Forbidden Colours - A Tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto

 

Another musical great has left this world. Ryuichi Sakamoto was a founding member of Yellow Magic Orchestra. He became well known for his neo-classical work, his collaborations, and of course his film scores, from Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence to The Revenant to the Oscar-winning score for The Last Emperor. The solo piano version of Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is one of my favorite piano pieces ever written.

In January of this year he released an album of piano tracks, called 12, that is hauntingly simple and beautiful.

In 2017 he recorded a track called "Life, Life", from the album Async, that is one of my favorite pieces of all time. I'd like to finish this post with the spoken word poem that appears in that track...

And this I dreamt, and this I dream

And some time this I will dream again

And all will be repeated, all be re-embodied

You will dream everything I have seen in dream

To one side from ourselves, to one side from the world

Wave follows wave to break on the shore

On each wave is a star, a person, a bird

Dreams, reality, death - on wave after wave

No need for a date; I was, I am, and I will be

Life is a wonder of wonders, and to wonder

I dedicate myself, on my knees, like an orphan

Alone - among mirrors - fenced in by reflections

Cities and seas, iridescent, intensified

A mother in tears takes a child on her lap

Thank you for your music.

[ 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    Ryuichi Sakamoto - Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence(solo piano version)
• 04:40    Ryuichi Sakamoto - life, life
• 08:45    Ryuichi Sakamoto - Mountains
• 09:37    Ryuichi Sakamoto - 20220123
• 17:37    Ryuichi Sakamoto - In The Red
• 22:35    Ryuichi Sakamoto - The Revenant Main Theme Atmospheric
• 25:10    Ryuichi Sakamoto & Christian Fennez - oto
• 28:35    Ryuichi Sakamoto - Railroad Man
• 33:07    Ryuichi Sakamoto - The Sheltering Sky(piano version)
• 39:20    Ryuichi Sakamoto - The Sheltering Sky(continues as orchestral version)
• 38:25    Ryuichi Sakamoto - Elephantism 2
• 42:50    Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - Trioon I
• 47:38    Ryuichi Sakamoto - Aqua
• 51:58    Ryuichi Sakamoto - Rain(I want a Divorce)
• 53:22    Ryuichi Sakamoto - The End
• 55:36    end
• 
  

Overtones & Nocturnes

I've mentioned many times that a mix often starts with a single track that interests me and takes off from there.  In the case of this classical mix, the track is "In Spe" by Arvo Part.

I first heard the piece via YouTube & loved it right from the start.  As far as I can tell it has not been recorded for official release so the version in this mix is the performance I heard on YouTube.  You can find the original ten minute track here... In Spe, Arvo Pärt, Georgian Sinfonietta

Creating a classical mix right now works nicely because I just bought the excellent new piece by John Luther Adams - Become Ocean.  It's basically an orchestral drone piece & it's beautiful.

One of my favorite recordings of 2014, Atmos by A Winged Victory for the Sullen, makes two appearances in the mix.  It's a gorgeous record that fits perfectly in this mix.

A couple of other tracks that I was happy to squeeze into the mix are "Odi Et Amo" by Jóhann Jóhannsson and The Dublin Guitar Quartet's version of Philip Glass' "String Quartet No. 3 Mishima V."  I've always loved the Philip Glass soundtrack "Mishima" and this guitar quartet version is sublime.

I guess this will be my last mix for 2014.  I'll start a new mix right off the bat in 2015.  

I'd like to thank everyone who has been following this blog for almost 9 years now.  I've always said that I'd make mixes just for my own amusement, even if nobody else ever heard them.  But when other folks get some enjoyment out of them it makes it more fun and meaningful.  Plus it's just plain cool to have connected to people all over the world through these mixes.  Thanks!

Enjoy & Happy New Year!

[ 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    Jonny Greenwood - Overtones(The Master OST)
• 02:00    Arvo Part - In Spe(Georgian Sinfonietta recording)
• 07:20    A Winged Victory for the Sullen - Atmos XII
• 10:45    Valentin Silvestrov - Symphony No. 5(excerpt)
• 14:18    Christina Vantzou - vhs
• 18:46    Islands of Light - Goerde
• 21:55    Ólafur Arnalds - Highway
• 24:10    Jóhann Jóhannsson - Odi Et Amo
• 27:10    Hildur Gudnadottir - Unveiled
• 30:33    Vieo Abiungo - Insincerity Peeked Through Cloudlessly(Upward Arrows Remix)
• 33:55    John Luther Adams - Become Ocean(excerpt)
• 44:00    Nest - Far From Land
• 48:40    A Winged Victory for the Sullen - Atmos VIII
• 52:10    Dublin Guitar Quartet - String Quartet No. 3 Mishima V
• 55:30    Steve Reich - Electric Counterpoint I Fast
• 1:02:30    John Luther Adams - Become Ocean(end)
• 1:07:09    end

Overtones & Nocturnes by Low Light Mixes on Mixcloud

Ghosts in the score

stirring up the dust
ghosts from the past whisper in
grooves of forever


There's a first for this blog - vinyl haiku.  I was looking for ways to describe this mix and as I collected expressive words, the list started to take on it's own poetic quality.   So I thought, what the heck, I'll just formalize it into an actual haiku.  It was fun, I haven't written any sort of silly haiku in years.

Anyway, the haiku fits this mix because the music is all dusty and scratchy.  It all has a old vinyl feel to it.  It some cases it has that feel because the music really is old, like early 1900s old.  Two of the tracks are actually old Edison cylinder recordings.  I searched through old recordings at archive.org for music that would blend well with the other ambient & neo-classical tracks in this mix.

I've done two previous mixes in this style - Sustain & Decay and Revenants of the Past.  A lot of ambient music makes use of noise, distortion, scratches, glitches, hiss & pops so the actual old recordings fit in nicely.  There are six old recordings that appear in the final mix.  Most of the ambient cuts are of fairly recent vintage.

I like the title for this mix because the word "score" takes on a double meaning as in a musical soundtrack as well as trench, channel or groove in a vinyl record or cylinder.

Enjoy the pops & hisses.


[ 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    1956 RCA Victor Vinyl Records Educational Documentary
• 00:30    Arturo Toscanini - Romeo & Juliet Overture(Pt-1)1946
• 01:25    The Caretaker - Mental Caverns Without Sunshine
• 01:45    e and i - known things
• 03:50    Maps & Diagrams - Longitudinal Vibration
• 07:20    Billow Observatory - Helsinki Radio
• 08:50    Tim Hecker - Sketch 6
• 10:00    e and i - tiniest smile
• 11:11    Philip Jeck - chime again
• 14:05    Edison Bohemian Orchestra Lacinquantaine Cylinder Recording
• 15:15    Ten and Tracer - By Twirling the Quicksphere
• 18:00    Tape Loop Orchestra - The Word On My Lips Is Your Name
• 19:50    Philip Jeck - Wipe
• 23:15    Benoît Pioulard - Pidgin
• 24:25    Mozart 'Gavotte in G' from 'Idomeneo' (1912)
• 25:25    The Humble Bee - The Collecting Plate
• 26:25    Part Timer - Undead part 1
• 30:15    The Caretaker - Mental Caverns Without Sunshine
• 31:00    Semiramide Overture 1912
• 35:05    Maya Beiser - Time Loops
• 37:25    From The Mouth of The Sun - Color Loss
• 42:42    The Caretaker - A Last Glimpse Of The Land
• 45:15    Tape Loop Orchestra - The Word On My Lips Is Your Name
• 51:25    Albert Spalding - Thais(violin) Edison blue amberol cylinder 
• 52:30    The Humble Bee - Fin
• 54:07    end

Ghosts in the score by Low Light Mixes on Mixcloud

Reflecting the Hybrid - by Chris Fraley, a member of the Hypnos Recordings Forums

This mix is a rare treat.  It's a guest mix from Chris Fraley.  I know Chris through correspondence and postings at the Hypnos Forum.  

I've been a member of the forum for a long time and I really enjoy the community there.  In this time of social networks and twitter it's nice to see that a classic forum still survives and thrives, mainly because of a shared love of ambient music.  Activity there ebbs and flows but there's always interesting topics and people hanging out.

As I said, I know Chris through the forum and as the two of us have similar tastes, I offered him the opportunity to do a mix for the blog.  He was hesitant at first because he'd never done something like this before.  But he decided to give it a shot and I'm very glad he did.

Chris said he "ended up making a mix based on some of the recent (2012 or later) neo-classical music that embodies the spirit of ambient and experimental acoustics."  The result is perfect.

I hope this is just the first of more guest mixes we may see from Chris.

Enjoy


[ 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   Field Rotation - The Repetition of History
• 05:15   Ekca Liena and Spheruleus - Scrambling Radiosonde
• 09:11   From the Mouth of the Sun - Sitting in a Roofless Room
• 12:00   Orla Wren - Five Acre Ladder (Reprise)
• 15:20   Antonymes - Misshapen Beauty [ii]
• 20:40   The Seaman and the Tattered Sail - Her Whispers
• 26:15   Christoph Berg - Coda
• 30:14   end

Reflecting the Hybrid - by Chris Fraley, a member of the Hypnos Recordings Forums by Low Light Mixes on Mixcloud

I can hear the snow fall

For some reason,when I think of falling snow, the instrument that comes to mind is the piano.  Maybe it's from years of listening to Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas album.  So it's no surprise that there is a fair amount of piano music in this "snow" mix.

We didn't have any snow yet but I had been thinking about doing a "first snow" mix for awhile & decided to throw one together Friday night.  Then I woke up Saturday morning to a light dusting of snow on the ground.  Maybe next I should do a mix for winning the lottery. ;)

 As I said there is a lot of piano music in here.  Led by Nils Frahm, from his excellent Felt album.  A release that will end up on my best of the year list & one which everyone needs to hear.  I think this mix works well as an early season "snow" mix versus the more bleak mid winter drones that will show up later.

I expect to crank out at least one more mix before the end of the year.  Plus I'll have a year-end top 20 list, so start thinking of your own lists if you'd like to contribute.

Enjoy.

[ 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    Nils Frahm - less [erased tapes]
• 05:20    Bernocchi, Budd, Guthrie - Heavy Heart Some More [Rarenoise Records]
• 09:35    Deepspace - Whisper
• 12:50   The Humble Bee - Sky Litter [cotton goods]
• 15:22    Willamette - Echo Park [infraction]
• 18:10    Pleq + Lauki - II (antonymes remix) [somehow recordings]
• 24:44    Cliff Martinez - Wrong Floor [lakeshore records]
• 25:45    Max Richter - eternal flowers question stars [Metropolis Movie Music]
• 27:48    e and i - Pearls for Alma [cotton goods]
• 29:40    Isnaj Dui - Always Close [hibernate]
• 32:48    I've Lost - in this cold, empty place [future sequence]
• 36:35    Diatonis - Whiring Above Our Heads
• 40:00    Nils Frahm - Pause [erased tapes]
• 44:25    Cliff Martinez - He Had A Good Time [lakeshore records]
• 45:39    Harold Budd - Three-Fingered Jack [darla]
• 47:40    Maps & Diagrams - Groghe(fort) [nomadic kids republic]
• 51:00    S. Carey - Rothko Fields [jagjaguwar]
• 54:50    Part Timer - seed collection [mobeer]
• 58:20    Nils Frahm - Keep [erased tapes]

I can hear the snow fall by Lowlight on Mixcloud

undiscovered soundtrack

I love soundtracks. And if you look at the tracklist for this mix, you'll see that I have a few favorite composers.

At the top of that list are Clint Mansell & Cliff Martinez. They are responsible for two of my favorite soundtracks, The Fountain & Solaris.

Jon Hopkins, a new composer on the soundtrack scene, could soon join those two as a favorite. His soundtrack for the movie Monsters, got a lot of play here. I ended up using three tracks from that album in this mix, I just couldn't resist.

Actually I doubled up a few artists in this mix, Martinez, Hopkins, Sigur Ros, Nick & Warren Ellis, Underworld. Normally I don't like to do that but it just sort of happened that way. This is a relatively short mix but I think it works. Sometimes I don't make it to the end of some mixes, this way hopefully listeners are still in to it & focused at the end.

Enjoy this "undiscovered soundtrack".


[ 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 - Winter Ghosts of a Future (Requiem for a Dream)
• 01:45    Jon Hopkins - Candles (Monsters)
• 03:35    Cliff Martinez - And We're Here to Listen (Traffic)
• 05:15    Thomas Newman - Still Dead (American Beauty)
• 07:55    Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - The Road (The Road)
• 11:30    Underworld & John Murphy - Searle Finds the Crew of Icarus (Sunshine)
• 12:20    Explosions in the Sky - An Ugly Fact of Life (Friday Nigh Lights)
• 14:10    Sigur Ros - síðasta ferð (hlemmur)
• 16:33    Craig Armstrong - Main Theme (The Clearing)
• 17:40    Ennio Morricone - Tema di Ali (The Battle of Algiers)
• 21:32    John Zorn - Family Found(cello) (Family Found(Filmworks XII))
• 23:50    Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Micro Sucker (White Lunar)
• 24:25    Underworld - Capa's Last Transmission Home (Sunshine)
• 26:10    Sigur Ros - fyrsta ferð (hlemmur)
• 28:25    Hilmar Hilmarsson - I Flew (Angels of the Universe)
• 30:25    Cliff Martinez - First Drive Home (First Snow)
• 30:50    Jon Hopkins - Water (Monsters)
• 31:55    James Newton Howard - I'm Sorry (I am Legend)
• 33:50    Jon Hopkins - Campfire (Monsters)
• 36:11 end

Undiscovered Soundtrack by Lowlight on Mixcloud