Low Light Mixes

Ambient Blog

2009-07-12T19:08:00.002-05:00

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

2009-06-14T19:41:00.008-05:00

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

2009-06-13T20:22:00.004-05:00

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

2009-06-06T12:10:00.003-05:00

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

2009-05-31T08:53:00.006-05:00

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

2009-05-09T22:39:00.005-05:00

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

2009-04-18T22:20:00.006-05:00

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

2009-04-04T21:24:00.004-05:00

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

2009-02-27T21:05:00.008-06:00

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

2009-02-27T20:20:00.007-06:00

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

in_transit - an ambient field mix

2009-02-16T21:14:00.005-06:00

I have been wanting to do another field mix almost since the moment I finished the last one. So here it is, a new mix entitled "in_transit".

I like field recordings but not as much nature recordings. I'm not wild about birds chirping & water flowing. I like mechanical sounds or crowd noise or as you'll hear in this mix, trains. I used train sounds in the last mix & they play a prominent role here too.

I had planned on doing more of my own field recording but I just never seemed to find the time. I did manage to sneak two of my recordings in, one occurs at about 8:50 in the mix. It's a recording of the telephone pole at the end of my driveway. The pole hums when it gets windy, so I just went out there, stuck the mic right up to the pole & froze my arse off. I then fattened up the sound a bit.

The other recording is of my daughter playing piano, but you'd never guess that's what you're hearing. It happens at about the 19:10 mark. I had her play about 40 seconds of chopin or schubert. Then I used a simple little program to stretch that 40 seconds into 12 minutes & 40 seconds. The result sounds nothing like classical piano. You can find the program here...Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch. Give it a try. Works great on piano & classical music. It makes the human voice sound very creepy.

Most of the other sounds used in the mix are a combination of music, field recordings from all over the web & music that already has field recordings built in, like the last cut by RF. There is new music from sleepy town manufacture & unit 21, elegi, Loren Chasse & terje isungset.

Two tracks used in the mix are from a cd that I got from Rick over at Hydrogen Cafe. Years ago he burned some ambient background sounds from Blade Runner. At the 6:20 mark we get ambience from the Tyrell Coporation & at about 23:50 we hear sounds from Blade Runner Chinatown. I'll definitely be using more of these in future field mixes.

Well I guess that's enough for now. I'm not making a tracklist as the cuts are playing all over each other, many times 2 or 3 at the same time. If you are curious about certain sounds or tracks just email or comment with the time of the mix & I'll do my best to get info back to you.

Download : (72.5mb, 39:35)

in_transit

Enjoy the trip!

searching for objects

2009-01-11T08:53:00.005-06:00

The original name for this mix was "noisy, droney, scratchy". Very catchy title. That's a pretty good description of how I wanted this mix to sound.

I don't like too much noise, however. Most of the tunes have some grit, some distortion, some white noise, some scratches but not too much. I still wanted the mix to be very ambient, not annoying or distracting.

I guess the Fripp & Eno cut isn't very noisy or scratchy but could be considered droney. I'm just happy to have squeezed into a mix. I hadn't listened to it in years & had forgotten how much I loved that track.

Of course now that I just posted the mix, Tim Hecker comes out with something new that would have fit perfectly. And the next Infraction release from Sleepy Town Manufacture sounds like it would be a good fit too. Oh well, I guess I'll have to save those for volume 2.

Download :

searching for objects

T R A C K L I S T I N G :

00:00 Jasper, TX - home
04:15 Chris Bissonnette - orffyreus wheel
12:15 Rain Cloud - keeping a low profile
17:40 Belong - same places (slow version)
27:40 Eluder - the most beautiful blue
33:25 Fripp & Eno - heavenly music corp.
41:00 Rameses III - origins IV
49:20 Forestflies - processed vocals & strings
52:35 Erstlaub - sinking together
58:40 Milieu - burnt rust
1:00:13 end

Antique Sunlight

2009-01-07T20:47:00.006-06:00

I am crossing familiar territory here with another piano mix. I think this is the third I've done.

There's no particular reason for doing a piano mix other than I happened to run into a few nice piano tunes & figured I'd slap together a short mix.

As usual this is fairly quiet music, good for reading the paper on a Sunday morning.(when newspapers disappear I'll really miss doing that) I'll be sending this one to Mick & his "15 Minutes of Fame" mix series which you can find here...15 minutes.

Enjoy.

Download :

Antique Sunlight

TRACKLIST:

00:00 Milieu - antique sunlight
05:00 Ryuichi Sakamoto - ropa
10:00 Taylor Deupree & Kenneth Kirschner - may
15:11 Library Tapes - fragment VIII
18:30 Con Cetta - ker
22:46 Jeanne Moreau - un entretien avec
24:14 NIN - ghosts 11
27:20 Kosik - lastly empty
30:40 Goldmund - Threnody
35:00 United Bible Studies - sea of rains
35:46 end

Best of 2008

2008-12-25T21:20:00.006-06:00

It was another good year for music, a lot of which made it's way into the mixes posted here. I put up about 14 mixes this year which is a good number, I'd like to post at least one per month. I already have two in the can which will be posted in January. I'm sure there will be another field mix this year, as well as a new shortwave mix & Sustain & Decay part 2. If anybody has any requests or ideas pleae let me know.

I lack the mental discipline to limit my year end list to a top ten list. So somehow this year I ended up with the random number of 24 in my "Best of" list. What are some good albums that I left off this list? What does your list look like? Here is the 2008 list in alphabetical order...

Alio Die - aura seminalis - alio die released some great music this year. I guess I could group all of them together here but I'll list this as my favorite. The cd "tries to recreate the solemn atmospheres of the courts of the Italian Renaissance", and amazingly it comes off as transcendent instead of cheesy. Stefano Musso's recent releases all do this very well, like his collaboration with vocalist Martina Galvagni, Elusian Lullaby. He takes concepts, that would not work in the hands of another, and makes them work beautifully.
Arve Henriksen - cartography - a beautifully layered recording from trumpeter henriksen. Texture is more important than virtuosity here. A melancholy, tranquil landscape works perfectly with Henriksen's vocal-like trumpet.
Belong - Same Places (Slow Version) - crushing, shimmering drones dissolve & decay in a wonderful wall of sound.
Bersarin Quartett - bersarin quartett - actually this is a one man show of cinematic music. Strings, ambience, some occasional beats combine for a lush, melancholy trip.
bvdub - dreams of red chambers - a release that is more ambient than the usual dubby sound form bvdub.
David Tagg - Waist Deep Seas Of Milk - gorgeous, expansive guitar-based drones. His “Stele” split release was excellent as well.
Deaf Center - vintage well - More great cinematic music. I guess there was a lot of fantastic cinematic music this year.
Disturbed Earth - Butterfly - An excellent ambient release from Atmoworks. From a live "living room" concert in August 1977. The album
was recorded live with no overdubs using a double neck guitar
and a violin bow on the 12-string and playing the 6-string. He
used two tape decks set up about 8 feet apart in a continuous loop. A classic ambient feel that is even more amazing knowing how & when it was recorded.
Elbow - Live from London – Beautiful, intimate, live iTunes only release. Any fan of Elbow MUST own this.
Elbow - the seldom seen kid – There isn’t any other band that evokes beauty, melancholy & joy like Elbow. This is an absolutely fantastic recording.
Eluder - the most beautiful blue - deep layers that never get too dark or too light. A just right mixture of drifting textures & aquatic sounds.
Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer Up A Hill - a good collection of eerie folk songs wrapped in reverb & hazy ambience.
Hakobune - melting reminscence - an excellent release for lovers of guitar-based drone.
Hans-joachim Roedelius & Tim Story - inlandish - I love how this release sounds old & new at the same time. Some of the tunes just have this indescribable retro Roedelius feel to them, like the song "Beforst". A warm, melodic beauty.
Jacaszek – treny – Real instruments played by real musicians with some electronic manipulation make this a stellar release in a year filled with great cinematic music.
Jeff Pearce - Rainshadow Sky – I know this one is a bit too close to New Age for some regular forumites, but I found it to be beautiful without being too sappy.
Johann Johannsson – fordlandia – This cd from Johannsson takes the cinematic/orchestral theme of this year to another level. He does it with a 60 piece orchestra, piano, organ, choir & electronics. The music is lush and intense.
Marconi Union - a lost connection – more dubby ambient music. I listened to a lot of dubby stuff this year & Marconi Union does this style wonderfully.
Martin Grech - march of the lonely – this one actually came out in 2007 but I discovered it right at the beginning of this year and I listened to constantly from then on. From an online review “…a moody acoustic delicacy, dreamlike calm and layered vocals which recall monastic plainsong or a lovelorn choir.”
quantec - unusual signals – great dubby ambient-ish beats.
Rameses III – Basilica - A double cd of live recordings & remixes, the two discs contain some beautiful, quiet, and moving instrumental compositions.
Rod Modell - incense & blacklight - noisy, shifting dub rhythms, and way deep bassy goodness.
Steve Roach - a deeper silence – I played this for days all through the house, the slow washes & low bass hum rumbling from room to room. I felt like I was on some inter-stellar spacecraft. Great sleep music too.
the caretaker - Persistent repetition of phrases - Similar to his other releases in that it sounds like he is channeling the haunting atmospherics of The Shining. However, this one is a bit more ambient.

---- I know these don’t count as actual releases, but I think I listened to the guitar mixes of Alan Lockett more than anything else this year. You can find them here… http://albient.livejournal.com/2468.html]http://albient.livejournal.com/2468.html . These mixes are a great collection of ambient guitar meanderings that introduced me to a lot of new artists & music.

Honorable mentions :
stephan mathieu – radioland
Bohren & der Club of Gore – Dolore
taylor deupree - sea last
The Winterhouse - Lost
jasper tx - this quiet season
the caretaker - recollected memories from the museum of garden history
emanuele errante - humus [2008]
Richard Skelton - Marking Time
Hammock, ‘Maybe They Will Sings For Us Tomorrow
sigur ros - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Sans Serif - Tones For LaMonte

a northern holiday

2008-12-12T21:57:00.006-06:00

The mixes keep coming fast & furious.

Last year I downloaded a very cool holiday compilation. It's called "That Fuzzy Feeling". It looks like they still have downloads available but are sold out of the cd's. You can have find it here...

http://lorecordings.greedbag.com/buy/that-fuzzy-feeling-0/?tab=description

That release was the starting point for this mix. There are three cuts from the compilation in the mix....Brave the Cold by Vincent Oliver and Isan...Family, Giving by Peter Broderick...Snowstorm in a Snow Globe by Fuzzy Lights. From there I just looked for other tunes that fit the theme.

So grab some hot coco & trim the tree with some ambient goodness playing in the background. Happy Holidays from all of us(actually just me) here at Low Light Mixes.

Download :

a northern holiday

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Vincent Oliver and Isan - Brave the Cold
02:35 Freescha - Holiday Frost
07:25 Takahiro Kido - Christmas Song
12:50 Chris Abrhams - Christmas Island
19:10 Stuart Busby - Snowfall
22:13 Peter Broderick - Family, Giving
25:30 Dakota Suite - December 8, 1980
27:40 Maps of the Heart - Skating Away
31:40 July Skies - Holidays to Wales
33:00 Fuzzy Lights - Snowstorm in a Snow Globe
35:50 Northern - December
39:57 end

motion for relief

2008-12-05T20:27:00.006-06:00

I thought I'd try something a bit different...a mix that is beat driven. Of course it's not going to be some house music mix or techno dance trax.

The mix is sort of in the same vein as the ones done

by Alan, of Great Axescapes fame. He has a fantastic mix called "nowthatswhaticallmnmlambidubtechno! vol.1". You can find it here...vol. 1.

This mix is similar in that dubby, ambient way. Only one artist, Quantec, in common though.

I wasn't sure how the mix would work but I like the results very much. I'm listenbing to it as I type this, nice & loud so the low dubby bass lines reverberate around the house. Excellent.

The other different thing about this mix is it is shorter than the others. An online friend, Mick, is running The "15 Minutes Of Fame’ Mix Series" & he asked me to do some mixes. The only requirements are up to 40 minutes in length & no more than 10 tracks. That should help with some experimentation, may be an idea will work in a 30 minute mix but not for the usual hour-long mix. Here's the link to Mick's thread at Dogs On Acid...http://www.dogsonacid.com/showthread.php?threadid=602380&highlight=muttley+minutes

I should be able to crank out 3 more mixes by the end of the year. Next up...a piano mix, a noisy-droney-scratchy mix and a best of the year mix.

d o w n l o a d : (right click/save as)

motion for relief

t r a c k l i s t :

00:00 Plastikman - consumed
04:44 Marconi Union - buildings without people
08:05 Trentemoller - miss you
11:50 Yagya - rhythm of snow #5
17:55 Underworld - pizza for eggs
20:20 Quantec - unusual signals
25:25 Ontayso - procesamiento 2.05
28:45 Tiki Obmar - ankeney, iowa
39:30 end

november buddha

2008-11-15T11:27:00.005-06:00

This mix is called November Buddha in honor of the new Buddha Machine 2.0 which was just released. Mine is on it's way right now. There's not much of a theme here, just a bunch of new tunes that I've been listening to lately.

The Lullaby League & Sleep Robot tracks are new discoveries thanks to the fantastic mixes from Alan, an online friend. You can find the mixes here Great Axescapes: an Archaeology of Drone-gaze Tone-haze Guitar-wranglings.

I probably have listened to these mixes more than anything else this year. Just an absolutely fabulous collection of guitar ambient.

Most of the artists in this mix can also be found in Alan's Axescapes mixes. A couple exceptions are Eluder, which is a brand new Infraction release. And Disturbed Earth, an excellent recording on Atmoworks.

Download(right click/save as) : 153mb, 64 min.

november buddha

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 buddha machine 2.0 loop construction
05:30 Apalusa - Obadiah
10:30 Sleep Robot - Prayer Wheel
15:40 Eluder - Autumn Hips
21:30 Shirk - Mocked
27:45 Fabio Orsi - Pure Love
31:40 The Lullaby League - Cantus
38:00 Disturbede Earth - Butterfly
44:30 Hakobune - Melting Reminiscence
47:00 The Fun Years - Garbage Man, Poet
50:30 David Tagg - Stele

sustain and decay

2008-10-25T09:26:00.010-05:00

The idea for this mix came from frequent low light mixes downloader/listener, Ron Sylvester. He sent me some mix cd's he had done, all of which are fantastic & intriguing.

One idea in particular interested me. Ron downloaded some recordings of old 78rpm records from archive.org. The thought of old, scratchy opera recordings was too much to resist.

So that's where this mix started. I had intended it to be similar to my shortwave mixes but it didn't exactly end up that way. Part of the reason is my own impatience, I wanted to get a new mix posted but didn't want to take weeks to sort through the tons of possibilities presented by archive.org & other sites.

So I collected some pieces, ripped off several other tracks from some of Ron's various mixtapes and grabbed some newly purchased & downloaded music and set off to mix it up.

I found that the perfect compliment to the old 78's is music from The Caretaker. His music was inspired by the ballroom scene from "The Shining". From the Caretaker website..."The first release played and extended this theme of altering 1920's and 1930's ballroom music creating an eerie and haunted soundworld. Subsequently the sound has become darker and often more abstract over time, moving away from the initial idea of a haunted ballroom into territories involving the mind and its abilities to recall memories." You can download some of the full albums here...Caretaker Releases. I have 3 Caretaker tracks in the mix, which is more of one artist than I usually put in one mix but I think these cuts work very well.

The mix sort of veers away from the old & scratchy theme about two-thirds of the way through. It just sort of morphed on it's own as I pulled tracks. Mixes can be funny that way, developing their own path.

I'd like to thank Ron for the ideas & for the tunes in his mixtapes that I ripped off for this mix.

Download (right-click/save as) 115mb, 60 min. :

sustain and decay

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 intro
00:25 Caretaker - False Memory Syndrome
03:15 Belong - Girl from New York
04:47 Ave Maria remix
05:50 Still - futility
08:35 Ólafur Arnalds - Haust
13:30 Caretaker - Rosy Retrospection
18:00 Fabio Orsi - North of Me(at midday)
21:35 Josef Hollman - traumerei (op. 15, no. 7)
25:05 Eleni Karaindrou - litany: variation i
27:50 SzilagyiImreZenekara - Kranzna
29:50 The Winterhouse - Lost
39:10 Caretaker - Past Life Regression
42:35 Julien Neto - from cover to cover
47:00 Vikki Jackman - The Snow Queen
51:15 Fax - caldera i
55:30 Andrew Deutsch - untitled #1(from The Sun)

nothing from something - an ambient video

2008-09-20T11:37:00.003-05:00

This is a a first for Low Light Mixes…an ambient video. Most ambient videos are fairly boring and this one most definitely is as well. It’s more of an experiment than entertainment.

The volume is fairly low so you may need to crank it up a bit.

Several years ago I made a short ambient video from shots of dust floating in a beam of sunlight in a dark room. I made the video black & white & slo mo, so that it looked at times like stars. It was very cool, most viewers had no idea they were looking at shots of dust.

I’ve always wanted to repeat that experiment and this is the result. I could have gone out shot tons of video and sorted through it looking for interesting shots. I could have planned out shoots & locations & themes. But that would require time & effort, so instead I kept it simple. It can be interesting, creatively, to limit your choices. Like an ambient musician limiting the sound source to only guitar or only using acoustic instruments.

As in the dust video, the source is one location, all shots of basically the same thing. I shot with my son’s camcorder in about an hour one afternoon. I then edited at at work using an Avid Newscutter editing system. The contrast, brightness & saturation have been changed on every clip and fx have been added in few cases. The finished product is interesting, to me anyway. I’m not sure how many other people will find it so.

It was fun to start with a limited number of clips, all of essentially the same thing & try to make something out of it. Although, I was actually trying to make nothing from something - take what would have been recognizable video & turn it into a psychedelic, ambient experiment, where the original source is obscured & unimportant.

The music is from two Infraction Records artists, Adam Pacione & Northern. I hope you find it interesting at some level.

sea of stars

2008-09-07T16:12:00.002-05:00

This is a mix from our annual trip to the Wisconsin northwoods. As the title suggests it's a mix for star gazing.

As I have mentioned in other posts, Rick, who runs the Hydrogen Cafe blog, and I sit out at the end of the pier and watch for shooting stars and satellites. We each make a soundtrack for the experience. Rick's are usually much more thought out than mine(his mix this year was great!).

I limited myself to fairly new music, stuff I have been listening to a lot lately. I knew I wanted to include new music from Area C - Sea of Rains. It was commissioned by the NASA RI Space Grant Consortium and the Museum of Natural History in Providence, RI as an original score for their "Mission Moon: past, present, future" exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. It has some Nasa recordings mixed in with the music so it was a natural for this mix.

After that the other tracks are just tunes that are kind of new, sound a bit spacey and flow well together.

Download (right click/save as) :
sea of stars

t r a c k l i s t :

00:00 bvdub - You'll miss me when I'm gone
06:19 Area C - Mare Imbrium
11:30 Kyle Bobby Dunn - Furthest From It
18:10 Emmanuel Errante - Radio Hopes
23:40 Parks - Trains
29:50 Kode - Movements #6
35:30 Shirk - Itchytime
38:55 Deaf Center - Close
40:55 The Caretaker - Lacuna Amnesia
44:05 Area C - Sea of Clouds
51:15 Kabana - dubru
56:15 Shirk - Riesal
00:09 Le Chat Blanc Orchestra - She Left This Morning

Clouds in my Coffee

2008-08-26T08:02:00.006-05:00

I made this latest mix for our annual trip to northern Wisconsin. I usually try to make one stargazing mix & one morning mix. The stargazing mix will be posted soon. This is the morning mix, to be listened to while drinking Intelligentsia coffee & reading the morning paper.

At our northern cabin we didn't have daily newspapers so I made due with coffee, crossword puzzles & science fiction. To go with the morning coffee & sunlight reflecting off the calm lake waters, this music is suitably light.

The majority of the tunes are new, most are from 2008. Some old favorites with new music make the mix, including Max Ritcher, Yellow 6, Marconi Union, Milieu & Goldmund. New discoveries include Shirk, bvdub & Segue.

So grab a cup, put your feet up & enjoy.

Download (right click/save as) :
clouds in my coffee 107mb 58:28

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Bersarin Quartet - nachtblind
03:50 Jacaszek - rytm to niesmiertelnosc
08:30 Jonathan Hughes - monoline
11:41 Shirk - stupid dick
12:50 Segue - a glass darkly
16:20 Max Ritcher - found song for P
18:20 Yellow 6 - kulterhuset
26:25 Goldmund - clement danes
30:20 Milieu - mirage
32:05 bvdub - different place different time
38:40 Planivaar - adrift
43:30 Bersarin Quartet - geschichten von interesse
48:05 Marconi Union - buildings without people
51:31 Koda - the tension was beautiful
55:18 Library Tapes - fragment V

Even more mixes

2008-08-05T21:55:00.005-05:00

Here are some more mixes & links that I think everyone will enjoy.

First up is some more ambient dub goodness. From Alan Lockett comes nowthatswhaticallmnmlambidubtechno! vol.1 - a self-assembled continuous minimal ambient dub techno mix. Excellent mix that lead me discovering bvdub, which was the subject of the previous post. Alan write reviews for several zines & really knows his stuff.

Alan recommended this compilation from the cism netlabel. The V/A comp is called Cismarine, a wonderful collection of ambient/techno/dub tracks. Here's the direct link to the zip download... http://www.cismsound.net/cism_5/cism_5.zip

Here are links to radio shows & mixes by severence... http://www.severence.net/index.html http://www.severence.net/sound.html More excellent mixes with the recent radio shows featuring more of the ambient dub sound I've been yacking about.

Play My Tape has a ton of guest mixtapes/podcasts for download. Have fun browsing.

The Quiet Sounds is another great source of music. The most recent podcasts are straight mixes. While some of the older ones have Brian B. introducing the tracks & enlightening the listeners along the way.

That should be enough to keep everyone busy for now.

Post any other mixes you've found in the comments sections.

Wonderful Mixes

2008-08-04T21:17:00.004-05:00

Just thought I'd let everyone know about some mixes I found. I have been listening to a lot of ambient-dub lately and was recently turned on to the music of bvdub. Really excellent minimal/dub/techno/ambient music.

Anyway, Brock Van Wey alias bvdub has a page full of his own mixes that most Low Light listeners would really enjoy. I'm spinning "9900 sorrows | ambient guitar drone" right now. A great mix I wish I'd done myself.

Here's the link to the bvdub mix page...

bvdub mixes

a scattering of ashes

2008-07-05T17:02:00.003-05:00

There is no clever theme to this new mix. I noticed a similar feel to much of the new music I was listening to so I decided to cobble it together in a mix.

All of the music in this mix is new, either 2007 or 2008, except for the Andrew Deutsch cut which is from 2005(although it is new to me).

The music in this mix has a sort of subdued, orchestral fell to it. I started thinking about this mix listening to the new Deaf Center release. Layers of strings create a beautiful, melancholy experience. That pretty much describes the rest of the music in this mix.

Download(right click/save as) :
a scattering of ashes 109mg, 59:53

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Emanuele Errante - leaves
01:25 Deaf Center - Vintage Well
06:10 Bersarin Quartet - es kann nicht ewig winter sein
09:45 mwvm - context where
17:50 Andrew Deutsch - untilted #1(from cd "The Sun")
26:00 Svarte Greiner - kobbergruve....
29:20 Jasper, TX - things could stay
37:30 Emanuele Errante - lucus
49:10 Deaf Center - ashes
50:30 Stars of the Lid - slight on the childproof
55:00 Bersarin Quartet - Inversion

retroact 1.0

2008-06-28T21:26:00.004-05:00

I listen to music every night when I go to sleep. Most of the time I keep a small stack of recent cd's on the nightstand for nighttime listening. I was getting tired of the selections so I dug into the back catalog & pulled out Steve Roach's Structures from Silence. Wow, it was great to hear that recording again!

That lead me to pull out a couple of other oldies, which then lead to this mix. All the music in this mix, retroact 1.0, is at least 10 years old. Structures from Silence is from 1984! The Aphex Twin cut is from 1994. I cheated with a couple of tracks, such as Tollefson & Vidna/Pearce, that are from 1999.

It was wonderful to listen to albums I hadn't heard in years. I had forgotten just how great Saul Stokes Washed in Mercury is. I am very happy to have worked in Thom Brennan's The Path Not Taken, one of my all-time favorite ambient tracks. This mix is not supposed to represent a certain time period or demonstrate evolving styles. It's just a bunch of older cuts that I sort of randomly pulled out & thought would work well together. I hope you enjoy this ambient trip down memory lane.

download(right click/save as)...
retroact 1.0 114mb, 62:40

T R A C K L I S T I N G :

00:00 Brian Eno - Sparrowfall 1 [1978]
01:00 Aphex Twin - rhubarb [1994]
08:00 Steve Roach - Structures from Silence [1984]
17:20 Biosphere - Chukhung [1997]
23:55 Saul Stokes - Sweet Parafin [1997]
26:40 Brian Eno - Sparrowfall 2 [1978]
28:05 Vidna Obmana & Jeff Pearce - A Scattering Flock [1999]
31:35 David Tollefson - Maja [1999]
36:10 Paul Schutze - Sleep 2 [1995]
43:30 Thom Brennan - The Path Not Taken [1997]
55:40 Jeff Greinke - Glacial Returns [1988]
01:21 Brian Eno - Sparrowfall 3 [1978]