low light mixes

A slowly developing amalgamation of mixed-genre madness, fusing ambient, experimental & jazz soundscapes into a mixture of quiet deconstruction. "Slow Decay" is a collaborative mix from Low Light Mixes & Ambient Landscape.  We've each done mixes for each other but we thought it would be cool make a mix in which we both contributed alternating sections.  Gene(ambient landscape) came up with the tit...

My good friend, Gene over at  Ambient Landscape , asked me to do a guest mix for him and this mix is the result.  Ambient Landscape is a great source of ambient info and mixes. What got me started on this mix was an interesting video I found on YouTube by Wouter van Veldhoven called "two sad tape recorders."  It's basically two portable reel to reel tape machines each playing their loops at the sa...

I use ambient mixes for sleeping almost every night. A long time ago a friend once mentioned that the best ambient tunes for sleeping are the ones that mimic the rhythm of breathing. Over the years I've found that to be very true. So this mix, like the other 'breathing' mixes before it, is a collection of tunes that ebb and flow, quietly mirroring your sleepy breathing patterns. Enjoy T R A C K L...

I was planning on making a rain mix sometime this fall & I was planning on making a dub mix as well.  Then I realized that those two theme as perfect for each other.  So here is the appropriately titled mix "dubby & rainy." I love how a lot of ambient dub tunes already sound sort of "rainy."  They make liberal use of white noise which is great for conjuring a rainy atmosphere.  So many of these tr...

As usual with these mixes there is one song in particular that gets the ball rolling and in this case it's the title track from the album  The Thompson Fields by the Maria Schneider Orchestra .  The whole album is wonderful collection open, airy jazz tracks and the title song is just stunning.  Definitely one of the most beautiful songs released this year, second only to Sufjan Stevens - Carrie &...

The pic above is of the hammock in my backyard.  My kids got it for me for Father's Day and I love it.  I can't figure out why I didn't have one before.  On many nights this summer I grab my kindle and a beer and lay contentedly under our big birch tree. Of course as a true music obsessive I have speakers out on the deck that I control remotely.  So whenever I head out to the hammock to read or ju...

The title of this one pretty much says it all. So download the mix, grab some bourbon, a blanket and head outside to witness the 2015 version of the Perseid meteor shower. Enjoy T R A C K L I S T : 00:00         Moesko - Stargazer 03:55   Marconi Union - Still 07:35   36 - Sky Fire 11:11   Alio Die - nuvole di palissandro 12:25   Alva Noto - Solphaer 17:55   Julio Di Benedetto - Original Light 26:...

At the end of May I posted an excellent mix from Mike G of the  Ambient Music Guide .  We agreed to do guest mixes for each other and that the starting point would be a title that each of us would give the other.  We sent each other a few title ideas, we each chose one and got to work. Mike chose "Lapse into Reverie" and the result was his beautiful mix that you can find here... http://lowlightmix...

Here's the latest Sunday Morning Music installment. The mix starts with cuts from two of my fav albums of 2015 by Aero Flynn & Sufjan Stevens.  Aero Flynn is fronted by Josh Scott, a product of the same Eau Claire, Wisconsin music scene that gave us Justin Vernon(Bon Iver).  Scott was in a band called Amateur Love that shared a couple of members with a band that Vernon was in, DeYarmond Edison.  A...

I have a confession to make.  Back in the 80s & early 90s I used to listen to a lot of New Age music.  Stuff like Enya, Andreas Vollenweider, anything on Windham Hill, etc.  Even though much of the general public thinks of ambient music as new age music, real ambient fans know the difference.  It can be difficult to articulate that difference.  I use a "I know it when I hear it" approach.  I guess...

This is a guest mix from Mike G of the fabulous Ambient Music Guide -  http://www.ambientmusicguide.com/   https://www.mixcloud.com/mikeg68/    Mike & I agreed to do guest mixes for each other with each mix starting with just a title.  We gave each other a title to build a mix on.  In this case I gave Mike "Lapse into Reverie" and he took it from there.   In this mix Mike includes some fav artists...

Benoît Pioulard has two new albums out & they are both wonderful.  It was after hearing "Sonnet" that I decided to make a mix that featured the same sort of dusty, slightly noisy ambient tunes. You can find his album "Sonnet" on Amazon here... SONNET And his latest, "Stanza" here... https://pioulard.bandcamp.com/album/stanza Stanza is a companion piece to Sonnet.  I didn't even know about it until...

Every mix has it's own unique starting point.  And this mix definitely started in a unique place - my dishwasher. One day my dishwasher was making some weird noises, it kind of sounded like an alien playing a didgeridoo was trapped inside.  So I recorded a little bit of the sound and then processed it using Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch.  And whaddya know - it actually sounds pretty good.  Dishwash...

  This mix was inspired by a playlist that i stumbled across on Spotify.  It's called ENtro to Deep Space Rock.  You can find it here... https://open.spotify.com/user/glennpmcdonald/playlist/7J19mbbwlbsxeWxSeBqTb1 I really enjoyed a lot of the instrumental cuts in the playlist. I've been a prog rock fan since the 70s but I rarely listen to anything that would be considered current prog rock.  I've...

  I have been planning on doing a stargazing mix for a long time and then a new EP by 36 came out and I knew I had to get cracking on a new mix. The new EP is called Sine Dust and it's excellent.  All the tracks have a similar feel to them and that is by design.  36 artist, Dennis Huddleston, says "I wanted to make an EP that had a strictly defined sound and theme, which continued from beginning t...

Earlier this year I quickly threw together some tunes for a walk in Madison, WI.  I liked the way it sounded so much that I made a few changes and made a proper mix out of it. Most of the music is fairly new, half are from last year, with the oldest cut being the Mojave 3 track from 2000.  As usual, most of the tracks are laid back.  Even a loud cut like JM by Strand of Oaks is slow. This is a mix...

This mix was started because of one new tune - "Witch Season" from the new Infraction release by Offthesky and Pleq.  I love that track and what better way to tell people about it than a new mix. With that song as a starting point things fell into place very nicely.  All the music in the mix is fairly recent.  Most is from 2014 or 2015 with the exception of the cut from The New Honey Shade which i...

Here's the latest in the Sunday Morning Music series.  And as usual it follows a similar path to its predecessors - little bit of quiet vocals, little bit of jazz, little bit of classical, little bit of everything. The first track in the mix is from DeYarmond Edison, which is Justin Vernon's first band from 2005.  Vernon is the man behind Bon Iver.  He's a fellow Wisconsonite that hit the big time...

A couple of posts ago I mentioned a favorite new ambient blog -  Ambient Landscape .  I visit quite often, usually finding new music, interesting links and good mixes. I reached out to Gene, who runs the blog and asked if he would do a guest mix for Low Light and I'm happy to say that he agreed.  The result is this Robert Fripp themed mix - "fripp_2015." I love listening to well done mixes where I...

http://bloknayrb.deviantart.com/ a beginning an expedition is launched springs into being the journey begins This is a follow up to an earlier mix Leaving the Station, which had a train theme.  I had several people ask if I was planning on a follow up and, well, here it is. My favorite track in this mix is  El Divisadero by Chris Watson  from his wonderful field recording album, El Tren Fantasma....

http://instagram.com/jnsilva This mix started with two discoveries.  First I found a great ambient blog called  Ambient Landscape .  I have found lots of music through the site, most notably the fantastic album by Dylan Howe,  New Designs on Bowie's Berlin , which made it on to my year end lists. The second discovery that inspired this mix was a series from  Aural Films  called Fog Music.  I belie...

I've mentioned many times that a mix often starts with a single track that interests me and takes off from there.  In the case of this classical mix, the track is "In Spe" by Arvo Part. I first heard the piece via YouTube & loved it right from the start.  As far as I can tell it has not been recorded for official release so the version in this mix is the performance I heard on YouTube.  You can fi...

I am very excited about this mix.  It comes from Josh Furey, the man the excellent indie label Nocturne Records . The mix consists of ambient and slower vintage 8-bit video game music.  It starts off with a cut from Disasterpeace from the album FEZ .  I had just recently bought the album and was thinking about doing an 8-bit type of mix myself when Josh sent me his Cartridge mix.  Wow, am I glad I...

I love the music of Loscil. I have been listening to Loscil for ten years and I look forward to new releases more than ever.  Loscil made it into my mix of favorite ambient artists and my mix of favorite ambient albums of all time.  I consider Loscil music to be perfect ambient/electronic music. Scott Morgan is the man behind Loscil & he has just released a new album - "Sea Island".  I knew I was...

Here's another entry in the Sunday Morning Music series.  This follows the template fo earlier mixes - mostly instrumental, some vocals, some jazz, some old some new.  I called it Fall Back because it was intended to be posted last weekend when daylight saving came to an end but stuff always seems to get in the way. My favorite cut in the mix is "Art Decade" by Dylan Howe from his excellent album,...