low light mixes

  Friend of the show, Michael McGarrity, offered to create a guest mix and, of course, I jumped at the chance because Michael has been cranking out excellent mixes for several years. You can find his stuff here: https://www.friskyradio.com/show/wander/ https://www.mixcloud.com/michaelmcguk/ Here's what Michael has to say about this mix: "I made this mix to help remember those long summer days and...

    In April of 2020 I posted "Of Reed and Breath" which is an ambient sax mix. You can find that mix here: http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2020/04/of-reed-and-breath.html https://www.mixcloud.com/lowlight/of-reed-and-breath/   When I created that one I wasn't sure how it would work. Turns out, ambient sax is a great theme to build a mix on. I've been planning on a follow up for a long time and...

A million miles from Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope has arrived at it's parking spot at Lagrange Point #2, the perfect place to search the heavens for faint light from the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe. This mix tells the story of the Webb observatory as it seeks to "Unfold the Universe."   The telescope, like its mission, is big. When expanded to full size, it can’...

  This is a great way to start off 2022. We have an excellent guest mix from Kevin, the man responsible for "Cello Mood Swings" and "Not Seeing a Flower" which you can find here... https://www.mixcloud.com/lowlight/cello-mood-swings/ http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2021/07/cello-mood-swings.html https://www.mixcloud.com/lowlight/not-seeing-is-a-flower/ http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2020/07/n...

  I don't do these year-end jazz mixes every year. Most of the time I'm just too lazy. I don't keep close track of what came out and what I liked. At some point this year I started tossing individual tracks into a playlist and that helped me remember what I enjoyed in 2021. So here's my Jazz 2021 mix. It is by no means a "Best of" mix. It's merely a collection of jazz-ish tracks from albums I like...

A few things I noticed from my year-end list - no berlin-school music, very little what I would call 'space' music, a fair amount of dusty, loop music like Maps & Diagrams or Tapes & Topographies, several guitar based albums like Dave Depper, Dave Nelson, SUSS, and Devendra Banhart, and lastly, a lot of modern classical/modern composition albums from Mastrokristo & Alapastel to Max Richter and Vik...

  These year-end lists seem to be getting harder and harder to curate. The sheer number of releases makes it nearly impossible to keep up and listen to all the music. Through Spotify and Bandcamp most of this music is available immediately, which is great, but it can also foster a severe case of FOMO, fear of missing out. Whether it's ambient music or indie rock/pop I am on a constant prowl for ne...

    Between work and Thanksgiving I didn't have time to put together a new mix this week. But then I remembered I had another in the "simply ambient" series waiting in the wings. So here it is - "absolutely ambient." Like the the others in this series there is no overall theme other than a nice collection of excellent ambient music. With so much new music being released every week it's difficult t...

    I kind of overdosed on Native American flute music back in my new age days in the late 80s and 90s. So I don't listen to this style very often. But Paul has pulled me back in with his excellent collection of tracks. It starts off with new music from Sherry Finzer so I'm in automatically. From there Paul uses a variety of artists and styles to carry us through the hour-long mix. Here's what Pau...

    Anyone who regularly follows this podcast and my mixes knows that I am a science fiction dork. So it should come as no surprise that I saw Dune on opening weekend. I loved the film and have been thinking about an alternative soundtrack mix ever since.   There's not much to say other than this mix is a collection of tracks that remind me of the film. Most of the tracks are fairly new but a few...

  I have done several train mixes over the years. They basically come about because I hear a tune and think - Hey, that would be great in a train mix. So it was with this one. I heard the track "A.O.E." by Portico Quartet and I knew immediately that I need to build a mix around it. This mix differs from most of my other train mix(except one) because it's mostly a jazz influenced mix. Berlin-school...

  This is mix #3 in the "simply ambient" series. It started with "simply ambient" then "purely ambient" and now "always ambient." I listen to a ton of new music every month and this series gives me a chance to get some of that new music into mixes without having to wait for an appropriate theme. It's just straightforward ambient tracks, no theme, no big concept no story to tell - just excellent am...

    I'm getting this mix up & running just in time for Halloween. This one, while it does have a bit of a nighttime feel to it, is a little less creepy than some past Halloween mixes. For this collection I looked for titles that fit the theme of night to day. The mix moves chronologically from sunset to night to moonrise and set to darkness to dreaming and finally to light and dawn. Grab a pumpkin...

    WORLDS COLLIDE! In this mix I combine my love for new indie music with my love for all things quiet. The third installment of the Quiet Indie Songs series is here.  All tracks are from 2021 and it features artists like Jose Gonzalez, Billy Bragg, Matt Maltese, Cassandra Jenkins, Big Red Machine, Big Thief and more. Go for a nice walk in the woods while listening to some quiet indie songs. Chee...

  Eight years ago I did a mix with covers of Eno tunes - UNDER ENO'S COVERS   Since then I've collected a few more that I was planning to use for a follow up. I found the most covered Eno album is Music for Airports. So I decided to recreate the album with covers. Hence the title of the mix - Music for Covered airports.   The tracks follow the same order as the original album - 1/1, 2/1, 1/2, 2/2....

    This mix started with one album -  Goats & Distortions 5 by Dictaphone . It's one of my 2021 favorites. I began a new mix project with one song from that album as the starter, not knowing where it would go but the vibe was off-kilter. Then I heard a new album on Lost Tribe Sound,  Departures by mastroKristo , and I knew where the mix would go. This mix features a lot of wind instruments, altho...

    Autumn seems perfectly suited to ambient music, especially ambient with a tinge of melancholy. I was thinking about doing an fall-themed mix when Paul approached me with his fully curated mix for autumn. Perfect! Here's what Paul says about this mix: “Dedicating this one to my sister, Miriam Walter, professor of nursing at Chico State University in Northern California. Her birthday is today, S...

    This mix is pretty much what the title says - a collection of quiet/ambient tracks featuring the beautiful sounds of the pedal steel guitar. I did another pedal mix two years and since then it seems to be easier to find practitioners of the ambient steel guitar sound. Only one artist, Chuck Johnson, is repeated from that mix in this one. Here's the first mix:   http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.co...

    I love guest mixes because they expose me to tracks I might have otherwise missed in the monthly deluge of new releases. This new mix comes to us from Michael Southard(Time Rival) of Triplicate Records. I've included a few Time Rival tracks in mixes over the years so I was excited when Michael agreed to put together a mix of some of the best his label has to offer. Here's a blurb from Michael...

  I recently stumbled upon a post or tweet that mentioned Moteer, a UK record label active in the 2000s. I was like - oh man, I haven't listened to that stuff in a while, time to give some a spin. It was fun going back into that world of clicks, loops, vinyl records pops, and glitchy ambience. So I decided to make a mix. Moteer released music from 2003 to 2011. It was run by Andrew Johnson and Cra...

  Last year at this time I did a mix called " simply ambient " which was a nice, straightforward mix of ambient tracks. This mix is a sort of follow up titled "purely ambient." There is no theme, no story being told by the music, no big concepts. Just ambient music, pure and simple. This might be the start of a series of mixes - utterly ambient, perfectly ambient, naturally ambient, totally ambien...

  I few weeks ago the good folks over at  The Slow Music Movement  sent me a couple tracks by Wiki Chaves. After listening I immediately knew I had to construct a mix around the laid back guitar style. A style The Slow Music Movement calls - "Perfect for all your beach lying, garden barbecuing, hammock slouching, sunbathing, holiday taking soundtrack needs." Here's a link to the latest Wiki Chaves...

                                "Then he leaves the platform/For the sleeping car that's warm                                       You realize, he's only advertising one more shelter                                       And it comes to you, he never was a stranger"                                                                          - Leonard Cohen, "The Stranger Song"     I have been lucky...

I have been lucky to have had some awesome guest mixes this year. The streak continues with this excellent modern classical mix called "Cello Mood Swings." It's an excellent collection of music that features the cello. Duh!  This tracklist comes from loyal listener, Kevin, who was also responsible for last year's Japan themed mix - "Not Seeing is a Flower"  Which you can find here -  http://lowlig...

  The track, "I Will Not Be Sad In This World", is one of the most beautiful recordings ever made. It is hard not to be sad, however, upon hearing the news of the passing of Djivan Gasparyan.    I will forever be grateful to him for introducing me to the wonderful sounds of the duduk, an Armenian double reed woodwind instrument made of apricot wood. Despite it's single-octave range, Gasparyan was...