thru the field

I recently was given a box of old sound effects records like the one in the picture. These albums brought back a lot of memories. As a kid I would go to the public library down the street and borrow their sound effects records. I guess that was an early sign that I'd end up with music tastes that were a bit different.

This new mix is perfect for my new vinyl sound effects collection, unfortunately I finished the mix before I got the records. So I'll have to save them for the next installment in the field mixes.

For this mix, the 3rd in the field music mixes, I tried to use more natural sound and less music. There are definitely musical elements here, thanks to Spheruleus, Nigel Samways and others. I tried to pick field sounds that weren't too obtrusive. There are many sounds that are interesting to listen to, but don't work as ambient "music". After a nice quiet section of wind blowing through bamboo, hearing fireworks exploding wouldn't work for me.

I'd like to bring attention to to releases used in this mix. They both come from a new netlabel, Audio Gourmet. "Rust" by Spheruleus & "Momentary" by Darren Harper are the first two releases. They are excellent recordings & they are free so check them out. Each one has a cut in the new field mix.

The tracklist is a bit vague, as the times are even more nebulous than normal. I hope you enjoy this latest field mix.


Download (right click/save as) : 82mb, 60min
thru the field


T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Chihei Hatakeyama - Distant Sound of a Bustle
• 04:00 Loren Nerell - Wind Through Bamboo Forest
• 06:00 The Black Dog - M1
• 08:30 Jason Kahn - Transit
• 10:00 Framework podcast 11-5-09 excerpt
• 13:30 Seattle Phonographers Union - Hollow Earth Radio(excerpt)
• 15:30 Nigel Samways - City of Gas Street Lamps
• 19:00 Spheruleus - it sits on a shelf inside my skull
• 25:00 Mister Vapor - Rain 1
• 31:00 Chihei Hatakeyama - Dance of the Sea
• 33:00 Chris Watson - Vatnajokull
• 35:00 Quiet American - Khulna Station
• 37:00 Thomas Koner - 45_26n, 12_20e (hour three)
• 40:00 Steve Bradley - SO2 Emissions
• 41:30 Cecile Le Prado - Passages
• 43:30 Spheruleus - Rusting
• 47:30 Richard Chartier - Fields for Recording (excerpt)
• 52:00 Chris Watson - Bucaneve
• 53:00 Spheruleus - A Hindered View
• 55:30 Darren Harper - Field & Glass
• 60:00 end
  

driftage

Drifting...floating...coasting...gliding...swimming...

Whatever word you choose, all would describe this mix perfectly. It's just a nice collection of mostly new tunes, all with a drifting, floating feel.

This mix works great for sleeping, enjoy.

D o w n l o a d (right click/save as) : 79mb, 57:00
driftage


T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Moustache Mountain - poisonoussnake
• 05:50 Ben Fleury Steiner - Purple as the Dawn
• 09:45 Pausal - Midshipman
• 12:40 Back to Comm - Hotel Freund
• 16:00 Aglaia - A Boat Hunted the Edge of the Sea
• 22:40 Dirk Serries - microphonics v
• 28:35 Windy & Carl - I Have Been Waiting to Hear from You
• 34:40 Fabio Orsi - part 2 from Winterreise
• 40:15 Hildur Gudnadottir - Iridescence
• 49:15 m. ostermeier - Lost Weekend
• 53:00 Spheruleus - Orchid
• 57:00 end

eppur si muove(and yet it moves)

The mixes are coming fast and furious! I'm trying to crank out a few more than normal. This one seems to be fast paced compared to the usual mixes found here.

This creation is similar to a mix I did in 2008 called "Motion for Relief". Ambient dub would be the best way to describe this installment. Not all the tunes are "dub" but most have beats, some more prominent than others. The feel is still pretty laid back, with just enough going on to give a sense of movement. Hence the title, "eppur si muove(and yet it moves)", which is apparently a phrase uttered by Galileo.

Enjoy

Download (right click/save as) : 82mb 59:57
eppur si muove(and yet it moves)

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Pan American - B esso
• 04:30 Deepchord - Vantage Isle (echospace reshape)
• 08:50 Aardvarck - bloom 4

• 11:45 Marconi Union - Shibuya
• 14:45 Porter Ricks - Redundance 3
• 20:40 Rhythm & Sound - Hit You Version ??
• 27:40 Kiln - Royal Peppermint Forest
• 30:50 Rena Jones - Indra’s Web
• 33:40 Rod Modell - beach
• 37:20 Shuttle 358 - Calty
• 40:50 Marconi Union - We Travel
• 47:25 Jonathan Hughes - Dieresis
• 49:40 Basic Channel - Radiance i edit
• 53:30 James Murray - eleven (decades mix)
• 59:57 end

flicker & fade

This is the third mix I’ve done with a shortwave radio theme. Many of the tunes have noise and static already built in. Sometimes radio washes have been added.

As with past shortwave mixes, the actual shortwave recordings come courtesy of Myke Dodge Weiskopf. He runs a great site dedicated to shortwave music.

This mix was originally posted on MixCloud by folks at Fluid Radio. I am honored that Fluid Radio posted one of my mixes among their growing list of great music. I'm posting here to allow direct download. That's one feature I wish MixCloud had, the option of downloading the mixes. It's a great community over at MixCloud that would be even better with downloads.

I hope you enjoy vol. 3 in the shortwave series.


Download (right click/save as) : 99.8mb, 54:30
flicker and fade


T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Myke Weiskopf - Test Transmission
• 00:40 Tim Hecker - Arctic Loner's Rock
• 03:50 All India Radio
• 05:20 Andrey Dergatchev - Culmination
• 07:45 Karlheinz Stockhausen - realization 6 (from spiral)
• 08:50 Tu M' - monochrome 3
• 14:20 Library Tapes - The Fragile Tide
• 16:30 Radio Slovakia Int'l
• 17:20 36 - Juliet
• 19:20 Maps & Diagrams - Mold
• 23:45 Marihiko Hara - modena
• 26:05 WNOH - Runyon's Gospel Descent
• 27:40 Ous Mal - Viime Talvi
• 29:40 Myke Weiskopf - Into the Telemetry Haze
• 30:50 Brian Grainger - untitled
• 34:10 Helios - Vargtimme
• 37:30 random noise fx
• 38:20 36 - intercept
• 39:00 BNR Radio Bulgaria
• 40:30 Drowning the Virgin Silence - We Twist the Sun & Sea
• 44:20 Krzysztof Orluk - over the sky (bright sphere)
• 46:30 Motion - dispersal patterns
• 48:00 atom - wellen and felder II
• 49:10 Xela - An Abandoned Robot
• 51:45 Eluvium - As I Drift Off
• 54:30 end

cloud mapping

I have no idea why I called this mix "cloud mapping". It started off as something about the sky, then aerial views of something, then blah blah blah...then it ends up as "cloud mapping".

Most of the music is new or new-ish. There is no big time theme in this mix, just good, drifting ambient music. I guess you could picture yourself flying over clouds while listening to this. My favorite track in the mix is from Christopher Willits' release "Live on Earth Vol.1". It's the track, "Stars and Plants (live) – Kyoto, Japan – June 19, 2008".

Enjoy some good ol' floaty ambient.

Download (right click/save as) : 114mb 59:23
cloud mapping

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 in the field - rising
• 03:30 Christopher Willits - Stars and Plants (live) – Kyoto, Japan – June 19, 2008
• 12:45 Maps & Diagrams - Shuffle
• 17:50 Relmic Statute - a test for tapes & memories
• 22:10 Jannick Schou - Night
• 26:50 Ithaca Trio - Dragon Sleeps Well
• 30:55 Markus Guenter - Doppelgaenger
• 38:05 Terje Isungset - a glimpse of light
• 40:00 Cluster - lerandis
• 41:30 Akira Kosemura - 9 Guitar
• 42:20 Chihei Hatakeyama - light drizzle
• 46:30 Kyle Bobby Dunn - Empty Gazing
• 52:10 Christopher Willits - Golden Yarrow
• 55:00 Simon James French - Misery
• 59:23 end
  

a canticle unfolds

I love all the mixes being posted on Mixcloud by Fluid Radio. They have a ton of neo-classical, Ambient, Modern Classical, Experimental Acoustic mixes on their Mixcloud page. So I set out to make my own "neo-classical" mix. And as I have said here before, sometimes mixes take you in directions that you weren't anticipating.

With "a canticle unfolds", I discovered some vocal music as I was searching for tracks with a modern classical feel. Some of the tunes appear as recorded, others have been altered or remixed a bit. In the end, I ended up with 10 vocal cuts.

This mix started out fairly straight forward, turned into an experiment and ended up as a nice listening experience. I hope you like it.


Download(right click/save as) : 110mb, 60:12
a canticle unfolds


T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 The Hilliard Ensemble & Ivan Moody - Canticum Canticorum Remixed
• 03:40 Misound - sonno
• 05:30 Satie - Gnossienne Remixed
• 08:00 Nest - Marefjellet
• 12:00 Ambrose Field - La Dolce Vita
• 14:30 Gavin Byars Remixed
• 17:30 Morton Feldman - Rothko Chapel 5
• 21:00 Akira Rabelais - 1382_wyclif_gen._ii._7
• 24:30 Panoptique Electrical - the free form
• 29:40 Chorovaya Akademia - Nine Sili Nebesniye 1
• 32:40 Gavin Byars - Epilogue from Wonder Lawn
• 39:10 Bach Remixed
• 39:35 Roedelius - Lustwandel
• 43:15 Andrei Machado - ecce homo
• 47:30 Arvo Part - O Adonai
• 49:50 Annelies Monsere - 7
• 52:20 Debussy - des pas sur la neise
• 57:00 John Tavener - Mother & Child
• 60:12 end
  

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

slo mo

Here's the first mix for 2010. It's called slo_mo because all the tunes are slow & droney.

One aspect of this mix that makes it a bit different is the use of a few "stretched" tracks. I think I've mentioned this program here before, it's called "Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch". I couldn't find a link to it, but at one time, on the web, there was a version of Beethoven's 9th Symphony that had been stretched to 24 hours.

I stretched 3 songs for the mix, Eno - Music for Airports, Laetetur Cor (Choir of the Abbey of Saint Wandrille) and Budd & Eno - A Stream With Bright Fish. Those tracks along with the others combine for a very slow mix that works pretty well for sleeping(I couldn't make past the 20min mark twice last night).

Enjoy.

Download (right click/save as) : 58mb 63:28
slo_mo

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Eno - Music for Airports (s t r e t c h e d)
• 08:25 lexithimie - scale 1
• 12:35 Apalusa - Coventry, January 21, 2008
• 18:00 Laetetur Cor - Choir of the Abbey of Saint Wandrille (s t r e t c h e d)
• 22:20 Budd & Eno - A Stream with Bright Fish (s t r e t c h e d)
• 30:35 Celer - Gaited Florets
• 38:00 Porzellan - Rosen
• 47:10 Spheruleus - Time Fades
• 54:12 Language of Landscape - And The Rain Embraced Our Closing Words
  

Underwater - Lost in the Sub Aquatic Cosmos by Astromatt

I found this great mix over at SoundCloud. It's a mix from Music Library and Soundtracks of '60's & '70's. It has a cool vibe that never devolves into retro kitsch. I'm definitely going to try and track down some of this music to use in future mixes. Astromatt also has another similar mix called "Submerged - Into the Deep Blue Sea", which is excellent as well.

Between these mixes & seeing the movie "Nine", I'm on a quest to dig up old Italian & French soundtracks.

Underwater - Lost in the Sub Aquatic Cosmos by Astromatt

Remember Tomorrow

I was listening to music from Lunar Testing Lab the other day. The album, "Space Program", has a sort of retro/space/electronic feel to it. Boards of Canada in space?

I thought a whole mix of music with this kind of feel would be fun, so the result is "Remember Tomorrow". I tried to use tunes that had that retro, space program vibe without being too kitschy or cheesy. It's fine line & I hope I walked it successfully.

Lunar Testing Labs of course makes several appearances in the mix and of course Board of Canada had to be included. I am especially happy about being able to squeeze in the track "Cowboy" from The Units. I remember listening to it in college and absolutely loving the tune, so it was was fun to get it into a mix. I am also happy to have two Bowie cuts in there, "V-2 Schneider" & "Weeping Wall".

I found some sound from a recording called "Bob & Betty go to the Moon" and I used a couple clips from that old, corny recording. I tried not to use too much as it can easily distract from the music. I ended up using 4 samples, the coundown open & three other quickies. Using sound samples can be very tempting, tt's fun to use some but they can quickly get in the way of the music.

Although this mix is more beat-oriented than the typical Low Light offering, I think it's a fun trip.

Download(right click/save as) : 93mb, 51:00 min
Remember Tomorrow

T R A C K L I S T I N G :

• 00:00 Countdown from "Lunar Adventure in 1985"
• 00:13 Belbury Poly - Adventures in a Miniature Landscape
• 02:00 The Units - Cowboy
• 06:05 Harmonic 33 - Departure Lounge
• 10:30 Lunar Testing Lab - Lunar Radio control
• 11:30 EU - New Osc's
• 13:00 Boards of Canada - Wildlife Analysis
• 13:50 Freescha - The Sun is Still
• 16:00 Lunar Testing Lab - Orbiting Lunar Observatory
• 16:40 TRS-80 - moon Patrol
• 22:30 David Bowie - V2 Schneider
• 25:10 Bochum Welt - interlude
• 28:25 Lunar Testing Lab - Phantom Cosmonaut
• 30:50 Signaldrift - Children of the 70's
• 32:20 Harmonic 33 - Planet 54
• 35:50 Frank Comstock - Music from Outer Space(when you wish upon a star)
• 37:50 Boards of Canada - Nova Scotia Robots
• 38:50 Bernard Szajner - A Kind of Freedom
• 41:30 Talvihorros - A Rural Place
• 43:35 David Bowie - Weeping Wall
• 46:35 Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy
• 51:05 end