Cover art by Sven Geier, http://www.sgeier.net/fractals/ I have talked many times here about how a single track or artist can inspire a mix. Well, that seems to have happened with this latest mix from Paul. He emailed me about a month ago about Kubusschnitt, a group creating berlin school style electronic music. That discovery set him on the course of creating a mix of sequencer tunes. And we did our usual thing - Paul sends me the tracklist, I twiddle the knobs and a mix is born. All the music ...
Oct 06, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 116
I remember the first time I heard the Daniel Lanois tunes From Eno's Apollo album, I didn't really care for them. I didn't like the pedal steel guitar. I absolutely hated country music back then and I associated the sound of pedal steel with country and nothing else. Eventually, the tunes grew on me and I've come to love the sound of pedal steel guitar. I also came around on country-tinged music as I fell in love with indie-folk which can make great use of traditional instrumentation minus the p...
Sep 29, 2019•59 min•Ep. 115
I'm not sure exactly where this mix started. I heard a few tunes that had a wistful, almost melancholy feel to them and began collecting tracks. The result is this new mix of mostly modern classical music but with a good dose of electronics and atmospherics. Most of the music is new with 10 of the 15 tracks from 2019. I think this mix would also work well as a soundtrack for fall. Cheers! T R A C K L I S T : 00:00 Glåsbird - Isbjørnøya(Svalbarð 2019) 04:44 Halftribe - Maybe(Backwater Revisited 2...
Sep 20, 2019•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 114
Two years ago I did a mix called "A Distant Pulse" which featured a lot of tribal ambient sounds. I've been meaning to do a sequel and now it's here with "A Rhythmic Passage." What finally got the ball rolling for a new mix is a new album from Louigi Verona called "Nocturnal Creatures." Recommended by my ambient collaborator, Paul Asbury Seaman, the album is similar to classic Steve Roach tribal albums. But the drum sound is huge with deep, booming low end to shake your speakers and rattle the w...
Sep 08, 2019•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 113
I've been heckin' busy this summer. First of all, it's summer so beer gardens, baseball games, northwoods vacations, beer gardens, yard work, beer gardens, etc. Plus I've been doing a ton of freelance work. And lastly, my daughter is getting married in a month and I'm editing a video for the reception. I have not been able to get any new mixes going in a while. So it's Paul Asbury Seaman to the rescue! Thankfully this excellent mix from Paul will fill the void. It's another great collection from...
Aug 25, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 112
I can't tell you how excited I am for this mix. Well, actually I'm telling you right now so that first line was bullshit. Suffice it to say I love this mix. It comes from our good friends at Lost Tribe Sound , an amazing record label that is having a hell of a year. Of course, last year was pretty darn good as well. Ryan Keane, the man behind Lost Tribe Sound, has put together a mix that is interesting and varied. It's cohesive without sounding all the same. This is a wonderful collection of tun...
Jul 28, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 111
In honor of the third season of Stranger Things dropping today, Low Light Mixes presents Stranger Synths 2019. This a retro synth mix that falls right in line with the synth sounds of Netflix's Stranger Things series. Cheers! T R A C K L I S T : 00:00 Just A Human - Stranger Things Remix 01:33 Pye Corner Audio - Deep Space Probe 03:54 Sinoia Caves - 1983 Main Theme 06:22 The Belbury Circle - Heading Home 11:15 Locust - I'll Be There 14:40 Rheyne - Live Jam #169 20:03 David Trevelyan - Car Crash ...
Jul 04, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 110
One of my favorite discoveries over the past year has been Innesti. The last album, released in February, is called Formless and that describes perfectly the music of Innesti. The tunes have a hazy, meandering feel that I love in ambient music. Today Innesti releases a new album - Between Worlds, which I am very excited about. To celebrate this new release we have a new mix from Innesti created for Low Light Mixes. The new mix is called Levitate and here is what the artist has to say about it: "...
Jun 30, 2019•30 min•Ep. 109
I made a list of my favorite ambient albums of the first half of 2019 and noticed that there were 6 releases from the Whitelabrecs label on it. Harry Towell, who records as Spheruleus , runs Whitelabrecs and he has done a great job expanding the roster of artists and getting better and better every year. So to celebrate all these excellent recordings I decided to make a mix using all 2019 Whitelabrecs releases. You can find Whitelabrecs on Bandcamp here... https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/music...
Jun 16, 2019•1 hr•Ep. 108
The 18th installment in the Sunday Morning Music series is here. It starts with one of my favorite albums of the year - Spirit by Rhye. It's so beautiful and intimate. From there we get some more pretty tunes because that's what I want on Sunday morning - no dark ambient drones here, just pretty and calm. All the tracks are fairly new - the oldest being from 2016, while most are from this year. Sunday morning musings - the cover pic of a cup of coffee reminded me of something. I've noticed in a ...
Jun 09, 2019•59 min•Ep. 107
created by and through the courtesy of Hollan Holmes I am excited to bring you another beautifully curated mix from Paul Asbury Seaman. Anyone who has been to this blog in the last couple of years should be familiar with Paul's excellent mixes. The most recent of which was a train mix from a couple of months ago... http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2019/03/places-ive-never-beenode-to-high-speed.html This collection of tunes is a tribute to one of Paul's favorite artists, Hollan Holmes. https://h...
May 26, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 106
I love the film, Arrival, so I should have thought of this myself. But a listener commented on my Blade Runner alternative mix that I should do an alternative mix for Arrival. Yes! So here it is - An Alternative Arrival Soundtrack. I absolutely love Johann Johannsson's original soundtrack, probably one of my top two or three soundtracks of all time. So this mix is not attempting to make something that I think is better than his score. It's sort of a supplement to the original, a collection of tr...
May 19, 2019•59 min•Ep. 105
And now for something completely different. This latest mix is almost, dare I say, dance music. Yikes! Actually it's not like this is EDM/Dubstep with ridiculous drops and autotune vocals. But all the music in this mix definitely has 4/4 time signature. One of my favorite discoveries over the last couple of years has been the music of Kiasmos, a minimal techno duo comprised of Ólafur Arnalds and Janus Rasmussen. The music has the 4x4 beat but it's more gentle than full on techno or house music. ...
Apr 28, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 104
Nine years ago I did a mix of 70s & 80s library music as a soundtrack for underwater exploration. I've always liked the odd vibe of that mix and always wanted to do a follow up. Now it's finally here with Subaquatic Universe. It's essentially the same formula and sound as the first one. Vibraphone, fender rhodes, flutes and bubbles play a large role in creating this underwater universe. While collecting tracks for this mix I came across a bunch of other library music which will make for a gr...
Apr 09, 2019•53 min•Ep. 103
Everything about trains is evocative. The sound of the whistle, the rhythm of the tracks, the sounds of the station, etc. Trains make for a perfect theme in electronic music mixes. Which is why you're bound to hear several of them this year from Low Light mixes. This first one comes to us from my frequent collaborator, Paul Asbury Seaman. Not only has Paul done previous excellent mixes for me, he's also done a couple train mixes. Here's what he has to say about his latest creation... “In my last...
Mar 24, 2019•59 min•Ep. 102
This mix has been brewing in my head for the last couple of years. Basically I've been planning a follow up to the Luminouspaces mix since I posted it in 2016. I finally got going on the sequel a few weeks ago while listening to "Constellations" by Jane Antonia Cornish. It's an absolutely lovely album. If you like modern classical recordings you'll definitely enjoy it. The mix begins and ends with a track from Constellations. In between you'll find a collection of modern classical favorites from...
Mar 10, 2019•58 min•Ep. 101
I digitized my music collection a long time ago. I have a Sonos system throughout my house so I digitized thousands of CDs and packed up the physical copies. I haven't pulled out the actual CDs in a long time but recently I rearranged some furniture and realized that I had sofa table with a cd rack built into it. The thing had been in the same place for so long that I'd forgotten there were CDs in it. I played a bunch of the discs and had a good time re-discovering music that I hadn't heard in q...
Mar 03, 2019•59 min•Ep. 100
This mix came about thanks to the sleepy inspiration of two 2019 recordings - "Formless" by Matt Borghi and the "Sleeplaboratory" compilation from Whitelabrecs. https://mattborghi.bandcamp.com/album/formlessness https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/sleeplaboratory10 I've been listening to both of these albums at night since they were released. Both are excellent. They serve as bookends on this 86 minute long sleep mix. Check 'em out & then check the mix. Or check out the mix then check ou...
Feb 24, 2019•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 99
One of my favorite discoveries late last year was the album In Currents by Innesti . It's a wonderful combination of field recordings, loops, drones and light touches. I put it on my second Best of 2018 mix. Innesti has a new album coming out on Feb. 25th and we are lucky to have a preview of it on this guest mix he has created.The mix stays true to the Innesti sound - gentle, calming, floating. I am excited to hear the new album and excited for this sneak peak. Here are a couple Innesti links.....
Feb 17, 2019•29 min•Ep. 98
You know how when you see a certain director is involved with a film, like Christopher Nolan, you just know it'll be interesting. Or how music released on certain labels, such as 12k, will definitely be worth exploring. Well, that's how I feel when the tag "Curated by Paul Asbury Seaman" is attached to a mix. Paul & I have collaborated on several mixes and all have been excellent. It's only Feb. 10th and already we've been treated to two of Paul's mixes. This one is a bit of a departure for ...
Feb 10, 2019•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 97
The inspiration for this mix came from Mike Lazarev of Headphone Commute . Last year he discovered an old hard drive with some of his old mixes from around 2006. Called fiftmuziek sessions, he posted some online and you can find them here... https://reviews.headphonecommute.com/liftmuziek-sessions/ They focus on classic IDM & ambient electronica from that era & they are fantastic. One of the mixes that Mike uncovered from that same time period featured albums from Native State artists Re...
Feb 03, 2019•57 min•Ep. 96
We were having such a nice mild winter here in Wisconsin but then I had to go and jinx it in the last post in which I said we hadn't very much snow. Well, since then we've had two significant snow storms with another 12 inches expected over the next two days. Snow I can handle but the temps have plummeted - the high temp yesterday was 4° with wind chills around -25°. Ugh. But it gets worse - Wednesday's high temp is supposed to be -14°! That's the high temperature! So much for our nice mild wint...
Jan 27, 2019•1 hr•Ep. 95
I haven't posted a Sunday morning mix in a long time. So here is the first Sunday morning collection of 2019. There's not much to say - it's the typical Sunday morning mix. A little jazz, some ambient, some instrumental, etc. Most of the tunes are fairly new with three exceptions. The cover pic is my backyard, but not from this year as we haven't had much snow at all. Of course I just jinxed it so next week we'll probably get 3 feet. Cheers! T R A C K L I S T : 00:00 Johann Johannsson - Mandy Lo...
Jan 13, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 94
As is usually the case with these mixes, one song sets me on the path towards a new collection. In this case it was the song T by Dan Lissvik. https://danlissvik.bandcamp.com/track/t It keep popping up on a few of my playlists and I always thought it had kind of kraut rock feel to it. I realized that I've never made a kraut rock mix and that needs to be rectified. I don't want to get into a debate about what is and isn't kraut rock. There are tracks from kraut rock classics like Neu! and Can. Bu...
Jan 06, 2019•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 93
This is the perfect mix to close out 2018 and look forward to 2019. "Turning Hopeful" has a more hopeful, positive vibe than most of my mixes. Which is why it should be no surprise to find out that it was curated by the one and only Paul Asbury Seaman. I like working together with Paul because he takes mixes in slightly different directions than I usually do. These collaborations bring a nice breath of fresh air to this 12 year old mix blog. Here's what Paul says about this mix: "This mix featur...
Dec 30, 2018•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 92
Right after I posted my Best Ambient of 2018 mix I started diving into a bunch of other year end lists. Of course I discovered some excellent releases that I would have included in my mix/list if I had known about them in time. I found enough music that I decided to create a second Best of 2018 mix. I could probably make a third mix but I've got to stop sometime. What were your favorite recordings of 2018? 2019 is just around the corner and it will start with a mix curated by the very talented P...
Dec 23, 2018•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 91
Even though Christmas music has gotten more interesting than Dean Martin and Bing Crosby, there is not an awful lot of ambient Christmas music out there. So I've only attempted an xmas mix one other time and it was just okay. Until this year. Thanks to a wonderful album from Matt Borghi I decided to give a holiday ambient mix another shot. Matt's album is called simply - "Ambient Guitar for Christmas." https://mattborghi.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-guitar-for-christmas And it's exactly what it so...
Dec 16, 2018•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 90
As much as I like end-of-the-year lists, I also get a bit anxious about them. As I compile them I keep thinking that I've missed something. Then as I'm re-listening to albums I start thinking "Is this one really that good?" & "Maybe this one deserves a slot...or this one...or this one..." Eventually I realize that these lists aren't anything definitive that I'll be judged on. Unless there's an ambient god in ambient heaven who will let me in or cast me out based on a lifetime of music choice...
Dec 09, 2018•1 hr 59 min•Ep. 89
After six months of travel from Earth, NASA's InSight spacecraft is on a precise trajectory to land on Mars. If all goes well it should be touching down on the surface of the red planet about 6 hours after this mix is initially posted. The tracks for this mix have all been selected to tell the story of InSight and its journey to Mars. The track titles take us chronologically from Farewell, O Earth to Between Two Worlds to Arrival to Descent to Landing to Sunrise on Mars. Godspeed InSight! Cheers...
Nov 26, 2018•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 88
I work in TV news so as you can imagine with the midterm elections, wildfires, mass shootings, presidential tweets, etc., things can get pretty crazy. Sometimes you need to step back and take a breath. That's where this new mix comes in. This collection is called "Breathe Deep" because all the tunes have a pace to them that sort of mimics breathing. In and out, back and forth, ebb and flow. It's similar to three other mixes I've done that follow the same path. This works very well as a sleep mix...
Nov 17, 2018•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 87
