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
  

a solitary sea

I haven't had time to do anything new lately but today I'm home sick so I had some time in between naps.

I was listening to "Nautica" by krill.minima, and it got me in the mood for some "sea" music.

A few things came to mind immediately, such as Eluder, Loscil & a new track by Intrusion. From there I just searched for tunes with 'sea', 'water', 'ocean' or other watery words in the titles. I think the tunes work pretty well together. The first 20 minutes has a great ebb & flow, breathing-like quality which I love.

Enjoy.


Download(right click/save) : 110mb, 60:00 min.
a solitary sea

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 krill.minima - Submarine Poetry
• 07:00 Intrusion - Under the Ocean
• 10:00 Eluder - The Most Beautiful Blue
• 14:30 Rod Modell - Cold Watery Depths
• 21:30 Jim Cole - Ocean Depths
• 25:00 Adam Pacione - Buoy
• 31:10 Loscil - Pressure
• 35:00 Thomas Koner - 31.46.n.35.13e(hour ten)
• 36:20 Milieu - Christening Ships at port
• 43:20 krill.minima - Surface from the Groundless Oceans
• 50:30 Shaula - Sea of Trees
• 53:30 Jeff Greinke - Over Water
• 1:00:00 end
  

landing dust

 The year was 1982.  I was a student at UW-Madison and very much into ambient music.  Eno had released the 4 ambient albums along with others like Music for Films, Discreet Music, Evening Star, No Pussyfooting and I had them all.

I don’t play any instruments but I enjoy playing with anything musical.  My roommate had a Teac reel-to-reel tape machine that I loved to play with.  Through Fripp & Eno I had learned to feed the output of the play head back though to the rec input to create a nice loop/echo effect.  I’d sit & play with it for hours.  I made recordings as I strung rubber bands on the legs of the coffee table, poured water into metal bowls, beat coffee cans with pencils, created feedback by dropping the mic into various containers and so on.

One of my favorite things to record was my cheap little Casio keyboard, the kind with only four voices…piano, flute, violin and organ.  Eventually I figured out how to get the system to create nice drones & feedback loops.  This track is the result of that experimentation.  There is little or no musicianship involved.  It was improvised live to tape using the Casio keyboard & the Teac reel-to-reel.

At least I think it was live, there might have been some drone recorded in the first pass then played back on some crappy cassette deck while more loopy feedback was played along with it.  Either way, I was just making it up & twiddling knobs as I went along.

It brings back a lot of memories of messing around with any sort of audio gear I could get my hands on as I was growing up.  Walking through the neighborhood with a recorder & headphones on, sitting in my parents basement til 2am trying to get some Jean Michel Jarre sounds out of an old synth, laying in bed at night trying to tune in a barely-working shortwave radio, wiring old car speakers to the furniture in my bedroom when I was 14.

I actually like this track, “Landing Dust”, that came from that reel-to-reel experimentation.  It’s definitely the only thing close to musical or ambient I’ve ever recorded.  I have no idea if anyone else will find this listenable.  But I wanted to throw it out there anyway.

Download :   49mb,   20:26

Landing Dust

Reflections

My output hasn’t been great the last couple of months but thanks to some talented guest mixers Low Light Mixes has new material to post. This is the third guest mix in the last 4 or 5 months and they are all greatly appreciated.

For this mix Muttley presents – Back to Mine Pt. 2 – Reflections. This is our second mix from Mick, who did “Drones in Duality” back in June. He describes "Reflections" as “music for healing bereavements, remedying mental disorders brought to light, enacting occupational therapy, and cherishing the good memories that can sometimes be hard to reach.”

Mick has other fine mixes floating around the intertubes. You can find some at Subversion and his Ambient Lovers thread(congrats on 300 posts!). Soon he will have mixes available at Hydrogen Cafe and Presto Samo. Mick also collaborated with Rick at Hydrogen Cafe on a great mix called “Transference”. Check out all of the Muttley mixes, wherever you may find them.

Download : 169mb, 74:00min.

Reflections

T R A C K L I S T :

01. Brian Mcbride - The Guilt Of Uncomplicated Thoughts (from the album "When The Detail Lost Its Freedom" - Kranky)
02. Philip Jeck - Wholesome (from the album "7" - Touch)
03. Rameses III - The Kindness Of Letting Go (from the album "I Could Not Love You More" - Type)
04. Mogwai - Aidan's Waltz (from the album "Come On Die Young" - Chemikal Underground)
05. Hilmar O Hilmarrson & Sigur Ros - Degradation (from the album "Angels Of The Universe" - Import)
06. Olafur Arnalds - Lost Song (from the album "Found Songs" - Erased Tapes)
07. ASC - Highbrow (from the Warm008 12' - Warm Communications)
08. Autechre - Nil (from the album "Amber" - Warp)
09. The Drift - Noumena (from the album "Ceiling Sky" - Temporary Residence)
10. The Alpha Rhythm - The Return (from the album "Proof Of Concept" - Seedknowledge)
11. The Cinematic Orchestra - Diabolus (from the album "Motion" - Ninja Tune)
12. Badmammal - Sending And Taking (goodluck/badluck unreleased)
13. Glint - Double Vision (from the album "Sound In Silence" - www.glintonline.com)
14. A Silver Mount Zion - The Triumph Of Our Tired Eyes (from the album "Born Into Trouble As The Sparks Fly Upward" - Constellation)

Beyond this window

Generally I like autumn. I don't mind the colder temps, colors are great, don't have to mow the lawn anymore, etc. But this year the weather has been nasty, too cold too soon & lots of rain.

So I set out to do a bleak, cold October mix. But as usually happens with mixes, they take on a life of their own and lead you in different directions. I realized, as I was collecting tunes, that I didn't want the mix to turn into some dark, Halloween-ish affair.

Ultimately I turned to all new music as source material. While most of it is not all bleak & depressing, neither is it all sunny & bright. I'm glad to have worked some currents favs into the mix, such as Leyland Kirby, Sufjan Stevens, Loren Dent & Volcano Choir.

Even though today was a beautiful, sunny fall day, I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities for a hot cup of coffee, listening to this mix & gazing beyond this, or any, window.


D o w n l o a d : (right click/save as) 81mb, 59:22
Beyond this window

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 wind
  
• 00:30 Solo Andata - Beyond this Window (from the album Solo Andata)
  
• 04:00 David Tagg - Wind Blown Guitar (from the album Wind Blown Guitar)
• 07:50 Aidan Baker - Explosions (from the album Dry)
• 11:30 Segue - October (from the album Grey)
• 16:00 Ian Hawgood - Shore Peotry (from the album Snow Roads)
• 16:30 Isnaj Dui - That which was lost (from the album unstable equlibrium)
• 22:00 Leyland Kirby - Memories live longer than dreams (from the album sadly the future is no longer what it was)
• 27:20 Sufjan Stevens - Postlude - Critical Mass (from the album The BQE)
• 29:30 Talvihorros - Handwriting Pt. 1 (from the album Some Ambulance)
• 34:20 Loren Dent - Ecstasy of Morning (from the album Anthropology extras)
• 40:50 Ave Maria stretched
• 42:50 Billy Gomberg - Verse (from the album Days)
• 47:50 Volcano Choir - Husks & Shells (from the album unmap)
• 51:00 Chihei Hatakeyama - Landscape on a Hill (from the album Saunter)
• 59:22 end
  

MixCloud

This weekend I came across the site MixCloud. The site launched in September. It allows users to upload mixes, listen to mixes and follow dj's/mixers.

The first user I decided to follow is Fluid Radio. They have several mixes available for streaming. All of the them are excellent, featuring artists such as Mico Nonet, Greg Haines, Deaf Centre, Taylor Deupree, Richard Skelton, Off The Sky, Relmic Statute and more. Great mixes of ambient, modern classical, glitch, acoustic music. I think Low Light listeners will really enjoy these mixes.

Here's the most recent Fluid Radio set...

Maps And Diagrams - Fromideastowords by Fluid Radio on Mixcloud