Stranger Synths 2019

In honor of the third season of Stranger Things dropping today, Low Light Mixes presents Stranger Synths 2019. This a retro synth mix that falls right in line with the synth sounds of Netflix's Stranger Things series.

Cheers!


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Just A Human - Stranger Things Remix
• 01:33    Pye Corner Audio - Deep Space Probe
• 03:54    Sinoia Caves - 1983 Main Theme
• 06:22    The Belbury Circle - Heading Home
• 11:15    Locust - I'll Be There
• 14:40    Rheyne - Live Jam #169
• 20:03    David Trevelyan - Car Crash
• 22:37    Chromatics - Yes(Symmetry Remix)
• 26:25    Jean Michel Jarre - The Heart Of The Noise Pt. 1
• 30:22    PYLOT - Blurred Vision
• 33:09    ASC - Sequence 2
• 36:56    Merrin Karras - Void
• 44:50    Frank Bretschneider - Motorik
• 49:01    The Advisory Circle - Be Seeing You
• 53:57    Kasper Bjørke Quartet - The Antiphon(Epilogue)
• 66:03    end

Levitate by Innesti

One of my favorite discoveries over the past year has been Innesti. The last album, released in February, is called Formless and that describes perfectly the music of Innesti. The tunes have a hazy, meandering feel that I love in ambient music.

Today Innesti releases a new album - Between Worlds, which I am very excited about. To celebrate this new release we have a new mix from Innesti created for Low Light Mixes. The new mix is called Levitate and here is what the artist has to say about it:

"This mix is designed to showcase some recent ambient releases from 2019. The soundscapes are introspective, quiet, and restorative, and should be ideal for reading, sleeping, or meditating."   

Check out Innesti music here:

https://innesti.bandcamp.com/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6vjQzIlQxwDP0miO2oGoXE 


I'm playing the new album for the first time as I type this and it's wonderful! 

Thanks for the great music and beautiful mix!

Cheers!



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T R A C K L I S T :
00:00    Innesti - Oars Divide the Ocean (Between Worlds)
05:03    anthéne - Lost Channel (Lost Channel)
08:40    Bzaurie - Flight of Pollen (Floral Patterns)
13:50    Tabard - Garden Palace (Garden Palace)
17:45    扎克 - Radiance (扎克)
21:35    Eternell & endlesstrains - Elevation (Autumn Sky)
25.19    Kenji Kihara - Hayama Ambient 001 (Hayama Ambient 001)

30:00    end

Select Sleep Series - Summer Slumber

This mix, Summer Slumber, is the first in a continuing series of sleep mixes made exclusively for Select subscribers.

The title says it all - this is music to fall asleep to. It starts with a few crickets and night noises to give it an open window, summer feel. From there we delve into atmospheric synth washes perfect for sleeping.

If you are interested in this and other exclusive mixes go here to subscribe & find out more - https://www.mixcloud.com/lowlight/select/

Subscribers also get unlimited plays, fast forward AND rewind, offline listening, and upfront tracklists. The Select program also directly supports low light mixes, plus the music and artists we play.

Cheers and Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........

Whitelabrecs 2019(so far)

I made a list of my favorite ambient albums of the first half of 2019 and noticed that there were 6 releases from the Whitelabrecs label on it. Harry Towell, who records as Spheruleus, runs Whitelabrecs and he has done a great job expanding the roster of artists and getting better and better every year.

So to celebrate all these excellent recordings I decided to make a mix using all 2019 Whitelabrecs releases. You can find Whitelabrecs on Bandcamp here...

https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/music


Here are all the albums used in this mix...

One quick side note - the first track in this mix, Lucky by anthene, sounds like Eno's Ascent reborn in 2019.

Cheers!


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    anthene - lucky(asymmetry 2019)
• 03:12    Jens Pauly - Staub(Vihne 2019)
• 08:00    Samsuo - Still Trees(The Other Gold Side 2019)
• 13:48    Hipnotic Earth - And Then She Smiles(Suspended in Silence 2019)
• 18:30    Sven Laux - ODD I(ODD 2019)
• 26:38    Glåsbird - Tundra(Grønland 2019)
• 32:45    Ben Rath - Wait For It(Any Given Moment 2019)
• 41:44    Daniela Orvin - Wide Ocean(Sleeplaboratory 1.0 2019)
• 45:10    Jens Pauly - Nacht(Vihne 2019)
• 49:34    Hipnotic Earth - Afterthe Rain, Moss(so) Alive(Vibrant)(Suspended in Silence 2019)
• 53:35    Sven Laux - ODD IV(ODD 2019)
• 61:00    end

If anyone is interested here's the list of my favorite ambient releases of 2019, so far.

• Glåsbird - Grønland
• Krshe - Hauch
• Marty Hicks - Orlreilion
• Sven Laux & Daniela Orvin - The Writings
• Innesti - Formless
• Jens Pauly - Vihne
• William Ryan Fritch - Deceptive Cadence
• Joram Feitsma - Under
• M. Grig - Mount Carmel
• Hipnotic Earth - Suspended in Silence
• Porya Hatami, Roberto Attanasio, Aaron Martin - Sallaw
• Hildur Guonadottir - Chernobyl 
• Kenji Kihara - 日日是好日
• Seabuckthorn - Crossing
• anthéne - asymmetry
• The Phonometrician - Mnemosyne
• Ben Rath - Any Given Moment
• Ann Annie - Wander Into
• Sven Laux - ODD
• Sjors - Noord
• Purl - Violante (Lost In A Dream)
• Benoit Piolard & Sean Curtis Patrick - Avocationals
• Ian Hawgood - Impermanence

Sunday Morning Music vol. 18 - Sun Room

The 18th installment in the Sunday Morning Music series is here.  It starts with one of my favorite albums of the year - Spirit by Rhye. It's so beautiful and intimate. From there we get some more pretty tunes because that's what I want on Sunday morning - no dark ambient drones here, just pretty and calm.

All the tracks are fairly new - the oldest being from 2016, while most are from this year.

Sunday morning musings - the cover pic of a cup of coffee reminded me of something. I've noticed in a lot of the science fiction I read that coffee is very important to a lot of characters in sci-fi stories. Many times it's in a post-apocalyptic world and coffee has become rare, a character finds a stash of coffee and it's like striking gold. Or a character is in space and has been traveling for a long time and finally gets to a location that has coffee and again it's like they have found the holy grail. This type of thing happens more often than I would have expected. I wonder if it's because writers drink lots of coffee as they write and they know that coffee is the world's most wonderful liquid(right behind beer).

Grab some coffee, interstellar or not, and take a listen to this latest mix.

Cheers!


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Rhye - Awake(Spirit 2019)
• 03:39    Marty Hicks - Alnum Hymn 56(Olreilion 2019)
• 06:55    Lullatone - Waking Up On A Picnic Blanket(Music For Museum Gift Shops 2019)
• 09:29    Ann Annie - Wander Into(wander into 2019)
• 15:00    Wilson Tanner - Sun Room(69 2016)
• 19:30    Joseph Shabason - 1517(Anne EP 2019)
• 25:05    High Tides - Tidal Movement(Paradise Daze 2019)
• 28:36    Kryshe - Meditation(Hauch 2019)
• 31:31    Meitei - Nami(Komachi 2019)
• 35:00    Andrew Heath - Headland(Soundings 2017)
• 36:31    Nicholas Britell - The Children of Our Age(If Beale Street Could Talk 2018)
• 37:47    Corey Fuller - Lamentation(Break 2019)
• 40:22    Wilson Tanner - Odd Low(69 2016)
• 43:22    Rhye - Green Eyes(Spirit 2019)
• 45:37    The Phonometrician - Poppy Meadows(Mnemosyne 2019)
• 50:48    The Hardy Tree - After The Rain(Stagale EP 2019)
• 56:30    Lullatone - Morning Coffee(Music For Museum Gift Shops 2019)
• 59:30    end

The Gentle Space Music of Hollan Holmes curated by Paul Asbury Seaman

created by and through the courtesy of Hollan Holmes

I am excited to bring you another beautifully curated mix from Paul Asbury Seaman. Anyone who has been to this blog in the last couple of years should be familiar with Paul's excellent mixes. The most recent of which was a train mix from a couple of months ago...

http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2019/03/places-ive-never-beenode-to-high-speed.html

This collection of tunes is a tribute to one of Paul's favorite artists, Hollan Holmes.

https://hollanholmes.bandcamp.com/

Here's what Paul has to say about this mix:

“The Hearts of Space radio program wasn’t named after Hollan Holmes, but it could have been. His music is infused with both awe and a tenderness not often found in space music, which is all the more impressive given that he uses no acoustic instruments. This mix, in honor of Holmes’s soon-to-be-released seventh album, includes two tracks by Richard Burmer, a primary influence on Holmes, and two by fellow Spotted Peccary artist, Massergy. (Note: Cover artwork for this mix was created by and through the courtesy of Hollan Holmes, from his forthcoming album, MILESTONES.)”

Thanks Paul!

Cheers!


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Hollan Holmes - Darkness and Light(Prayer to the Energy 2017)
• 05:00    Richard Burmer - Solarsex(Mosaic 1984)
• 10:30    Hollan Holmes - That Ephemeral Spark(Prayer the the Energy 2017)
• 17:46    Richard Burmer - Winter on the Wind(Mosaic 1984)
• 21:54    Hollan Holmes - A Precarious Trajectory(Phase Shift 2013)
• 27:35    Massergy - Cold White Smoke(Fire Opal 2019)
• 36:15    Stellardrone - Breathe In The Light(Between The Rings 2017)
• 40:56    Massergy - The Shepherdess(Fire Opal 2019)
• 50:42    Hollan Holmes - Enduro(The Spirits of Starlight 2014)
• 57:12    Hollan Holmes - Interstellar Lullaby(Incandescent 2015)
• 62:45    end

Arrival alternative sountrack

I love the film, Arrival, so I should have thought of this myself. But a listener commented on my Blade Runner alternative mix that I should do an alternative mix for Arrival. Yes!

So here it is - An Alternative Arrival Soundtrack. I absolutely love Johann Johannsson's original soundtrack, probably one of my top two or three soundtracks of all time. So this mix is not attempting to make something that I think is better than his score. It's sort of a supplement to the original, a collection of tracks that fit with the style of the original.

 All of the tunes are newer than the original soundtrack, which came out in 2016. All the tunes except On The Nature Of Daylight by Max Richter. That amazing track was used to open and close the film. Here I use it in an unusual way - it plays backward then forward at the end of the mix. The film messes with the concept of the passage of time and the Richter track bookends the film to bring events of the end back around to the beginning. So playing it backward then forward kind of does the same thing. And it's crazy how much the track still sounds the same while playing backward.

If you haven't seen the film, go see it. It is definitely one of my top three favorite films of all time. Here's a couple links to the Blade Runner alternative mix...

http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2017/12/alternative-blade-runner-2049-soundtrack.html

And what the heck here's my other alternative soundtrack mix - for the film Annihilation.

Cheers!

PS - the tune @ 15:00 is from my son. He did an excellent track for the Blade Runner mix and so I went to him immediately for this mix as well.



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T R A C K L I S T :
00:00    Tale Of Us - Alla Sera
04:00    Skamoto - Solari(Johannsson rework)
09:12    Nils Frahm - Kaleidoscope
10:08    Hibernis - The Grape Leaves
15:00    Just A Human - Heptapod(version 1)
17:12    Sakamoto - Disintegration(Alva Noto remodel)
22:10    Ocoeur - Embers
26:05    Ital Tek - Cipher
31:03    Caleb Burhans - Early Music (For a Saturday)
35:20    Vieo Abiungo - The Dregs
36:50    r beny - overgrowth
41:30    Sven Laux & Daniela Orvin - Friends
46:38    Max Richter - On the Nature of Daylight(backward)
52:45    Max Richter - On the Nature of Daylight(forward)
58:56    end

Low Light Spotlight - William Basinski

This is the first mix in the Low Light Spotlight series. These mixes will be Mixcloud Select exclusives. So you have to subscribe to Mixcloud Select in order to listen to this mix. To regular visitors to this blog I'm sorry about making some of these mixes exclusive But it's the best way to drive traffic to the Select platform. And I'll still be uploading plenty of mixes right here.

This series will be mixes that each focus on a single artist. For this first entry I choose William Basinski - first because Disintegration Loops is one of the best ambient albums of all time and second because I've been listening to his latest release quite a bit.

This mix opens and closes with Disintegrations Loops dlp 1.1. But the version that appears at the end of the set is a terrific live performance on NPR by the Wordless Music Orchestra on the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks. Here's a link to the whole concert...

https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2011/09/07/140265002/remembering-september-11-a-live-concert-webcast-from-the-temple-of-dendur

Here's a link to my Mixcloud Select page...

https://www.mixcloud.com/lowlight/select/

Cheers!

Set The Controls

And now for something completely different. This latest mix is almost, dare I say, dance music. Yikes! Actually it's not like this is EDM/Dubstep with ridiculous drops and autotune vocals. But all the music in this mix definitely has 4/4 time signature.

One of my favorite discoveries over the last couple of years has been the music of Kiasmos, a minimal techno duo comprised of Ólafur Arnalds and Janus Rasmussen. The music has the 4x4 beat but it's more gentle than full on techno or house music. It's great for keeping pace when out walking the dog.

A few of my other favorites appear in this mix such as Christian Löffler, Recondite and a fantastic cover of Pink Floyd's "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun."

Cheers!

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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Christian Löffler - York
• 03:00    Emmit Fenn - Halo 22
• 06:16    Kiasmos - Blurred
• 10:20    Steve Hauschildt - Alienself
• 15:35    Ben Bohmer - Flug & Fall
• 21:37    Stavroz - The Finishing
• 24:45    Bedouin - Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
• 31:50    Dominik Eulberg - Sansula(Max Cooper mix)
• 36:18    Recondite - Levo
• 40:43    Isolee - Allowance
• 46:40    Prins Thomas - Fra Miami til Chicago
• 51:15    Purl - Vuela
• 57:25    Loscil - Le Plongeur
• 61:17    end

Subaquatic Universe

Nine years ago I did a mix of 70s & 80s library music as a soundtrack for underwater exploration. I've always liked the odd vibe of that mix and always wanted to do a follow up. Now it's finally here with Subaquatic Universe.

It's essentially the same formula and sound as the first one. Vibraphone, fender rhodes, flutes and bubbles play a large role in creating this underwater universe. 

While collecting tracks for this mix I came across a bunch of other library music which will make for a great retro 70s sci fi mix which I'll put together later this year.

Cheers!

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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    John Hyde - Heron
• 01:33    Eric Vann - Diving
• 04:37    Walter Rockman - Chromosomes
• 06:03    Atmo - Acque Tranquille
• 08:18    Jim Harbourg - Empathy
• 10:48    Joel Vandroogenbroeck & F. Voelxen - Cascades
• 13:27    John Tender - Underwater Fantasy
• 15:30    Franco Tamponi - Stelle Marine
• 18:20    Gaston Borreani - Prelude aux Voiliers
• 20:25    Bruton Library Music - Running Waters
• 21:50    Walter Rockman - Sea Life
• 23:20    Teddy Lasry - Moins 8000
• 27:40    Gerhard Narholz - Electronique
• 29:20    A.Perry & D.Sarkys - Canadian Colours 4
• 30:00    Amedeo Tommasi - Correnti Sottomarine
• 33:03    Walt Rockman - Submarine Scenery
• 35:03    Eric Vann - Sunken Galleons
• 38:30    Alan Hawkshaw - Eternity
• 42:15    Atmo - Acque Profonde
• 44:30    Piero Umiliani - Musica Delle Sfere
• 46:12    Gaston Borreani - Cirrus
• 49:35    Georg Deuter - Deep Sea
• 52:43    end