the stars above us

"Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another."
-- Plato (427-347 B.C.)


I realized that I hadn't done a stargazing mix in quite awhile and with the weather getting warmer & spending more time outside, I figured a new star mix was in order.

So here it is...


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Sonmi451 - Cumulonimbus
• 05:30 Manual - As the moon Spins Around
• 09:35 Cyber Zen Sound Engine & Matt Borghi - Mars Infers
• 15:40 Robert Davies - Beneath Strange Stars
• 24:55 sgnl fltr - kwon
• 25:30 Frederico Durand - Mi Pequeno Mundo De Papel
• 26:25 Frederico Durand - El Mundo Secreto De La Montana
• 29:30 Staffan Wessman - Unison
• 34:50 The Winterhouse - Lost
• 42:50 Jonathan Hughes - Monoline
• 45:15 Kyle Bobby Dunn - Statuit
• 50:05 Loscil - Cheekye
• 55:50 Matt Thomas Wilson - Aviation Jargon
• 58:00 Jonn Serrie - Continuum
• 03:15 end

The Stars Above Us by Lowlight on Mixcloud

songs for staying in

On the heals of the last mix, which was sort of modern classical, comes another neo-classical type mix.

I started collecting tunes for this mix after I heard Alva Noto's "Argonaut Version" in a Quiet Sounds mix. I like that song & wanted it to find a home in a mix.

Speaking of Quiet Sounds, there are some excellent mixes available for download there. I wish Brian would crank them out more often.

I stole the title for this mix from a song by The Tumbled Sea, which is next to last in the mix. It just sounded like a good title & it fit with the crappy weather we've been having here.

The mix ends with a sort syrupy tune from Anthony Phillips. It may be a bit too sweet but it's one of those tunes that I have always liked, goes back to college days. I don't know if I was hearing it for the first time now, whether I would like it as much. I'm sure a big part of the song's attraction is it's nostalgic significance. Anthony Phillips is the original guitarist for Genesis and back in high school & college I was a HUGE Genesis fan. Actually I still am, but that was how I came to Phillips' music back then. It was nice to sneak that track into a mix.

Make some tea or coffee & enjoy "songs for staying in".


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Anthony Phillips - Wind-Tales
• 00:35    Ben Frost - Extortion
• 02:37    Alva Noto - Argonaut Version
• 09:20    Rave Degolith - Orchestrated version of Aphex twin's Xtal
• 13:50     Jan Garbarek & Eleni Karaindrou - Fairytale
• 15:25    Deaf Center - The day I would neer have
• 18:00    Julia Kent - Seul, pendant un instant
• 22:10    Philip Glass - Islands
• 24:45    Brian McBride - toil theme part 1
• 26:55    Field Rotation - Acoustic Tale 2
• 29:25    The Notwist - Jonas
• 30:50    Akira Kosemura - Hicari
• 32:30    Dustin O' Halloran - A Great Divide
• 37:45    David Darling - Darkwood IV
• 42:25    Antonymes - a heart filled with emptiness
• 45:00    The Tumbled Sea - A Song for Staying In
• 49:48    Anthony Phillips - Sleepfall, the geese fly west
• 54:22    end

Songs For Staying In 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".


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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

evening sky

As the days get longer, I am able to enjoy a bit of sunlight when I get home from work. There have been a few days recently where I stopped during a walk to gaze at the evening sky as the color deepens to indigo & the stars first start appearing.

Being a music geek, I can't help but think of tunes that would make a nice soundtrack for that scene. So while listening to music the last couple of weeks, if I came across a cut that made me think of those walks & the sky, I'd throw them into a folder for later use.

This mix "evening sky" is the result. It's not meant to change musically as the evening sky changes. It's just a collection of songs that reminded me of the sky as it darkens in early evening.

Enjoy.


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 John Murphy - Mercury
• 00:47 The Sleepy Vines - Kelp Forest
• 02:00 Rim - Gusts of Sand
• 04:50 I've Lost - Absence
• 08:00 Emanuele Errante - Made to Give
• 11:45 Pjusk - sus
• 14:55 Brian Eno - Late Anthropocene
• 19:40 Shaula - Night & Green Grass
• 25:15 Marc Barreca - Fish Culture
• 27:50 Frederico Durand - Pudu Tu Nombre Es Tobias
• 32:10 Sonmi451 - Green
• 38:51 Alio Die - In the Labyrinth Garden
• 43:30 Mark Rushton - Fieldsketch
• 46:35 Emanuel Errante - Dorians Mirror
• 51:40 Wixel - Cloud Formation
• 1:00:00 end

Evening Sky by Lowlight on Mixcloud

Venice

I am very excited to present this next mix. It's a guest mix by longtime listener/downloader, Ron Sylvester.

Ron was the inspiration for a couple of my mixes that used old 78rpm recordings as a basis for the mixes "Sustain & Decay" and "Revenants of the Past". Ron sent me some mix cd's which I really enjoyed & I told him he really should do a proper mix someday.

Well, I am delighted that Ron has allowed me to present his first mix here for everyone to enjoy. It's a wonderful sonic journey. I'll let Ron describe the mix...

"A week or so ago I stumbled upon the album Salicornie Areavirus by Enrico Coniglio; his website says the album is meant to be a sort of ‘collection of "sound tales" dedicated to Venice’. I thought I recognized his name from somewhere, and back-tracked it to a Lost Children netlabel release featuring Italian artists entitled Underwater Noises, which had been curated by Coniglio. Two other Lost Children Releases featuring Italian artists, Con Fuoco d'Occhi un Nostalgico Lupo volumes I and II, gave me most of what I needed to complete the mix. I finished it off with work by Ulises Conti, Lodovico Einaudi, Paolo Fresu, a Sub Rosa compilation of ritual music entitled Illuminated, and a handful of ambience from Soundtransit and the storehouse of opera 78s at archive.org.

Anyhow, for me this mix is simply entitled Venice, though the musicians are not necessarily from Venice, nor are the field recordings strictly from Venice. Apart from Nguen Le, who is playing with Paolo Fresu (who is Sardinian), I think all the artists or field recording locales are at least Italian. Actually, now that I think of it, the recordings from Illuminated are not necessarily Italian. Catholic, though; that’s something. At any rate, and as usual, the mix is more about a sort of Venetian feeling: canals, Carnevale, the Grand Lagoon, a certain slow sinking. I’ve never been to Venice, though, so what do I know about it?

I was really taken by Enrico Coniglio’s album and it sort of got this mix started. Here’s his website, but as in all things ambient, you are probably way ahead of me on this:

http://www.enricoconiglio.com/

Here are the links for the Lost Children compilations:

http://www.archive.org/details/Lc-eph01UnderwaterNoises

http://www.archive.org/details/TheSilentBallet-ItalianCompilation-ConFuocoDocchiUnNostalgico

http://www.archive.org/details/TheSilentBallet-ItalianCompilation-ConFuocoDocchiUnNostalgico_90


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Ron says "The track list is as follows; some editing of tracks has been done in the mix, and I processed the bejeezus out of La Traviata. There’s a lot of overlap in this mix."

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 venice canal - derek holzer [soundtransit]
• 00:12 salicornie - enrico coniglio
• 03:10 bells in Fiesole - thomas andre [soundtransit]
• 03.13 chioma - obsil
• 03:57 excerpt from la traviata - lucrezia bori
• 04: 02 tocco libero - tiziano milani
• 07:14 alpen tower - enrico coniglio
• 12:35 pagetos - francesco giannico / luca mauri / matteo uggeri
• 19:15 hopeless - passo uno
• 26:15 medio evo tecnologico - folk cinema [soundtransit]
• 26:45 restless - ornitology
• 26:47 in prinicipio - unknown from illuminated
• 27:12 gloria - unknown from illuminated
• 32:18 girl from murania - enrico coniglio
• 37:00 half water - allessio ballerini
• 40:20 el dolor implicito de la belleza - ulises conti
• 43:15 palermo without hands - folk cinema [soundtransit]
• 44:00 fish market ambience - palix [soundtransit]
• 44: 05 andare - lodovico einaudi
• 50:50 salicornie (reprise) - enrico coniglio
• 54:50 hydrocoma - un vortice di bassa pressione
• 55:45 lacrima christi - paolo fresu and nguen le
• 56:10 night sea - marco caorle
• 58:45 venice canal (reprise) - derek holzer

Venice by Lowlight on Mixcloud

distant transmissions

"Distant transmissions flicker and fade, there's a drift on the signal, a ghost in the phase."

I've had that phrase on my blog profile for a long time. I've used different parts of it as titles for my series of 'shortwave' mixes(drift on the signal, ghost in the phase, flicker & fade).

With this mix I've completely tapped out that slogan because the new mix is called "distant transmissions."

I'm not really sure exactly how I came up with that line. I remember going through shortwave terms looking for a title for the first shortwave mix & I came across the phrase "drift on the signal". I liked the sound of that & used it for the first mix. Somewhere along the line I also read the term "ghost in the phase" & then just combined those two with other terms to come up with that short phrase which I liked because it's as close as I'm ever going to get to writing a lyric of any sort.

This mix, like the others, makes use of the wonderful shortwave recordings of Myke Weiskopf. Check out his blog here... for lots of streaming audio & downloadable goodies. I've done 5 mixes featuring Myke's work & none of them would have been possible without his documentary series. Huge thanks to Myke for all his fine recordings. Check out the ShortWaveMusic Facebook page too.


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Ionoscatter_Unmodulated_Signal_And_Meteor_Whistles_6-2-58
• 00:30 Radio Bulgaria(stretched & normal)
• 01:33 Max Richter - Infra
• 04:30 Benoît Pioulard - Passenger
• 05:20 offthesky - frozen fountain
• 07:20 upward arrows - ^^^^
• 08:55 Family Radio International
• 09:30 ??? - Traveling Light
• 13:50 The Humble Bee - 07 jan 2010
• 16:30 Christian Fennesz & Ryuichi Sakamoto - kuni
• 18:20 Freescha - baby Maker
• 19:50 Daizok - Shoreline VII
• 24:15 Radio Morocco
• 26:20 Area C - Map of circular thought
• 29:10 Juv - til
• 29:42 Max Richter - Journey 5
• 30:45 Inversz - Home End
• 35:10 Myke Weiskopf - You're Up, You're There, You're D
• 37:40 Christian Fennesz & Ryuichi Sakamoto - Amorph
• 43:22 end

Kyle Bobby Dunn Live!

Kyle Bobby Dunn & Phantom Fauna Saturday, March 05 at 7:00 PM

St. Augustine Catholic Church
116 6th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY



I know this is late notice but this sounds like a great show for anyone interested in the music of Kyle Bobby Dunn. Looks like a great venue & it's FREE!

Here are a couple of questions & answers with Kyle from a NYC website...

You're performing at the St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church in Park Slope on March 5. How did you come across this space? Why did you choose it?

I live quite close to it and upon wandering around the quiet neighborhood one day I found it staring down at my pitiful ass. I was amazed by its sheer size and build. I think churches are an ideal space for my sound.

Back in September you played at the First Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn Heights with a small ensemble. What sort of instrumentation will you have for the March 5 performance?

This will be simply guitar arrangements and some processors. Maybe a little organ.

Enjoy

Quintessential Jazz

No pretense of ambience in this mix, just straight forward jazz. I came across an interesting list here... Quintessential Jazz Songs.

The Jazz 100 is a list compiled by listeners of jazz24.org & NPR Music. It's kinda fun to read some of the comments because the listeners get very passionate about the list. Much of the list is very recognizable & some of the tracks I'd never heard before, so it was great to dig in & discover music I probably should have known about for a long time.

So this mix is just a quick compilation of just a few tracks from the list, with the exception of the Paul Desmond tune(it just worked perfectly following Take 5 with Take Ten).

Even though this deviates from from the usual ambient I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Miles Davis - So What
• 09:20 Ahmad Jamal - Poinciana(the song of the tree)
• 13:33 Duke Ellington & John Coltrane - In a Sentmental Mood
• 17:40 Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder
• 27:44 Dave Brubeck - Take 5
• 32:57 Paul Desmond - Take Ten
• 36:00 Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto - The Girl from Ipanema
• 41:05 Oliver Nelson - Stolen Moments
• 49:32 Wayne Shorter - Footprints
• 54:57 Bill Evans - Waltz for Debbie
• 01:53 end

television sky

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
> _ William Gibson, Neuromacer

I love that line from "Neuromancer" & it's the jumping off point for this mix.

Now if I was going to do a true Neuromancer mix I'd use stuff like Autechre & other noisy, abrasive electronica. But this isn't really a Neuro mix, I'm not a big fan of later Autechre & music that gets so noisy as to be annoying.

In addition to that line, some new music I discovered at the end of last year got me thinking about an electronica style mix. The excellent music blog, A Strangely Isolated Place, posted their A - Z of 2010 list on December 27th. I discovered some great electronica like Lights Out In Asia, Tropics, aKido, Com Truise, Horizon Fire and more. I listened to enough of the new stuff to know that I wanted to do a related mix.

The mix is fairly straight forward but takes a different turn when it hits the two soundtrack pieces, "Kanada's Death, pt. 2" & "Monsters Theme", from John Murphy & Jon Hopkins. I absolutely love those two tracks & figured this was the best chance to incorporate them into a mix. They actually fit pretty well.

Enjoy.


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Milieu - Ghosts In The Trees, Songs In The Breeze (Am-Boy Alternate Remix)
• 07:32 Horizon Fire - Passed out in a Datsun
• 11:40 aKido - Mrchf Thftr
• 13:10 Morgan Packard - Again
• 15:25 Jon Hopkins - Wire
• 19:50 Marconi Union - Stationary
• 26:20 Lights out in Asia - Attempt No Landings There
• 31:00 John Murphy - Kanada's Death, pt. 2 (adagio in d minor)
• 33:20 James Murray - Eleven(decades_mix)
• 40:10 Jon Hopkins - Monsters Theme
• 43:50 Parks - Perfect Silence
• 49:45 aKido - Carrousel
• 54:05 Tropics - Soft Vision
• 59:20 end

Television Sky by Lowlight on Mixcloud

slow & sleepy

Yah! A new mix finally! I've been ridiculously busy lately(10 days at the Super Bowl) so haven't been able to do much mixing. Hopefully that will change.

This is another mix where the title says it all...slow & sleepy.

Pretty straight forward ambient with long, stretched out chords, slow motion sounds to suspend consciousness.

Many of the tracks used here are new or fairly new. A lot of good music has been released in the last few months. I'll have to dive in & come up with some new mixes. I'm sort of planning a neo-classical mix, electronic beats, classic jazz, mellow prog rock, etc.

For now I hope you enjoy slow & sleepy.

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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Kyle Bobby Dunn - Remnants
• 05:20 Wouter Veldhuis - Satumaa
• 09:30 Celer - A Lifetime of Wasted Breaths
• 14:30 Grasslung - When We Were Young
• 20:45 Wixel - Melsbroek
• 22:15 Simon Scott - Silenne
• 28:00 Gareth Hardwick - London 220109
• 34:45 Alio Die & Zeit - punto di fusione
• 41:45 Danny Saul - kinison (part 2)
• 43:00 Listening Mirror - Cast Off
• 48:30 Hakobune - a yearlong thought
• 52:00 Stephan Mathieu - Minuet
• 1:00:00 end

Slow & Sleepy by Lowlight on Mixcloud