Stillness Within Motion

 

by Sven Geier - sgeier.net

We end the year as we began - with a mix from Paul Asbury Seaman. And a fine way to end the year it is. All of the music in this set is from 2020, making it an appropriate way to say goodbye to this tumultuous year.

Here's what Paul says about the mix:

“Stillness within motion is a concept that comes from Zen Buddhism and the martial arts. It always seemed to me a good way to try to live ordinary life as well. This program is an effort to expressing that concept musically: slow sequencers mixed with Sufi-infused sax, tabla and harp and electric guitar. Mixing genres a little, while still within ambient sensibilities.”

I'm not sure what 2021 will bring but I'm sure there will be plenty of music to help us get through it. And I'll continue to crank out mixes that will keep us centered while also taking us on inner and outer journeys.

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    Kirsten Agresta Copely - Surya (Around the Sun 2020)
• 05:44    The Rosen Corporation - Stasis (Tales From Earth 2020)
• 09:22    Ariel Kalma - Dancing Goddess (My sax, my love 2020)
• 12:51    Sam Rosenthalk & Jarguna - Evening market of the petal fields pt 3 (Sunwashed Evening Fire 2020)
• 17:03    Vaast - Coma Berenices (Afterlife 2020)
• 19:20    Hibernation ft. Jello Vibes - Jello & Jaice Ambient Jazz'n'Glitch Mix (Jello and Jaice EP 2020)
• 23:44    Fritz Mayr - Winter Silence (Winter Tales)
• 28:25    Christel Veraart - Asterope (Pleiades 2020)
• 33:17    Thom Brennan - Night Lights Part One (Night Lights 2020)
• 41:15    Sequentia Legenda - Beyond from the Beyond (Beyond the Stars 2020)
• 62:07    end

Best Ambient of 2020

 

I always label these lists and mixes as "Best Ambient," but with so much music released each year, coming up with a true best list is almost impossible. So this is really more of a list and mix of my favorite ambient albums of the year. Best of 2020 just sounds better.

I don't about you but I bought a lot of ambient music this year thanks to Bandcamp Fridays. Through regular purchases and special deals, where one could get a whole discography for like $10, I think I bought about 250 ambient albums this year. Yikes! Then add in releases that labels and artists send my way and it amounts to one hell of a lot of music. 

Thanks goodness for all that music though. I've been stuck working from home for almost 10 months and would have lost my mind without music to get me through it. One of the treats that got me through the year was Whitelabrecs excellent Home Diaries series. It featured music recorded and released during quarantine. I couldn't pick just one release so I cheated and put the whole series in my top 15 list.

It's hard to narrow down that much music into 30 or 40 favorites. I know I will miss things. But this list has a bunch of styles so it gives a nice representation of what I listened to this year. My favorite album this year was actually an easy choice, it's Mindful Movement by Clariloops.

Clariloops is Australian clarinetist, Ruby Lulham. She experiments with looping and pedals to to produce beautiful music that takes my breathe away every time I hear it. The folks at The Slow Music Movement put it best when they said, "producing music with a purity & simplicity that is both charming & striking." Please go check it out.

Here is the full list of my favorite ambient albums of 2020. I came up with a top 15 releases and then the next 30 favs are listed alphabetically.

1. Clariloops - Mindful Movement [self-released]
2. 36 & zakè - Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel [Past Inside the Present]
3. Echoflex - Echoflex I - III [SeeHear Recordings]
4. Alva Noto - Xerrox Vol. 4 [Noton]
5. Vieo Abiungo - At Once- There Was No Horizon [Lost Tribe Sound]
6. The Chi Factory - AI-18 - Travel in Peace [Astral Industries]
7. Tapes and Topographies - Inoculations [Dronarivm]
8. Night Sea - Still [Silent Season]
9. Mary Lattimore - Silver Ladders [Ghostly International]
10. Mute Forest - Riderstorm [Lost Tribe Sound]
11. Andrew Heath - The Alchemist’s Muse [Discogecko]
12. Christopher Bissonnette - The Wine Dark Sea [Dronarivum]
13. Anthéne and Andrew Tasselmyer - Progressions [Constellation Tatsu]
14. Moss Covered Technology - Quiet Loops [Dewtone]
15. Whitelabrecs Home Diaries series 

Andrew Heath - A Trace of Phosphor [Discogecko]
Ben Salisbury- The Insects- Geoff Barrow - Devs Soundtrack [Invada]
Christopher Bissonnette - Wayfinding [12k]
Ecovillage - Arrived [Dronarivum]
Evan Caminiti - Varispeed Hydra
Flexagon - 7 Nocturnes East
Fluxion - Perspectives [Vibrant Music]
glåsbird - norskfjǫrðr [whitelabrecs]
Halftribe - Archipelago [sound in silence]
Heavenchord & Infinity Dots - light, water and silence [secret domain]
Innesti - Parenthetical
Jogging House - Be [Seil]
Johann Johannsson & Yair Elazar Glotman - Last And First Men [Deutsche Grammophon]
Loneward - Moongate
Luke Carbon - Brightest Threads [Made Now Music]
Mathieu Karsenti - bygones [Slowcraft]
Michael Grigoni + Stephen Vitiello - slow machines [12k]
Michael Scott Dawson Nowhere, Middle of [We Are Busy Bodies]
MNO - Ambient Marimba - MNO Sleeps
Mount Shrine - Shortwave Ruins [Cryo Chamber]
North Americans - Roped In [Third Man Records]
Olafur Arnalds - some kind of peace [Mercury KX]
Raymond Richards - The Lost Art Of Wandering [ESP Institute]
Roméo Poirier - Hotel Nota [sferic 2020]
Sibling & Heavenchord - Sounds Of Silence [greyscale]
SUSS - Promise [Northern Spy Records]
Thom Brennan - Night Lights
William Ryan Fritch - Sodium [lost tribe sound]
William Ryan Fritch - The Letdown [lost tribe sound]
Yagya - Old Dreams And Memories [Small Plastic Animals]

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    Clariloops - Mindful Movement [Mindful Movement]
• 05:50    Vieo Abiungo - At Once, There Was No Horizon [At Once, There Was No Horizon on Lost Tribe Sound]
• 09:36    The Chi Factory - Travel in Peace Part 1 [Astral Industries]
• 14:45    Mary Lattimore - Sometimes He's in My Dreams [Silver Ladders on Ghostly International]
• 17:55    Mute Forest - Return [Riderstorm on Lost Tribe Sound]
• 21:22    Ecovillage - She Walks In Beauty [Arrived on Dronarivum]
• 24:24   Andrew Heath - The Alchemist’s Muse [The Alchemist’s Muse on Discogecko]
• 31:36    Moss Covered Technology - Untitled Quiet Loop #1 [Quiet Loops on Dewtone]
• 34:23    Tapes and Topographies - Always The Last Time(SineRider Remix) [Inoculations on Dronarivum]
• 37:28    Anthéne and Andrew Tasselmyer - Progressions, Pt 1 [Progressions on Constellation Tatsu]
• 41:48    36 & zakè - Stasis Sounds for Long-Distance Space Travel Stage 2 [Stasis Sounds for Long-Distance Space Travel on Past Inside the Present]
• 47:30    Night Sea - Manila [Still on Silent Season]
• 54:00    Evan Caminiti - Radio Rome [Varispeed Hydra on Dust Editions]
• 56:21    Sibling & Heavenchord - Spacechord [Sounds Of Silence on Greyscale]
• 1:05:20    Alva Noto - Xerrox Voyage [Xerrox Vol. 4 on Noton]
• 1:08:33    Echoflex - 50°20'17"N 4°11'50"W Veering NW [Echoflex 1 on SeeHear Recordings]
• 1:12:55    Christopher Bissonnette - See With Eyes Closed [The Wine Dark Sea on Dronarivum]
• 1:17:31    Mathieu Karsenti - Upwards [bygones on Slowcraft]
• 1:21:38    Adrian Lane - We Glance Outside [Home Diaries 23 on Whitelabrecs]
• 1:23:57    Mount Shrine - Subtotem [Shortwave Ruins on Cryp Chamber]
• 1:30:24    Flexagon - La Crocq Pier 5am [7 Nocturnes East]
• 1:38:22    Jogging House - Yours [Be on Seil]
• 1:42:09    Halftribe - We Are Dust [Archipelago on Sound in Silence]
• 1:45:35    William Ryan Fritch - Movement XVIII [Sodium on Lost Tribe Sound]
• 1:49:58    end

Quiet Indie Songs of 2020

I listen to as much indie music as I do ambient music. I always keep a list of favorite albums and favorite songs of the year. As I was looking at some of my favorite songs I noticed that several of them were quiet tunes that would be appropriate for an LLM mix. So I grabbed those and a few more favs and came up with "Quiet Indie Songs of 2020."

Squirrel Flower was my big discovery this year. I'd never heard of the artist before and a few of her songs turned out to be some of my most played tunes of the year. Phoebe Bridgers had one of the best albums of the year but my two fav songs on it were a bit loud for this mix so I went with the beautiful "Moon Song." 

Devendra Banhart - Franklin's Tower just showed up in my Spotify Release Radar playlist a few days ago but I immediately knew when I heard it that it would have to be included in this mix. It's slow, spacey with a languid guitar that I love.

Also be sure to listen closely at 43:28 for the tune "The President Sang Amazing Grace" by Kronos Quartet and Meklit. It pays homage to the moment President Obama sang Amazing Grace during the funeral of state senator and pastor Clementa Pinckney on June 26, 2015, in Charleston, South Carolina. It is absolutely one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded.

I also want to give a shout out to a local band that made my top ten list this year - Field Report. Their album, "Brake Light Red Tide," has a great sound and beautiful production. The song "Puget Sound" appears on this mix because I listened the heck out of it this year.

There's not much else to say other than enjoy this diversion from the usual LLM fair and an ambient 2020 mix is coming soon.

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    Squirrel Flower - Seasonal Affective Disorder
• 03:33    Field Report - Puget Sound
• 07:54    Devendra Banhart - Franklin's Tower
• 16:19    Phoebe Bridgers - Moon Song
• 20:48    Clem Snide - Roger Ebert
• 23:36    Bonny Light Horseman - Bonny Light Horseman
• 27:58    Kevin Morby - Sundowner
• 32:56    Sarah Jarosz - Hometown
• 35:48    North Americans - Rivers That You Cannot See
• 39:28    Mute Forest - Crater Laugh
• 43:28    Kronos Quartet with Meklit - The President Sang Amazing Grace
• 47:15    Alexandra Savior - Soft Currents
• 50:20    S. Carey - Take It With Me
• 55:06    Tresspassers William - Winterstorms
• 58:18    H.C. McEntire - Hands for Harvest
• 62:28    Squirrel Flower - Headlights
• 64:55    Bedouine, Waxahatchee, Hurray for the Riff Raff - Thirteen
• 67:51    M. Ward - Migration of Souls
• 71:19    end

Wind In Lonely Fences - A Farewell to Harold Budd

 

2020, you unrelenting bastard. Now you've taken Harold Budd from us. An icon in ambient music.

There's not much I can say right now except that I love his music. I have about 25 albums by Harold Budd. His music has been with me for more than 40 years. When I heard the news I knew the only proper tribute I could do was a mix. So here it is an hour-long mix that barely scratches the surface of his output.

Godspeed Harold, your music remains in our ears and on the wind.

[ 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    Harold Budd & Brian Eno - Wind In Lonely Fences
• 03:39    Harold Budd - Ice Floes In Eden
• 06:51    Harold Budd & Brian Eno - An Echo Of Night
• 08:53    Harold Budd & John Foxx - Coming Into Focus
• 13:15    Harold Budd - As Long As I Can Hold My Breath
• 20:07    Harold Budd & Zeitgeist - Emboldened-My Dreams Perish
• 22:16    Harold Budd - Tong War
• 27:40    Harold Budd - The Serpent in Quicksilver
• 31:00    Harold Budd - The Radiant Bride
• 34:33    Harold Budd - Sandtreader
• 39:32    Harold Budd - Down the Slopes to the Meadow
• 46:54    Harold Budd - Bismillahi 'Rrahman 'Rrahim
• 56:40    Harold Budd - Mars And The Artist
• 58:10    Harold Budd - The Pearl
• 61:04    Harold Budd - Olancha Farewell
• 63:20    end

Melancholy Soundtracks: A Requiem for 2020

 

A perfect mix for the end of 2020 comes to us from Paul Asbury Seaman. All soundtrack cuts, all with varying degrees of melancholy, all forming an ideal coda for 2020.

Here's what Paul says about the mix:

“I’ve been sitting on this playlist for more than three years. Never got around to firming it up for a Low Lights mix. It dawned on me just the other day that the eight movies from which these pieces are drawn are all meditations on death and loss. So now seems like a good time to share it. Also, all of these movies were released around the turn of the Millennium, except “Battle of Algiers” (1963) which has one of the most sorrowful themes ever put to music—by the great Ennio Morricone, who died this year.”

Thanks Paul for another excellent mix!

Up next - it's best of the year list time!

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    Clint Mansell - The Last Man (The Fountain 2006)
• 05:42    Ennio Morricone - Sorrow in the Casbah (Battle of Algiers 1963)
• 06:33    Ennio Morricone - Ali's Theme (Battle of Algiers 1963)
• 09:38    Mark Isham - Flames (Crash 2005)
• 17:06    Philip Glass - The Hours (The Hours 2002)
• 24:37    Zbigniew Preisner - Van Den Budenmayer Funeral Music (Trois couleurs - Bleu 1993)
• 26:32    Zbigniew Preisner - Reprise First Appearance (Trois couleurs - Bleu 1993)
• 27:02    Javier Navarrette  - A Tale (Pan's Labyrinth 2006)
• 28:50    Richard Thompson - Parents (Grizzly Man 2005)
• 32:10    Zbigniew Preisner - Julie in Her New Apartment (Trois couleurs - Bleu 1993)
• 33:48    Zbigniew Preisner - Reprise Flute (Trois couleurs - Bleu 1993)
• 35:50    Mark Isham - Negligence (Crash 2005)
• 38:23    Philip Glass - The Poet Acts (The Hours 2002)
• 42:00    Richard Thompson - Main Title Revisited (Grizzly Man 2005)
• 45:42    Javier Navarrette  - Lullaby (Pan's Labyrinth 2006)
• 47:20    Alexandre Desplat - Death Convoy (The Painted Veil 2006)
• 50:00    Alexandre Desplat - Kitty's Theme (The Painted Veil 2006)
• 53:00    Clint Mansell - Xibalba (The Fountain 2006)
• 58:09    end

Keeping Time in the Golden Hour

 

I'm in the process of making lists of my top 5 instrumental albums for each year from 1970 to the present. Yeah, it's going take a while. So I was digging around in my music hard drive looking for music that would fit those lists and I stumbled upon the track Tulpa Ovi by Robag Wruhme. I immediately loved the feel of tune and knew I needed it in a mix.

The cut has a feeling of motion similar to others I've used in train themed mixes. But it was more gentle, almost wistful. It made me think of traveling during sunset or the golden hour. Hence the title "Keeping Time in the Golden Hour."

From there I collected tracks, new and old, with a similar vibe. In addition to the cut by Robag Wruhme my other favorites in this mix are "St. Catherine and the Calm" by Francis Harris and "Ankeney, Iowa" by Tiki Obmar. I like all the tracks in this mix but those two really get me.

Normally I'd say this would be a perfect mix for traveling during the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday but it's 2020 so stay home. Put this mix on and do some virtual traveling. Here's a little video promo I made to put in that frame of mind.

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 I N G :

• 00:00    Francis Harris - St. Catherine and the Calm (Trivial Occupations 2018)
• 08:25    Robag Wruhme - Tulpa Ovi (Thora Vukk 2011)
• 10:42    Night Sea - Cherry (Still 2020)
• 16:18    Tiki Obmar - Ankeney, Iowa (High School Confidential 2003)
• 28:18    Ghosting Season - Through Your Teeth ( The Very Last Of The Saints 2012)
• 32:43    Saphileaum - Soft Warming (In Distant Terra 2020)
• 37:37    Sven Laux - Grass-Covered Plain (We Were Here 2013)
• 46:08    Halftribe & Spinnet - Mr & Mrs Everywhere (Patterns of Sync 2020)
• 53:14    Robag Wruhme - Prognosen Bomm (Thora Vukk 2011)
• 56:25    vau - Nightfall (ways of stillness 2018)
• 63:43    end

The Stars Appear Like Diamonds

 

As is well documented in this blog, I am a space nerd. Over the years I have posted a ton of mixes related to the cosmos. Whether it's a stargazing mix or a celebration of the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle or a requiem for a dying space probe, ambient/electronic music is the perfect companion for turning your gaze to the heavens.

Over the last couple of months we've been treated to beautiful views of Mars, Jupiter & Saturn. Mars has been visible just after sunset in the eastern skies and has looked terrific with it's red/orange color easily setting it apart from the rest of the celestial objects.

Jupiter and Saturn are headed for a "Great Conjunction." Jupiter is usually one of the brightest night objects, but in recent months it has stood out even more than usual because of the presence of bright Saturn trailing just off to its left (east).

Jupiter & Saturn on Nov. 1, 2020

The two planets will continue to get closer and closer until Dec. 21 when they will be about one-tenth of a degree apart, appearing as a single star in the night sky. This will be their closest approach since 1623.

I thought about collecting a bunch of tunes with Jupiter and Saturn in the titles for a themed mix but instead I decided to go with a general stargazing mix because I had so many excellent new tracks from this year that fit perfectly. So all the cuts in this mix are from 2020 except for one random track by Altus from 2007.

Get outside and watch as the stars appear like diamonds and look for Jupiter and Saturn as they come together over the next month. And be sure to bring some space music with you.

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    Alva Noto - Xerrox Neige (Xerrox Vol. 4 2020)
• 04:44    Loneward - Ethereal Glow (Moongate 2020)
• 10:25    In The Branches + Bluetech - Celestial (Portals 2020)
• 15:15    Thom Brennan - Night Lights Part 3 (Night Lights 2020)
• 20:01    Machinefabriek - Waqur (To Yemen With Love 2020)
• 23:12    Tatsuro Murakami - Inevitable Silence (Between 2020)
• 28:46    Echoflex - 50°21'40"N 4°09'44"W veering S (Echoflex II 2020)
• 33:55    Pulse Emitter - Winds (Calming Winds 2019)
• 44:50    Lauge - Floating (Latitudes 2020)
• 49:10    Altus - Dust Lanes (The Grand Expanse 2007)
• 55:41    36 & zakè - Stasis Sounds for Long-Distance Space Travel Reduction 3 (Stasis Sounds for Long-Distance Space Travel 2020)
• 64:22    end

The Night Absolves

 

Off-kilter, strange, a bit askew, weird, oblique - are all ways to describe this mix. It's a little creepy too which makes for a perfect mix for Spooky Season.

To create a Halloween mix it would be easy to grab some dark, dissonant ambient but as I've said before I'm not a dark ambient fan. So I went for the same feel I have used in the past - tunes that are a bit off-center. Tunes that make you think of midnight, distant headlights in the fog, street lamps and cigarette smoke.

I hope you enjoy the mix and play it during dias de los muertos.

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    Seabuckthorn - It Will Be Dark By Then (Other Other 2020)
• 03:11    Brombaer - Triangle of Land (2013)
• 07:44    Coti - Sine Shadows (Metamemoria 2020)
• 11:55    Luton - Spectres of Mark (Black Box Animals 2018)
• 14:05    Shadowdream - The Obsession Begins Tomorrow (The Sunsettler's Motel 2016)
• 19:06    Labradford - G (Mi Media Naranja 1997)
• 22:30    Pjusk - Dempet (Sart 2007)
• 25:25    Several Wives - End Song (Veil on Veil 2020)
• 26:30    Arve Henriksen - Recording Angel (Cartography 2008)
• 28:24    Mikael Lind - Piano Says Goodbye (Give Shape to Space 2020)
• 32:00    Harold Budd with Zeitgeist - Emboldened/My Dreams Perish (She Is A Phantom 1994)
• 34:08    Arms And Sleepers - Atelier (The Organ Hearts 2011)
• 36:13    Shadowdream - The Hour of the Wolf, Alfa and Omega (The Sunsettler's Motel 2016)
• 38:34    William Ryan Fritch - Unraveling (The Letdown 2020)
• 40:07    Wanderwelle - Decay (A State of Decrepitude 2020)
• 44:00    The Insects - Ad Infinitum Ad Nauseam (Devs Original Series Soundtrack 2020)
• 45:28    Several Wives - An Intermission (Veil on Veil 2020)
• 46:05    Grails - Bad Bhang Recipe (Black Tar Prophecies Vols 1, 2, 3 2006)
• 47:54    Eli Keszler - We Live In Pathetic Temporal Urgency (Stadium 2018)
• 53:41    Calexico - Longboard (The Thread That Keeps Us 2018)
• 56:18    Daniel Lanois - Sketches (Belladonna 2005)
• 60:30    end

Stay Inside

 

photo courtesy of https://unsplash.com/@coleito

I started this mix on a cold, rainy fall day with no theme or plan. The first track I laid down was from Progressions by Anthéne and Andrew Tasselmyer on Constellation Tatsu. Listening to it, the track seemed perfect for a grey autumn day. 

Now I had my theme or vibe. From there I just browsed my new releases folder to come up with an ambient accompaniment for sitting inside with a good book, while outside it's cold and wet.

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    Anthéne and Andrew Tasselmyer - Progressions Pt. 5 (Progressions 2020)
• 06:13    Christopher Bissonette - Overature (Wayfinding 2020)
• 09:33    Halftribe - A Clearing (Cloud Dreaming and Shadows 2020)
• 12:15    Andrew Heath - The Night Walker (The Alchemist's Muse 2020)
• 19:30    Moss Covered Technology - Untitled Quiet Loops #6 (Quiet Loops 2020)
• 25:25    thme - until then (that's what it will be like 2020)
• 29:05    't Geruis - 002 (Que tu es belle, au revoir en douceur 2020)
• 32:25    Seabuckthorn - I haven't Seen Tunis Since (Through A Vulnerable Occur 2020)
• 35:47    Hainbach - Before We Break (Light Splitting 2020)
• 39:33    Jörgen Kjellgren - Infinite Portals (Hollawood 2020)
• 42:27    Innesti - Apples Appear in All the Old Fables (Apperception 2020)
• 48:40    Zoltan Fecso - As Much As You Need (Daylight In An Empty Room 2020)
• 52:00    Max Ananyev - Images in Time (Midday 2020)
• 56:27    Wodwo - Suzuki-Miyaura ( Chematica 2020)
• 59:02    Ian Hawgood - Modulations (You Lose Yourself, and That's OK 2020)
• 60:56    end

Strange Beauty - 4th World Excursions Vol. 2

 

sounds swim all around

drifting in the warm embrace

of this strange beauty

This my second 4th world mix and it's similar to the 2018 version. It still follows the Jon Hassell esthetic of  "a unified primitive/futuristic sound combining features of world ethnic styles with advanced electronic techniques."

Most of the tracks are new, 10 of the 17 tracks being from 2019 or 2020. I was almost done with the mix when an excellent new album from Halftribe dropped on the 24th. Listening to the first track I knew I had to buy it and sneak that cut into the mix somewhere. It fits perfectly.

https://shimmeringmoodsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cloud-dreaming-and-shadows

The two recordings that got me going with this mix are Andrew Pekler - Sounds From Phantom Islands and Romeo Poirier - Hotel Nota.

https://andrewpeklerfaitiche.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-from-phantom-islands

https://sferic.bandcamp.com/album/hotel-nota

One of my favorite parts of this mix comes at the 24:30 mark. There two tracks playing simultaneously. One from Eli Keszler is mostly percussion and the other by Walt Rockman is shimmering electric piano with under water vibe. I didn't intend on those two going together, I just accidentally left one of the tracks on my timeline and when they played together I knew I had to keep it. 

I don't know if this type of mix works in the middle of autumn but I just couldn't put it off any longer. I hope you enjoy this Indonesia fever dream.

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    Andrew Pekler - Hy Brasil (Sounds From Phantom Islands 2019)
• 04:00    Roméo Poirier - Du rocher (Hotel Nota 2020)
• 07:45    Lemongrass - Bamboo House (Papillon 2012)
• 10:40    MNO - Souce (Ambient Marimba - MNO Sleeps 2020)
• 12:35    Wild Card - Under A Steel Gray Sky (Patterns In Cooperative Labor 2017)
• 15:25    Halftribe - Hiking With Eve (Cloud Dreaming And Shadows 2020)
• 20:25    Vieo Abiungo - A Branch Gave Way (The Dregs 2019)
• 22:45    unkown - mbira with drone (2018)
• 24:30    Eli Keszler - Which Swarms Around It (Stadium 2018)
•              played simultaneously with Walt Rockman - reflections under water
• 26:45    Ross Alexander - Albert Plays the Flute (Memorias, Vol. 1 - Bugandan Sacred Places 2017)
• 31:12    Wu Cloud - Weh Island (Pulsa Rimba 2020)
• 34:42    Luis Miehlich - Klock (Currents 2020)
• 38:10    Meitei - Utano (Komachi 2019)
• 41:50    the volume settings folder - i will not go now on the pastures to walk (Home Diaries 017 2020)
• 46:15    Terje Isungset - Float (Floating Rhythms 2000)
• 47:50    Forrest Fang - Water Village ambient remix (Letters To The Farthest Star 2015)
• 55:00    Aglaia - Offline views (Offline views 2019)
• 60:54    end

Lighting Out for the Territories

This mix came about because I wanted to find a vehicle for some of the great music coming out of Lost Tribe Sound and their Fearful Void series. The bundle of releases includes 15 albums to be released between June 2020 and June 2021. You can find more info here...

https://losttribesound.bandcamp.com/album/fearful-void-series

Like the website says Lost Tribe Sound "specializes in organic and exploratory music that transcends genre, technique, or trend." The music in this new series is both grounded and otherworldly. I wanted to take that mostly acoustic, organic sound and spread it throughout this mix. There are a lot of wind instruments in this set. I find myself more and more drawn to sound and texture of sax, alto clarinet, oboe, trombone, etc. and this mix presented a great way to include some of that music.

The title doesn't really mean anything, I just like the sound of it. It's the title of a Laurie Anderson track on a live album from the 80s. I have it on a list of mix titles I keep in a google doc that I use for ideas and inspiration.

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    Vieo Abiungo - A Cold Calculus (At Once, There Was No Horizon 2020)

06:27    Iñigo Ugarteburu - Tomodachi (For The Unknown 2013)

11:35    Esmerine - Sweet Surrender Be True (If Only A Sweet Surrender To The Nights To Come Be True 2003)

16:16    Seabuckthorn - Clears (Through A Vulnerable Occur 2020)

19:19    William Ryan Fritch - What's Left Unfilched (The Letdown 2020)

21:12    Mette Henriette - in circles (Mette Henriette 2015)

24:30    Clariloops - Part 1 (Mindful Movement 2020)

30:30    Claire Deak & Tony Dupé - the rain (the old capital 2020)

33:55    Michel Banabila & Joshua Samson - Unfinished Business (To Yemen With Love 2020)

38:15    Microwolf - Mara Instrumental (My Cauliflower Ears Instrumentals 2020)

43:53    Laurence Pike - Prophecy (Prophecy 2020)

47:49    Claire Deak & Tony Dupé - from a rooftop (the old capital 2020)

52:18    Spheruleus - Hollow Bloom (Home Diaries 006 2020)

54:54    Wodwo - Karenia (Chematica 2020)

56:11    Brambles - Pink & Golden Billows (Charcoal 2012)

58:30    William Ryan Fritch - Devi's Last Deal (Album: TBA)

Rainfall Meditation

 

Sometime in the last couple of weeks we got a good downpour here at Low Light headquarters. As I stood at the front door smelling the rain, listening to the cloudburst, I realized that I had some music playing softly in the background and it blended perfectly with the storm. I stood there for a good twenty minutes taking it all in. This mix is based on that experience.

The main idea here is to mix the music below the rain and thunder. Sometimes it is very low so that it sounds like it's coming from another room. Other times the music is more upfront. Some of the tunes already have rain fx in them and others do not. Most of the rain and thunder you hear I added. They came from recordings I did or my son did or from sites like freesound.org. I also snuck in some Blade Runner ambience around the 1 hour mark.

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    rain
• 01:40    Segue - Rain Drone
• 05:00    Snufmumriko - Rainfall Diary
• 09:00    Cyber Zen Sound Engine & Matt Borghi - Endless Rain
• 13:22    Echoflex - 50°21'14"N 4°10'12"W Veering ENE
• 21:10    John Luther Adams - In The Rain
• 30:15    Yo La Tengo - Rainy Night In New York
• 32:20    Paul Vnuk Jr. - Silence Speaks In Shadow
• 44:10    Music for Deep Meditation - Wind Chimes, Thunderstorm, and Rain
• 56:50    Robert Davies - Dew-Drenched Hours
• 62:00    Lindsheaven Virtual Plaza - Rainforest Hill
• 75:15    Echoflex - 50°19'11"N 4°12'03"W Veering S
• 85:48    end

simply ambient

This mix, like the title, is simple. It's straight forward ambient music. Nice and relaxing, beatless, drifting ambient music.

All of the music is new - 9 of the 12 tracks are from 2020. Other than that there's not much else to say except I hope enjoy the tunes.

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    Andrew Chalk - Mikhail (One Long Year 2019)

09:00    Ylowknfe - Gamma (= 2014)

15:55    Innesti - Ideas Not Considered (Apperception 2020)

22:20    Carlo Giustini - Ascensione(a Tandura) (Custodi 2019) [Lontano Series]

28:09    Eternell - Centuries Apart (Imagined Distances 2020) [sound in silence]

34:12    Echolog - Reflection (Conte 2020) [Polar Seas]

37:55    Scanner - Wefte (Warp & Weft 2020)

43:30    Hainbach - Light Splitting (Light Splitting 2020) [Seil]

48:05    Robert Farrugia - Days (Worn 2020) [Lontano Series]

54:05    36 - Fifth Sequence (Wave Variations 2020) [Past Inside the Present]

56:20    Mikael Lind - Give Shape to Space (Give Shape to Space 2020) [Whitelabrecs]

57:50    Andrew Heath - Undertow (A Trace of Phosphor 2020) [Disco Gecko]

- - - M I X C L O U D - - -

 

 

Fragmented Dialogue

image by Thomas Park

This mix was a lot of fun! 

Back in April, Peter van Cooten, of Ambientblog, created the awesome mix, Lockdown. After it posted we talked about doing a collaboration mix. As Peter is in Holland and I am in the States we would send files back and forth to each other adding more tracks with every pass. We had to decide on a theme and a format. In the end the format became the theme.

It worked like this:
We each take 5 minute turns and increase the sample count with each turn. So in the first turn we each start with a 5 minute track. Next turn we each use two samples, next turn 3, then 4...until we get to the final turn where each 5 minute turn contains 6 samples each. When all is said and done we end up with 42 samples used in a 60 minute mix.

Peter is the master of layering multiple tracks or samples to create interesting mixes. I generally don't use quite that number of cuts in my mixes so I knew it was going to be a challenge. We worried that it would turn into a situation where it sounded like a good idea at the time until we had to actually do it.

I think it turned out great! It was really cool trying to match of the outro of the previous segment to my new tracks but still make my own segments unique. Somehow this crazy format produced a fascinating mix.

After finishing the mix Peter came up with the title "Fragmented Dialogue" which fit perfectly with how this beast was put together. The cover art is courtesy of Thomas Park and you can find his work here... https://archive.org/details/thomaspark

I'm excited to have this mix published in three places at the same time - Low Light Mixes, Ambientblog & Headphone Commute. Both Ambientblog & HC are my favorite places to go for ambient reviews and mixes. Here are their posts about this mix...

https://www.ambientblog.net/blog/2020-07/fragmented-dialogue-mix/

https://headphonecommute.com/2020/07/28/fragmented-dialogue-low-light-mixes-ambientblog-mix/


I hope you enjoy listening to this mix as much as we enjoyed creating it.

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 :   Ambientblog = Red    Low Light Mixes = Aqua

00:00    Yair Elazar Glotman/Mats Erlandsson - Procession (Emanate 2020)

05:10    William Ryan Fritch - Dream Glitch-Fugue State-Broken Barriers (The Letdown 2020)

09:45     Apparat - Suicide (Soundtracks: Stay Still, 2020)
11:18     Biosphere - You Want To See It Too (Departed Glories, 2016)

15:00    Ashlar - The First Saturday (Saturday Drones 2012)
18:45    echospace - Fallen Tribes Reduced (echospace [detroit] presents echoes in space 2014)

19:31    Sonologyst - Planetary Warning (Unexplained Sounds (New Edition), 2020 )
20:26    Michael Begg & Clodagh Simonds - Witness 3 (Witness 3, 2020)
22:36    Alva Noto - Xerrox Apesanteur (Xerrox 4, 2020)

24:55    Max Richter - Encounter (Ad Astra 2019)
25:38    Mono-Poly - Maanreflectie(Hainbach remix 2020)
27:21    cinchel - porch swings (A House Once Lived That Never Was 2014)

29:30 Carmen Villain - Affection In A Time Of Crisis (Affection In A Time Of Crisis, 2020)
31:18 Stephen O'Malley - Géante 4 - Layer 5 Mix (Géante 4, 2020)
32:30 Abul Mogard, Quiet Dreams (Above All Dreams, 2018)
33:35 Black Glass Ensemble & Friends - Be Mine In Patience: An Embrace in B Minor (Be Mine In Patience: An Embrace in B Minor, 2020)

34:55    Halftribe - Fader (Archipelago 2020)
36:20    Radio Bulgaria
37:03    teleferick - i.history favours the winners (sixteen frames 2017)
38:15    Test Card - Monochrome Dreaming Softened The Broadcast (Music For The Towers 2020)

39:40 Michel Banabila - Scripts of the Lagoon (Scripts Of The Lagoon - Exploratorium, 2020)
41:04 Kamila Govorcin - Rito De Muerte (Anima, 2020)
41:15 Chris Watson - Gobabeb (Touch Isolation, 2020)
43:04 Gia Margaret - Body (Mia Gargaret, 2020)
43:10 Aleksi Myllykoski with Tapani Rinne - Lost Marbles (Dark Days, 2020)

44:48    Masaya Ozaki - subtlety in reverse (Fluid And Dreaming Of Stripes 2015)
46:12    Andrew Pekler - Nocturne 3 (nocturnes, false dawns & breakdowns 2004)
47:05    The Focus Group - Hazy Time (Stop-Motion Happening 2017)
48:00    Les Halles - K (World 2012)
49:24    Sonmi451 - Umi Bear (Eilean 100 2019)

49:50 Radiomentale - Gotlander (I-Land (Redux), 2020)
51:54 Ian William Craig - Comma (Red Sun Through Smoke, 2020)
52:50 Sylvain Chauveau - Q (Life Without Machines, 2020)
53:29 Sample, THX 1138 (THX 1138, 1971)
53:34 Elegi - Lys & Lykte (Gap In Time, 2020)
54:26 The Future Eve feat. Robert Wyatt - 04.02 (Kitsune / Brian the Fox - Kitsune Ring Version, 2019)

55:00    The Insects - This is Where You Say Goodbye (DEVS soundtrack 2020)
55:30    Seabuckthorn - Unforeseen (Other Other 2020)
56:21    Alva Noto - Xerrox Voyage (Xerrox Vol. 4 2020)
57:10    Laurie Anderson - Life Lived Backwards (Heart of a Dog 2015)
58:21    Laurie Anderson - The Cloud (Heart of a Dog 2015)
59:01    Helios - All You Are (Remembrance 2016)
60:00    end

Not seeing is a flower

This mix came about from an idea by a listener, Kevin. He suggested a mix based on artists from Japan. I asked for track recommendations and Kevin came back with an entire list. That list fills out most of this mix. I added tracks by Hiroshi Yoshimura, Geskia!, Sawako and Akira Kosemura.

Kevin also suggested the title - "Not seeing is a flower" which means that reality can't compete with imagination. The mix itself is a fairly straight forward mix of ambient tracks from Japan.

Thanks to Kevin for doing all the heavy lifting on this mix. I think it turned out great.

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    Minamo - Zeitraum
• 05:58    Takashi Kokubo - Memory of summer
• 12:36    Yoshiaki Ochi - Ear Dreamin'
• 16:59    Fumio Miyashita - See The Light(Abridged)
• 19:48    Hiroshi Yoshimura - Water Copy
• 22:54    Geskia! - Lampland
• 27:52    Sawako - Incense Of Voice
• 32:00    Takahiro Kido - Rust Summer in Tokyo
• 37:25    Mokyow - Small Small Flag
• 44:20    Chihei Hatakeyama - Starlight And Black Echo
• 48:54    Hakobune - Letter Forgotten
• 53:35    Masashi Kitamura & Phonogenix - Variation III
• 56:27    Satoshi Ashikawa - Still Space
• 58:08    Akira Kosemura - Hicari
• 60:00    end