I recently read an article in the New York Times that was published in 2016 about an unlikely collection of admirers. A group that started back in 2004 to sing the praises of...clouds. These devotees are known as "The Cloud Appreciation Society." Here's a link to the NYT article... https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-amateur-cloud-society-that-sort-of-rattled-the-scientific-community.html And the society... https://cloudappreciationsociety.org/ The name of the group stuck in my head ...
Jun 20, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 176
I've had a good run lately, posting a lot of mixes. But due to busy schedules and a bit of laziness, I've run out of fresh mixes ready to upload. Then comes Paul to the rescue! This mix is a breath of fresh air, going in a different direction than any of my recent mixes. Here's what Paul has to say about this excellent set: “This mix features oud, sitar and koto, moving from the Near/Middle East, across South Asia to the Far East. This is not a Folkways sampler, but focuses on the rich tapestrie...
Jun 06, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 175
I've been wanting to make an orchestral mix for a long time. Sometimes individual tracks will show up in other mixes but I haven't done one devoted exclusively to modern classical music in a long time. What finally got me going with this mix was the new album from Max Richter - Voices 2. It's a beautiful album with lots of tracks that would work for an ambient leaning modern classical set. I really like how this one turned out. All but two of the tracks are from 2021. They flow from one to the o...
May 30, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 174
Last year saw a trio of very fine albums of harp music from Andrea Cortez, Mary Lattimore, and Kirsten Agresta Copel. Here are links to all three albums: https://auralcanyonmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-secret-song-of-plants https://marylattimoreharpist.bandcamp.com/album/silver-ladders https://kcopelymusic.bandcamp.com/album/around-the-sun I used "The Secret Song of Plants" quite a bit as a work-from-home soundtrack. Then recently I realized that I'd never made a mix devoted to harp music. So he...
May 23, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 173
At the end of 2020 I posted a mix called "Quiet Indie Songs" and it did a lot better than I expected. A few folks thought it should be a recurring series and I agreed. So here you have installment #2 - "Quiet Indie Songs #2 - Spring 2021." I'm sneaking this in under the wire as it's barely spring anymore. Most of the songs are from 2021, with 4 of them from 2020. There are some old favorites in there, like Damien Jurado & Phoebe Bridgers. And also a lot of new to me artists like Arooj Aftab,...
May 17, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 172
The origin of this mix is very simple - I simply wanted a new collection of meditative tunes to sleep to or zone out to while sipping tequila on the deck. Once I decided to go with a meditation mix I immediately thought of a recent purchase of music from an artist known as Calm Whale. You can't go wrong with any of their releases. Just close your eyes and pick one and it will be beautifully calm and meditative. Calm Whale on Bandcamp The rest of the mix is almost all new stuff except for one ran...
May 13, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 171
A year or two ago I read a sci-fi novel in which some of the main characters were sentient robots. When two of them would meet they establish secure channels with dialog such as "I am Paladin. You are unknown. Here comes my data. We want information about a pirate named Judith Chen. She goes by Jack … That is the end of my data." For some reason the line "Here comes my data" stuck with me. I immediately wrote it down as a possible title for a mix. I thought it would fit well with a slightly more...
May 02, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 170
After the craziness of the last mix it's nice to slow down. And what better way to slow down than with a guest mix from James over at The Slow Music Movement . They have a wonderful new album called "Future Folk: Friendly Faces; Different Spaces." https://theslowmusicmovement.bandcamp.com/album/future-folk-friendly-faces-different-spaces After I heard it I asked James to do a guest mix featuring some tracks from that album along with other cuts that fit the vibe. The result is a unique journey t...
Apr 25, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 169
And now for something completely different. This mix is a collection of instrumental tunes from the progressive rock sub-genre known as The Canterbury Scene. According to Wikipedia: The Canterbury scene (or Canterbury sound) was a musical scene centered around the city of Canterbury, Kent, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Associated with progressive rock, the term describes a loosely-defined, improvisational style that blended elements of jazz, rock, and psychedelia. The Canterbury...
Apr 18, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 168
It's funny how mixes come together sometimes. I started this one only knowing I wanted it to be pretty straightforward ambient. The easiest thing to do was to start with some new music from the last month or two. As I laid down a few tracks I started to get this feeling of the sea, of drifting on the water, of a quiet harbor. So I went with it. Before long I had an entire mix of new music that hung together with this beautiful ebb & flow. The theme came about organically. The tracks themselv...
Apr 11, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 167
Photo by Alex on Unsplash Back in January Paul emailed me about an album called "Bardo Tank" by Ron Miles playing trumpet in The Tank in Colorado. That email started me off in search of tunes for what became my "Resonant Spaces" mix. Paul went a different direction and sought out tracks for an ambient trumpet mix. The result is a great collection of tunes that span different styles and old to new, while still maintaining an ambient atmosphere. Here's what Paul says about this mix: “No musical in...
Apr 04, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 166
What if the original Blade Runner film had a pop music soundtrack? You know how some films have an instrumental score but also an album of pop/rock tunes that were used in the film or inspired by the film. If Blade Runner had such a collection maybe it would sound like this mix. This all started when I was listening to Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond part 1 and I thought that it sounded like it would sort of fit with the Blade Runner score we are all so familiar with. That got me thinkin...
Mar 28, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 165
This year I've had the good fortune of posting several cool guest mixes and that continues with this excellent collection from Brad Deschamps of Polar Seas Recordings. https://polarseasrecordings.bandcamp.com/ It's not a mix of all Polar Seas releases, in fact only the opening and closing tracks are from the label. But it is perfect timing for a mix from Brad because Polar Seas is releasing three excellent new albums on Friday March 19th. https://polarseasrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/luminous h...
Mar 15, 2021•46 min•Ep. 164
As I've said here before, solo piano is wonderfully evocative of falling snow. So this mix is a collection of piano tracks that remind me of snow. All the tunes are new, being from 2020 or 2021. Including the opening track from a forthcoming album on Whitelabrecs, i=r by Lorenzo Masotto https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/i-r There's not much else to say other than enjoy this last snow mix of the year. We still have a lot of snow on the ground but it's melting and I can sense spring just aro...
Feb 28, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 163
This mix is nice and straightforward - no funky locations, no focus on a single instrument - just straight up ambient. The closest thing to a theme would be that all the tracks are from 2021. In trying to come up with a title for the mix, I looked through a list I keep of possible titles. If I hear an interesting phrase or combo of words I'll jot it down to possibly use later. In this case I came across "The Infinite Present." It seemed to fit because all the tunes are from 2021 and, even though...
Feb 21, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 162
Somehow last year I missed the album Transcendence by Sherry Finzer. https://heartdancerecords.bandcamp.com/album/transcendence It's an album of solo flute improvisations recorded in an old water tank in Rangely, Colorado. It definitely has the same feel as Paul Horn's Inside the Great Pyramid from 1976. As I listened to it, I wondered if I could collect enough tracks to make a mix of music recorded in water tanks, silos and cisterns. Well, I guess I found enough because here's the mix - Resonan...
Feb 14, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 161
Photo by Nick Reynolds on Unsplash I am so psyched to have another excellent guest mix. This one comes from long-time friend of the blog, Innesti - innesti.bandcamp.com I have featured a bunch of Innesti music over the years and have hosted guest mixes from him as well. A couple of days ago I got an email asking if I was interested in another guest mix of ambient vaporwave tunes. Aww, hell yeah, I'm interested. Although I'm not quite sure what Vaporwave is. No worries, Innesti explains it for us...
Feb 07, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 160
As I type this we are getting pounded with another 9" of snow, the second pounding in less than a week. Combine that with semi-lockdown we are still under and it sort of feels like I'm in a research station outpost about to hunker down for The Long Polar Night. Most of the titles fit the theme as well as the feel of the tunes.. I added some weather radio recordings throughout the mix which I think worked out pretty well. One happy accident that happened while putting this together is I accidentl...
Jan 31, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 159
Great minds think alike. Both Paul and I had the idea of doing a "bell" based mix. I, however, am a procrastinator, and after creating a save folder for bell tunes 3 months ago, I have one track in it. So who knows when that puppy was going to get done. Paul, on the other hand, sought out tracks and compiled them into a perfect playlist that became this mix - Bell Tone Meditation. Here's what he has to say about it: “For thousands of years bells, more than any other instrument, have been used to...
Jan 24, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 158
I've been a fan of halftribe(Ryan Bissett) ever since he approached me about doing a guest mix roughly 6 years ago - whoa, blows my mind that it was that long ago. Whether it's deep & dubby or straight up ambient, halftribe has released some of my favorite albums over the last 5 or 6 years. So I was excited when Ryan agreed to do a guest mix. Here's what Ryan said about the mix: "It's been a little while since I put a mix together as I've been mostly just working on my next album. It's even ...
Jan 17, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 157
I was fishing around for an idea for a new mix and mother nature helped out by dropping some fresh snow overnight so that became the theme - The Silence of Snow. I took the picture above on a morning walk through a local nature preserve. The first draft of this mix had several piano based pieces. I think piano tunes do a nice job of conjuring up snow but I decided to pull them and save them for an all piano snow mix for later in January or February. Cheers to a better 2021! T R A C K L I S T : 0...
Jan 03, 2021•57 min•Ep. 156
by Sven Geier - sgeier.net We end the year as we began - with a mix from Paul Asbury Seaman. And a fine way to end the year it is. All of the music in this set is from 2020, making it an appropriate way to say goodbye to this tumultuous year. Here's what Paul says about the mix: “Stillness within motion is a concept that comes from Zen Buddhism and the martial arts. It always seemed to me a good way to try to live ordinary life as well. This program is an effort to expressing that concept musica...
Dec 27, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 155
I always label these lists and mixes as "Best Ambient," but with so much music released each year, coming up with a true best list is almost impossible. So this is really more of a list and mix of my favorite ambient albums of the year. Best of 2020 just sounds better. I don't about you but I bought a lot of ambient music this year thanks to Bandcamp Fridays. Through regular purchases and special deals, where one could get a whole discography for like $10, I think I bought about 250 ambient albu...
Dec 20, 2020•1 hr 50 min•Ep. 154
I listen to as much indie music as I do ambient music. I always keep a list of favorite albums and favorite songs of the year. As I was looking at some of my favorite songs I noticed that several of them were quiet tunes that would be appropriate for an LLM mix. So I grabbed those and a few more favs and came up with "Quiet Indie Songs of 2020." Squirrel Flower was my big discovery this year. I'd never heard of the artist before and a few of her songs turned out to be some of my most played tune...
Dec 13, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 153
2020, you unrelenting bastard. Now you've taken Harold Budd from us. An icon in ambient music. There's not much I can say right now except that I love his music. I have about 25 albums by Harold Budd. His music has been with me for more than 40 years. When I heard the news I knew the only tribute I could do was a mix. So here it is an hour-long mix that barely scratches the surface of his output. Godspeed Harold, your music remains in our ears and on the wind. T R A C K L I S T : 00:00 Harold Bu...
Dec 09, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 152
A perfect mix for the end of 2020 comes to us from Paul Asbury Seaman. All soundtrack cuts, all with varying degrees of melancholy, all forming an ideal coda for 2020. Here's what Paul says about the mix: “I’ve been sitting on this playlist for more than three years. Never got around to firming it up for a Low Lights mix. It dawned on me just the other day that the eight movies from which these pieces are drawn are all meditations on death and loss. So now seems like a good time to share it. Als...
Dec 06, 2020•58 min•Ep. 151
I'm in the process of making lists of my top 5 instrumental albums for each year from 1970 to the present. Yeah, it's going take a while. So I was digging around in my music hard drive looking for music that would fit those lists and I stumbled upon the track Tulpa Ovi by Robag Wruhme. I immediately loved the feel of tune and knew I needed it in a mix. The cut has a feeling of motion similar to others I've used in train themed mixes. But it was more gentle, almost wistful. It made me think of tr...
Nov 22, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 150
As is well documented in this blog, I am a space nerd. Over the years I have posted a ton of mixes related to the cosmos. Whether it's a stargazing mix or a celebration of the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle or a requiem for a dying space probe, ambient/electronic music is the perfect companion for turning your gaze to the heavens. Over the last couple of months we've been treated to beautiful views of Mars, Jupiter & Saturn. Mars has been visible just after sunset in the eastern skies...
Nov 15, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 149
Off-kilter, strange, a bit askew, weird, oblique - are all ways to describe this mix. It's a little creepy too which makes for a perfect mix for Spooky Season. To create a Halloween mix it would be easy to grab some dark, dissonant ambient but as I've said before I'm not a dark ambient fan. So I went for the same feel I have used in the past - tunes that are a bit off-center. Tunes that make you think of midnight, distant headlights in the fog, street lamps and cigarette smoke. I hope you enjoy ...
Oct 25, 2020•1 hr•Ep. 148
photo courtesy of https://unsplash.com/@coleito I started this mix on a cold, rainy fall day with no theme or plan. The first track I laid down was from Progressions by Anthéne and Andrew Tasselmyer on Constellation Tatsu. Listening to it, the track seemed perfect for a grey autumn day. Now I had my theme or vibe. From there I just browsed my new releases folder to come up with an ambient accompaniment for sitting inside with a good book, while outside it's cold and wet. Cheers! T R A C K L I S ...
Oct 04, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 147
