low light mixes

    A couple of weeks ago I posted the Numinoustrings mix which featured a track by Seabuckthorn. I like the vibe of that mix and how the Seabuckthorn cut fit in. So I reached out to the man behind Seabuckthorn, Andy Cartwright, to see about him creating a guest mix. I was psyched when he said yes! I am happy to present Transcendental Freq. Similar to Numinoustrings, it falls into the ambient/mode...

  I was going to say - "...and now for something completely different" because this mix is louder than normal. But having recently posted a Robert Fripp mix I guess this isn't "completely different." However, this mix is, as the title says, a little louder than a normal Low Light ambient mix. As per usual the mix started with one album in particular - Mox by Mox from 1998. I absolutely loved it wh...

    Many times a new mix is inspired by a track or album. In this case it was the new album, The Road Not Taken by Ecovillage. The album is full of long, deep string vibrations that carry you along from track to track, place to place, and memory to memory. This is one of my favorite albums of the year. So I went looking for, not just string based tunes, but tracks that had a similar slow, reflecti...

    Well, Christ on a bicycle, this midterm election season was a shit show. So here is a mix of beautiful ambient tracks to help us all heal and recover. Here are links to all the albums used in this mix in the order in which they appear: https://uthermoads.depthsoundrecordings.co.uk/album/uther-moads https://www.amazon.com/FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE-Brian-Eno/dp/B0B784PGSY https://slaapwel.bandcamp.co...

    I wasn't planning on making a Halloween themed mix but a couple of days ago I heard a new album called "Xiuxiuejar" by Hekla and I knew I had to use some tracks in a mix. Hekla is an Icelandic musician who use the theremin to create haunting, other-worldly soundscapes. Perfect for a Halloween mix. Some of the other tracks follow a similar vibe I have used for creepy mixes in the past, sort of...

    As we are getting closer to the end of the year I figured it was time for some quiet indie tunes from 2022.  This collection goes from the slow pop of Monica Martin to the ambient vocals of Brian Eno to the simple folk sound of Phosphorescent to a Joni Mitchel cover. My favorite track is "This Is How It Works" by Angel Olsen. It will probably be in my top three songs of the year. Enjoy these v...

    A few months ago a friend and I were talking about King Crimson & Robert Fripp. He is not as familiar with Fripp's work as I am so I started a playlist of not just Crimson tracks but also other excellent Fripp guitar work with other artists such as Brian Eno, David Bowie, David Sylvian, Hall & Oates(yes, Hall & Oates!) & others.    This week I decided to finally make a mix of some of the track...

  s o l a c e g a t h e r s   t h e   s i l e n c e o f   t h e   s e a   Anyone who has followed this mix blog for more than a minute knows I like sea themed mixes. I like the ebb & flow, the washes of synth sounds and especially echoing sounds, like a bell or buoy pinging in the distance or underwater echolocation.   So this mix continues that vibe. Lots of new music and lots of echolocation.  ...

    Certain instruments seem suited for particular settings or seasons. I've always thought that piano works well as a winter accompaniment. Twangy guitar goes well with hot weather. And trumpet feels right at home during autumn.  Which brings us to the latest collection from Paul Asbury Seaman - Autumn Trumpet. The mix sets the mood perfectly. Here's what Paul has to say about it: “No Scandinavia...

    On September 7, NPR dropped an episode of All Songs Considered about an enormous new compilation album called "For The Birds: The Birdsong Project." It's a massive collection of original songs and poems about birds and inspired by birdsong. Artists range from Alice Coltrane, Nick Cave, Laurie Anderson, and The Flaming Lips to Sam Prekop, Devendra Banhart, Yo Yo Ma, and of course Andrew Bird &...

    I love the strange exotic sounds of artists such as Jon Hassell, Andrew Pekler, and William Selman. Their music can take you on an audio journey to imaginary places halfway around the globe. My first 4th World Excursion mix was 4 years ago and I've only done one follow up, which is weird considering how much I enjoy this style.  Here are the first two in this series: https://www.mixcloud.com/l...

    The Handpan, or Hang, is a percussion instrument related to the Caribbean steelpan instrument. It is like a convex version of a steel drum with the two halves attached together. The instrument has been used in a lot of new age music and faux new-age eastern mysticism. Like a lot of new age music instrumentation there is a fine line between enjoyable, relaxing ambient and new age schlock. Unfor...

    I have been making stargazing and space themed mixes for a long time. But I realized that I haven't posted a straightforward stargazing mix for almost two years. So this mix fixes that. All the tracks are fairly new, with half of them being from this year. Some tracks are from low light mixes regulars like Loscil, Loneward and Hipnotic Earth alongside new discoveries like RIKAAR, Tone Color an...

    Here's a new mix in the "Simply Ambient" series. There is no theme, no story, no big concept - just straightforward ambient music. All the tracks are from 2022 and all the tracks are...Undeniably Ambient. Cheers!   T R A C K L I S T : 00:00 Innesti -  A Collection of Ideas (Folding, A Study 2022) 04:50 Andarctica - Basalt (Basal 2022) 09:00 Gylden - Into The Night (Island Friend 2022) 13:15 Jo...

    Yes, another train mix. They are just too intriguing and cinematic to pass up. This one come from friend of the blog, Paul Asbury Seaman. Paul has given us some excellent train mixes in the past and this one continues that tradition. This one clocks in at just a bit under 100 minutes! So much great music in one mix.   Here's what Paul says about this set:   “A special summertime extended-play...

  About a month ago I presented a guest mix of sleep music from Brian Bieniowski, whom I knew from the heyday of the Hypnos Records forum in the mid 2000s. "That Beautiful Land of Nod" is indeed a beautiful sleep mix.  Thankfully, back in 2007 Brian created two Land of Nod mixes. So here is volume 2 for your listening and sleeping pleasure. Here is what Brian said about the Land of Nod mixes back...

    Peter van Cooten runs the excellent Ambientblog website which has great reviews and, of course, wonderful mixes. Anytime Peter reaches out with a mix idea or a a set he'd like to cross-post on both of our platforms, I will always jump at the chance. As I said on Peter's last guest mix, his sets are different from mine in that they are more intricate. He does not use full tracks, instead opting...

    It was a little more than ten years ago that I posted my first Sunday Morning Music mix. I had not intended on making it a regular series but the mix did very well on Mixcloud and is partially responsible for starting the explosion of followers the Low Light Mixes feed got in the following years. So I've been creating roughly two per years for 10 years. Yikes! It's kind of crazy to think about...

    Set the wayback machine to 2007. I started creating ambient mixes back in the mid-2000s. Those were the days before social media had taken over our lives, before Bandcamp was such a great resource for ambient music.  Back then I spent a lot of time on the Hypnos Records forum. There, a bunch of like-mined music nerds shared comments about new recordings, gear, movies, books, tv, music trends,...

  I made the first Guitarissimo mix 5 years ago. I followed it up a year or so later. But then for some reason it took me 4 years to get to volume 3. This version is similar to the others the vibe is a bit spaghetti western and dusty, moody, twangy with a little Latin feel. But of course much of it has an ambient vibe. One of my favorite discoveries while making this mix was Hermanos Gutiérrez. As...

  I've been a fan of the Deutsche Grammophon label for a long time, ever since I got this Steve Reich box set back in the early 80s in college. I've collected quite a few DG recordings over the years. Over the last 5 years or so I've noticed them branching out and releasing music by a wider variety of artists and music that isn't strictly classical. From Moby to Christian Löffler to Olafur Arnald...

    I am always pleased to present a new mix from Paul Asbury Seaman and this one is no exception. It's a great collection of sequencer tracks that hits the ideal vibe. Coming on the heels of my Stranger Synths mix, I was still in a electronic, sequencer mood and this mix kept me in that zone perfectly. Here's what Paul says about this mix: “For a lot of people, the term ‘electronic music’ still b...

    For a while now I've been planning on a drum/percussion mix similar to A Distant Pulse -  https://www.mixcloud.com/lowlight/a-distant-pulse/   and A Rhythmic Passage -  https://www.mixcloud.com/lowlight/a-rhythmic-passage/   In my search for tracks I came across a track by Vidna Obmana called "The Transcending Quest." It made me nostalgic for the heyday of tribal ambient in the 1990s with arti...

  It's been three years since the last season of Netflix's Stranger Things. Now with the 4th season upon us it must be time for a new mix - Stranger Synths 2022. Similar to previous version of Stranger Synths, this takes the retro vibe of the show's soundtrack and collects tracks that sound like they would fit perfectly in the TV series. I wasn't planning on doing a mix this time around until I st...