Ambient Blog

This is just a quick post to draw attention to an excellent ambient blog. AmbientBlog.net is run by Peter van Cooten. He has been doing mixes for years as well as a weekly radio show on Dutch Radio 6. The radio program was recently discontinued so Peter decided to put all of his ambient mixes online, for free download/podcast subscription.

Peter's mixes are uniformly superb, always an interesting collection of known & unkown tunes. Take a few moments to visit AmbientBlog.net.

I fell asleep at my desk while making this mix

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...

download : (129mb, 90 min.)
I fell asleep at my desk making this mix

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".

download : (53mb 23:20)

Drones in Duality

still falls the rain

I said in  the last post that I did two rain mixes, well here is number two.

It's an instrumental rain mix, more like a traditional low light mixes mix.  Mick, over at SubVersion, asked me to do a mix for his blog so I did two rain mixes one for here & one for Mick.

You'll find the download link & the tracklist at SubVersion.  Mick sent me a mix called "Drones in Duality" which I will beposting here in the next few days.  Also keep an eye out for a "sleep" mix which may be done by the end of the week.

I Love the Rain

The transition from spring to summer brings two new mixes from Low Light Mixes central command.  We've had a fair amount of rain lately so both mixes are "rain" mixes.

Rain evokes so many memories & emotions, it's a great theme for mixes.  Using field recordings really helps hold the mix together.  I try not to over do it with the rain sounds, hopefully it works well.

This first mix is a vocal mix, well mostly vocal, there are three instrumentals hiding in there.  All the tunes have the word "rain" in the title.  It was fun discovering tunes I did not know very well, like The Decemberists track & the cut from Susanna & The Magical Orchestra.

The second rain mix is an instrumental mix and it will be posted over at the SubVersion blog.  Mick will be posting it there soon.  And I will be posting a drone mix from Mick here at Low Light Mixes soon as well.  I've also got a "sleep" mix in the works.

DOWNLOAD :  77mb  40:00min

I Love the Rain

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Susanna & The Magical Orchestra - It's Raining Today
• 04:40    The (real) Tuesday Weld - I Love the Rain
• 08:37    Asche & Spencer - A Walk in the Rain
• 09:49    The Handsome Family - Famous Blue Raincoat
• 14:40    Daniel Lanois - Rain Weather
• 18:20    The Decemberists - Raincoat Song
• 20:40    Joe Purdy - I Love the Rain the Most
• 25:00    Oblong - Rain Over the Deverils
• 28:54    REM - I'll Take the Rain
• 34:15    Rivulets - Rain All Winter Long
• 40:00    end

Check out these mixes

I want to call attention to some good mixes & podcasts over at The Bovine Life Support System.  BLSS is run by Chris Dooks and he describes the site's purpose this way..."it’s listening to new music religiously – and a move to Glasgow that has inspired this show which I began as a new year’s resolution at the start of 2008. And I’ve kept it up. It’s partly personal diary, part info about the artists (occasionally) but the main point of it is for me to soundtrack my life and sort out my ever expanding music collection."

I started with in the mixtapes section & have really enjoyed the Bedtime Barbiturate Mix & the Half-Life Studies Mix.  I have barely scratched the surface of the podcasts but have already discovered new music which I will be seeking out.  One piece which I re-discovered via the podcast was Odi at Amo by Johann Johannsson, a gorgeous piece from Englaborn.  

I'm looking forward to listening to the rest of the podcasts.

Cinematica

I got the idea for this mix over at the Hypnos records forum.  In the "Now Playing" thread, someone posted several entries in a row about listening to various soundtracks. Some favorites of mine, Cliff Martinez's "Traffic" & "Narc" and Clint Mansell's "The Fountain", were on the list.  It got me thinking & listening to soundtracks for a week or two and this new mix, "Cinematica", is the result.

There are 25 tracks in this mix, so it keeps moving pretty well I think.  I realized after I was done that a few of the tracks appear in other low light mixes.  Oh well, that's bound to happen with so many mixes and fewer and fewer brain cells.

I would say my favorite soundtracks from the past 10 - 15 years would have to be "Solaris" from Cliff Martinez & "The Fountain" by Clint Mansell.  I purposely used a lesser known Martinez cut from "Wicker Park" but one that had the same "Solaris" feel to it.  Then of course I discovered that I'd already used the same cut in an earlier mix. Duh!  

This mix was easy & fun to put together so I'm sure I'll be doing another one in the future.  Any suggestions for essential soundtracks that I should check out?

Download : 110mb  59:50min

Cinematica

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - The Proposition #2 (The Proposition)
• 02:00    Graeme Revell - Cue 34 (Until the End of the World)
• 04:10    Thomas Newman - Drive Away(End Title) (Lemony Snicket)
• 06:50    Cliff Martinez - What Shoe Size (Wicker Park)
• 08:05    Andrey Dergatchev - Port (The Return)
• 10:05    Max Richter - Shadow Journal (Valse Avec Bachir)
• 12:15    John Murphy/Chrales Gounod - Taxi(Ave Maria) (28 Days Later)
• 14:07    Mogwai - 7-25 (Zidane, a 21st Century Portait)
• 18:20    Clint Mansell - Death is a Disease (The Fountain)
• 20:40    Explosions in the Sky - From West Texas (Friday Night Lights)
• 22:26    Brian Eno - Always Returning (Apollo)
• 25:35    Corker/Conboy - First Crossing (3 Degrees Colder)
• 27:05    David Byrne - Canal Life (Lead Us Not Into Temptation)
• 29:20    Peter Gabriel - A Sense of Home (Long Walk Home)
• 30:50    Sigur Ros - #3 untitled (Hlemmur)
• 33:05    Andrey Dergatchev - Georgians (The Return)
• 35:13    Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson - Ars Moriendi (Children of Nature)
• 37:20    Philip Glass - Organic (Koyaanisqatsi)
• 42:10    Gabriel Yared & Underworld - Mending Things (Breaking & Entering)
• 44:20    Cliff Martinez - Helicopter (Traffic)
• 46:05    John Murphy - Red Dresses (28 Days Later)
• 46:43    Devotchka - The Winner Is (Little Miss Sunshine)
• 49:35    David Byrne - Dirty Hair (Lead Us Not Into Temptation)
• 52:06    Peter Gabriel - Passion Extras #4 (Passion)
• 53:55    James Newton Howard - I'm Listening (I am Legend)
• 55:45    Brian Eno - an ending(ascent) (Apollo, 28 Days Later, Clean, Traffic)
• 59:50    end

Refuge

I was inspired by my daughter's mix cd's to do my own vocal mix.  She does great mixes that I listen to in the car and I thought I'd do a similar one of my own.  Of course the finished product is not as uptempo as hers.   This being an ambient mix blog, most of the tunes are fairly quiet.

There is no unifying theme here, other than I like these tunes.  The Martin Grech tunes are from "March of the Lonely" which made it on my best of 2008 list.  I could have put in a ton of David Sylvian tracks but ended up with just two.  Hmmm, maybe I should do an all Sylvian mix someday.  There are two new songs in there,  "Another World" by Antony & the Johnsons and "Foreground" from the new Grizzly Bear.  The rest are a mix of old & fairly new cuts.

I did cheat a little bit by sneaking in one instrumental track.  It's "Bell Toll by Daniel Lanois from his fantastic Omni series box.  Somehow it just fit right.  I also cheated on the graphic.  I took an album cover by Dan Deacon and wiped out his title & put my own in.  The pic just worked so perfectly with the title of the mix.

I called the mix "Refuge" because I think of music as a refuge and this mix as an escape from from other crappy music...from work...from laundry...from the economy...from normal, crazy life.  I hope this mix can be a refuge for you too.

download :

r e f u g e

TRACKLIST:

00:00    Canyon Country - Dead or Dreaming

03:50    David Sylvian - Maria

06:15    Martin Grech - Kingdom

09:30    Sufjan Stevens - Holland

12:50    Grizzly Bear - Foreground

15:54    Antony & the Johnsons - Another World

19:35    Peter Gabriel - Father, Son

24:20    Roxy Music - Spin Me Round

28:50    REM - Star Me Kitten

31:45    Daniel Lanois - Bell Toll

33:00    David Bridie - Sad

36:30    David Sylvian - When Poets Dreamed of Angels

41:00    Martin Grech - Ashes Over Embers

46:30    P.G. Six - Lily of the West

51:35    Trespassers William - Love is Blindness

58:31    end

Enosification

This is another new kind of mix for the blog.  This is an all Eno mix.

I came across the Eno tune "Spider & I " in a recently downloaded mix & I was reminded of how much I like Eno's voice.  So I thought why not collect some favorite vocal tunes together in one place.

For the first half of the mix I alternate between vocal tunes & instrumentals.  I thought this might be nice to break things up a bit.  About half way through I realized I'd run out of time so I went to all vocals.  I love singing along with his songs & it is nice to have some favorites all together. 

The title comes from Genesis' "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" album, where Eno is credited with "enosification."  Which he described this way..."I would take existing instruments and feed them through various devices to 'weird them up'."

I mentioned that I heard Eno in a mix, of course I can't remember which mix it was, but I do want to mention a coiple fine mixes that I've downloaded recently.  One comes from Brian Bieniowski & can be found here...asphalteden.   The other is called "Utsura-Utsura" and can be found here DREAMSCENES

I hope you enjoy the all-Eno mix.....

Download  :  110mb  60:00min.

Enosification

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00  By This River (Before & After Science)
• 02:51   Music for Glitterbug - track 10 (music for glitterbug)
• 05:37  Everything Merges with the Night (Another Green World)
• 09:20  Marine Radio (Spinner)
• 14:05  And Then So Clear (Another Day on Earth)
• 19:25  Summer Ride (Curiosities vol.2)
• 23:21  Spider & I (Before & After Science)
• 26:55  Dunwich Beach, Autumn 1960 (On Land)
• 28:55  Taking Tiger Mountain (Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy)
• 34:00  Zawinul Lava (Another Green World)
• 25:36  Julie With (Before & After Science)
• 41:00  Golden Hours (Another Green World)
• 44:44  This (Another Day on Earth)
• 48:04  On Some Faraway Beach (Here Come the Warm Jets)
• 52:25  No Orders w/ J. Peter Schwalm (Musikain)
• 56:23  Bottomliners (Another Day on Earth)
• 1:00:00  end

shadows at midnight

The inspiration for this mix came from the new Jon Hassell album.  If you haven't picked it up yet, do so.  It's called "Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street".  It's already in my best of 2009 folder.

It's very moody, very ambient, just a little jazzy.  Very much like the wonderful release from Arve Henriksen last year.  I wanted this mix to have a moody, melancholy, late-night jazz feel.  Although I have used some of these artists in other mixes this is the first jazz mix for Low Light mIxes.  I wasn't sure what to expect when I began but it turned out fairly well.  

It didn't take long to put together because it's not a sound collage like the last mix.  But I think the tunes flow nicely together.  Sometimes sitting around with a good scotch, you need soemthing with a jazzy flavor & I hope this works for that while remaining true to the Low Light feel.  Next up...an all Eno mix.

Download : 110mb 60:00min

shadows at midnight

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Arve Henriksen - Migration
• 05:21    The Necks - Black
• 10:35    Mort d'un Pourri - Valerie
• 13:50    Slowhill - Nikos Dream
• 17:59    boren & der club of gore - Midnight Walker
• 24:45    Jon Hassell - Courtais
• 29:40    Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
• 33:35    Nick B. Ronin - Modul 42
• 39:30    Duke Ellington - Melancholia
• 42:25    Arve Henriksen - Recording Angel
• 48:20    Jon Hassell - Last Night the Moon Came
• 58:17    Mort d'un Pourri - tout est tranquille
• 1:00:00    end