Sunday, June 05, 2022

Maps Without Edges - 90s Tribal Ambient

 

For a while now I've been planning on a drum/percussion mix similar to A Distant Pulse - https://www.mixcloud.com/lowlight/a-distant-pulse/  and A Rhythmic Passage - https://www.mixcloud.com/lowlight/a-rhythmic-passage/ 

In my search for tracks I came across a track by Vidna Obmana called "The Transcending Quest." It made me nostalgic for the heyday of tribal ambient in the 1990s with artists like Vidna Obana, Steve Roach, O Yuki Conjugate and Thom Brennan. So I decided to make this whole mix a trip back to the 90s for some hang drum and rain stick sounds.

The first thing you may notice is that not all the tunes are from the 1990s. Two are from 2001 and one is from 1989. I say close enough. 

The other thing you may hear as you listen is that the tracks all definitely sound very similar. That was purposeful. I wanted the whole set to have a trance-like feel to it. 

Sitting right in the middle of all this is one of my favorite ambient tracks of all time - "The Path Not Taken" by Thom Brennan from 1995. When I looked for a Bandcamp link I found he had an entire album by that name and it's only $4. An edited version of part is what was released in 1995 and the whole album remained unreleased until 2019. You can find it here... https://thombrennan.bandcamp.com/album/the-path-not-taken

Links to all the albums used in this mix in the order in which they appear:


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    Ma Ja Le & James Johnson - Yaquona(Part 2) (Seed 2001)
  • 09:00    Vidna Obmana - The Transcending Quest (Amplexus 1995)
  • 14:55    Steve Roach - Walking Upright (Early Man 2001)
  • 21:10    O Yuki Conjugate - Insect Talk (Equator 1995)
  • 26:25    Thom Brennan - The Path Not Taken (Amplexus 1995)
  • 37:20    STilLPOiNT - Maps 2&3 (Maps Without Edges 1996)
  • 43:57    Al Gromer Khan - Unmoved Mover (Tantra Drums 1998)
  • 51:10    Steve Roach & Michael Stearns - Flatlands (Desert Solitaire 1989)
  • 55:42    Vidna Obmana - The Nebulous Pathway (The Spiritual Bonding 1994)
  • 60:00    end

1 comment:

The Interstellar Radio Station said...

So many important artists in this genre with much more to say and much more eloquently, but keep getting overlooked, now ebven in this 3rd incarnation. Rudiger Lorenz, Garry Hughes, Textureworks, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic Era, Tuu, and dozens not as famous who have slipped in Dreamtime. Even Robert Rich is absent. But go on and be well, settled into your familiar comfort space.