I ran into the track "The Last Message" by John Murphy on a mix at A Strangely Isolated Place , and it got me thingking about doing another classical-ish mix. The Murphy track is in there, along with new tunes(Maya Beiser, Max Richter, Nils Frahm, etc) and old tunes(Steve Reich, Peter Gabriel, Gavin Bryars, etc). There's really not much more to say except that I hope you enjoy this collection of ambient, soundtrack, minimal & neo-classical tunes. T R A C K L I S T : 00:00 David Byrne - The L...
Jul 23, 2010•55 min
Breathing is rhythmic process of expansion and contraction, in & out, inhale & exhale. Breathing is one example of the cycles we see in nature such as night and day, wake and sleep, seasonal growth and decay, tides going in & out. And like waves in the tides, the rhythmic nature of breathing can be very calming. Some of my favorite sleep music has this cyclic, breathing quality to it. I made my first breathing mix almost three years ago. Wow! Has it really been that long? I can't bel...
Jun 22, 2010•1 hr
What the heck? Two sea/water mixes in a row? I didn't plan it this way. It just sort of happened that I collected a few sea songs, then the library/soundtrack mix got done, then I found a few more sea songs and this mix happened. "lost at sea" is very similar to "a solitary sea" from last year. Some nice drifting, flowing tunes with a definite sea/ocean feel to them. And of course all the tunes have the word "sea" in the title. The mix works really well on foggy mornings, standing out on the dec...
Jun 14, 2010•55 min
Right off the bat, I have to come clean. I stole something. I stole the idea for this mix. But I'm glad I did because I'm very excited to post this new track. Over at SoundCloud I ran into some mixes by Astromatt . He uses sounds from music libraries and soundtracks of '60's and '70's to create great underwater themed mixes. I love the sound of these old tracks & how they work together in a mix. Who knew that these old library albums even existed?! After some research & digging, I decide...
Jun 05, 2010•37 min
Modern-classical, neo-classical, acousmatic, electro-acoustic, ...whatever you want to call the genre, I think this mix fits. You'll hear lots of strings, some piano, some beats and more strings. It has a vague sort of chamber music feel to it. The mix takes a detour about halfway through with the Pjusk track. It's a good tune but doesn't necessarily fit the modern classical theme of the mix. But I think it flows well with the other tracks around it. A lot of music I have been listening to sort ...
May 31, 2010•58 min
I've been listening to a lot of older music lately. Been on a big progressive rock kick, King Crimson, Steve Hackett, Willowglass, Pink floyd, Phil Manzanera, Strawbs, etc. This lead me to dig up some older ambient tunes, which lead to this mix. Listening to Michael Brook's "Hybrid" from 1985 brought back memories of how wonderful that album is. So I grabbed other ambient recordings from around the same time period and the result is the new mix, "always returning". I stole the title from the Eno...
May 23, 2010•53 min
I recently was given a box of old sound effects records like the one in the picture. These albums brought back a lot of memories. As a kid I would go to the public library down the street and borrow their sound effects records. I guess that was an early sign that I'd end up with music tastes that were a bit different. This new mix is perfect for my new vinyl sound effects collection, unfortunately I finished the mix before I got the records. So I'll have to save them for the next installment in ...
May 16, 2010•1 hr
Drifting...floating...coasting...gliding...swimming... Whatever word you choose, all would describe this mix perfectly. It's just a nice collection of mostly new tunes, all with a drifting, floating feel. This mix works great for sleeping, enjoy. T R A C K L I S T : 00:00 Moustache Mountain - poisonoussnake 05:50 Ben Fleury Steiner - Purple as the Dawn 09:45 Pausal - Midshipman 12:40 Back to Comm - Hotel Freund 16:00 Aglaia - A Boat Hunted the Edge of the Sea 22:40 Dirk Serries - microphonics v ...
Apr 24, 2010•57 min
The mixes are coming fast and furious! I'm trying to crank out a few more than normal. This one seems to be fast paced compared to the usual mixes found here. This creation is similar to a mix I did in 2008 called "Motion for Relief" . Ambient dub would be the best way to describe this installment. Not all the tunes are "dub" but most have beats, some more prominent than others. The feel is still pretty laid back, with just enough going on to give a sense of movement. Hence the title, "eppur si ...
Apr 17, 2010•1 hr
This is the third mix I’ve done with a shortwave radio theme. Many of the tunes have noise & static already built in. Sometimes radio washes have been added. As with past shortwave mixes, the actual shortwave recordings come courtesy of Myke Dodge Weiskopf. He runs a great site dedicated to shortwave music . This mix was originally posted on MixCloud by folks at Fluid Radio . I am honored that Fluid Radio posted one of my mixes among their growing list of great music. I'm posting here to all...
Apr 14, 2010•55 min
I have no idea why I called this mix "cloud mapping". It started off as something about the sky, then aerial views of something, then blah blah blah...then it ends up as "cloud mapping". Most of the music is new or new-ish. There is no big time theme in this mix, just good, drifting ambient music. I guess you could picture yourself flying over clouds while listening to this. My favorite track in the mix is from Christopher Willits' release "Live on Earth Vol.1". It's the track, "Stars and Plants...
Apr 11, 2010•59 min
a canticle unfolds I love all the mixes being posted on Mixcloud by Fluid Radio . They have a ton of neo-classical, Ambient, Modern Classical, Experimental Acoustic mixes on their Mixcloud page. So I set out to make my own "neo-classical" mix. And as I have said here before, sometimes mixes take you in directions that you weren't anticipating. With "a canticle unfolds", I discovered some vocal music as I was searching for tracks with a modern classical feel. Some of the tunes appear as recorded,...
Mar 25, 2010•1 hr
It's the dead of winter, just trying to outlast the snow & cold, trying to make it to spring break. The music in this mix has a sort of lonely winter feel to it. The tracks are not too dark or depressing, they just seem to conger up images of vast, snowy landscapes. There are a few recordings in this mix from some of my recent favorite record labels. I'll just list some of those favorites... Low Point Experimedia Hibernate Under the Spire Home Normal Phantom Channel Dead Pilot Records Own Re...
Feb 17, 2010•1 hr
Here's the first mix for 2010. It's called slo_mo because all the tunes are slow & droney. One aspect of this mix that makes it a bit different is the use of a few "stretched" tracks. I think I've mentioned this program here before, it's called " Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch ". I couldn't find a link to it, but at one time, on the web, there was a version of Beethoven's 9th Symphony that had been stretched to 24 hours. I stretched 3 songs for the mix, Eno - Music for Airports, Laetetur Cor (...
Jan 17, 2010•1 hr 3 min
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 co...
Dec 21, 2009•51 min
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, breathi...
Dec 15, 2009•1 hr
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 s...
Oct 19, 2009•59 min
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 mus...
Oct 04, 2009•1 hr
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 t...
Jul 31, 2009•1 hr 5 min
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 spacesh...
Jun 28, 2009•1 hr 30 min
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 i...
Jun 14, 2009•23 min
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 "ra...
Jun 04, 2009•40 min
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 ...
Apr 19, 2009•1 hr
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 end...
Apr 05, 2009•59 min
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 s...
Mar 08, 2009•1 hr
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 L...
Feb 28, 2009•1 hr
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 t...
Feb 18, 2009•40 min
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 ...
Jan 11, 2009•1 hr
I cross 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. E...
Jan 08, 2009•36 min
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....
Dec 13, 2008•40 min
