The Long Polar Night

 

As I type this we are getting pounded with another 9" of snow, the second pounding in less than a week. Combine that with semi-lockdown we are still under and it sort of feels like I'm in a research station outpost about to hunker down for The Long Polar Night.

Most of the titles fit the theme as well as the feel of the tunes.. I added some weather radio recordings throughout the mix which I think worked out pretty well.

One happy accident that happened while putting this together is I accidently left two tracks by two different artists in the same spot. I didn't even notice at first. They were playing simultaneously and it sounded like it was meant to be that way. This happens at 51:21 of the mix.

Cheers and stay warm!

[ 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    Wind & Weather Radio
• 00:55    Owl - Moonshine Haze (Infinite Horizon 2021)
• 04:16    Esther Kokmeijer & Rutger Zuydervelt - Stillness #5 (Stillness 2013)
• 08:20    SineRider - Four Below Zero (Four Years Away 2018)
• 11:42    offthesky - cold front (studies of form in transit 2003)
• 14:40    John Butcher - wind piece (Resonant Spaces)
• 15:47    Hanno Leichtmann - wind (Nuit Du Plomb 2006)
• 19:00    Lauge - Icebound (Nothingness 2020)
• 25:30    Gailes - Surface Variations in The Snowfall (Seventeen Words 2017)
• 32:05    Marcus Fischer - Antarctic 3 (Arctic / Antarctic(version) 2020)
• 34:45    Polaroid Notes - Don't Be Afraid Of Darkness (Home Diaries 014 2020)
• 38:00    Rosalina Teche - Slightly Affected (Music for Another Sky 2021)
• 40:23    stormloop - in the frozen morning light (arctic conditions 2013)
• 48:25    Moss Covered Technology - Distant Station(Nocturne) (Once Hallowed 2019)
• 51:21    Sinderider & Polaroid Notes - Frost & Into The Black played simultaneously
• 55:35    Axs - Frozen Signpost (Arctic Circle 2011)
• 65:20    end

Bell Tone Meditation by Paul Asbury Seaman

 

Great minds think alike. Both Paul and I had the idea of doing a "bell" based mix. I, however, am a procrastinator, and after creating a save folder for bell tunes 3 months ago, I have one track in it. So who knows when that puppy was going to get done.

Paul, on the other hand, sought out tracks and compiled them into a perfect playlist that became this mix - Bell Tone Meditation.

Here's what he has to say about it:

“For thousands of years bells, more than any other instrument, have been used to convey a sense of reverence and mystery, to represent clarity, to facilitate both quiet, solitary meditation and communal celebration. And, given the challenging artistic paradox of using sound to express silence, bells are the musical instrument used most often to express that, too. So it’s curious to me that bells (and their various metal/crystal-bowl cousins) are not used more often in ambient music, a genre defined, perhaps more than anything else, by subtle textures and tonal resonance over melody and rhythm.

Bells also have been the most common instrument to express cold and ice. Another reason this mix makes a  perfect midwinter offering.”

Thanks Paul!

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    Cousin Silas - Derwent (Submerged 2021)
• 05:36    Andarctica - at rest (buried with the bells 2019)
• 11:40    Robert Rich - Belltone Glass (Alien Zoology - Live Archive Vol 4 2009)
• 15:37    Jack Hertz - Invisible Pyramid (Teoton 2020)
• 19:17    Andrew Lahiff - The Ringing of the Silent Bells (Slow Paths Beyond 2014)
• 25:47    Crown Of Eternity - New Dimensions in Infinite VIbrations (Universal Hum 2018)
• 31:50    The Heart Is Awake - Healing Sound Meditation(Healing Arts reMix) (the Healing Arts reMIXES Vol III 2020)
• 36:00    Steve Roach & Serena Gabriel - Nectar Meditation (Nectar Meditation 2020)
• 45:15    Glenn Sogge - Aether/Or -- A Non-Philosophical Disquisition (Musics for Long Thinkings, volume 4 2016)
• 53:30    jarguna - My Temple (My Temple 2020)
• 1:10:00    end

flicker moments passing - a halftribe guest mix

 

I've been a fan of halftribe(Ryan Bissett) ever since he approached me about doing a guest mix roughly 6 years ago - whoa, blows my mind that it was that long ago. Whether it's deep & dubby or straight up ambient, halftribe has released some of my favorite albums over the last 5 or 6 years. So I was excited when Ryan agreed to do a guest mix. 

Here's what Ryan said about the mix:

"It's been a little while since I put a mix together as I've been mostly just working on my next album. It's even longer since I did a mix for someone else's show, so this mix really just showcases the types of sound that are floating my boat at the minute."

Don't forget to check out halftribe music here... https://halftribe.bandcamp.com/                    https://archivesdubmusic.bandcamp.com/album/daydreams-in-low-fidelity            https://archivesdubmusic.bandcamp.com/album/luxia  https://synphaera.bandcamp.com/album/patterns-of-sync    https://dewtonerecordings.com/album/shells    https://silkmusic.bandcamp.com/album/memory-module

And check the halftribe Mixcloud page... https://www.mixcloud.com/Halftribe/

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 Jens Pauly - Fairge
• 06'03 Tapes & Topographies - Pulse Of Durations
• 10'00 Andrew Heath - Signals And Beacons
• 14'55 Carlo Giustini - A Letizia
• 19'49 Jogging House - Air
• 24'07 Moss Covered Technology - Untitled Quiet Loop #6
• 31'01 Max Ananyev - Images In Time
• 36'02 Halftribe - Flickering Moments Passing
• 41'13 Caught In The Wake Forever - The Houses Here Have Changed Lately
• 47'24 John Hays & Maxy Dutcher - Arch Dance
• 52'22 Innesti - Compelled By Indifference
• 1'00'00 SineRider - Lapis

The Silence of Snow

 

I was fishing around for an idea for a new mix and mother nature helped out by dropping some fresh snow overnight so that became the theme - The Silence of Snow. I took the picture above on a morning walk through a local nature preserve.

The first draft of this mix had several piano based pieces. I think piano tunes do a nice job of conjuring up snow but I decided to pull them and save them for an all piano snow mix for later in January or February.

Cheers to a better 2021!

[ 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    Marcus Fischer - Antarctic 2 (Arctic / Antarctic(version) 2020)
• 05:52    Offthesky - Snow Filled Summer (We Like Ambient 2013)
• 10:07    Altus - Soft Space (Trailhead 2020)
• 14:43    Kenji Kihara - men (ten sen men 2018)
• 22:34    Tonepoet - kalos eïdos skopeïn(an ending) (Kaleidoscope 2020)
• 25:30    anthéne - hollowed out (infinity lines 2020)
• 31:02    Moss Covered Technology - Quiet Loop #6 (Quiet Loops 2020)
• 37:37    Federico Durand - Flor imaginaria (Flor Imaginaria 2020)
• 41:19    Aglaia - day one (Gravitational Change 2020)
• 44:12    Test Card - Four Zero Five Line Rewind (Music For The Towers 2020)
• 47:45    SineRider - Zero Return (Fahrenheit 2017)
• 51:00    The Humble Bee - Off station, at little afternoon, amidst the saltwater marsh (Daymark 2020)
• 57:04    end