About a year ago I did a mix of my favorite ambient artists of all time. I have been meaning to do a mix of my favorite ambient albums ever since. And now here it is.
I did not go back and look at my favorite artist list. I sorted through my ambient collection and came up with my fav albums. Then I compared the two lists and not surprisingly they are almost identical. Basically I substituted Scott Solter for Alio Die when I made the fav album list. At least I didn't repeat any tunes from one mix to the next.
Choosing a favorite album from some of these artists was difficult. Steve Roach has some many recordings that it was tough to know where to start but I kept coming back to the one that gets the most play and that is "The Dream Circle." I wonder how many other folks like this album as much as I do. I'm not e really sure why I like it more than his other releases, it definitely sounds similar to a lot of his other output. I guess over the years it's become like a comfy sweatshirt.
Stars of the Lid & Eno were both hard to choose a favorite as well. With SOTL I ended up going with the album that I first discovered them with. In choosing "On Land" from Eno I really could have just flipped a coin to choose between it and "Music for Airports," "Apollo" and "Music for Films."
The one favorite that probably doesn't make a lot of lists is "One River" by Scott Solter. Using mostly processed guitars this album ebbs & flows beautifully from one tracks to the next. You can find it HERE.
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 Scott Solter - Cypress Road from One River
- 04:38 Stars of the Lid - Dust Breeding from Avec Laudenum
- 11:45 Maps & Diagrams - Honeycomb Archipelago from Get Lost
- 14:45 Brian Eno - Unfamiliar Wind(leeks hills) from On Land
- 19:25 Loscil - Lucy Dub from First Narrows
- 25:25 Sonmi451 - Orange from Spectrum
- 31:00 Steve Roach - The Dream Circle from The Dream Circle
- 40:45 Kyle Bobby Dunn - Empty Gazing from A Young Person's Guide to
- 46:35 Harold Budd & Brian Eno - Against the Sky from The Pearl
- 50:00 William Basinski - 1.2 from The Disintegration Loops
- 1:01:00 end
As I have said many times before on this blog, a new mix is very often born when a track or two inspires me to create something new. In this case it was the new album by Esmerine called "Dalmak."
The group recorded the new tracks in Instanbul and the whole album definitely has the texture and feel that one would associate with Turkish music. The Constellation Records website describes it perfectly...
"As a title for Esmerine's new album, "dalmak" refers in a literal sense
to immersion in the culture and music of Istanbul but also appropriately
evokes the range of music that emerged from this immersion: a
collection of songs that shift between meditative pulsing and enveloping
restraint to headlong flights into rhythm and groove."
With Esmerine as I starting point I went to some familiar sources. One being the wonderful recordings of Myke Dodge Weiskopf. I excerpted part of his Field Recordings & Global Ambience mix and also used a cut from his latest release - "The Muezzins of Mali."
I also worked in some Byrne & Eno early mixes from the "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" sessions. As well as some early mixes and extracts from Peter Gabriel's "Passion."
I enjoy these musical treks, I hope you do too.
[ 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 Esmerine - Lost River Blues I
- 07:30 Isnaj Dui - Quarter Wave
- 11:55 David Byrne & Brian Eno - Breathing Once a Minute
- 15:00 Myke Dodge Weiskopf - Evening Call to Prayer 11 August 2010 - Draginovo, Bulgaria
- 15:25 Peter Gabriel - Passion extras #3
- 17:15 Saltland - But It Was All of Us
- 21:30 Penjaga Insaf - Keinsafan
- 24:20 The Guo Brothers & Shung Tıan - Soldiers of the Long March
- 26:15 Rapoon - Dream Dance
- 28:55 Huren - The Shroud
- 30:30 Chronomad - se
- 34:00 Bielka Nemirovski - Akh Ti Notchenka
- 39:00 The Rustavi Choir - Orovela(with Peter Gabriel mixed under)
- 43:55 Rapoon - Hey...Drifting
- 48:30 David Bryne & Brian Eno - Shaking With My Voice
- 50:50 Jon Hassel - Map of Dusk
- 52:30 Myke Dodge Weiskopf - The Muezzins of Mali - San - Adhan al-Fajr
- 55:25 Ry Cooder & Ronu Majumbar - Hollow Bamboo
- 1:00:20 Peter Gabriel - Unlocking the Door
- 1:02:22 end
