Sunday, April 05, 2020

Lockdown - by Peter Van Cooten of Ambientblog.net


I like to think that I put a lot of thought and effort into these mixes. Hopefully, the mix as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. But what I do is nothing compared to the transformative touch that Peter Van Cooten brings to his mixes.

Each mix is a unique work of art. Peter rarely lets a track play in its complete form. Instead, he uses smaller samples and deftly weaves the tracks in and out of each other. Sometimes 2,3, or 4 tracks play simultaneously, creating something new from different elements. In this mix, he uses an incredible 41 tracks! Here's what Peter has to say about using so many short samples:

"Sometimes I feel a bit embarrassed about using such short samples and/or editing the tracks (of these 41, only 8 are used in their complete form). It's a bit like cutting up the Mona Lisa to create a landscape patchwork with the fragments ;-)  But on the other hand, this is what I feel makes these mixes unique. Taken out of their context and in relation to other fragments, the music sometimes tells a different story."

This mix is a bit darker than most of my mixes. But it's dark in an interesting way, not in a droney, dissonant way. The mix has a very cinematic feel and combined with the cover art and title I can imagine drone shots of empty streets and newspapers blowing across the square. Peter was hesitant about the name and the cover art. He says - 

"It may be too closely linked to the current worldwide crisis, but on the other hand I have tried to think of another name or context but the uncertain times seem to be too dominant to think of another name I could give it. The funny thing is, that if you listen back most of my mixes have a rather dark edge to them. There's always a lot of 'tension/release' to them. But in this case, it seems there's a bit more 'tension' than 'release'. Oh well, sign of the times..."

Peter runs his own ambient music blog called, appropriately, Ambientblog.net. Where in addition to his fine mixes(available in DTS surround as well), he has a ton of good reviews and recommendations. You can find it here...  
https://www.ambientblog.net/blog/   He's also on Mixcloud here... https://www.mixcloud.com/ambientblog/

When he creates these extraordinary mixes he posts a pic of the total track layout, layer upon layer of all the music used. Here is the map of this mix...





Peter does his tracklist a little differently than I do. He gives listeners more info about each track, including start time, sample length, artist, title, album title, year and record label.  

Thanks to Peter Van Cooten of Ambientblog.net for such an excellent mix. Hopefully, I can talk him into doing another one in the future.

Cheers, and stay safe.





T R A C K L I S T Start time - Sample length - Artist - Title
Album Title, Year, Label

00:00  03:23 Fovea Hex - Is 
Is Lanza Light and Given (Steven Wilson Remixes), 2019, Die Stadt/Janet Records
01:25  04:35 Maggi Payne - Fluid Dynamics
Arctic Winds, 2020, Aguirre Records
02:03  01:45 Pat Keista - Doppler
Still Of The Void, 2020, self-released
04:17  01:47 Dave Phillips - Phytognosophysiology
Post Homo Sapiens, 2020, Attenuation Circuit
05:10  02:45 Jóhann Jóhannsson and Yair Elazar Glotman - Prelude
Last And First Men, 2020, Deutsche Grammophon
05:42  02:00 Andrew Pekler - Fonseca Winds (Lament)
Sounds From Phantom Islands, 2019, Faitiche
07:29  01:19 Jóhann Jóhannsson and Yair Elazar Glotman - Telepathic Unity
Last And First Men, 2020, Deutsche Grammophon
08:13  03:10 Ben Bertrand - Those Behind Us That We Follow
Manes, 2020, Les Albums Claus
11:08  01:31 Fani Konstantinidou - (Variations)
Moving Music: Sounds From The Rocking Chair, 2020, Moving Furniture Records,
11:58  01:32 Aaron Martin - Overcoming Inertia
Test Subjects, 2019, self-released
12:53  01:51 A Journey Of Giraffes - Gone Is The New Fuji
Kona, 2019, Somewherecold records
13:29  03:30 Robert Haigh - Ghosts Of Blacker Dyke
Black Sarabande, 2020, Unseen Worlds
16:46  02:48 Snorri Hallgrímsson - Fear
Chasing The Present, 2020, Moderna Records
16:53  00:30 Mica Levy - Mensajero
Monos, 2019, Invada
17:40  02:30 Snorri Hallgrímsson - Suffering
Chasing The Present, 2020, Moderna Records
19:22  01:58 Bersarin Quartett - Prolog
Methoden Und Maschinen, 2019, Denovali 
20:41  01:09 Ruairi O'Baoighill - Scryer
To See Without Eyes, 2018, Cursed Monk Records
20:50  01:59 I Wound - The Choir Of The Drowned Sings 'Our Demons Are Real'
Homework Year 3, 2018, Taâlem
21:48  03:01 Christine Ott - Comma
Chimères (Pour Ondes Martenots), 2020, Nahal Recordings
24:22  02:34 Ida Toninato - Pour Retourner Au Silence
We Become Giants, 2020, Dragon's Eye Recordings
25:32  03:47 Merrin Karras - Drawn, Quartered
Northwest Passage, 2020, A Strangely Isolated Place
28:27  02:07 Ciro Berenguer - Luna Creciente
Eilean 100, 2019, Eilean Records
29:57  01:47 Yiorgis Sakellariou - B4
Diapsalmata: A Collection Of Short Works, 2018, Tanuki Records
29:57  01:19 Celer - Birds Inside The High Halls Of Hangzhou (06.23.17)
Xièxie, 2019, Two Acorns
30:12  03:18 Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr, Koichi Shimizu - Sharjah And Java
Metaphors - Selected Soundworks from the cinema of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2017, Sub Rosa
31:24  00:44 Coil - Corybantic Ennui
Stolen and Contaminated Songs, 2019, Cold Spring Records 
32:32  01:22 Olivier Messiaen - Quator Pour Le Fin Du Temps III: Abîme des Oiseaux
Olivier Messiaen - Complete Edition, 2008, Deutsche Grammophon
33:54  01:26 Hildur Gudnadottir - Following Sophie
Joker OST, 2019, Watertower Records
35:14  00:55 Ryuichi Sakamoto - Countdown
Black Mirror: Smithereens, 2019, Milan
35:45  03:24 Silent Chaos - Nocturne On Ganimede 
Macro, 2020, We Don't Give A Fuck
38:52  04:03 Roger Eno & Brian Eno - Burnt Umber
Mixing Colours, 2020, Deutsche Grammophon
42:38  02:13 Martina Bertoni - Invisible Cracks
All The Ghosts Are Gone, 2020, Falk
44:29  03:30 Eivind Aarset and Jan Bang - Nightspell
Snow Catches On Her Eyelashes, 2020, Jazzland Recordings
46:21  02:13 Jana Irmert - Fog
Cusp, 2020, self-released
47:40  01:36 Fovea Hex - Given
Is Lanza Light and Given (Steven Wilson Remixes), 2019, Die Stadt/Janet Records
48:42  02:40 Frank Makowski - Fliegende Schatten - Canon 1
Canon der Finsternisse, 2019, Diffusschall
49:05  01:12 Michael Begg - Plain Chant
Sonambulo, 2019, Omnempathy
50:40  02:20 A Winged Victory For The Sullen - The Slow Descent Has Begun
The Undivided Five, 2019, Ninja Tune
52:35  04:30 Felix Blume - Horns In Fog Pt. 2
Fog Horns, 2019, Discrepant
55:49  03:02 Max Richter - Ursa Minor - Visions
Ad Astra, 2019, Deutsche Grammophon
58:30  00:40 Jóhann Jóhannsson and Yair Elazar Glotman - The Sun
Last And First Men, 2020, Deutsche Grammophon
59:10 End










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