low light mixes

  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...

    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 i...

      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 stan...

    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/hrish...

    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...

  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 p...

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 lo...

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 Tanger...

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...

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...

  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 Sky...

  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...

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 m...

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...

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...

I love me some ambient dub.  I also love ambient tunes that remind me of the sea.  Over the years I've made 7 dub style mixes & 6 sea themed mixes.  This new mix combines those two obsessions. There's now much else to say about all the music here.  other than I think all the tunes flow nicely & work well within this theme. Enjoy T R A C K L I S T : 00:00    Brother Blue - Summoning UFOs 05:55    S...

As with so many mixes this one started because of a great tune. In this mix that great tune is  Existence in the Unfurling by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith  from her spectacular new album Ears. The track is a wonderful mixture of analog electronics, fluttering woodwinds and ethereal vocals. It's my favorite song of the year so far and I just had to share it in a mix.  The other tracks are a combination of...

I had not planned on doing another piano mix so soon after the last one in November 2015.  Then Piano Day happened.  On March 28th of this year a group founded by Nils Frahm celebrated the piano and everything around it. This was the second year for the event. In addition to music released for Piano Day and live events, the Piano Day website,  pianoday.org , has this awesome random note generator....

I believe I have professed my love for ambient guitar in previous posts here.  So a mix like this is no surprise.  Just as many of the artists collected in this mix are no surprise. Dirk Serries, Scott Solter, David Tagg, Windy & Carl, Kyle Bobby Dunn, Fripp & Eno - these are all artists that have appeared in many of my mixes over the years. The music here is fairly straightforward - ambient tunes...

As with so many of these mixes this one grew out of one particular recording.  In this case it was The Revenant soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto with Alva Noto.  It's an absolutely gorgeous film score and I knew I needed to build a mix around it. This mix, as the title suggests, is fairly atmospheric in feel and sound.  The tracks used are a combo of newer recordings & old ones too, with The Revenan...

I've done many "sea" mixes over the years and I keep coming back to them because ambient music perfectly captures the impression of an undulating a sea or ocean. Enjoy T R A C K L I S T : 00:00   Rafael Anton Irisarri - Displacement 03:52   Loscil - Angel of List 10:00   Kane Ikin - Slow Waves 13:30   Budd & Eno - An Echo of Night 15:20   Diatonis - Moving in Silence 19:54   Wave Temples - Under t...

This collection isn't necessarily a "best of 2015" , it's just some of my favorite jazz tunes from the past year. It begins with one of my favorite albums of the year in any genre - The Thompson fields by The Maria Schneider Orchestra. The title track is remarkable.  The Jaga Jazzist album was a big surprise for me.  I've listen to them on and off for years but had lost interest for some reason.  ...

These year end lists are always difficult.  But at least the top 3 spots this year were easy selections -  Alva Noto - Xerrox, Vol. 3 Max Richter - Sleep Chris Walla - Tape Loops It doesn't really matter which one grabbed the top spot, I listened to these three over and over in 2015.  Noto is known for his electronic minimalism but Vol. 3 is beautiful and lush. Max Richter's Sleep is a recording o...

As with all mixes this one had a specific starting point or inspiration - the incredible new album from Max Richter - Sleep.  It's 8 hours long!  8 hours!  Here's a link to purchase the full version... http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/us/cat/4795267 I'm a sucker for high concept projects so I was interested from the start.  Add that to the fact that I am a fan of Richter's music and I knew I'd pr...

After the attacks in Paris on November 13th, NPR music did a show about music for healing.  You can find it here...  http://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2015/11/17/456343231/music-for-healing Two cuts on their playlist are from two of my favorite albums this year, Goldmund - Sometimes and Nils Frahm - Solo. As I listened to those two tracks over & over I started to think about the piano as a heal...