than most, but I thought the length worked a bit better for sleeping. Sweet dreams... T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    St. Kilda - You are in every dream
• 03:30    Steve Roach - Slowly Revealed
• 12:20    Scott Solter - Cypress Road
• 16:00    Stars of the Lid - The Kraut
• 23:30    Ashera - Fellini's Cat
• 28:30    William Basinski - 92982.1
• 33:20    Ten and Tracer - Falling asleep in sadness
• 36:40    Irezumi - Endurance
• 42:50    Jasper, TX - This Barren Land
• 47:30    Hammock - 3 sisters
• 51:15    Manual - Last Light
• 56:40    James Johnson - In then Out
• 1:06:00  Brian Eno - Discreet Music
• 1:15:00  Steve Roach - A Deeper Silence
• 1:30:00  end

My last mix was done for SubVersion and now Mick was kind enough to return the favor with a mix for Low Light Mixes. It's an excellent mix which Mick describes this way... "Drones In Duality" is the first in a series of mixes dedicated to Bridewell Gardens, which I visit every week to engage in therapeutic conservation and decorating work. The name is a reference to the double meaning properties of each track title, and the transference of a gesture in two different timeframes - before mucking in, and after a days' graft. For instance, Bibio's "Cherry Blossom Road" encompasses the ability to walk down roads adorned with flowers, to and from the bus trip to Bridewell, while "Sleep In The Eyes" identifies the product of doing much work on the premises, or getting cobwebs out on the journey in. Hammock's "We Will Say Goodbye To Everyone" nods to the friendly atmosphere I've encountered, and the desire to wish well each person I meet there. Pan American's "So That No Matter" curtails an extended metaphor for "so that no matter what problems I face, I can get through the day, with help from my friends and family". This is segued into Hakobune's "Realization At Dusk", which symbolises the enjoyment factor I weigh up the evening prior (getting sorted to make a stop) and heretofore the welcoming in of darkness (post-assignments and seeing everyone off). Oophoi's "Beyond These Skies" is the subsequent result of thinking forward, to what can be sentimental gold beyond nostalgic trifles. Then "Diamonds In The Sky" arrives to calm the listener: "They shine in the night / The diamonds in the sky / The sweet dreaming girl's paradise". "Softkiller" harks back to my relationship with the woman I've been so preocuppied with. Incomprehensible lyrics act as the undertow to ethereal guitar noodling and hushed chants. Grouper is juxtaposed with the grainy metamorphosising of Evangelista to end, "The Frozen Dress" a direct correlation to the freeze-frame behaviour of "Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping". All in all, "Drones In Duality" is a 23-minute endeavour into fresh ground for me. There's lots of drones, granted, but these are counterbalanced with an accessibility from the vocals and brimming harmonies. Next up: "Time Heals All Wounds".