Low Light Mixes

Remember Tomorrow

2009-12-20T09:12:00.006-06:00

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
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

2009-12-15T11:30:00.007-06:00

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

2009-11-03T07:57:00.001-06:00

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

2009-10-31T19:35:00.002-05:00

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

2009-10-18T16:00:00.012-05:00

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

2009-10-11T16:19:00.004-05:00

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

revenants of the past

2009-10-04T09:29:00.008-05:00

One of my favorite mixes from last year was Sustain & Decay. It was fun digging up old recordings & mixing them with new releases.

So I decided to do a follow-up, with the result being "revenants of the past". It follows the same basic formula of last years mix(which was also released in October). I browsed through a ton of files at archive.org, looking for things like old vinyl records & Edison cylinder recordings from as far back as 1888. I mixed these recordings with current music that either sounds old or in some cases actually uses old recordings as a sound source to be manipulated into something new.

In the last mix The Caretaker figured prominently and here too there is an extended track in the middle of this sequel mix. The track is an excerpt from a mix James Leyland Kirby, AKA The Caretaker, did for Fact Magazine.

I think "revenants" is a good mix of familiar & unfamiliar artists here. I had to get William Basinksi's Disintegration Loops in somewhere & so the mix closes with a track from Loops #2.

Enjoy the entropy.

Download : 82mb, 60 min.
revenants of the past

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Around the world on a phonograph 1888
00:15 Szilágyi Imre Zenekara - kurucz motak (from 78rpm record)
02:25 SIGHUP - city heart (from the album "end of")
05:20 Cylon - 4feb1912pt12 (from the ep "winter")
12:30 Joe Belov - Air for G String 1920 Edison cylinder
12:30 Krzysztof Orluk - the girl the melody in the head (from the album "blurred reflection")
16:00 Glim - puszta (from the album "music for field recordings")
19:00 Okkyung Lee - sky (from the album "nihm")
25:30 Montauk - Tranquility (from the album "the moment lasts a second but the memory lives on forever")
26:15 Skye Boat Song (from 78rpm record, Edinburgh, Scotland)
26:30 The Caretaker - Fact Mix #45, May '09 (excerpt from Fact Magazine mix)
35:40 Asher - Minatures #11 (from the album "minatures")
38:00 Rae Eleanor Bal - Gypsy Love Song 1927
40:20 Lucky Pierre - velbon (from the album "touchpool")
42:40 Jaudas Society Orchestra - Beautiful Ohio Waltz 1919 Edison cylinder
43:10 Philip Jeck - 1986(Frank was 70 years old) (from the album "surf")
44:00 relmic statute - 1rhet ednalnge (from the album "sitting under the lantern's glow")
47:30 Bronnt Industries Kapital - maggots in the rice (from an untitled cd)
49:50 Alessandro Moreschi - Ave Maria 1904 Edison cylinder
51:50 36 - signal (from the album "Hypersona")
53:00 Sub Loam - ohr (part 3) stones, sunlight, morning (from the album "Ohr")
55:50 William Basinksi - dlp 3 (from "The Disintegration Loops")
1:00:00 end

gravity

2009-07-30T21:08:00.009-05:00

I have been very busy this summer and I haven't had time to even think about a new mix. So it's perfect timing that I have a new guest mix to present.

"Gravity" is a fantastic new mix by Jason O'Gorman. Jason did a mix called "Satellite" for us in March of last year. I really enjoyed that mix & was always hoping he'd do another and here it is.

About the mix, Jason says...

"Think I'll call it "gravity", my head's stuck into plenty of books about quantum mechanics, parallel universes and all that at the moment - so gravity fits - or does it? :-p LOL. The vast majority of the tracks are fed through lots of reverb and eq feedback - giving a nice wash of sound during the crossover stages of the mix, therefore "blurring" the boundaries, so to speak. And I've selected tracks which are pretty much "in key", or work musically. Suffice to say, Im pretty happy with the final result :-)"

I think everyone will be happy with the final result. One look at the tracklist & I knew it was going to be good then I heard the long, wonderful segues & I was hooked. Jason added this about the segues & start times...

"One thing, the track times listed - are the times they start, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll "hear" them at that time, but they're there, creeping in. Sometimes they're are 4 tracks playing together - the transitions are pretty long!"

Enjoy!

Download (right click/save as) :

gravity

t r a c k l i s t :

00.00 Like The Foot Prints Of An Invisible Man - Jasper TX & Anduin
00.20 A Box of Wood in the Storm - Jasper TX
05.00 Excerpt 2/3 - ww.lowman
05.10 Cosmos 1 - Murcof
08.30 Pillar - David Daniell
11.40 Everything Disappears In A Tunnel Of Light- Jasper TX & Anduin
15.20 In a Stony Place - Mira Calix
18.45 Still Upon the Ocean Floor - Loscil
20.00 Invocation - Gregg Kowalsky
20.10 Auf der Gasse - Stephan Mathieu
23.15 Stele - David Tagg
28.00 Mulm Og Mørke - Mulm
31.40 Untitled 3 - William Basinski & Richard Chartier
35.10 Opening Sky - Steve Roach
37.00 Nocturne - Stephan Mathieu + Taylor Deupree
37.30 Pictures from Airplanes - David Tagg
41.45 The Sirens - St. Kilda
45.40 Filitosa - Melodium
47.15 A Stop at the Chord Cascades - Tim Hecker
47.33 V - Gregg Kowalsky
49.15 Vi-Vii - Gregg Kowalsky
52.00 Monochrome 1 - Tu M'

Ambient Blog

2009-07-12T19:08:00.002-05:00

This is just a quick post to draw attention to an excellent ambient blog. AmbientBlog.net is run by Peter van Cooten. He has been doing mixes for years as well as a weekly radio show on Dutch Radio 6. The radio program was recently discontinued so Peter decided to put all of his ambient mixes online, for free download/podcast subscription.

Peter's mixes are uniformly superb, always an interesting collection of known & unkown tunes. Take a few moments to visit AmbientBlog.net.

I fell asleep at my desk while making this mix

2009-06-14T19:41:00.008-05:00

I listen to ambient music every night when I go to bed. I usually browse my recent acquisitions to find something for sleep music. There are a few recordings which get used more than others.

Two recent releases by Steve Roach get regular airtime here at Low Light Mixes. Last year's "A Deeper Silence" and this year's "Dynamic Stillness".

There was a time when I played Deeper Silence in the background all around the house everyday for a week. It created this strange feeling like I was on a spaceship. Mostly this 73 minute-long tune gets used for sleep music. The same goes for "Slowly Revealed" off of "Dynamic Stillness". I have fallen asleep to this track many times.

Another nighttime favorite...the "Beautiful Land of Nod" mixes from Mr. Asphalt Eden(aka - Brian Bieniowski). I played these two mixes quite a bit when I first downloaded them & still return to them often. I remember Brian saying he liked sleep music that seemed to rise & fall like breathing. It was that idea that inspired a mix that I did called "breathing music". I use this mix fairly often for drifting off to sleep.

This brings us to the new mix. I wanted to do a new sleep mix so I could incorporate the Steve Roach cuts. So I dumped some tracks to a portable hard drive, brought it to work & starting mixing in between "real work". I had 4 or 5 tracks laid down & I was listening to one of the transitions & literally fell asleep at my desk, hence the title of the mix. A lot of the tracks sound very much like each other which I guess is good in this case because one track stretches into another, in a long, trance inducing, ambient lullaby. At 90 minutes, the mix is longer than most, but I thought the length worked a bit better for sleeping.

Sweet dreams...

download : (129mb, 90 min.)
I fell asleep at my desk making this mix

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 St. Kilda - You are in every dream
03:30 Steve Roach - Slowly Revealed
12:20 Scott Solter - Cypress Road
16:00 Stars of the Lid - The Kraut
23:30 Ashera - Fellini's Cat
28:30 William Basinski - 92982.1
33:20 Ten and Tracer - Falling asleep in sadness
36:40 Irezumi - Endurance
42:50 Jasper, TX - This Barren Land
47:30 Hammock - 3 sisters
51:15 Manual - Last Light
56:40 James Johnson - In then Out
1:06:00 Brian Eno - Discreet Music
1:15:00 Steve Roach - A Deeper Silence
1:30:00 end

2009-06-13T20:22:00.004-05:00

My last mix was done for SubVersion and now Mick was kind enough to return the favor with a mix for Low Light Mixes. It's an excellent mix which Mick describes this way...

"Drones In Duality" is the first in a series of mixes dedicated to Bridewell Gardens, which I visit every week to engage in therapeutic conservation and decorating work. The name is a reference to the double meaning properties of each track title, and the transference of a gesture in two different timeframes - before mucking in, and after a days' graft.

For instance, Bibio's "Cherry Blossom Road" encompasses the ability to walk down roads adorned with flowers, to and from the bus trip to Bridewell, while "Sleep In The Eyes" identifies the product of doing much work on the premises, or getting cobwebs out on the journey in. Hammock's "We Will Say Goodbye To Everyone" nods to the friendly atmosphere I've encountered, and the desire to wish well each person I meet there. Pan American's "So That No Matter" curtails an extended metaphor for "so that no matter what problems I face, I can get through the day, with help from my friends and family".

This is segued into Hakobune's "Realization At Dusk", which symbolises the enjoyment factor I weigh up the evening prior (getting sorted to make a stop) and heretofore the welcoming in of darkness (post-assignments and seeing everyone off). Oophoi's "Beyond These Skies" is the subsequent result of thinking forward, to what can be sentimental gold beyond nostalgic trifles. Then "Diamonds In The Sky" arrives to calm the listener: "They shine in the night / The diamonds in the sky / The sweet dreaming girl's paradise". "Softkiller" harks back to my relationship with the woman I've been so preocuppied with. Incomprehensible lyrics act as the undertow to ethereal guitar noodling and hushed chants.

Grouper is juxtaposed with the grainy metamorphosising of Evangelista to end, "The Frozen Dress" a direct correlation to the freeze-frame behaviour of "Heavy Water / I'd Rather Be Sleeping". All in all, "Drones In Duality" is a 23-minute endeavour into fresh ground for me.

There's lots of drones, granted, but these are counterbalanced with an accessibility from the vocals and brimming harmonies. Next up: "Time Heals All Wounds".

download : (53mb 23:20)

Drones in Duality

still falls the rain

2009-06-06T12:10:00.003-05:00

I said in the last post that I did two rain mixes, well here is number two.

It's an instrumental rain mix, more like a traditional low light mixes mix. Mick, over at SubVersion, asked me to do a mix for his blog so I did two rain mixes one for here & one for Mick.

You'll find the download link & the tracklist at SubVersion. Mick sent me a mix called "Drones in Duality" which I will beposting here in the next few days. Also keep an eye out for a "sleep" mix which may be done by the end of the week.

I Love the Rain

2009-05-31T08:53:00.006-05:00

The transition from spring to summer brings two new mixes from Low Light Mixes central command. We've had a fair amount of rain lately so both mixes are "rain" mixes.

Rain evokes so many memories & emotions, it's a great theme for mixes. Using field recordings really helps hold the mix together. I try not to over do it with the rain sounds, hopefully it works well.

This first mix is a vocal mix, well mostly vocal, there are three instrumentals hiding in there. All the tunes have the word "rain" in the title. It was fun discovering tunes I did not know very well, like The Decemberists track & the cut from Susanna & The Magical Orchestra.

The second rain mix is an instrumental mix and it will be posted over at the SubVersion blog. Mick will be posting it there soon. And I will be posting a drone mix from Mick here at Low Light Mixes soon as well. I've also got a "sleep" mix in the works.

DOWNLOAD : 77mb 40:00min

I Love the Rain

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Susanna & The Magical Orchestra - It's Raining Today
04:40 The (real) Tuesday Weld - I Love the Rain
08:37 Asche & Spencer - A Walk in the Rain
09:49 The Handsome Family - Famous Blue Raincoat
14:40 Daniel Lanois - Rain Weather
18:20 The Decemberists - Raincoat Song
20:40 Joe Purdy - I Love the Rain the Most
25:00 Oblong - Rain Over the Deverils
28:54 REM - I'll Take the Rain
34:15 Rivulets - Rain All Winter Long
40:00 end

Check out these mixes

2009-05-09T22:39:00.005-05:00

I want to call attention to some good mixes & podcasts over at The Bovine Life Support System. BLSS is run by Chris Dooks and he describes the site's purpose this way..."it’s listening to new music religiously – and a move to Glasgow that has inspired this show which I began as a new year’s resolution at the start of 2008. And I’ve kept it up. It’s partly personal diary, part info about the artists (occasionally) but the main point of it is for me to soundtrack my life and sort out my ever expanding music collection."

I started with in the mixtapes section & have really enjoyed the Bedtime Barbiturate Mix & the Half-Life Studies Mix. I have barely scratched the surface of the podcasts but have already discovered new music which I will be seeking out. One piece which I re-discovered via the podcast was Odi at Amo by Johann Johannsson, a gorgeous piece from Englaborn.

I'm looking forward to listening to the rest of the podcasts.

Cinematica

2009-04-18T22:20:00.006-05:00

I got the idea for this mix over at the Hypnos records forum. In the "Now Playing" thread, someone posted several entries in a row about listening to various soundtracks. Some favorites of mine, Cliff Martinez's "Traffic" & "Narc" and Clint Mansell's "The Fountain", were on the list. It got me thinking & listening to soundtracks for a week or two and this new mix, "Cinematica", is the result.

There are 25 tracks in this mix, so it keeps moving pretty well I think. I realized after I was done that a few of the tracks appear in other low light mixes. Oh well, that's bound to happen with so many mixes and fewer and fewer brain cells.

I would say my favorite soundtracks from the past 10 - 15 years would have to be "Solaris" from Cliff Martinez & "The Fountain" by Clint Mansell. I purposely used a lesser known Martinez cut from "Wicker Park" but one that had the same "Solaris" feel to it. Then of course I discovered that I'd already used the same cut in an earlier mix. Duh!

This mix was easy & fun to put together so I'm sure I'll be doing another one in the future. Any suggestions for essential soundtracks that I should check out?

Download : 110mb 59:50min

Cinematica

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - The Proposition #2 (The Proposition)
02:00 Graeme Revell - Cue 34 (Until the End of the World)
04:10 Thomas Newman - Drive Away(End Title) (Lemony Snicket)
06:50 Cliff Martinez - What Shoe Size (Wicker Park)
08:05 Andrey Dergatchev - Port (The Return)
10:05 Max Richter - Shadow Journal (Valse Avec Bachir)
12:15 John Murphy/Chrales Gounod - Taxi(Ave Maria) (28 Days Later)
14:07 Mogwai - 7-25 (Zidane, a 21st Century Portait)
18:20 Clint Mansell - Death is a Disease (The Fountain)
20:40 Explosions in the Sky - From West Texas (Friday Night Lights)
22:26 Brian Eno - Always Returning (Apollo)
25:35 Corker/Conboy - First Crossing (3 Degrees Colder)
27:05 David Byrne - Canal Life (Lead Us Not Into Temptation)
29:20 Peter Gabriel - A Sense of Home (Long Walk Home)
30:50 Sigur Ros - #3 untitled (Hlemmur)
33:05 Andrey Dergatchev - Georgians (The Return)
35:13 Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson - Ars Moriendi (Children of Nature)
37:20 Philip Glass - Organic (Koyaanisqatsi)
42:10 Gabriel Yared & Underworld - Mending Things (Breaking & Entering)
44:20 Cliff Martinez - Helicopter (Traffic)
46:05 John Murphy - Red Dresses (28 Days Later)
46:43 Devotchka - The Winner Is (Little Miss Sunshine)
49:35 David Byrne - Dirty Hair (Lead Us Not Into Temptation)
52:06 Peter Gabriel - Passion Extras #4 (Passion)
53:55 James Newton Howard - I'm Listening (I am Legend)
55:45 Brian Eno - an ending(ascent) (Apollo, 28 Days Later, Clean, Traffic)
59:50 end

Refuge

2009-04-04T21:24:00.004-05:00

I was inspired by my daughter's mix cd's to do my own vocal mix. She does great mixes that I listen to in the car and I thought I'd do a similar one of my own. Of course the finished product is not as uptempo as hers. This being an ambient mix blog, most of the tunes are fairly quiet.

There is no unifying theme here, other than I like these tunes. The Martin Grech tunes are from "March of the Lonely" which made it on my best of 2008 list. I could have put in a ton of David Sylvian tracks but ended up with just two. Hmmm, maybe I should do an all Sylvian mix someday. There are two new songs in there, "Another World" by Antony & the Johnsons and "Foreground" from the new Grizzly Bear. The rest are a mix of old & fairly new cuts.

I did cheat a little bit by sneaking in one instrumental track. It's "Bell Toll by Daniel Lanois from his fantastic Omni series box. Somehow it just fit right. I also cheated on the graphic. I took an album cover by Dan Deacon and wiped out his title & put my own in. The pic just worked so perfectly with the title of the mix.

I called the mix "Refuge" because I think of music as a refuge and this mix as an escape from from other crappy music...from work...from laundry...from the economy...from normal, crazy life. I hope this mix can be a refuge for you too.

download :

r e f u g e

TRACKLIST:

00:00 Canyon Country - Dead or Dreaming

03:50 David Sylvian - Maria

06:15 Martin Grech - Kingdom

09:30 Sufjan Stevens - Holland

12:50 Grizzly Bear - Foreground

15:54 Antony & the Johnsons - Another World

19:35 Peter Gabriel - Father, Son

24:20 Roxy Music - Spin Me Round

28:50 REM - Star Me Kitten

31:45 Daniel Lanois - Bell Toll

33:00 David Bridie - Sad

36:30 David Sylvian - When Poets Dreamed of Angels

41:00 Martin Grech - Ashes Over Embers

46:30 P.G. Six - Lily of the West

51:35 Trespassers William - Love is Blindness

58:31 end

Enosification

2009-02-27T21:05:00.008-06:00

This is another new kind of mix for the blog. This is an all Eno mix.

I came across the Eno tune "Spider & I " in a recently downloaded mix & I was reminded of how much I like Eno's voice. So I thought why not collect some favorite vocal tunes together in one place.

For the first half of the mix I alternate between vocal tunes & instrumentals. I thought this might be nice to break things up a bit. About half way through I realized I'd run out of time so I went to all vocals. I love singing along with his songs & it is nice to have some favorites all together.

The title comes from Genesis' "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" album, where Eno is credited with "enosification." Which he described this way..."I would take existing instruments and feed them through various devices to 'weird them up'."

I mentioned that I heard Eno in a mix, of course I can't remember which mix it was, but I do want to mention a coiple fine mixes that I've downloaded recently. One comes from Brian Bieniowski & can be found here...asphalteden. The other is called "Utsura-Utsura" and can be found here DREAMSCENES

I hope you enjoy the all-Eno mix.....

Download : 110mb 60:00min.

Enosification

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 By This River (Before & After Science)
02:51 Music for Glitterbug - track 10 (music for glitterbug)
05:37 Everything Merges with the Night (Another Green World)
09:20 Marine Radio (Spinner)
14:05 And Then So Clear (Another Day on Earth)
19:25 Summer Ride (Curiosities vol.2)
23:21 Spider & I (Before & After Science)
26:55 Dunwich Beach, Autumn 1960 (On Land)
28:55 Taking Tiger Mountain (Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy)
34:00 Zawinul Lava (Another Green World)
25:36 Julie With (Before & After Science)
41:00 Golden Hours (Another Green World)
44:44 This (Another Day on Earth)
48:04 On Some Faraway Beach (Here Come the Warm Jets)
52:25 No Orders w/ J. Peter Schwalm (Musikain)
56:23 Bottomliners (Another Day on Earth)
1:00:00 end

shadows at midnight

2009-02-27T20:20:00.007-06:00

The inspiration for this mix came from the new Jon Hassell album. If you haven't picked it up yet, do so. It's called "Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street". It's already in my best of 2009 folder.

It's very moody, very ambient, just a little jazzy. Very much like the wonderful release from Arve Henriksen last year. I wanted this mix to have a moody, melancholy, late-night jazz feel. Although I have used some of these artists in other mixes this is the first jazz mix for Low Light mIxes. I wasn't sure what to expect when I began but it turned out fairly well.

It didn't take long to put together because it's not a sound collage like the last mix. But I think the tunes flow nicely together. Sometimes sitting around with a good scotch, you need soemthing with a jazzy flavor & I hope this works for that while remaining true to the Low Light feel. Next up...an all Eno mix.

Download : 110mb 60:00min

shadows at midnight

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Arve Henriksen - Migration
05:21 The Necks - Black
10:35 Mort d'un Pourri - Valerie
13:50 Slowhill - Nikos Dream
17:59 boren & der club of gore - Midnight Walker
24:45 Jon Hassell - Courtais
29:40 Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
33:35 Nick B. Ronin - Modul 42
39:30 Duke Ellington - Melancholia
42:25 Arve Henriksen - Recording Angel
48:20 Jon Hassell - Last Night the Moon Came
58:17 Mort d'un Pourri - tout est tranquille
1:00:00 end

in_transit - an ambient field mix

2009-02-16T21:14:00.005-06:00

I have been wanting to do another field mix almost since the moment I finished the last one. So here it is, a new mix entitled "in_transit".

I like field recordings but not as much nature recordings. I'm not wild about birds chirping & water flowing. I like mechanical sounds or crowd noise or as you'll hear in this mix, trains. I used train sounds in the last mix & they play a prominent role here too.

I had planned on doing more of my own field recording but I just never seemed to find the time. I did manage to sneak two of my recordings in, one occurs at about 8:50 in the mix. It's a recording of the telephone pole at the end of my driveway. The pole hums when it gets windy, so I just went out there, stuck the mic right up to the pole & froze my arse off. I then fattened up the sound a bit.

The other recording is of my daughter playing piano, but you'd never guess that's what you're hearing. It happens at about the 19:10 mark. I had her play about 40 seconds of chopin or schubert. Then I used a simple little program to stretch that 40 seconds into 12 minutes & 40 seconds. The result sounds nothing like classical piano. You can find the program here...Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch. Give it a try. Works great on piano & classical music. It makes the human voice sound very creepy.

Most of the other sounds used in the mix are a combination of music, field recordings from all over the web & music that already has field recordings built in, like the last cut by RF. There is new music from sleepy town manufacture & unit 21, elegi, Loren Chasse & terje isungset.

Two tracks used in the mix are from a cd that I got from Rick over at Hydrogen Cafe. Years ago he burned some ambient background sounds from Blade Runner. At the 6:20 mark we get ambience from the Tyrell Coporation & at about 23:50 we hear sounds from Blade Runner Chinatown. I'll definitely be using more of these in future field mixes.

Well I guess that's enough for now. I'm not making a tracklist as the cuts are playing all over each other, many times 2 or 3 at the same time. If you are curious about certain sounds or tracks just email or comment with the time of the mix & I'll do my best to get info back to you.

Download : (72.5mb, 39:35)

in_transit

Enjoy the trip!

searching for objects

2009-01-11T08:53:00.005-06:00

The original name for this mix was "noisy, droney, scratchy". Very catchy title. That's a pretty good description of how I wanted this mix to sound.

I don't like too much noise, however. Most of the tunes have some grit, some distortion, some white noise, some scratches but not too much. I still wanted the mix to be very ambient, not annoying or distracting.

I guess the Fripp & Eno cut isn't very noisy or scratchy but could be considered droney. I'm just happy to have squeezed into a mix. I hadn't listened to it in years & had forgotten how much I loved that track.

Of course now that I just posted the mix, Tim Hecker comes out with something new that would have fit perfectly. And the next Infraction release from Sleepy Town Manufacture sounds like it would be a good fit too. Oh well, I guess I'll have to save those for volume 2.

Download :

searching for objects

T R A C K L I S T I N G :

00:00 Jasper, TX - home
04:15 Chris Bissonnette - orffyreus wheel
12:15 Rain Cloud - keeping a low profile
17:40 Belong - same places (slow version)
27:40 Eluder - the most beautiful blue
33:25 Fripp & Eno - heavenly music corp.
41:00 Rameses III - origins IV
49:20 Forestflies - processed vocals & strings
52:35 Erstlaub - sinking together
58:40 Milieu - burnt rust
1:00:13 end

Antique Sunlight

2009-01-07T20:47:00.006-06:00

I am crossing familiar territory here with another piano mix. I think this is the third I've done.

There's no particular reason for doing a piano mix other than I happened to run into a few nice piano tunes & figured I'd slap together a short mix.

As usual this is fairly quiet music, good for reading the paper on a Sunday morning.(when newspapers disappear I'll really miss doing that) I'll be sending this one to Mick & his "15 Minutes of Fame" mix series which you can find here...15 minutes.

Enjoy.

Download :

Antique Sunlight

TRACKLIST:

00:00 Milieu - antique sunlight
05:00 Ryuichi Sakamoto - ropa
10:00 Taylor Deupree & Kenneth Kirschner - may
15:11 Library Tapes - fragment VIII
18:30 Con Cetta - ker
22:46 Jeanne Moreau - un entretien avec
24:14 NIN - ghosts 11
27:20 Kosik - lastly empty
30:40 Goldmund - Threnody
35:00 United Bible Studies - sea of rains
35:46 end

Best of 2008

2008-12-25T21:20:00.006-06:00

It was another good year for music, a lot of which made it's way into the mixes posted here. I put up about 14 mixes this year which is a good number, I'd like to post at least one per month. I already have two in the can which will be posted in January. I'm sure there will be another field mix this year, as well as a new shortwave mix & Sustain & Decay part 2. If anybody has any requests or ideas pleae let me know.

I lack the mental discipline to limit my year end list to a top ten list. So somehow this year I ended up with the random number of 24 in my "Best of" list. What are some good albums that I left off this list? What does your list look like? Here is the 2008 list in alphabetical order...

Alio Die - aura seminalis - alio die released some great music this year. I guess I could group all of them together here but I'll list this as my favorite. The cd "tries to recreate the solemn atmospheres of the courts of the Italian Renaissance", and amazingly it comes off as transcendent instead of cheesy. Stefano Musso's recent releases all do this very well, like his collaboration with vocalist Martina Galvagni, Elusian Lullaby. He takes concepts, that would not work in the hands of another, and makes them work beautifully.
Arve Henriksen - cartography - a beautifully layered recording from trumpeter henriksen. Texture is more important than virtuosity here. A melancholy, tranquil landscape works perfectly with Henriksen's vocal-like trumpet.
Belong - Same Places (Slow Version) - crushing, shimmering drones dissolve & decay in a wonderful wall of sound.
Bersarin Quartett - bersarin quartett - actually this is a one man show of cinematic music. Strings, ambience, some occasional beats combine for a lush, melancholy trip.
bvdub - dreams of red chambers - a release that is more ambient than the usual dubby sound form bvdub.
David Tagg - Waist Deep Seas Of Milk - gorgeous, expansive guitar-based drones. His “Stele” split release was excellent as well.
Deaf Center - vintage well - More great cinematic music. I guess there was a lot of fantastic cinematic music this year.
Disturbed Earth - Butterfly - An excellent ambient release from Atmoworks. From a live "living room" concert in August 1977. The album
was recorded live with no overdubs using a double neck guitar
and a violin bow on the 12-string and playing the 6-string. He
used two tape decks set up about 8 feet apart in a continuous loop. A classic ambient feel that is even more amazing knowing how & when it was recorded.
Elbow - Live from London – Beautiful, intimate, live iTunes only release. Any fan of Elbow MUST own this.
Elbow - the seldom seen kid – There isn’t any other band that evokes beauty, melancholy & joy like Elbow. This is an absolutely fantastic recording.
Eluder - the most beautiful blue - deep layers that never get too dark or too light. A just right mixture of drifting textures & aquatic sounds.
Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer Up A Hill - a good collection of eerie folk songs wrapped in reverb & hazy ambience.
Hakobune - melting reminscence - an excellent release for lovers of guitar-based drone.
Hans-joachim Roedelius & Tim Story - inlandish - I love how this release sounds old & new at the same time. Some of the tunes just have this indescribable retro Roedelius feel to them, like the song "Beforst". A warm, melodic beauty.
Jacaszek – treny – Real instruments played by real musicians with some electronic manipulation make this a stellar release in a year filled with great cinematic music.
Jeff Pearce - Rainshadow Sky – I know this one is a bit too close to New Age for some regular forumites, but I found it to be beautiful without being too sappy.
Johann Johannsson – fordlandia – This cd from Johannsson takes the cinematic/orchestral theme of this year to another level. He does it with a 60 piece orchestra, piano, organ, choir & electronics. The music is lush and intense.
Marconi Union - a lost connection – more dubby ambient music. I listened to a lot of dubby stuff this year & Marconi Union does this style wonderfully.
Martin Grech - march of the lonely – this one actually came out in 2007 but I discovered it right at the beginning of this year and I listened to constantly from then on. From an online review “…a moody acoustic delicacy, dreamlike calm and layered vocals which recall monastic plainsong or a lovelorn choir.”
quantec - unusual signals – great dubby ambient-ish beats.
Rameses III – Basilica - A double cd of live recordings & remixes, the two discs contain some beautiful, quiet, and moving instrumental compositions.
Rod Modell - incense & blacklight - noisy, shifting dub rhythms, and way deep bassy goodness.
Steve Roach - a deeper silence – I played this for days all through the house, the slow washes & low bass hum rumbling from room to room. I felt like I was on some inter-stellar spacecraft. Great sleep music too.
the caretaker - Persistent repetition of phrases - Similar to his other releases in that it sounds like he is channeling the haunting atmospherics of The Shining. However, this one is a bit more ambient.

---- I know these don’t count as actual releases, but I think I listened to the guitar mixes of Alan Lockett more than anything else this year. You can find them here… http://albient.livejournal.com/2468.html]http://albient.livejournal.com/2468.html . These mixes are a great collection of ambient guitar meanderings that introduced me to a lot of new artists & music.

Honorable mentions :
stephan mathieu – radioland
Bohren & der Club of Gore – Dolore
taylor deupree - sea last
The Winterhouse - Lost
jasper tx - this quiet season
the caretaker - recollected memories from the museum of garden history
emanuele errante - humus [2008]
Richard Skelton - Marking Time
Hammock, ‘Maybe They Will Sings For Us Tomorrow
sigur ros - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Sans Serif - Tones For LaMonte

a northern holiday

2008-12-12T21:57:00.006-06:00

The mixes keep coming fast & furious.

Last year I downloaded a very cool holiday compilation. It's called "That Fuzzy Feeling". It looks like they still have downloads available but are sold out of the cd's. You can have find it here...

http://lorecordings.greedbag.com/buy/that-fuzzy-feeling-0/?tab=description

That release was the starting point for this mix. There are three cuts from the compilation in the mix....Brave the Cold by Vincent Oliver and Isan...Family, Giving by Peter Broderick...Snowstorm in a Snow Globe by Fuzzy Lights. From there I just looked for other tunes that fit the theme.

So grab some hot coco & trim the tree with some ambient goodness playing in the background. Happy Holidays from all of us(actually just me) here at Low Light Mixes.

Download :

a northern holiday

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Vincent Oliver and Isan - Brave the Cold
02:35 Freescha - Holiday Frost
07:25 Takahiro Kido - Christmas Song
12:50 Chris Abrhams - Christmas Island
19:10 Stuart Busby - Snowfall
22:13 Peter Broderick - Family, Giving
25:30 Dakota Suite - December 8, 1980
27:40 Maps of the Heart - Skating Away
31:40 July Skies - Holidays to Wales
33:00 Fuzzy Lights - Snowstorm in a Snow Globe
35:50 Northern - December
39:57 end

motion for relief

2008-12-05T20:27:00.006-06:00

I thought I'd try something a bit different...a mix that is beat driven. Of course it's not going to be some house music mix or techno dance trax.

The mix is sort of in the same vein as the ones done

by Alan, of Great Axescapes fame. He has a fantastic mix called "nowthatswhaticallmnmlambidubtechno! vol.1". You can find it here...vol. 1.

This mix is similar in that dubby, ambient way. Only one artist, Quantec, in common though.

I wasn't sure how the mix would work but I like the results very much. I'm listenbing to it as I type this, nice & loud so the low dubby bass lines reverberate around the house. Excellent.

The other different thing about this mix is it is shorter than the others. An online friend, Mick, is running The "15 Minutes Of Fame’ Mix Series" & he asked me to do some mixes. The only requirements are up to 40 minutes in length & no more than 10 tracks. That should help with some experimentation, may be an idea will work in a 30 minute mix but not for the usual hour-long mix. Here's the link to Mick's thread at Dogs On Acid...http://www.dogsonacid.com/showthread.php?threadid=602380&highlight=muttley+minutes

I should be able to crank out 3 more mixes by the end of the year. Next up...a piano mix, a noisy-droney-scratchy mix and a best of the year mix.

d o w n l o a d : (right click/save as)

motion for relief

t r a c k l i s t :

00:00 Plastikman - consumed
04:44 Marconi Union - buildings without people
08:05 Trentemoller - miss you
11:50 Yagya - rhythm of snow #5
17:55 Underworld - pizza for eggs
20:20 Quantec - unusual signals
25:25 Ontayso - procesamiento 2.05
28:45 Tiki Obmar - ankeney, iowa
39:30 end

november buddha

2008-11-15T11:27:00.005-06:00

This mix is called November Buddha in honor of the new Buddha Machine 2.0 which was just released. Mine is on it's way right now. There's not much of a theme here, just a bunch of new tunes that I've been listening to lately.

The Lullaby League & Sleep Robot tracks are new discoveries thanks to the fantastic mixes from Alan, an online friend. You can find the mixes here Great Axescapes: an Archaeology of Drone-gaze Tone-haze Guitar-wranglings.

I probably have listened to these mixes more than anything else this year. Just an absolutely fabulous collection of guitar ambient.

Most of the artists in this mix can also be found in Alan's Axescapes mixes. A couple exceptions are Eluder, which is a brand new Infraction release. And Disturbed Earth, an excellent recording on Atmoworks.

Download(right click/save as) : 153mb, 64 min.

november buddha

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 buddha machine 2.0 loop construction
05:30 Apalusa - Obadiah
10:30 Sleep Robot - Prayer Wheel
15:40 Eluder - Autumn Hips
21:30 Shirk - Mocked
27:45 Fabio Orsi - Pure Love
31:40 The Lullaby League - Cantus
38:00 Disturbede Earth - Butterfly
44:30 Hakobune - Melting Reminiscence
47:00 The Fun Years - Garbage Man, Poet
50:30 David Tagg - Stele