low light mixes

  Right after I posted my Best Ambient of 2018 mix I started diving into a bunch of other year end lists. Of course I discovered some excellent releases that I would have included in my mix/list if I had known about them in time. I found enough music that I decided to create a second Best of 2018 mix.   I could probably make a third mix but I've got to stop sometime. What were your favorite record...

Even though Christmas music has gotten more interesting than Dean Martin and Bing Crosby, there is not an awful lot of ambient Christmas music out there. So I've only attempted an xmas mix one other time and it was just okay. Until this year. Thanks to a wonderful album from Matt Borghi I decided to give a holiday ambient mix another shot. Matt's album is called simply - "Ambient Guitar for Christ...

  As much as I like end-of-the-year lists, I also get a bit anxious about them. As I compile them I keep thinking that I've missed something. Then as I'm re-listening to albums I start thinking "Is this one really that good?" & "Maybe this one deserves a slot...or this one...or this one..." Eventually I realize that these lists aren't anything definitive that I'll be judged on. Unless there's an a...

  After six months of travel from Earth, NASA's InSight spacecraft is on a precise trajectory to land on Mars. If all goes well it should be touching down on the surface of the red planet about 6 hours after this mix is initially posted.   The tracks for this mix have all been selected to tell the story of InSight and its journey to Mars. The track titles take us chronologically from Farewell, O E...

    I work in TV news so as you can imagine with the midterm elections, wildfires, mass shootings, presidential tweets, etc., things can get pretty crazy. Sometimes you need to step back and take a breath. That's where this new mix comes in.   This collection is called "Breathe Deep" because all the tunes have a pace to them that sort of mimics breathing. In and out, back and forth, ebb and flow....

    I have collaborated with Paul Asbury Seaman and several mixes and I look forward each and every one. Paul's mixes tend to be more ethereal, spiritual than mine and that's why I enjoy them so much. they take me on journeys I would go on otherwise.   They way Paul and I work on these mixes is he sends me his well thought out tracklist in order. Then I just mix them together so they flow well. Es...

  I stumbled upon the song "Was The Singing Bellowing" by Eli Keszler while listening to Spotify at work and I immediately knew I wanted to make a Halloween mix. The tune creates this great odd feeling without being too dark. As I have stated here before, I'm not a fan of dark ambient. Especially the dissonant, droney kind of dark ambient. So when I've made Halloween/dark mixes before they have te...

    My hometown baseball team, the Milwaukee Brewers, had a fantastic finish to close the regular season. They captured the central division title and are now in the playoffs. I am loving every minute of it but it's also stressful as heck! I am definitely too old for this kind of roller coaster ride. I went to the first two games of the playoffs and between standing for half the game, clapping on...

The idea for this mix came from a track by Andrew Sherwell on his wonderful new album, Orthodox Tales, released by the excellent label Whitelabrecs. https://whitelabrecs.bandcamp.com/album/orthodox-tales The song, "And the Smoke of the Incense," starts off with the sound of a film projector. That sound is strangely evocative and I love how it sounds in that cut. After hearing that tune I created a...

I'm not sure where this mix started but I've had a playlist on Spotify called "Rivers & Roads" for awhile. It's mostly acoustic, folk tunes dealing with, you guessed it - rivers and roads. I figured it might make for a nice change of pace. The mix alternates between vocal tunes & instrumentals. All of which have the typical Low Light Mixes feel.  It also works nicely as a soundtrack for fall. Easi...

  Earlier this year I was asked by the folks at  Lifted Icons  to do a guest mix. It was a unique mix because I did two 20 minute sets that were then incorporated into a larger nearly 2-hour mix.   The parameters for my mixes were as follows: 1. A lonely, melancholic wander through the void between stars 2. A triumphant end for our struggle to the stars   You can find the 2-hour mix at Lifted Icon...

    Ambient dub is one of my favorite sub-genres. I've done several "dubby & dreamy" mixes over the years. Such as:   http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2015/09/dubby-rainy.html http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2016/05/dubscapes-seacapes.html http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2013/01/dubscapes-dreamscapes.html http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2012/02/dubby-noisy.html http://lowlightmixes.blogspot...

    Welcome to another great collaboration with my cosmic friend, Paul Asbury Seaman. The term "collaboration" gives me too much credit because Paul does the heavy lifting of finding the tunes and deciding on a sequence. I just mix them together.   This is another mix with a train-like propulsive feel but this one also has more space travel vibe. I like this mix more and more with each listen.  He...

    In the distance A lost, forgotten bell sings beyond the water   This is a set of music that adhere's to Jon Hassell's idea of a musical aesthetic that is "a unified primitive/futuristic sound combining features of world ethnic styles with advanced electronic techniques."   You'll find some drums, bells, gamelan, vibraphone and other mallet instruments as well as a healthy dose of field recordi...

  A few months ago when I reached out to a few folks to create guest mixes, one of the first people I contacted was Matt Borghi. I've been listening to Matt's music for a long time and with him running the  Ambient Soundbath Podcast  it would be a perfect fit.   I absolutely adore the mix he has come up with as Harold Budd is one of my all-time favs as well.   I'll let Matt tell you about the mix:...

  I've been planning on doing a follow up to Guitarisimo, a mix from April of 2017. When several albums from 2018 fit the sound I knew I had to do the mix now.   The album that got me started is "Con Todo El Mundo" by Khruangbin. It's one of my favorite records this year. Entirely guitar-based it's sound include surf music, Latin, Thai & Indian music. I highly recommend it.   https://khruangbin.ba...

  As I have said about 8 million times before, many mixes start with a single track. In this case it was the rediscovery of the track "Warming Trend" by Adam Pacione. It's a gentle, droning track that reminds me of Eno's Discreet Music.   I knew I wanted to use the tune in a mix and then realized that the track name would make a good title for a mix. From there I went in search of cuts that made m...

    Low Light Mixes has been nominated for "Best Online Music Show - Ambient/Chillout" by Mixcloud. Woo Hoo!   I make these mixes for my own amusement so when recognition like this comes along it's icing on the ambient cake. Judges will be listening to the nominees and making a decision.    There is also a Listeners Choice award as well and that's where you come in.  Please click on the link below...

As so often happens with these mixes, there was a specific event that gave birth to this collection of tunes. On Mixcloud a listener asked if I could help identify a piece of music from a defunct website. The tune is looping electro/acoustic music of the type that came out of Japan 10 or more years ago. I found the track and it's lovely. It's Walden Dos by .tape.(yes, there is a . before and after...

    Here's the first Sunday Morning Music mix of 2018.   Most of the music is new. All of the tracks were released in 2018 with the exception of "To Earth" by Ariwo from 2017 and "Jade Visions" by Bill Evans from 1961. There are no vocal tunes in this mix, which wasn't on purpose, it just sort of works out that way sometimes.   Many thanks to the artists and labels for the excellent music that app...

  Somewhere out there in the Multiverse, there is another universe just like ours except that everything runs much slower. With a DIY quantum tunneling device in my studio I've been able to bring over a few pieces of music from this other reality.   I'm sure many folks have heard the tracks "Justin Bieber slowed down 800%" or "Windows startup sound slowed down 2000%."  Those slowed down cuts(and B...

It's the 88th day of the year so that means it's Piano Day(88 keys on a piano)! There's actually not much to say about the mix other than it contains some excellent piano music. Most of the tracks are fairly new with many being from 2017 & 2018. There's so much piano based music out there to choose from it's a bit overwhelming when first starting the mix. But as so often happens, once I start with...

When researching artists or labels that might be interested in doing a guest mix I came across a label that is based very close to me here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  I'd never really thought that there might be an ambient community here.  I decided to do a search for "ambient" and "Milwaukee." And what do ya know, I got an interesting result right away. In an article about the essential Milwaukee a...

    I saw the film Annihilation on opening weekend and really liked it. It was directed by the same guy that directed Ex Machina and has the same crew doing the score. While I didn't like it quite as much as my favorite sci-fi film of the last few years, Arrival, I did like it quite a bit. And I especially loved the score. It goes seamlessly from acoustic guitar to synthetic noises to creepy chora...

                   I wanted to get a snow themed mix in before winter starts to wane. So here it is.    Most of the tracks have the word snow in the title.  Anytime I can use a tune from Yagya's "Rhythm of Snow" I'll gladly take it.  Looking forward to a new guest mix in the coming weeks and a mix featuring delicate micro-sounds from 10 years ago.   Cheers!      T R A C K L I S T : 00:00    Blamst...