Looking back over the last six years of mixes, the piano has been the featured instrument in many of the the tracks. I guess it goes all the way back to Ambient #1 : Music for Airports. The piano is a perfect instrument for the contemplative, ambient music in the mixes found here.
As far as I can tell, I've done four mixes devoted exclusively to the piano. They are...
1) Piano Mix
2) Piano Mix 2007
3) Antique Sunlight
4) pno 2010
This fifth installment, "asleep at the piano," is very similar to the others. Although this one may be a bit more ambient in nature.
I was happy to squeeze in two tracks related to Harry Towel, the man behind the brilliant net label Audio Gourmet. The first by Talvihorros is from the 2011 Audio Gourmet release "Just a Moment" which you can find here...Just a Moment. The other cut is from Harry's recording artist guise, Spheruleus. The track, Blueprint, is from his album on Tessellate Recordings called Cyanometry. You can find that one here...Cyanometry at Bandcamp. You can find some of Harry's excellent mixes on Mixcloud here...Spheruleus on Mixcloud and here...Groundingsounds on Mixcloud.
Enjoy.
[ s t r e a m ] [ d o w n l o a d ] [ i t u n e s ]
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 Sissors & Sellotape - untitled #1
- 01:51 Cepia - Malcesine
- 03:23 Jon Hopkins - water
- 04:20 Cluster & Eno - ho renomo
- 07:45 Ruben Garcia - Rainy Day
- 13:15 Tim Hecker - sketch 1
- 17:20 Tomoyoshi Date - the sound of the moon
- 20:10 Antonymes - 301210
- 24:50 Loscil - City Hospital
- 28:28 Willitts & Sakamoto - Reticent Reminiscence
- 32:00 Talvihorros - Hallowed
- 33:15 A Winged Victory for the Sullen - minuet for a cheap piano
- 36:00 The Beautiful Schizophonic and Yui Onodera - nubian clouds over Saskia
- 41:00 Spheruleus - Blueprint
- 44:25 Janek Schaefer - eyrie of the phoenix
- 45:30 Harold Budd & John Foxx - After all this Time
- 50:25 Sissors & Sellotape - untitled #4
- 52:15 Tape Loop Orchestra - the word on my lips is your name
- 57:25 Jon Hopkins - the end
- 02:06 END
Oops! It's Sunday night & I'm posting a mix called Sunday Morning Music. Oh well, play it next Sunday while reading the paper with a cup of coffee.
This is the fourth in the Sunday morning series. It follows a similar pattern - some ambient, some vocal tunes, some jazz - all of it nice & relaxing. Perfect for a Sunday morning. This morning I was actually able to sip coffee out on the deck(shown in the pic). Not bad for the 11th of November in Wisconsin.
Two of my favorite cuts in the mix are the two tracks(End of the World & The Smallest Piece) from the soundtrack of "Beasts of the Southern Wild." I'm o very fond of the cuts from Geoffrey Oreyma & Andrew Bird. The latest release from Andrew Bird will definitely be on my year-end,best-of list.
Enjoy.
[ s t r e a m ] [ d o w n l o a d ] [ i t u n e s ]
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 Brambles - To Speak of Solitude
- 03:30 The xx - Angels
- 06:11 The Boats - The Ballad For The Girl On The Moon
- 09:40 The Bark Psychosis - Pendulum Man
- 16:40 Trespassers William - Believe Me
- 20:46 Yo Yo Ma & Chris Thile - Franz & The Eagle
- 24:20 Geoffrey Oryema - Makambo
- 28:55 Pat Metheny/Steve Reich - Electric Counterpoint
- 32:09 Philip Glass & Nosaj Thing - Knee 1
- 35:35 Charles Lloyd Quartet - Dwija
- 40:40 Clarke - Black Stone
- 42:34 Benh Zeitlin, Dan Romer, The Lost Bayou Ramblers - End of the World
- 44:00 Benh Zeitlin, Dan Romer, The Lost Bayou Ramblers - The Smallest Piece
- 45:25 Andrew Bird - Beyond the Valley of the Three White Horses
- 51:25 Horse Feathers - Summer for Capricorns
- 54:28 David Sylvian - Camp Fire Coyote Country
- 58:00 Nils Frahm - Sol
This is a very slow, droney kind of mix. All the music has been stretched or slowed down so much that the tunes are unrecognizable from the originals.
I used a great little program called Paul Stretch which you can find here... http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/
It take music and stretches or slows it down dramatically but still keeps it very musical. I've used the program a few times for mixes in the past but never for creating an entire mix.
All the tracks are slowed by at least 10x to 15x. The slowed down result is perfect for meditation, sleeping or daydreaming. It's kind of amazing to me how it was possible to create something entirely new from the source material. Steve Reich's Six Marimbas seemed to work well because it's so repetitive that you still got a sense of movement even slowed way down.
Enjoy.
[ s t r e a m ] [ d o w n l o a d ] [ i t u n e s ]
T R A C K L I S T :
- 00:00 Cliff Martinez - First Sleep
- 05:30 Steve Reich - Six Marimbas
- 12:15 Noto & Sakamoto - By This River
- 21:00 Anonymous 4 - medie noctis tempus
- 21:40 Tangerine Dream - Tangram
- 34:45 Steve Reich - Six Marimbas
- 52:50 Budd & Eno - A Stream with Bright Fish
- 1:00:00 end
