As I said a few posts back, I am a huge space science dork. My top 5 favorite NASA probes are: 1. Voyager 2. Cassini 3. Viking 4. Galileo 5. Spirit & Opportunity Number two on that list disintegrated in the atmosphere of Saturn today. Cassini was in orbit around Saturn for 7 years and made some of the most fantastic encounters of any planetary mission. The most amazing discovery concerns a little moon called Enceladus. Through Cassini, scientists have determined that Enceladus has a global s...
Sep 15, 2017•54 min•Ep. 56
Here is another fantastic mix curated by Paul Asbury Seaman. His earlier mixes are "Floating Through Moonlight" and "The Memory of Trains." I'm listening to it as I type this and it's another wonderful collection. Here's what Paul has to say about it: “I’m no fan of winter, but I love the visual patterns created by ice. And I’ve always loved the bell-like sounds sometimes used in electronic/ambient music and featured prominently in the works of Rudy Adrian. The idea for this mix started with a r...
Aug 28, 2017•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 55
With all the space themed mixes I've done over the years, there was no way I was going to miss making one for this solar eclipse. So here it is - In The Shadow Of The Moon. This mix is similar to the Juno mix in that it moves chronologically from sun to total eclipse back to sun. The titles of the tracks describe the journey. Cheers! T R A C K L I S T : 00:00 Arp - The Rising Sun 05:30 Vidna Obmana & Jan Marmenout - Traveling Moon 07:20 Max Richter - Falling Shadow 08:58 Harold Budd & Ro...
Aug 20, 2017•1 hr•Ep. 54
This mix is a sort of follow up to the train mix of a couple of months ago. I had a song or two that I hadn't used and then I stumbled upon the album "Simultonality" by Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society. The track, Sideways Fall, has this great repetitive train-like feel to it. I knew immediately that I needed to make another train mix to fit with that tune. That Joshua Abrams track is more jazz than ambient so I decided to keep that vibe throughout the mix. A few cuts, Steve Reich...
Jul 23, 2017•58 min•Ep. 53
My musical friend, Paul Asbury Seaman, has given us another gift in this beautiful collection. Paul picked out the tunes and the order & I stitched them together to form the mix. It was a joy to assemble. Here's what Paul had to say about the mix: " This is another bedtime, dreaming, unwinding, floating-away-on-an-interior-journey mix. The starting inspiration came from Michael DeMaria’s piece, “Moonlight” from his 2004 album The River. I was so struck by how precisely the music evoked the i...
Jul 09, 2017•52 min•Ep. 52
I'm a space science dork. I have NASA t-shirts, a large print of the moon in my office, read sci-fi and I make space/science themed music mixes. Here are links to a few that I've done in the past: http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-god-particle.html http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2011/11/launch-of-curiosity.html http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2012/08/music-for-mars-landing-curiosity-edl.html http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2013/12/deep-sky-time-music-for-stargazing-2013.html h...
Jun 30, 2017•56 min
The Ocean is a mighty harmonist. - William Wordsworth This is pretty straight forward - a collection of tunes that will make you feel as if you are drifting along on ocean currents. Almost all of the ocean sounds in this mix are in the original pieces of music. I only added a bit of wave sounds around the 39 minute mark. Enjoy the float. Cheers! T R A C K L I S T : 00:00 Alonefold - Wanderer & Stone(Wanderer & Stone 2014) 07:31 Riverrun - Conover Beacon(Romer Shoal 2016) 11:15 Keenya - R...
May 21, 2017•1 hr 17 min
I'm not sure where this mix originated. It may have started with Johann Johannsson's Kangaru from the Arrival soundtrack, God knows I listened to that a ton over the last 6 months. Maybe it was Max Richter. Whatever it was I found myself collecting vocal tunes. The kind of tracks that have vocals but many times no words or lyrics. If there are words it's usually unintelligible or a language like Latin. Once I gathered enough music then wa-lah here's an ethereal vocal mix. Cheers! T R A C K L I S...
May 16, 2017•1 hr 6 min
I wonder why the sound of trains is so evocative. Even for folks who have never been on a train there is something about the sound of a train on the tracks that stirs the imagination. This mix will hopefully have the same effect. I was surprised to find that I've only done two previous train themed mixes. It sure seems like I've done more. Maybe it's the use of train sounds in filed recording mixes that has me confused. Anyway, here are the two previous mixes... http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com...
May 01, 2017•1 hr 12 min
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives." - Carl Sagan I have always loved Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" essay. It's even better hearing his voice reading it. In the Cosmos reboot from a couple of years ago, when they played a clip of Carl I actually cried. Yes, I am a huge dork. So needless to say, Sagan reading about the pale blue dot gets me every ...
Apr 22, 2017•1 hr 5 min
I love moody guitar music with a bit of dust and twang. In an earlier mix, Mysterioso, I included a cut by Dead Combo. Their music was new to me. I was interested to learn from a listener that they are from Portugal and have achieved cult status there. That listener directed me to a mix he'd done with a Dead Combo track. I love the mix, you find it here... https://www.mixcloud.com/jorgempaulino/here-it-begins/ His other mixes are excellent as well. After hearing that mix I just knew I had to cre...
Apr 16, 2017•1 hr 9 min
I haven't done a Sunday morning mix in quite a while so volume 14 solves that problem. This follows the usual Sunday morning mix template of a few vocal tunes, some ambient tunes and a bit of jazz. I was happy to finally use Shenandoah in a mix. More than a year ago I was at a local high school spring concert and fell in love with the concert band version of this tune. I know it may sound out of place in a Low Light mix but I think it's beauty fits well with the Sunday morning series. In additio...
Apr 09, 2017•1 hr 7 min
One of my favorite things about making these mixes for ten years is the people I've come in contact with. I stay in touch with folks from Ireland, The Netherlands, Canada, Brazil or just down the road in Chicago. This mix comes from one these online friends, Josh Furey. He did a previous guest mix for Low Light Mixes called Cartridge, which you can find here... Cartridge - an 8-bit Adventure He recently reached out about a new mix & I of course jumped at the chance to showcase another of his...
Apr 01, 2017•56 min
This week marks the final transmission of the wonderful record label, City Centre Offices. Their style of electronic music was new to me at the time and I devoured their releases with a rapacious glee. I think I have somewhere between 40 - 50 CCO recordings. City Centre Offices has been silent for a number of years and I hate to admit that I'd sort of forgotten about them. But now this week brings one final release, Boy Robot - Final Transmission. So with the end of CCO officially here, I though...
Mar 25, 2017•1 hr 6 min
I haven't had time lately for new mixes but I wanted to get something up on Mixcloud so I thought I'd resurrect an old mix. This mix was originally done 10 years ago. Yikes! I can't believe I've been doing this that long. There were a few tracks in the original mix that I didn't really like anymore so I added a few new ones and took out a few old cuts. The new tracks are by Tilman Robinson, Loess, Murcof & Venessa Wagner, and Delia Derbyshire Appreciation Society. I hope to get back on track...
Mar 10, 2017•1 hr 2 min
The title of this mix pretty much says it all - this is a collection of excellent tracks from excellent science fiction films. This isn't meant to be definitive as in "The Best SciFi Soundtracks of All Time!" It's just some of my favorite music from some of my favorite sci fi films. I purposely stayed away from stuff like Star Wars, Star Trek, Close Encounters and 2001. Those are a little too recognizable and most of the time don't fit with the ambient feel of this mix. I just had to start the m...
Jan 26, 2017•1 hr 3 min
I think the last time I posted a snow mix I said that when I think of music to go with snow I think of piano music. Maybe it's from years of hearing Vince Guaraldi's Peanuts Christmas album or George Winston's December album. Whatever the reason, I immediately go to the piano for snow music. So that is again the dominant instrument in this mix. Most of the music here is fairly new which includes the Roedelius tune from 2015 - "Gently Falling Snow." Obviously I stole the title for this mix but I ...
Jan 09, 2017•1 hr 4 min
Every year I make two lists of my favorites albums of the year. One list is generally indie music and the other is ambient/instrumental. Even though I have a difficult time deciding on the final group it is easier coming up with the indie list than it is for ambient. Maybe it's because after a year of music they all tend to blur together and sound the same. There are definitely some stand outs, like the two releases from Johann Johannsson this year. But generally it's tough to make a list becaus...
Dec 21, 2016•1 hr 21 min
I've been on a big Johann Johnnsson kick lately. He released one of my favorite albums of the year "Orphee" a few months ago and now he has scored the excellent film "Arrival." It is a wonderful soundtrack that really adds to an already fantastic film. Johannsson tells the story of how he made the first track in this mix, "Heptpod B," at Song Exploder here... https://soundcloud.com/hrishihirway/song-exploder-johann-johannsson-arrival-score That new soundtrack is the jumping off point for this ci...
Dec 10, 2016•55 min
I'm not sure where this mix began. Possibly late at night, glass of whiskey on the table, slow jazz playing in the background. Arve Henriksen probably came up & got me thinking about dark, atmospheric jazz. Which sends me to Spotify to investigate more jazz noir, which leads to the discovery of Shadowdream & Dead Combo, which leads to a new mix. As you've probably guessed by now this is a late night, atmospheric jazz set. I knew when I started this mix that I'd have to include something ...
Nov 25, 2016•1 hr 3 min
I've always been a fan of long form ambient. It's goes all the way back to side-long cuts on Fripp & Eno's No Pussyfooting and Eno's Discreet Music. And more recently to the many full album cuts from Steve Roach. He's got a number of long form tracks and I'm not sure how many he has released. For this mix I decided to feature a bunch of long tracks and to also let a large chunk of each to play. Most cuts in the mix play for about 20 minutes or so. Which is why this ends up easily being the l...
Nov 12, 2016•6 hr 15 min
Back in 2009 I did a guest mix for Subversion called Still Falls the Rain. When a regular listener/downloader was looking for a replacement file for one that he had lost I realized that I'd never properly uploaded it to my own archive or to Mixcloud . So I dug up the file from 2009, added a few more tracks and uploaded for your listening pleasure. Good timing too, because it's been raining a lot here so it fits perfectly. Cheers! T R A C K L I S T : 00:00 August Stars – Inland Rain 04:25 Part Ti...
Oct 16, 2016•49 min
I'm sure by now that most of you have seen or heard about the TV show "Stranger Things" on Netflix. If you haven't seen it, definitely check it out. It totally rips off Close Encounters, ET, Poltergeist, Stand By Me, Firestarter, etc. but it doesn't matter because it's ripping them off in a loving way. The same is true for the soundtrack. It's got a great analog synth sound reminiscent of Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter soundtracks. The minute I heard the Stranger Things theme I knew I had to...
Oct 04, 2016•1 hr 4 min
Two of my favorite albums this year are from Icelandic composers, Jóhann Jóhannsson - Orphée and Ólafur Arnalds - Islands. How does the tiny country of Iceland produce so many incredible artists? I don't know how but I'm happy every time new music comes from that mysterious place. The moment I heard these two recordings I knew I'd have to make a new modern classical mix. All of the music here is fairly new and most of it has an accessible classical take with an ambient touch. http://www.deutsche...
Sep 28, 2016•1 hr 1 min
This is mix #2 in the Ambient Decades series. As the titles says, this mix focuses on ambient music in the 1980s. There were some great ambient albums in the 80s, albums that go down as some of the best ambient of all time. That would be Brian Eno - On Land , Steve Roach - Structures from Silence and Brian Eno & Harold Budd - The Pearl . Beyond those 3 there are more great 80s recordings from Roach & Eno and other classics & worthwhile music. I was definitely happy to include a cut f...
Sep 11, 2016•1 hr 17 min
This mix is a couple of weeks late. It is a soundtrack for meteor watching, specifically the annual August Perseid meteor shower. I uploaded it to Mixcloud on Aug. 12th but totally forgot to make it available here as well. That has now been corrected. I've been wanting to use a track from Robert Scott Thompson's album "Pale Blue Dot" and a stargazing mix was the perfect opportunity with Skyway being a great opener for this collection. I was also happy to include an old favorite - Thom Brennan. I...
Aug 23, 2016•1 hr 44 min
This is the first in a series of mixes featuring ambient music from each of the past 4 1/2 decades. Ambient music came to it's full expression during the 1970s with Eno's Discreet Music & Music for Airports. This mix explores those albums and other electronic gems. This mix/list is by no means definitive. It's music from my collection that is a representation of the emergence of ambient in the 1970s. As I was sorting through tracks for the mix I realized that I'm definitely going to have to ...
Aug 04, 2016•1 hr 31 min
I've done a lot of mixes over the last ten years. Obviously I try to have a theme or mood for each mix. It can get difficult come up with new motifs. That's why I love the idea that Mike G of Ambient Music Guide had last year. We decided to trade guest mixes and he suggested we each send each other a few mix titles and that we select one and build the mix off of that title. It really gets me thinking differently and can help get me out of a rut when looking for mix inspiration. This mix is the s...
Jul 16, 2016•1 hr 16 min
On my list of the greatest recordings ever made you'll find the 1978 ECM records release of Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians. It blew me away when I heard it for the first time. I've been a fan of minimal classical music ever since. I have a ton of Steve Reich and Philip Glass music in my collection. Recently I discovered a 2010 recording of Philip Glass music by the Delta Saxophone Quartet called Minimal Tendencies. It's an excellent album and it got me thinking about a minimal mix. So I st...
Jun 19, 2016•1 hr 12 min
The latest in the Sunday morning series features a gorgeous remix of a Silver Lake Chorus tune from their forthcoming remix album out on June 24th. https://thesilverlakechorus.bandcamp.com/ The mix opens & closes with Easy To Die by Silver Lake Chorus remixed by Hammock . The closing tune is an instrumental version. The rest of the mix is the typical Sunday morning mix of instrumentals, jazz & vocal tunes. Most of the tracks are fairly new. Enjoy T R A C K L I S T : 00:00 Silver Lake Cho...
Jun 12, 2016•54 min
