low light mixes

    I've done Halloween mixes in the past but never one quite like this. I decided to take some of the Latin guitar sounds found in my Guitarissimo mixes, tilt them slight off kilter and give the mix a slightly sinister vibe.  It's not too dark, and some of it is kinda of fun, just the way Halloween should be. There are a few artists I was familiar with or have played before like David Lynch, SUSS...

    Sometimes I get so wrapped up in themed mixes or guest mixes that I forget about doing a nice straightforward ambient mix. So that's what this is - a mix featuring ambient tracks from 2023. No story to tell, no underlying theme, just excellent ambient tracks to drift away on. Links to all the music used in this mix: https://willebrant.bandcamp.com/album/leaving-space https://homenormal.bandcam...

  I have been having a hard time keeping up my mix output lately. There are many reasons, from too much work to too many concerts and social things to a pennant run in baseball. Also playing a part is me getting a little burned out on ambient music. There is so much of it released every week, every month that it becomes a bit overwhelming and it all starts to blend together after a while. I end up...

    I haven't done a quiet indie songs mix since this time last year. This one started when I heard the latest Peter Gabriel track, Love Can Heal, which I adore. And the timing is good as I'll be seeing him in concert on Oct. 2nd. I've heard that in his live show he plays a lot of the new tracks he's been releasing monthly. Several months ago that would have given me pause because I didn't much ca...

      I just got back from a week in Iceland so naturally I had to make a mix with music from Icelandic artists. The usual suspects are here - Sigur Ros, Johann Johannsson, Bjork, Olafur Arnalds, along with some new additions.  It still boggles my mind that the tiny island has produced such amazing music. But now, having been there, I guess it makes a bit more sense because the place is unique. Th...

  One of my favorite ambient albums from the first half of 2023 is "Intrapersonal Experience" by Saphileaum. It's a great combination of atmospherics and percussion, reminiscent of 90s Steve Roach tribal ambient. After hearing this album I needed to do a drum/percussion-based mix and "Summoning The Spirits" is the result. Another recent discovery makes its way into this mix - The Rain Dogs. So far...

    The trip through the electronic music of the 70s continues with a stop in 1972. As with '70 & '71, this is a mix with some tracks that are very electronic, like the Wendy Carlos tunes, and others that are more electronic adjacent, like the Cluster or Pick Floyd tracks. But I think it gives a good sense of where things stood at the time. I purposely stayed away from cheesy electronic versio...

  Photo by Alan Seaman (Paul’s father) in Raiwind, Lahore District, Pakistan, c.1966.     Another train-themed mix? Yes, because they are awesome! This one comes from the mind of Paul Asbury Seaman, as have several other train mixes. As per usual, it's a great collection of familiar and unfamiliar artists, to me at least.  Here's what Paul says about this latest trip down the tracks: “On this one—...

  I guess the title of this mix is as straightforward as it gets. This one is a collection of tracks from my favorite ambient albums from the first half of 2023. There's some really good stuff in there and a nice variety.   First I'll give my list of favorites with links and then the tracklist of the mix. Cheers to a great second half!   Alva Noto - Kinder der Sonne (From Komplizen) [Noton] https:...

    This mix is pretty just as the title describes - a set of long ambient pieces, perfect for sleeping. There's not much else to say other than the tracks are all fairly new with most of them from 2023. I was happy to use a longer version of the Crows Labyrinth track in this mix. I used it in my Blade Runner mix earlier in the year but it was the short version. I have been listening to the long v...

    I love getting guest mixes from creative artists. I love hearing excellent segues as the music flows seamlessly across the set. And I love discovering new music. So I'm excited about this latest offering from Fragile X. https://soundcloud.com/fragilex https://fragilex.bandcamp.com/ https://www.mixcloud.com/lowlight/being-human-by-fragile-x/   There so much good stuff in this mix I could go on...

    The Electronic Music of the 1970s series continues with a trip back to 1971. This year was a bit easier to curate than '70 because we have a few more good uses of electronic instruments featured prominently. For me, the best electronic album of 1971 is "Zero Time" by Tonto's Expanding Head Band. It's very synthetic sounding without being too cheezy. I enjoyed discovering new music for this mix...

    The theme for this mix is simple - a collection of new ambient tracks, most released within the last couple of months. Sometimes after posting a lot of theme mixes or guest mixes I need to crank out a set that is just straightforward ambient. Nothing fancy, just beautiful, drifting music to ease the mind. Here are some links to the music used in this mix: https://kramer.bandcamp.com/album/bapt...

    A few months ago I stumbled across two tunes called "Lonely Satellite" & "The Lonely Orbit." Those titles intrigued me and I thought they would make a great theme for a mix. I started collecting tracks, not knowing when the mix would come to fruition.  Then this past week I heard the new album from Alva Noto called "Kinder der Sonne (From "Komplizen")" and I knew immediately that I had to make...

    Two guest mixes in a row - I am a lucky guy! This one comes to us from LLM regular contributor, Paul Asbury Seaman. It's a great collection of instrumental tracks that, as the title says, leans heavily on music from the 70s. My brain has been stuck in the 70s for a while as I collect tunes for the Electronic Music of the 70s series(1971 is coming soon). So I was excited about the coincidence o...

  This is a repost of an old mix from 2009. The is a retro synth mix with a sort of old space program vibe. I realized that I'd never posted it to Mixcloud so I thought I would haul it out of space dock and update it with a few more cuts added to the end. It's great to hear tracks from Freescha, Lunar Testing Lab, Bochum Welt and others for the first time in a long time. Enjoy this trip backward a...

    I've done a couple mixes featuring library music from the 70s & 80s that have the vibe of a cheesy deep sea exploration documentary. I've always wanted to do a follow up and here it is. One of the problems is that I didn't check the tracklist from the last mix and so quite a few tracks from that set made it into this one. When I figured out what had happened, it was too late to change. Well, a...

    This mix is pretty straightforward - it's a collection of tracks from some of my favorite ambient albums of 2023. The first three tracks are probably my top three albums of the year so far and I expect them to be on my year-end list in December. There's not much else to say, just sit back and enjoy some excellent ambient music. Cheers!   T R A C K L I S T : 00:00    Rod Modell & Taka Noda - Un...

    The Plan - make a mix for every year of the 70s, featuring electronic music from each year. Easy peasy! Well, not exactly. The early years are a bit tough. Electronic music wasn't really a genre yet. There are definitely electronic albums. But enough to fill an hour-long mix? Maybe...sort of. So let me start by saying that some folks may disagree with my choices as I tried to fill out the trac...

    I love making shortwave mixes, so it's hard to believe it's been almost 11 years since my last new shortwave creation. Yikes! I know these mixes are labor intensive and I am a terrible procrastinator but I am shocked that it's been that long. Here are the previous mixes: https://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2007/04/drift-on-signal.html https://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2008/06/ghost-in-phase.ht...

    Another musical great has left this world. Ryuichi Sakamoto was a founding member of Yellow Magic Orchestra. He became well known for his neo-classical work, his collaborations, and of course his film scores, from Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence to The Revenant to the Oscar-winning score for The Last Emperor. The solo piano version of Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is one of my favorite piano piece...

    International Piano Day is March 29th and, as has been the case for the last five years, I've put together a new mix in celebration of ambient piano tunes. I don't do quite as many piano mixes as I once did but when I create these Piano Day sets I find I really enjoy the vibe. There are a lot of new tracks in the mix, half of them from 2022 & 2023. But there are a few older tunes as well. I re...

    Blade Runner is obviously one of the great sci-fi films of all time, with one of the best soundtracks of all time. As a testament to the staying power of Vangelis' work, we still have a artists today that mimic the sound of the Blade Runner score. The recording that got me started on this mix is brand new from Crows Labyrinth called "Neon Scenes I: Granular Dreams". It's a longform generative...

Maurice Martenot with his invention   Last year in my Halloween mix I included a track that used an instrument called the Ondes Martenot. I new a little bit about it - that it was an old instrument played with a ring on a wire. But that was all I really knew. Then a listener pointed me in the direction of a piece for the Ondes Martenot written in 1937. Yikes, 1937?! I had no idea that "Oraison" by...