Frozen Landscapes

I haven't had much time or been motivated to create new mixes so far in the new year. But there's nothing like sub-zero temperatures and being cooped up indoors to get one in the mood for a good wintry mix. The temperature as I type this is -15 degrees with a wind chill of -40. 🥶

I've done these frigid temps themed mixes before and I'm always surprised at how well they come together. I start by simply searching for tracks with certain keywords - frozen, cold, frigid, ice, wind, winter, etc. and then try to use mostly tunes from 2025. This mix is a bit different than others because it turns toward warmth in the last few tracks - "Warmer Light," "Threads of Warmth," and "Warmth". I hope that by ending the mix on a warmer note that I may manifest higher temps.

Stay warm and 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   Hainbach & Ensemble Recherche - The Cold Settles In (Retold 2025)
03:40   Valotihkuu - The Frozen Landscapes (Drifting Between Seasons 2025)
06:15   Science Of Sleeping - The Coldest Winter (Samsara 2025)
06:57   Jeff Pearce - A Long Winter'S Sleep (From the Darker Seasons 2017)
16:12   Erik Wøllo & Ian Boddy - Ice Station (Transmissions 2025)
20:30   Philippe Deschamps - Wind Secrets (Wind Secrets 2025)
22:39   Dirk Serries - Weathering The Gale (Treasure Of Stars 2025)
29:43   Seaworthy & Matt Rösner - Cold Weather (Deep Valley 2024)
32:27   Chihei Hatakeyama - Wind From Mountains (Lucid Dreams 2025)
37:00   Tokyo Ambient Collective - where the fireplace is (Winter Ambience 2025)
42:35   Pete Kvidera - Warmer Light (2025)
45:40   Valotihkuu - Threads Of Warmth (Drifting Between Seasons 2025)
51:25   Sebby Kowal - Warmth (Deep In Our Hearts 2023)
59:04   end

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

Ambient Xmas

Even though Christmas music has gotten more interesting than Dean Martin and Bing Crosby, there is not an awful lot of ambient Christmas music out there. So I've only attempted an xmas mix one other time and it was just okay. Until this year.

Thanks to a wonderful album from Matt Borghi I decided to give a holiday ambient mix another shot. Matt's album is called simply - "Ambient Guitar for Christmas." 

https://mattborghi.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-guitar-for-christmas

And it's exactly what it sounds like - slow, ambient guitar with tons of reverb playing recognizable tunes that drift in and out of recognizability. From there everything else flowed pretty easily with a combination of classic xmas tunes to winter and snow songs.

Cheers and Happy Holidays!



[ 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    Matt Borghi - The First Noel(Ambient Guitar for Christmas)
• 03:40    Fuzzy Lights - Snowstorm in a Snow Globe
• 06:12    Dollboy - Look Darling, It's Starting to Snow
• 08:22    Clem Leek - Away in America
• 14:40    Rachel's - NY Snow Globe
• 17:00    Voces8 - Winter
• 20:15    The Green Kingdom - Sleep, Snow
• 28:20    Casino vs Japan - Christmas Morning
• 28:43    Matt Borghi - Shchedryk
• 31:35    Wil Bolton - Coventry Carol
• 33:54    Bill Nelson - The Christmas Gift
• 35:05    Sara and Adam - Wonderful Christmastime
• 38:35    Takahiro Kido - Christmas Song
• 44:04    Helios - Sunes Christmas
• 47:52    John Zorn - Christmas Time is Here
• 52:22    Voces8 - For Now I Am Winter
• 56:40    Matt Borghi - Silent Night
• 69:00    end

a frozen world

It is freakin' cold here in Wisconsin right now.  It's going to be -20f below zero tonight and the high temp on Monday didn't get much above -10f.  Frigid temps like that call for a mix.

It's perfect timing for a freezing mix because a recent purchase was the album arctic conditions by stormloop.  With song titles like "Ice Wind," "In The Frozen Morning Light" and "Arctic Conditions," it was a perfect starting point for this mix.

Make some hot cocoa, sit back and try to stay warm.  Of course for listeners like Charles Glaspole in Australia, it's summer.  I guess you'll have to use your imagination.

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    Wind and walking in snow
• 00:30    Terje Isungset - Go North
• 01:36    stormloop - ice wind
• 05:45    Marcus Fischer - Arctic 1
• 10:10    Panoptique Electrical - Glacier Show I
• 16:35    Ulf Lohmann - On Frozen Fields
• 18:45    Blamstrain - Tundra V
• 24:05    offthesky - beneath the ice shelf
• 26:50    Harold Budd - Ice Floes in Eden
• 29:15    stormloop - arctic conditions
• 33:55    Good Weather For An Airstrike - Frozen In Thought
• 37:25    Kiln - The Ice Floes
• 38:40    Forrest Fang & Carl Weingarten - Freezing Days
• 41:10    David Tagg - Arctic Reflection
• 50:10    Brian Eno - Fields Of Ice
• 58:00    Segue - A View of the Frozen Lake
• 1:01:40   stormloop - in the frozen morning light
• 1:08:00    end

A frozen world 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

the landscape listens

It's the dead of winter, just trying to outlast the snow & cold, trying to make it to spring break.

The music in this mix has a sort of lonely winter feel to it. The tracks are not too dark or depressing, they just seem to conger up images of vast, snowy landscapes.

There are a few recordings in this mix from some of my recent favorite record labels. I'll just list some of those favorites...

Low Point
Experimedia
Hibernate
Under the Spire
Home Normal
Phantom Channel
Dead Pilot Records
Own Records

Low Point, Phantom Channel, Home Normal, Infraction, Serein, 12k and Under the Spire all made it into the mix. Although no Hibernate recordings made it, I've really been enjoying all the output from them lately. Check out the releases from all these great labels.

Next month I've got a mix coming out on Fluid Radio on MixCloud. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this newest mix.

Download (right click/save as) : 60min, 115mb
the landscape listens


T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Savvas Ysatis & Taylor Deupree - Hourglass
• 06:20 Kyle Bobby Dunn - Butel
• 11:15 Nest - Far From Land
• 15:30 Shaula - O
• 20:20 Shaula - Under a Palpebra
• 24:20 Ian Hawgood - Before I let the sunshine rot
• 30:45 Chihei Hatakeyama - Illusion of Memory 2
• 32:50 Kyle Bobby Dunn - There is no end to your beauty
• 42:10 Parks - Franja
• 47:50 Chihei Hatakeyama - The moon reflecting on the surface of the ocean
• 49:50 Marconi Union - Nothing ever happens in Tunguska
• 54:45 Coldstream - Alarums
• 1:00:00 end