Saturday, April 26, 2014

Favorite Ambient Tracks of All Time


I've already done a "Favorite Ambient Albums" mix and a "Favorite Ambient Artists" mix so it makes sense that there would eventually be a "Favorite Ambient Tracks" mix.  And here it is.

Ambient music is definitely not a song based genre.  I like to remember works as a whole or an artist's work as a whole.  There are artists that I absolutely love but can't name more than a handful of specific tunes.  So it sort of goes against form to make a list of fav ambient tracks.  That being said, when I sat down to make a list there were a few cuts that I immediately knew I wanted in the mix, like Structures From Silence.

This is a looong mix, clocking in at 2 hours and 9 minutes.  I wanted to let some of the longer tracks breathe, even if I couldn't play the entire 28 minutes of Structures.

Here's a few thoughts on the tunes that made the cut...

The first track in the mix is a beautiful, watery tune, Submarine Poetry, from krill.minima.  I used this one in my first "sea" mix and every time I play that mix I marvel at how perfect this tune is.

Next up is Lantern Marsh by Brian Eno.  I could have filled this entire mix with Eno favorites but I had to try and limit myself somehow.  I love On Land and this cut pretty much sums up that wonderful album for me.

Track number three is Lear by Stuart Dempster, Panaiotis and Pauline Oliveros.  I'm curious as to how widely known the album Deep Listening is.  This is not classic Eno or Roach ambient.  The recording took place inside a huge cistern which is responsible for its tremendous reverb.  The unusual instruments of accordion, trombone, didgeridoo and voice use the acoustics of the cistern to create long sustained drones.  The effect is hypnotic and beautiful.

The fourth cut is the previously mentioned Steve Roach track, Structures From Silence.  A lot of ambient music doesn't really have a recognizable melody but this song is about as close as you'll get.  I've been listening to this one for a loooooong time and never seem to tire of it.

Next is Peter Gabriel's The Nest That Sailed The Sky from the Ovo album.  The album is pretty hit and miss but this tune is gorgeous.

Another Eno tune drops next and it's Drift from the Apollo album.  There several cuts on this album that could make a lot of great ambient lists but I just like this song because it reminds me of the scenes it was used with in the film For All Mankind.  If you haven't seen the film do so asap!

The next cut has been a sleep time favorite for years.  It's A Smooth Surface by A Produce.  I love all the space between notes.  It doesn't really change much over the course of a long track, but that's what I love about it.

I have a special place in my ambient heart for the eighth track, Silence Speaks In Shadows, because it was recorded not far from where I live here in Wisconsin.  Paul Vnuk Jr. recorded environmental sounds near his studio in Cudahy.  Those sounds include thunderstorms, street noise, trains and even a police siren wailing in the night.  Combine those field recordings with some droney synths and you've got a great night time atmospheric piece.

The Most Beautiful Blue by Eluder is the next cut.  This is a track that I didn't realize how much I liked it until I realized that it kept showing up in mixes and playlists.  Similar to Submarine Poetry, it has that great ocean/sea feel to it that I love.

This next cut, Diamond Cove, is from a favorite artist of mine, Kyle Bobby Dunn.  It's from his album Bring Me The Head Of Kyle Bobby Dunn.  Just like Eno I could pick a bunch of KBD songs to put in this kind of mix but I settled on this one because I like its simplicity.

The KBD song segues nicely into the Olancha Farewell by Harold Budd.  I didn't know how much I loved this track until I recently heard for the first time in years.  Normally when I think of Harold Budd I think of his ambient piano but this track is just too beautiful to keep out of this mix.  It's similar in feel to the KBD song that precedes it and to Rhubarb by Aphex Twin.  Olancha Farewell is from the album Lovely Thunder.

The Marsen Jules song, Oeillet Sauvage, is similar in feel to the A Produce track from earlier in the mix.  It has lots of space in between notes, which I love.

The third Eno song in the mix shows up next.  It's 1/1 from Music for Airports.  I remember buying this on vinyl the day it was released back in 1978.  I had come to Eno through David Bowie so I knew of some of his quieter stuff on Low and Before and After Science.  But I was unprepared for the deliberate repetition and slowness of Music for Airports.  It blew me away.  This album has remained a favorite to this day.

After Eno we move on to Mark Rownd - Painting Twilight.  I hesitated to put this track in because the album as a whole treads very close to new age territory.  But I sort of fell for this album back when it was released in 1998 and it has stayed with me.  Especially the title track, Painting Twilight.  It has that ebb and flow, breathing quality that I go for.

Next up is the classic Aphex Twin cut, Rhubarb from Selected Ambient Works, Vol.II.  I read somewhere once that this cut should be the theme song form the monolith in 2001:A Space Odyssey.  I could see that.

The next cut is even more Eno music, this time in the form of the Budd/Eno tune, An Echo Of Night from The Pearl.  A great atmospheric tune that would fit well on Eno's On Land.

One of my favorite ambient albums of the last ten years is Butterfly by Disturbed Earth.  First released on Atmoworks in 2012, it was originally recorded in 1977 using a Fripp-style two reel to reel set up.  I love ambient guitar in general and this one just hits the sweet spot of ambient guitar, ebb and flow, and classic sound and fell.

I'm not sure how many folks would put this next track on their best of all time lists.  If I were hearing this cut, The Path Not Taken by Thom Brennan, for the first time today I'm not sure if I would like it as much as I do.  I know that part of my love for this track is wrapped up in the time I discovered it back in the mid 90s when tribal ambient was a big deal.  I've pretty much stepped away from the tribal stuff now, but this track still gets me every time.

We reach the end of this epic mix with Fripp and Eno - Evening Star, the title track from Evening Star.  I know, more Eno.  But I couldn't resist this one.  Beautiful cut, perfect end for a favorite mix.

Wow!  That's easily the most I've ever written for a mix post.  Hope that didn't bore you to death.  I wasn't planning on a track by track essay but I started talking about a few and it just took off.  Anyway I hope you enjoy this mix I much as I did.


[ s t r e a m ]  [ d o w n l o a d ]   [ i t u n e s ]


T R A C K L I S T :

  • 00:00 krill.minima - Submarine Poetry
  • 07:25 Brian Eno - Lantern Marsh
  • 11:50 Stuart Dempster & Panaiotis & Pauline Oliveros - Lear
  • 20:15 Steve Roach - Structures from Silence
  • 28:40 Peter Gabriel - The Nest That Sailed The Sky
  • 33:00 Brian Eno - Drift
  • 35:25 A Produce - A Smooth Surface(deep meditation version)
  • 46:15 Paul Vnuk - Silence Speaks in Shadows
  • 53:30 Eluder - The Most Beautiful Blue
  • 58:15 Kyle Bobby Dunn - Diamond Cove
  • 01:01:20    Harold Budd - Olancha Farewell
  • 03:20 Marsen Jules - Oeillet Sauvage
  • 09:00 Brian Eno - Music for Airports 1/1
  • 19:00 Mark Rownd - Painting Twilight
  • 24:30 Aphex Twin - Rhubarb
  • 31:00 Budd & Eno - An Echo of Night
  • 33:05 Disturbed Earth - Butterfly
  • 45:30 Thom Brennan - The Path Not Taken
  • 02:01:30    Fripp & Eno - Evening Star
  • 02:08:54    end

Sunday, April 06, 2014

Sunday Morning Music Vol. 8 - slow mornings


Grab a cup of coffee and the paper with this mix as your Sunday soundtrack.

This iteration of the Sunday morning series uses mostly new music including a couple of great Bob Dylan covers from Sarah Jarosz and Phosphorescent.  I couldn't resist starting the mix with the wonderful "Morning" from Beck's new release.  I found this track on a mix by Bob Duskis over at Six Degrees Records.  Check out their excellent mix on Mixcloud here...SixDegreesRecords

From there we move on to a beautiful, jazzy track from Philémon Chante that I have been itching to use for a while.  That cut is from his album called Les Sessions Cubaines which you can find on Bandcamp here...Philémon Chante

There a couple soundtracks represented in the mix from two of the best films of 2013, "Her" and "Nebraska."  Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett collaborated for the "Her" soundtrack, with two cuts in this mix.  Mark Orton did the beautifully simple soundtrack for "Nebraska" and it shows up here in the track "The Old Compressor Escape."  I've got an Americana mix waiting in the wings which will have more from that soundtrack.

One of my other favs is the cut from Bill Callahan.  He remixed his 2013 album, "Dream River," as a dub album called "Have Fun With God."  It's fantastic!

Enjoy.


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T R A C K L I S T :

  • 00:00 Beck - Morning
  • 05:12 M. Ostermeier - Sunlight on My Desk
  • 07:55 Sam Prekop - A Cloud to the Back
  • 11:30 Philémon Chante - J'arrive toujours un peu trop tard
  • 15:40 Sarah Jarosz - Simple Twist of Fate
  • 20:20 Mark Orton - The Old Compressor Escape
  • 22:50 Thievery Corporation - le coeur (feat lou lou ghelichkhani)
  • 25:45 Assia Cunego - Canto Ostinato Section 25-30
  • 29:00 Segue - slow mornings
  • 34:00 Bill Callahan - Small Dub
  • 37:45 Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett - Dimensions
  • 40:34 Darcy James Argue's Secret Society - An Invitation
  • 43:08 Nick Cave - Into My Arms
  • 47:17 Phosphorescent - Tomorrow is a Long Time
  • 51:30 Paul Buchanan - Mid Air
  • 53:45 Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett - We're All Leaving
  • 56:17 end




Sunday, March 23, 2014

things left unsaid


Most regular visitors to this blog are aware that I also post these mixes over at Mixcloud.  I love Mixcloud.  I got in very early on and so have developed quite a few followers.  It's been fun watching it grow.  

One thing that has helped in growing that following is being one of the featured cloudcasts in the Ambient/Chillout category.  Well, apparently now Low Light Mixes is also one of the featured cloudcasts in the Classical category.  Some of my mixes my have some classical related tunes but I definitely wouldn't characterize these mixes as "classical."  But, what the heck, I'll take the extra exposure.

Being featured in the classical category was the genesis for this new mix, "things left unsaid."  It's an all classical mix.  Maybe it would be better to call it an orchestral mix because about half of the tracks are from film soundtracks, so not classical in the purest sense.

Most of the music is fairly new.  The oldest cut being the Jonnie Greenwood piece from 2007.  There a few tracks from Caleb Burhans and David Lang that are from 2013 releases that didn't make it onto my year in review lists because I didn't find them until 2014.  I found them on someone else's best of list.  They are both excellent recordings.  And of course I had to include some Johann Johannsson because I pretty much like everything he does.

I hope you enjoy this classical diversion.


[ s t r e a m ]  [ d o w n l o a d ]   [ i t u n e s ]


T R A C K L I S T :


  • 00:00 Max Richter - Spring 0(Recomposed By Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons)
  • 00:40 Johann Johannsson - By the River
  • 01:10 Caleb Burhans - The Things Left Unsaid
  • 05:00 Jonnie Greenwood - Open Spaces
  • 08:38 Alexandre Desplat - L'hôpital
  • 11:56 Jon Hopkins - How I Live Now
  • 16:15 Johann Johannsson - The Jewish Cemetery on Moellegade
  • 18:20 Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil - Prelude, The Atlas March
  • 19:31 Maya Beiser - Spiegel im Spiegel
  • 28:58 David Lang - no. 5. i am walking
  • 33:10 Colin Stetson - All the Days I've Missed
  • 34:10 Caleb Burhans - nunc dimittis
  • 38:25 Alexandre Desplat - Skies
  • 43:30 Max Richter - Winter 3(Recomposed By Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons)
  • 47:33 Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil - The Cloud Atlas Sextet
  • 51:26 Johann Johannsson - The Rocket Builder
  • 57:39 Caleb Burhans - The Things Left Unsaid(end)
  • 58:55 Alexandre Desplat - De rouille et d'os
  • 1:00:51    end


Sunday, March 09, 2014

Across the Water


One of the benefits of making and posting mixes for all these years is getting to know some like-minded folks from around the world.  One of those is my good friend, Jason O'Gorman, from the city of Cork in Ireland.

Jason did a guest mix for me way back in 2008.  Wow, typing that just made me realize that Low Light Mixes has been around for a long time - 8 years this month, an eternity in internet years.

Anyway, back to Jason.  You can find his 2008 mix, called Satellite, here... Satellite.  I really like that mix and have always wanted Jason to do another.  And now, 6 years later, we have "Across the Water."  Jason describes it this way - "There's a lot of contrast in this mix due to the theme, but it still flows. The mix is a 'journey' across an ambient ocean, to dark and beautiful places."

When I listen to my own mixes, I always hear every transition which at times can distract from the music.  But with Jason's mix I get lost in the flow, as one tunes blends into the next.  I love not knowing what's coming next.  Jason's mix is wonderful at transporting you from one place to another.  I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have.  And hopefully Jason won't wait 6 more years to produce another gem.

Cheers


[ s t r e a m ]  [ d o w n l o a d ]   [ i t u n e s ]


T R A C K L I S T:

  • 00:00 King Creosote & John Hopkins: First watch
  • 02:10 Mountains: Sand
  • 05:20 Stephan Mathieu: Promenade
  • 08:30 Ólafur Arnalds: Carry me anew
  • 10:07 Ólafur Arnalds: We (too) shall rest
  • 11:10 Apparat: K&F Thema (pizzicato)
  • 13:45 Lustmord: Babel
  • 17:45 Eluvium: Warm
  • 22:00 Mer-A: Aeolis Mons
  • 28:30 Mowgli: Canaan
  • 29:20 Ólafur Arnalds: Sudden throw
  • 32:35 White Moth Black Butterfly:Reluctance
  • 33:40 The Fun Years: Re: We're again buried under
  • 35:45 Goldmund: Downward to darkness on extend
  • 38:30 Mulm: Mørke
  • 41:50 Lustmord: Chorazin
  • 46:10 Murcof: Oort 1
  • 48:40 Bvdub & Loscil: Hespiredes
  • 53:00 Mer-A: Quasi Stellar
  • 56:10 Apparat: 44 (noise version)
  • 57:55 Apparat: 44
  • 60:55 Lustmord: Goetia
  • 63:30 Mountains: Circular C
  • 69:00 Jasper TX & Anduin: Walking in snow







Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Kyle Bobby Dunn and the Infinite Sadness

Just a quick note to give folks a heads up that the new Kyle Bobby Dunn album, "Kyle Bobby Dunn and the Infinite Sadness."

There's nobody that does minimal drones as beautifully as Kyle Bobby Dunn.  From the samples here...
K B D
...it sounds like this album will be a continuation of his excellent recent work.

Looks like advance orders for special vinyl edition start on March 1st with other formats on sale in late April/early May.

Can't wait for this release.








Sunday, February 02, 2014

Ghosts in the score

stirring up the dust
ghosts from the past whisper in
grooves of forever


There's a first for this blog - vinyl haiku.  I was looking for ways to describe this mix and as I collected expressive words, the list started to take on it's own poetic quality.   So I thought, what the heck, I'll just formalize it into an actual haiku.  It was fun, I haven't written any sort of silly haiku in years.

Anyway, the haiku fits this mix because the music is all dusty and scratchy.  It all has a old vinyl feel to it.  It some cases it has that feel because the music really is old, like early 1900s old.  Two of the tracks are actually old Edison cylinder recordings.  I searched through old recordings at archive.org for music that would blend well with the other ambient & neo-classical tracks in this mix.

I've done two previous mixes in this style - Sustain & Decay and Revenants of the Past.  A lot of ambient music makes use of noise, distortion, scratches, glitches, hiss & pops so the actual old recordings fit in nicely.  There are six old recordings that appear in the final mix.  Most of the ambient cuts are of fairly recent vintage.

I like the title for this mix because the word "score" takes on a double meaning as in a musical soundtrack as well as trench, channel or groove in a vinyl record or cylinder.

Enjoy the pops & hisses.


[ s t r e a m ]  [ d o w n l o a d ]   [ i t u n e s ]


T R A C K L I S T :

  • 00:00    1956 RCA Victor Vinyl Records Educational Documentary
  • 00:30    Arturo Toscanini - Romeo & Juliet Overture(Pt-1)1946
  • 01:25    The Caretaker - Mental Caverns Without Sunshine
  • 01:45    e and i - known things
  • 03:50    Maps & Diagrams - Longitudinal Vibration
  • 07:20    Billow Observatory - Helsinki Radio
  • 08:50    Tim Hecker - Sketch 6
  • 10:00    e and i - tiniest smile
  • 11:11    Philip Jeck - chime again
  • 14:05    Edison Bohemian Orchestra Lacinquantaine Cylinder Recording
  • 15:15    Ten and Tracer - By Twirling the Quicksphere
  • 18:00    Tape Loop Orchestra - The Word On My Lips Is Your Name
  • 19:50    Philip Jeck - Wipe
  • 23:15    Benoît Pioulard - Pidgin
  • 24:25    Mozart 'Gavotte in G' from 'Idomeneo' (1912)
  • 25:25    The Humble Bee - The Collecting Plate
  • 26:25    Part Timer - Undead part 1
  • 30:15    The Caretaker - Mental Caverns Without Sunshine
  • 31:00    Semiramide Overture 1912
  • 35:05    Maya Beiser - Time Loops
  • 37:25    From The Mouth of The Sun - Color Loss
  • 42:42    The Caretaker - A Last Glimpse Of The Land
  • 45:15    Tape Loop Orchestra - The Word On My Lips Is Your Name
  • 51:25    Albert Spalding - Thais(violin) Edison blue amberol cylinder 
  • 52:30    The Humble Bee - Fin
  • 54:07    end


Friday, January 17, 2014

Reflecting the Hybrid - by Chris Fraley, a member of the Hypnos Recordings Forums

This mix is a rare treat.  It's a guest mix from Chris Fraley.  I know Chris through correspondence and postings at the Hypnos Forum.  

I've been a member of the forum for a long time and I really enjoy the community there.  In this time of social networks and twitter it's nice to see that a classic forum still survives and thrives, mainly because of a shared love of ambient music.  Activity there ebbs and flows but there's always interesting topics and people hanging out.

As I said, I know Chris through the forum and as the two of us have similar tastes, I offered him the opportunity to do a mix for the blog.  He was hesitant at first because he'd never done something like this before.  But he decided to give it a shot and I'm very glad he did.

Chris said he "ended up making a mix based on some of the recent (2012 or later) neo-classical music that embodies the spirit of ambient and experimental acoustics."  The result is perfect.

I hope this is just the first of more guest mixes we may see from Chris.

Enjoy


[ s t r e a m ]  [ d o w n l o a d ]   [ i t u n e s ]


T R A C K L I S T:



Monday, January 06, 2014

a frozen world

It is freakin' cold here in Wisconsin right now.  It's going to be -20f below zero tonight and the high temp on Monday didn't get much above -10f.  Frigid temps like that call for a mix.

It's perfect timing for a freezing mix because a recent purchase was the album arctic conditions by stormloop.  With song titles like "Ice Wind," "In The Frozen Morning Light" and "Arctic Conditions," it was a perfect starting point for this mix.

Make some hot cocoa, sit back and try to stay warm.  Of course for listeners like Charles Glaspole in Australia, it's summer.  I guess you'll have to use your imagination.

Enjoy.


[ s t r e a m ]  [ d o w n l o a d ]   [ i t u n e s ]


T R A C K L I S T:

  • 00:00    Wind and walking in snow
  • 00:30    Terje Isungset - Go North
  • 01:36    stormloop - ice wind
  • 05:45    Marcus Fischer - Arctic 1
  • 10:10    Panoptique Electrical - Glacier Show I
  • 16:35    Ulf Lohmann - On Frozen Fields
  • 18:45    Blamstrain - Tundra V
  • 24:05    offthesky - beneath the ice shelf
  • 26:50    Harold Budd - Ice Floes in Eden
  • 29:15    stormloop - arctic conditions
  • 33:55    Good Weather For An Airstrike - Frozen In Thought
  • 37:25    Kiln - The Ice Floes
  • 38:40    Forrest Fang & Carl Weingarten - Freezing Days
  • 41:10    David Tagg - Arctic Reflection
  • 50:10    Brian Eno - Fields Of Ice
  • 58:00    Segue - A View of the Frozen Lake
  • 1:01:40   stormloop - in the frozen morning light
  • 1:08:00    end

Friday, December 27, 2013

Late Night Encounters Vol. 1

The title of this mix pretty much says it all.  This is a collection of tunes that works well at night.

I didn't want the mix to be dark & depressing or dark and scary, just something that feels more at home at night.  It's sort of the opposite of the Sunday morning mixes.  Although a few tunes could go either way.

I didn't start out making a "night" mix, it just sort of happened on it's own after the first few cuts.  The mix opens with a fantastic remix of Bowie's Sound & Vision.  This cut isn't necessarily a "night" tune but I just had to use it.  The next three cuts are what took the mix in the nightside direction.

I labeled the mix "Vol. 1" because I'd like to turn this into a series just like the Sunday morning mixes.  So look for more in 2014.  But there's still one more mix on it's way in 2013.

Enjoy.


[ s t r e a m ]  [ d o w n l o a d ]   [ i t u n e s ]


T R A C K L I S T :

  • 00:00    David Bowie - Sound and Vision(Sonjay Prabhakar remix)
  • 02:50    Arve Henriksen - Shelter From The Storm
  • 06:00    Mark Kozelek & Jimmy LaValle - By The Time That I Awoke
  • 10:00    Moritz von Oswald & Nils Petter Molvaer - Step by Step
  • 15:45    Justin Walter - The Way Of Five
  • 20:10    A.A. Bondy - Mightiest Of Guns
  • 23:22    Loren Connors - Shadows
  • 26:30    Labradford - By Chris Johnston, Craig Markva, Jamie Evans
  • 31:00    Public Service Broadcasting - Late Night Final
  • 36:30    Jon Hassell - Amsterdam Blue
  • 44:30    The National - Hard To Find
  • 48:25    Jonathan Boulet - Cent Voix
  • 52:55    Ghosting Season - Lie
  • 56:00    Mirroring - Mirror Of Our Sleeping
  • 59:30    Loren Connors - Night In Vain
  • 1:01:45    Grace Cathedral Park - Hey Pretty, Could You Stay Awhile
  • 1:11:28    end

Best of 2013

Another year, another best of list.

This is my list of my favorite "normal" music of the year.  Indie, alternative, rock, Americana, whatever you want to call it - this is not the ambient music which goes into most of my mixes.

Over the last 3 or 4 years I've been listening to more and more "normal" music.  It's hard to keep up with the pace of new releases, new bands, new artists.  One can develop a sort of obsessive disorder where you consume more and more music, ever worried that you'll miss something.

My Spotify playlist of 2013 music has nearly 3000 tracks and that doesn't really include much of  the ambient stuff I listen to.  That's a lot of music to wade through in a year.  Spotify and other streaming services are changing the way we consume music and the way we think about music.  It's difficult to say whether that change is for the better.  

I do know that I love having so much music available all the time.  I love sampling new stuff, testing it out to see if it will have the staying power to make to the end of the year.  I like having a friend send me recommendations, being able to listen to the entire album instantly and sending a reaction or new suggestion back the other way.

At this time of year, with all the best of lists, I have added about 20 albums to that Spotify playlist just in the last week or so.  Which of course just puts me further behind.  But I LOVE IT!

And now here they are, my favorite albums of 2013.  What are yours?

1. Blaudzun - Heavy Flowers



2. John Vanderslice- Dagger Beach 


3. Volcano Choir - Repave


4. Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City


5. Phosphorescent - Muchacho 


6. Kacey Musgraves - Same Trailer Different Park


7. The National - Trouble Will Find Me


8. John Vanderslice - Diamond Dogs
"A Better Whirlpool"

9. Mikal Cronin - MCII


10. Darkside - Psychic


11. Jon Hopkins - Immunity


12. Vic & Gab - Love of Mine


13. Elvis Costello & The Roots - Wise Up Ghost


14. Boards of Canada - tomorrow's harvest


15. The Flaming Lips - Peace Sword ep


16. Wavves - Afraid of Heights


17. Rhye - Woman


18. Daughter - If You Leave


19. Public Service Broadcasting - inform - educate - entertain


20. San Fermin - San Fermin