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

obscured by time

"The passage of time is flickering dimly upon the screen."

I've called this mix "Obscured by Time" because it has that grainy, blurry feel to it, like looking through gauze. The once distinct events in our memories melt together like the washes of sound in this mix.

This collection was inspired by the two 2010 releases by 36, "Memories in Widescreen" & "Hollow". A pair of great releases that are at times haunting & beautiful. As described at 3six.net, some of the tracks "use turbulent sheets of white noise, alongside classical instruments to create an eerie, almost ghost-like quality."

All the tracks have that same noisy, grainy texture to them. Most are fairly new, with the Basinski & Jeck tracks probably being the oldest. I love going back to Basinski & wish I could have snuck in a track from Disintegration Loops. Guess that will have to be used in the sequel.

"Several times, I've seen the evening slide away,
Watching the signs taking over from the fading day." - Brian Eno, "Golden Hours"

Enjoy.

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T R A C K L I S T :

• [00:00] Ous Mal - Marraskuu
• [03:15] The Fun Years - Makes Sense to Me
• [06:50] Maps & Diagrams - The Modern Century
• [08:48] 36 - Geiga
• [13:52] Erik De Cordier - Spadomur
• [14:35] Tim Hecker - Celestina
• [18:00] Ithaca Trio - Untitled #10
• [21:25] The Humble Bee - 26 jan 2010
• [24:00] Wixel - You're Inside Your Own Shadow
• [27:40] 36 - Equassa
• [31:00] Damian Valles - The Alphabet of Lines
• [34:06] Philip Jeck - Wipe
• [37:35] William Basinski - Melancholia II
• [42:38] d_rradio - Death of the Fair Green Veil
• [43:50] Tape Loop Orchestra - Tokyo Twilight
• [45:50] Philip Jeck - Soaked
• [48:12] 36 - Drifta
• [53:18] END

pno 2010

This last mix of 2010 is a mix that I did for Headphone Commute about 3 months ago. They were kind enough to ask for a mix & I was honored to add it to their great collection of mixes they post at their own site & at their Mixcloud site.

I realized that if I was going to post this piano mix I'd better do it now because the title is "pno 2010" so I need to squeeze it into 2010 before it's gone.

This mix starts with John Cage – “On a Landscape”, which is appropriate, because that tune is the reason I did this piano mix. I’d never heard “In a Landscape” when a friend linked to it on youtube. What a great piece of music. So I decided to build a piano mix with that as the jumping off point.

The other unusual piece in this mix is Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guébrou – “Golgotha” by an Ethiopian nun living in Jerusalem. Her music is unique, it filters the traditional Ethiopian pentatonic scale through classical technique– in the end sounding like impressionistic jazz. Wonderful music.


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T R A C K L I S T :

• [00:00] John Cage – In a Landscape
• [04:15] Kyo Ichinose – Engine #5
• [05:20] Worrytrain – Hospitalized
• [06:45] Max Richter – Infra #6
• [09:35] Nest – The Twelve
• [14:00] Tanner Menard – Laws of Attraction
• [19:50] Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guébrou – Golgotha
• [24:27] Craig Armstrong – Gentle Piece
• [27:10] Ben Woods – Stare Out in Silence
• [32:25] Gavin Bryars – My First Homage
• [38:10] Kyo Ichinose – Lontano #0
• [40:00] Chris Abrams – Christmas Island
• [44:45] Arovane – Tokyo Ghost Stories
• [49:50] Christian Fennesz & Ryuichi Sakamoto – Kokoro
• [53:15] Andrey Kiritchenko – Agravic Illusion

.

More end of the year stuff

Here's a couple more year-end lists & thoughts.

My 5 favorite Low Light Mixes of 2010:

1. In Foreign Lands
2. Footsteps
3. Left in the Desert
4. A Canticle Unfolds
5. Beneath the Surface

Other fav mixes from around the web:

1. :papercutz - Dream Scores - a Headphone Commute mix
2. Subheim - Headphone Commute mix
3. Invisible Ink - An Ambientblog mix
4. Everything Old - a Quiet Sounds podcast
5. echochorus - chiekurspace mix
6. Marooned - a Harry Towell mix

Other favorites things in 2010 :

1. Tiny Desk Concerts - this is a series of very intimate concerts over at NPR Music. Whether it's Olaf Arnalds, The Tom Tom Club, Black Dub or The Red River, the concerts are always entertaining. There is video of each & the audio is downloadable.
2. Slaapwel Records - a small label that specializes in music to fall asleep to. All their recordings are excellent. I eagerly await each new release.
3. Filmography 2010 - one of my favorite online videos from the past year. The editor took clips from 270 films of 2010 & cut them to great music with great results. The first minute, where she remixes "Nostrand" by Ratatat with "Power" by Kanye West & audio from films clips, is brilliant!
4. Wixel - 12 Records in 12 Months - Wixel is Wim Maesschalck, who also runs Slaapwell. He set out on a crazy project back in 2009, to release 12 records in 12 months. He does a nice job of keeping the quality high & changes things up enough to make all the releases interesting. Not really a best of 2010 entry, but I discovered it this year & wanted to draw attention to an outstanding project.