asleep at the piano

Looking back over the last six years of mixes, the piano has been the featured instrument in many of the the tracks.  I guess it goes all the way back to Ambient #1 : Music for Airports.  The piano is a perfect instrument for the contemplative, ambient music in the mixes found here.

As far as I can tell, I've done four mixes devoted exclusively to the piano.  They are...

1) Piano Mix
2) Piano Mix 2007
3) Antique Sunlight
4) pno 2010

This fifth installment, "asleep at the piano," is very similar to the others.  Although this one may be a bit more ambient in nature. 

I was happy to squeeze in two tracks related to Harry Towel, the man behind the brilliant net label Audio Gourmet.  The first by Talvihorros is from the 2011 Audio Gourmet release "Just a Moment" which you can find here...Just a Moment.  The other cut is from Harry's recording artist guise, Spheruleus.  The track, Blueprint, is from his album on Tessellate Recordings called Cyanometry.  You can find that one here...Cyanometry at Bandcamp.  You can find some of Harry's excellent mixes on Mixcloud here...Spheruleus on Mixcloud and here...Groundingsounds on Mixcloud.

Enjoy.


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T R A C K L I S T :

•  00:00    Sissors & Sellotape - untitled #1
• 01:51    Cepia - Malcesine
• 03:23    Jon Hopkins - water
• 04:20    Cluster & Eno - ho renomo
• 07:45    Ruben Garcia - Rainy Day
• 13:15    Tim Hecker - sketch 1
• 17:20    Tomoyoshi Date - the sound of the moon
• 20:10    Antonymes - 301210
• 24:50    Loscil - City Hospital
• 28:28    Willitts & Sakamoto - Reticent Reminiscence
• 32:00    Talvihorros - Hallowed
• 33:15    A Winged Victory for the Sullen - minuet for a cheap piano
• 36:00    The Beautiful Schizophonic and Yui Onodera - nubian clouds over Saskia
• 41:00    Spheruleus - Blueprint
• 44:25    Janek Schaefer - eyrie of the phoenix
• 45:30    Harold Budd & John Foxx - After all this Time
• 50:25    Sissors & Sellotape - untitled #4
• 52:15    Tape Loop Orchestra - the word on my lips is your name
• 57:25    Jon Hopkins - the end
• 02:06    END

Asleep at the piano by Lowlight on Mixcloud

Sunday Morning Music vol. 4 - To Speak of Solitude

Oops!  It's Sunday night & I'm posting a mix called Sunday Morning Music.  Oh well, play it next Sunday while reading the paper with a cup of coffee.

This is the fourth in the Sunday morning series.  It follows a similar pattern - some ambient, some vocal tunes, some jazz - all of it nice & relaxing.  Perfect for a Sunday morning.  This morning I was actually able to sip coffee out on the deck(shown in the pic). Not bad for the 11th of November in Wisconsin.

Two of my favorite cuts in the mix are the two tracks(End of the World & The Smallest Piece) from the soundtrack of "Beasts of the Southern Wild."  I'm o very fond of the cuts from Geoffrey Oreyma & Andrew Bird.  The latest release from Andrew Bird will definitely be on my year-end,best-of list.

Enjoy.


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Brambles - To Speak of Solitude
• 03:30    The xx - Angels
• 06:11    The Boats - The Ballad For The Girl On The Moon
• 09:40    The Bark Psychosis - Pendulum Man
• 16:40    Trespassers William - Believe Me
• 20:46    Yo Yo Ma & Chris Thile - Franz & The Eagle
• 24:20    Geoffrey Oryema - Makambo
• 28:55    Pat Metheny/Steve Reich - Electric Counterpoint
• 32:09    Philip Glass & Nosaj Thing - Knee 1
• 35:35    Charles Lloyd Quartet - Dwija
• 40:40    Clarke - Black Stone
• 42:34    Benh Zeitlin, Dan Romer, The Lost Bayou Ramblers - End of the World
• 44:00    Benh Zeitlin, Dan Romer, The Lost Bayou Ramblers - The Smallest Piece
• 45:25    Andrew Bird - Beyond the Valley of the Three White Horses
• 51:25    Horse Feathers - Summer for Capricorns
• 54:28    David Sylvian - Camp Fire Coyote Country
• 58:00    Nils Frahm - Sol

Sunday Morning Music vol. 4 - To Speak of Solitude by Lowlight on Mixcloud

s t r e t c h e d beyond recognition

This is a very slow, droney kind of mix.  All the music has been stretched or slowed down so much that the tunes are unrecognizable from the originals.

I used a great little program called Paul Stretch which you can find here... http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/

It take music and stretches or slows it down dramatically but still keeps it very musical.  I've used the program a few times for mixes in the past but never for creating an entire mix.

All the tracks are slowed by at least 10x to 15x.  The slowed down result is perfect for meditation, sleeping or daydreaming.  It's kind of amazing to me how it was possible to create something entirely new from the source material.  Steve Reich's Six Marimbas seemed to work well because it's so repetitive that you still got a sense of movement even slowed way down.

Enjoy.


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Cliff Martinez - First Sleep
• 05:30    Steve Reich - Six Marimbas
• 12:15    Noto & Sakamoto - By This River
• 21:00    Anonymous 4 - medie noctis tempus
• 21:40    Tangerine Dream - Tangram
• 34:45   Steve Reich - Six Marimbas
• 52:50    Budd & Eno - A Stream with Bright Fish
• 1:00:00    end

S  t  r  e  t  c  h  e  d  beyond recognition by Lowlight on Mixcloud

illusions of autumn

I wanted to get this mix in while it is still autumn.  I originally did this mix last fall for the good folks over at Headphone Commute.  If you've not been there, head over to their great site for reviews, news, sound clips & of course mixes.

The music in the mix sort of has an autumnal feel to it at least I hope so considering the title is “Illusions of Autumn.”  Not sure what qualifies a tune as being autumnal, I guess it’s a case of “I know it, when I hear it.” 

I was glad to use the Arve Henriksen tune, I love his stuff but sometimes it doesn't fit in a straight ambient mix.  But it works well here, it really has a nice fall color feel to me.

Enjoy autumn while you can, winter is will be here soon.

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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Nils Frahm - Old Thought
• 04:00    Cliff Martinez - Rubber Head
• 06:25    Benoît Pioulard - Malick
• 08:45    Daniel Lanois - Matador
• 13:05    King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - First Watch
• 15:10    Harold Budd - Come Back to Me in Dreams
• 16:55    Arve Henriksen - Sorrow and It's Opposite
• 19:00    Steve Tibbetts - Nine Doors Breathing Space
• 20:55    Arve Henriksen - Sorrow and It's Opposite(continuation)
• 21:40    Andrey Kiritchenko - Agravic Illusion
• 26:50    Animal Hospital - Nostalgia
• 28:00    The Fun Years - Fucking Milwaukee's Been Hesher Forever
• 31:15    Bexar Bexar - n.r.o.t.
• 34:05    Daniel Lanois - Sketches
• 38:00    Antonymnes meets Slow Dancing Society - A Feeling of Being Closer
• 46:55    Maps & Diagrams - When the Night Came
• 50:15    Emanuele Errante - Counterclockwise
• 55:40    Cliff Martinez - Wrong Floor
• 57:05    end

Illusions of Autumn by Lowlight on Mixcloud

Favorite ambient artists

There is a new release from Loscil called "Sketches from New Brighton."  And of course it's excellent, everything from Loscil is excellent.  As I listened to it I figured that Loscil would have to be one of my favorite ambient artists of all time.

That got me thinking...what are my top ten ambient artists of all time?  The artists on the list are ones I come back to again and again.  And also ones that have a decent sized body of work.  Scott Solter did one of my favorite ambient albums of all time, "One River."  But that was pretty much it from him.  So to make the list it was important to have a fair number of releases.

Well, here's the list, in no particular order:

1. Stars of the Lid
2. Brian Eno
3. Steve Roach
4. Loscil
5. Harold Budd
6. Maps & Diagrams
7. Alio Die
8. Sonmi451
9. William Basinski
10. Kyle Bobby Dunn

This mix is a collection of tracks from each of those artists.  The cuts used in the mix are not necessarily my favorite track from that artist, just tunes that worked well within the mix.  I did want to use something new from Loscil but something old from Eno & Harold Budd.

Honorable mentions might be:

• Marconi Union
• Robert Rich
• Taylor Deupree
• Saul Stokes
• Gas
• Hammock
• Aglaia
• Marsen Jules
• Spheruleus
• Windy & Carl
• David Tagg
• A Produce
• 36

If any listeners would like to leave their lists in the comments that would be very cool.


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Loscil - Prairie Trains
• 07:15    Steve Roach - Tranquility Base
• 13:55    Stars of the Lid - The Atomium, part 2
• 21:00    Harold Budd - Balthus Bemused by Color
• 25:25    Brian Eno - Slow Water
• 28:00    Maps & Diagrams - Secrets of the Shore
• 30:45    Kyle Bobby Dunn - The Tributary(for voices lost)
• 38:03    Alio Die - Ultima Latet
• 50:40    William Basinski - 92982.3
• 55:30    Sonmi451 - Ruis
• 1:03:33    end

Favorite Ambient Artists by Lowlight on Mixcloud

Daylight Fades download

This is the follow up to the earlier "Daylight Fades" post.  Now it is available to download here in the normal manner.

I'll re-post what I said about the mix to the folks at acloserlisten.com.

The mix is called “daylight fades” because as I was listening to “Olancha Farewell” by Harold Budd [off Lovely Thunder]  it made me think of sitting on the front porch watching the sky begin to darken as daylight fades.  Once I had that feeling in mind I just kept my ears open for a couple of weeks listening for tracks that would work well with that theme.  The cuts are mostly newer music with the exception of a couple Harold Budd tunes.  I’ve be digging through my collection of Harold Budd music & kind of re-discovering pieces that I haven’t heard for years.

I really like this mix and hope you all connect with it like I did.  I'm working on some new mixes, a piano mix, sustain & decay vol. 3 and one of ambient music from non-ambient artists.  Hopefully  those will come to fruition in the next month or so two.


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T R A C K L I S T :

·         00:00  Harold Budd - olancha farewell

·         02:04    *AR - Inception

·         03:45    Vieo Abiungo - Insincerity Peeked Through Cloudlessly (Upward Arrows Remix)

·         06:15    Wolfgang Voigt - Fresko 1

·         09:08    Willits + Sakamoto - Completion

·         13:30    d_rradio - Falling Light

·         16:30    Alessio Ballerini - Night in Day

·         19:10    Plinth - the sunken carillon

·         23:45    Harold Budd with Zeitgeist - I blink and she's gone

·         25:20    Marconi Union - part 4(from weightless)

·         32:00    Chihei Hatakeyama - Road After Rain

·         37:12    Willamette - images dune longueur de cheveux

·         43:40    Kyle Bobby Dunn - An Evening with Dusty

·         47:05    36 - Levitate

·         51:10    Christopher Willits - Olancha Hello

·         53:42    Brian Eno - For Real

·         1:00:24    end

Daylight Fades by Lowlight on Mixcloud

Daylight Fades

The good folks over at A Closer Listen, recently asked me to do a mix for them.  Of course I jumped at the chance as their site is full of great reviews, links, recommendations, mixes & overall great stuff.

The mix, called Daylight Fades, is posted at A Closer Listen & their Mixcloud page.  I really like this mix & have been playing it around the house for a couple of weeks now.  It may become one of my favorite Low Light mixes.

I will eventually post it here for download, but for now I want to give them the traffic & hits.  So stay tuned for the download link down the road.  For now enjoy the stream from Mixcloud.

Here are some of the websites of the cool folks from A Closer Listen:

www.acloserlisten.com
www.lostchildrennetlabel.com
www.soundlcloud.com/thenewobjective
http://thenewobjective.tumblr.com

Daylight Fades Mix by Lostchildrennetlabel on Mixcloud

Music for a Mars landing - Curiosity EDL

Back in November I did a mix for the launch of Curiosity, NASA's newest Mars rover.  Now 8 months later, Curiosity has arrived at Mars.  So this mix is music for landing on Mars, in honor of Curiosity's EDL or entry, descent and landing.

Obviously the landing went perfectly.  It's an incredible accomplishment.  I love seeing video of the cheering crew at JPL.

Here's one of the first color pix from Curiosity.  It shows Aeolis Mon, or Mount Sharp, in the background.  Looks klike Curiosity should have a fairly clear path to the 18,000 foot Martian mountain.  

I started off this mix just picking electronic tunes I liked for this theme then quickly realized that many of the titles fit perfectly.  Track titles such as "We Travel", "Bold Advances" "Flying (in crimson skies)" and "Arrival".  So I looked for a few more with appropriate names, kept a few that had titles that didn't matter and the mix was launched.

Enjoy.

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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Marconi Union - We Travel
• 06:55    Tycho - Adrift
• 14:40    Dub Trees - Dreamlab
• 17:35    Loops of Your Heart - End
• 22:50    Ricardo Donoso - conditional formatting descent
• 24:55    Lunar Testing Lab - Slinky Antenna
• 26:45    Bersarin Quartet - Der Mond, der Schnee und Du
• 30:47    Stendec - Descent
• 32:05    Helios - Bold Advances
• 34:15    Anenon - The Sea and The Stars
• 35:44    Clark - Skyward Bruise/Descent
• 37:15    Daft Punk - Arrival
• 38:56    Marconi Union - Flying (in crimson skies)
• 45:10    Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm - b1
• 52:15    Altus - The Awe and Wonder
• 58:40    Wixel - Surface Dust
• 1:00:18    Hecq - Red Sky

Music for a Mars landing by Lowlight on Mixcloud

The God Particle

Those of us who are science dorks were fascinated earlier this month when it was announced that the discovery of a new particle was very likely the elusive Higgs-Boson.  The particle has been the subject of a nearly 50 year hunt to explain why matter has mass.

This mix is a celebration of that discovery.  With titles like "Particle," "Sweet Collision," and "Magnetic Fields," all the track titles work very well with a Higgs-Boson, high energy physics theme.

Enjoy.


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T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Miles Tilman - Particle
• 03:33    Saul Stokes - Vapor Trails
• 07:30    Mr. Projectile - Tiny Distances
• 08:30    Can - Quantum Physics
• 09:44    Baffo Banfi - Love Magnetic Research
• 14:23    Burial - Shell of Light
• 18:27    John Adams - Short Ride in a Fast Machine
• 23:05    Cliff Martinez - Hi Energy Proton Accelerator
• 25:05    Benjamin Dauer - Sweet Collision
• 30:20    Loren Dent - Sub-Atomic Love Song
• 32:45    Spheruleus - Suspended Particles
• 35:30    Martin Herterich - Silent Fields 2
• 42:25    Maps & Diagrams - Particles of Earth
• 44:44    Pale Sketcher - Tiny Universes
• 48:52    Dub Trees - Magnetica
• 52:21    Jean Michel Jarre - Magnetic Fields part 1
• 59:00    Vir Unis - They Call It The God Particle
• 1:04:11    end

 
 
 

The God Particle by Lowlight on Mixcloud

2 great new albums

Anyone that has followed this blog for some time will know that some of my favorite music comes from Marconi Union & Kyle Bobby Dunn.  Well they both have fantastic new albums just out.

Marconi Union - Different Colours (just music)
A little bit of ambient, dub, jazz, electronica combined together for another great Marconi Union album.  I love everything these guys do and this new release is no exception.

Kyle Bobby Dunn - Bring Me the Head of Kyle Bobby Dunn (low point)
You can't find more beautiful drones than those of Kyle Bobby Dunn.  His last two albums, A Young Person's Guide to Kyle Bobby Dunn & Ways of Meaning are some of my favorite ambient recordings of the last ten years.  Bring Me the Head continues with the sounds of gorgeous, decaying drones.  Perfect ambient music.

An Evening With Dusty - Kyle Bobby Dunn from Joey Bania on Vimeo.


Both of the albums will be on my year-end best of list.