low light mixes

What the heck?  Two sea/water mixes in a row?  I didn't plan it this way.  It just sort of happened that I collected a few sea songs, then the library/soundtrack mix got done, then I found a few more sea songs and this mix happened. "lost at sea" is very similar to "a solitary sea" from last year.  Some nice drifting, flowing tunes with a definite sea/ocean feel to them.  And of course all the tun...

Right off the bat, I have to come clean. I stole something. I stole the idea for this mix. But I'm glad I did because I'm very excited to post this new track. Over at SoundCloud I ran into some mixes by Astromatt . He uses sounds from music libraries and soundtracks of '60's and '70's to create great underwater themed mixes. I love the sound of these old tracks & how they work together in a mix. W...

Modern-classical, neo-classical, acousmatic, electro-acoustic, ...whatever you want to call the genre, I think this mix fits. You'll hear lots of strings, some piano, some beats and more strings.  It has a vague sort of chamber music feel to it.  The mix takes a detour about halfway through with the Pjusk track.  It's a good tune but doesn't necessarily fit the modern classical theme of the mix. ...

I've been listening to a lot of older music lately. Been on a big progressive rock kick, King Crimson, Steve Hackett, Willowglass, Pink floyd, Phil Manzanera, Strawbs, etc. This lead me to dig up some older ambient tunes, which lead to this mix. Listening to Michael Brook's "Hybrid" from 1985 brought back memories of how wonderful that album is. So I grabbed other ambient recordings from around th...

I recently was given a box of old sound effects records like the one in the picture. These albums brought back a lot of memories. As a kid I would go to the public library down the street and borrow their sound effects records. I guess that was an early sign that I'd end up with music tastes that were a bit different. This new mix is perfect for my new vinyl sound effects collection, unfortunately...

Drifting...floating...coasting...gliding...swimming... Whatever word you choose, all would describe this mix perfectly.  It's just a nice collection of mostly new tunes, all with a drifting, floating feel. This mix works great for sleeping, enjoy. T R A C K L I S T : 00:00 Moustache Mountain - poisonoussnake 05:50 Ben Fleury Steiner - Purple as the Dawn 09:45 Pausal - Midshipman 12:40 Back to Comm...

The mixes are coming fast and furious!  I'm trying to crank out a few more than normal.  This one seems to be fast paced compared to the usual mixes found here. This creation is similar to a mix I did in 2008 called "Motion for Relief" .  Ambient dub would be the best way to describe this installment.  Not all the tunes are "dub" but most have beats, some more prominent than others.  The feel is s...

This is the third mix I’ve done with a shortwave radio theme. Many of the tunes have noise & static already built in. Sometimes radio washes have been added. As with past shortwave mixes, the actual shortwave recordings come courtesy of Myke Dodge Weiskopf. He runs a great site dedicated to shortwave music . This mix was originally posted on MixCloud by folks at Fluid Radio .  I am honored that Fl...

I have no idea why I called this mix "cloud mapping". It started off as something about the sky, then aerial views of something, then blah blah blah...then it ends up as "cloud mapping". Most of the music is new or new-ish.  There is no big time theme in this mix, just good, drifting ambient music.  I guess you could picture yourself flying over clouds while listening to this.  My favorite track i...

a canticle unfolds I love all the mixes being posted on Mixcloud by Fluid Radio . They have a ton of neo-classical, Ambient, Modern Classical, Experimental Acoustic mixes on their Mixcloud page. So I set out to make my own "neo-classical" mix. And as I have said here before, sometimes mixes take you in directions that you weren't anticipating. With "a canticle unfolds", I discovered some vocal mus...

It's the dead of winter, just trying to outlast the snow & cold, trying to make it to spring break. The music in this mix has a sort of lonely winter feel to it. The tracks are not too dark or depressing, they just seem to conger up images of vast, snowy landscapes. There are a few recordings in this mix from some of my recent favorite record labels. I'll just list some of those favorites... Low P...

Here's the first mix for 2010.  It's called slo_mo because all the tunes are slow & droney. One aspect of this mix that makes it a bit different is the use of a few "stretched" tracks.  I think I've mentioned this program here before, it's called " Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch ".  I couldn't find a link to it, but at one time, on the web, there was a version of Beethoven's 9th Symphony that had be...

I was listening to music from Lunar Testing Lab the other day.  The album, "Space Program", has a sort of retro/space/electronic feel to it.  Boards of Canada in space? I thought a whole mix of music with this kind of feel would be fun, so the result is "Remember Tomorrow".  I tried to use tunes that had that retro, space program vibe without being too kitschy or cheesy.  It's fine line & I hope I...

I haven't had time to do anything new lately but today I'm home sick so I had some time in between naps. I was listening to " Nautica " by krill.minima , and it got me in the mood for some "sea" music. A few things came to mind immediately, such as Eluder, Loscil & a new track by Intrusion. From there I just searched for tunes with 'sea', 'water', 'ocean' or other watery words in the titles. I thi...

Generally I like autumn.  I don't mind the colder temps, colors are great, don't have to mow the lawn anymore, etc.  But this year the weather has been nasty, too cold too soon & lots of rain. So I set out to do a bleak, cold October mix.  But as usually happens with mixes, they take on a life of their own and lead you in different directions.  I realized, as I was collecting tunes, that I didn't...

One of my favorite mixes from last year was Sustain & Decay . It was fun digging up old recordings & mixing them with new releases. So I decided to do a follow-up, with the result being "revenants of the past". It follows the same basic formula of last years mix(which was also released in October). I browsed through a ton of files at archive.org , looking for things like old vinyl records & Edison...

I have been very busy this summer and I haven't had time to even think about a new mix.  So it's perfect timing that I have a new guest mix to present. "Gravity" is a fantastic new mix by Jason O'Gorman.  Jason did a mix called "Satellite" for us in March of last year.  I really enjoyed that mix & was always hoping he'd do another and here it is. About the mix, Jason says... "Think I'll call it "g...

I listen to ambient music every night when I go to bed. I usually browse my recent acquisitions to find something for sleep music. There are a few recordings which get used more than others. Two recent releases by Steve Roach get regular airtime here at Low Light Mixes. Last year's "A Deeper Silence" and this year's "Dynamic Stillness". There was a time when I played Deeper Silence in the backgrou...

My last mix was done for SubVersion and now Mick was kind enough to return the favor with a mix for Low Light Mixes. It's an excellent mix which Mick describes this way... "Drones In Duality" is the first in a series of mixes dedicated to Bridewell Gardens, which I visit every week to engage in therapeutic conservation and decorating work. The name is a reference to the double meaning properties o...

The transition from spring to summer brings two new mixes from Low Light Mixes central command. We've had a fair amount of rain lately so both mixes are "rain" mixes. Rain evokes so many memories & emotions, it's a great theme for mixes. Using field recordings really helps hold the mix together. I try not to over do it with the rain sounds, hopefully it works well. This first mix is a vocal mix, w...

I got the idea for this mix over at the Hypnos records forum. In the "Now Playing" thread, someone posted several entries in a row about listening to various soundtracks. Some favorites of mine, Cliff Martinez's "Traffic" & "Narc" and Clint Mansell's "The Fountain", were on the list. It got me thinking & listening to soundtracks for a week or two and this new mix, "Cinematica", is the result. Ther...

I was inspired by my daughter's mix cd's to do my own vocal mix. She does great mixes that I listen to in the car and I thought I'd do a similar one of my own. Of course the finished product is not as uptempo as hers. This being an ambient mix blog, most of the tunes are fairly quiet. There is no unifying theme here, other than I like these tunes. The Martin Grech tunes are from "March of the Lone...

This is another new kind of mix for the blog. This is an all Eno mix. I came across the Eno tune "Spider & I " in a recently downloaded mix & I was reminded of how much I like Eno's voice. So I thought why not collect some favorite vocal tunes together in one place. For the first half of the mix I alternate between vocal tunes & instrumentals. I thought this might be nice to break things up a bit....

The inspiration for this mix came from the new Jon Hassell album. If you haven't picked it up yet, do so. It's called "Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street". It's already in my best of 2009 folder. It's very moody, very ambient, just a little jazzy. Very much like the wonderful release from Arve Henriksen last year. I wanted this mix to have a moody, melancholy, late-night j...

I have been wanting to do another field mix almost since the moment I finished the last one. So here it is, a new mix entitled "in_transit". I like field recordings but not as much nature recordings. I'm not wild about birds chirping & water flowing. I like mechanical sounds or crowd noise or as you'll hear in this mix, trains. I used train sounds in the last mix & they play a prominent role here...