It's the 88th day of the year so that means it's Piano Day(88 keys on a piano)! There's actually not much to say about the mix other than it contains some excellent piano music. Most of the tracks are fairly new with many being from 2017 & 2018. There's so much piano based music out there to choose from it's a bit overwhelming when first starting the mix. But as so often happens, once I start with a track or two the rest flows from there. I think the tunes fit pretty well together & I like how it turned out. Don't forget to visit the piano day website - http://www.pianoday.org/ - where you can play around with the awesome random piano sounds app. Just click on the flip cards for your own cool, ambient piano tune. Happy PNO Day! [ 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 Nicholas Britell - Little's Theme(2016)
00:45 Gigi Masin - The Word Love(2014)
07:14 Rafael Anton Irisarri - Für Alina(2009)
11:28 Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm - 20:17(2015)
16:25 Bing & Ruth - To All It(2017)
21:30 Hans-Joachim Roedelius & Arnold Kasar - Rolling(2017)
24:51 Jame Maloney - Blink(2017)
30:18 The Prairie Lines - Calm Landing(2017)
34:25 Max Richter - The Lord's Rough Ways(2018)
37:07 Taylor Deupree - Unearth(2018)
42:32 Alejandro Bento - Tonal(2017)
43:44 Kai Schumacher - The Fool(2017)
47:20 Panoptique Electrical - In Between Buildings(2017)
When researching artists or labels that might be interested in doing a guest mix I came across a label that is based very close to me here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I'd never really thought that there might be an ambient community here. I decided to do a search for "ambient" and "Milwaukee." And what do ya know, I got an interesting result right away. In an article about the essential Milwaukee albums of 2017 was a blurb about Apollo Vermouth and her album "Crashing into Nowhere." I immediately headed over to Bandcamp and was so excited to find that it's an excellent album. https://apollovermouth.bandcamp.com/
Apollo Vermouth is Alisa Rodriguez, based right here in Milwaukee. So I asked her to do a mix and she was nice enough to curate some tunes. Here's what she had to say about these tracks: "This mix is a collection of ambient tracks that have hit me in a certain way. It’s hard for me to put into words of what they mean to me. I spend a lot of time by myself, always looking for something that makes me feel less lonely. Somehow, these tracks sort of saved my sanity. It’s funny how music can be like your best friend. They’ll never leave you in the dust." That pretty much describes my relationship with ambient music too - or all music actually. Go visit her page, buy some music and listen to this mix. Cheers! [ 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 Gas - Narkopop 1
04:20 Belong - Late Night
07:35 Steve Roach - Left Perfectly Alone
09:30 Grouper - She Loves Me That Way
17:34 Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Appearances
20:22 Harold Budd and Brian Eno - Among Fields of Crystal
I saw the film Annihilation on opening weekend and really liked it. It is directed by the same guy that directed Ex Machina and has the same crew doing the score. While I didn't like it quite as much as my favorite sci-fi film of the last few years, Arrival, I did like it quite a bit. And I especially loved the score. It goes seamlessly from acoustic guitar to synthetic noises to creepy choral sounds. It's great. So of course I had to make my own interpretation of the soundtrack, just like I did for Blade Runner 2049. I liked how that one turned out so much that I knew immediately after seeing Annihilation that I'd soon be making a mix. I started collecting a few tunes for the mix but it wasn't until I found "Elemental Shimmer" by Robert Davies that the project really took off. The music from Davies' album is perfect for setting the scene and it's even more appropriate because it's got the word "Shimmer" in the title. The Shimmer is the anomaly enveloping "area x" that the scientists enter to try and figure what the heck is going on.
Making these alternative soundtracks is a lot of fun and I'm sure I'll be doing more in the future. I hope you like this one. Cheers! [ 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 Robert Davies - Honeysuckle Vapour
04:18 Moon Wiring Club - Marshlight No. 2
05:00 Ryuichi Sakamoto - Walker
07:05 Chris Watson - Vatnajokull
07:30 Martin Grech - Ashes Over Embers
09:00 Peter Gabriel - Slow Water
11:05 Moon Wiring Club - A New Face On An Old Friend (Blazing)
13:20 Recondite - Der Steinmetz
15:45 Isorinne - b2 5-00
19:50 Stockholm Radio Choir - Lux Aeterna
21:17 Penguin Cafe - Control 1(interlude)
25:30 A.R.C. Soundtracks - Ruins-Ritual
28:57 Biosphere - Sphere Of No Form
30:12 Murcof - Sangre
31:45 Leyland Kirby - Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was
32:18 Somei Satoh - Mantra/Stabat Mater from The Arts at St. Ann's
33:30 Emptyset - Augur
35:06 Morton Feldman - Rothko Chapel 3
35:45 From the Mouth of the Sun - A Breath to Retrieve Your Body
