Low Light Mixes: December 2025

Thursday, December 11, 2025

Dreaming In Gamelan by Andy McNeill

I have a special treat for everyone with this new mix. It's a guest mix from friend of Low Light Mixes, Andy McNeill. Andy records as Maple Mountain Sunburst and has created two previous mixes for LLM and they are both excellent. You can find them here:

http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2024/10/a-moon-full-of-stars-and-astral-cars-by.html

https://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2025/01/we-did-it-again-by-andy-mcneillmaple.html

Andy has a new album out, under his own name, that is a little different from his other recordings. That new album is the inspiration for this new mix which is really something special. I'll let Andy tell you about it:

"Mallets, gongs, tintinnabulations, things that go ping. Here we have a mix of percolating exotica to float away on for an hour. I’ve included three tracks from a recent collaboration with percussionist and fellow composer Bill Brennan. Our album Dreaming In Gamelan blends West Javanese gamelan traditions with contemporary ambient electronics. Recorded with traditional hand-forged bronze instruments, the tracks were then augmented and treated in the studio. Also joining us was the brilliant electric violinist and sonic explorer Hugh Marsh. The album was mixed for immersive Dolby Atmos by Ron Searles (Atmos version available on Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon)."

https://lnk.to/dreamingingamelan

https://brennanmcneill.bandcamp.com/album/dreaming-in-gamelan

Thanks to Andy for curating and mixing this great collection tracks. And thanks for the excellent new album.

LINKS TO ALL THE MUSIC USED IN THIS MIX:

Cheers!

[ s t r e a m ] [ d o w n l o a d ] [ a p p l e _ p o d c a s t s ]

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Bill Brennan and Andy McNeill - Tunnels of Light (Dreaming In Gamelan 2025)

02:35 another fine day - Child’s Play (a good place to be 2015)

07:03 Peter Gabriel - Slow Marimbas (Birdy soundtrack 1985)

10:01 Thomas Newman - Bullet (White Oleander soundtrack 2002)

10:31 Genesis - The Waiting Room excerpt (The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway 1974)

11:15 Wanderwelle - Her Name is Vairumati (Gathering of the Ancient Spirits 2018)

16:13 Bill Brennan and Andy McNeill - Morning Beams (Dreaming In Gamelan 2025)

19:07 Thomas Stronen - Confronting Silence (Relations 2024)

19:23 Michael Brook - Distant Village (Hybrid 1985)

23:15 Connecta Quartet - Madeira River (P. Glass) (Pulse And Echoes 2024)

28:10 another fine day - green thought (in green shade) (life before land 1994)

34:18 Bartosz Kruczyński - Dream 1 (Dreams & Whispers 2024)

37:20 Shuta Yasukochi - Sakura (Harmonies of Flowers 2024)

39:47 Marilyn Masur - Bell-Painting (Elixir 2008)

40:19 Four Tet - Lush (New Energy 2017)

43:40 Jon Hassell - Time and Place (Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street

2009)

47:17 Boston Modern Orchestra Project - Suite for Violin with American Gamelan - III. Air (Lou Harrison) (La Koro Sutro 2014)

50:37 Pierre Favre Ensemble - Frog Songs excerpt (Singing Drums 1984) overlayed with Marilyn Masur - Spirit Of Air excerpt (Elixir 2008)

52:02 Four Tet - You Were There With Me excerpt (Everything Ecstatic 2005)

55:22 Bill Brennan and Andy McNeill - Reverie (Dreaming in Gamelan 2025)

1:05:29 end

Wednesday, December 03, 2025

Mentalized - The Music of Wolfram Spyra by Erwin Broers

Between Erwin Broers & Paul Asbury Seaman I have been exposed to a ton of excellent berlin-school music over the last couple years. Erwin contines his great string of mixes with this new one featuring the music of Wolfram Spyra. I was totally unfamiliar with this music before hearing this mix and now I'm thankful for the introduction.

Here's what Erwin says about this mix:

"In the mid-1990s, when interest for 'Kosmische Musik' (German)/'Cosmic Music' (English) regained, some Electronic Music artists chose to dig deeper into that first highly creative era, hence starting the 'Retro Berlin School' subgenre. Other artists merely borrowed certain elements (multi-facetted sequencing, layered soundscapes, space fx, Mellotron choirs,...) and then added their own spices to the sauce.

One of the artists that managed to create his own style of contemporary "Berlin School Electronic Music" is the German Fine Arts student (then), and musician, inventor and sound designer (now, dixit his own website) Wolfram Spyra (Kassel, 1964), aka "Der Spyra" or simply "Spyra". His style is somewhere between floating, rhythmic, meditative, downtempo and groovy, yes almost danceable. A very interesting blend of old skool and modern electronic ingredients!

This mix is a chronological overview of 20 years of releases from 1997 till 2018."

More information:
Discogs: www.discogs.com/artist/13462-Spyra
Website: www.derspyra.de
Bandcamp: wolframspyra.bandcamp.com

Thanks for another great mix!

Cheers!

[ s t r e a m ] [ d o w n l o a d ] [ a p p l e _ p o d c a s t s ]

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00:00 Future Of The Past (2000 remix)(Homelistening Is Killing Clubs, 1995)
00:07:15 Non Disperdere Nell' Ambiente Part 1 (Future Of The Past, 1997)
00:17:20 Seeds (My Little Garden Of Sounds, 1997)
00:28:55 Sferics (Sferics, 1998)
00:36:18 Monotonous Stereo Part 1 (Etherlands, 1999)
00:41:50 Ωmega Est αlpha (Phonehead, 1997)
00:56:16 Mentalized (Elevator To Heaven, 2001)
01:10:24 We Don't Mind The Rain (Virtual Vices IV (w/ Pete Namlook), 2003)
01:16:10 Aireals (Orphan Waves, 2006)
01:23:38 Last Train To Philadelphia (High Phidelity, 2007)
01:32:44 Below (Gasoline 91 Octane, 2008)
01:43:16 SeQuest (SeQuest (w/ Christian Lang), 2010)
01:50:21 Staub Part 2 (Dunst, 2018)
02:01:20 end