To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Ambientblog.net, this mix is a part of a very special Anniversary Project. It’s ‘special’ because it’s different: this time it’s not compiled from existing tracks, but from tracks that were exclusively submitted for this purpose!
…. slowly evolving to a state of inert uniformity …. retracing information that was lost from the message … searching for the uniformity in what seems to be randomly disordered …
This mix is made to be published in the excellent series of mixes on the “Sounds of a Tired City”, part of the larger website with the same name.
“Jam Karet” is Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language) meaning “Elastic Time” (or “Rubber Hours”).
This mix is built around mysterious vocals. Vocals that may guide you, or lure you, into distances unknown. Often, but not exclusively, female, and some of them not even human…
“Mental Health Hotline” is the second ‘collaborative dialogue’ created together with Christophe ‘Klankschap’ Ywaska. Each selection a reaction to the previous addition means the story may have some unexpected turns and views.
For this mix I aimed to create a dreamlike and timeless atmosphere – dark (but not too dark). It is calm, yet there are many shifting scenes, many passing landscapes and some conflicting emotions… When it ends, (I hope) it feels as if it was much longer.
If one of the criteria for ‘ambient’ music is that you can comfortably fall asleep to it, I guess you’d better skip this particular mix. Although it starts quiet and reassuring, the mood the mood disintegrates and sometimes can become rather unsettling – depending on your own personal ‘incidental memories’.
Autumn is here. Darkness slowly creeps up just a little bit earlier. Clouds get grayer and swell up with rain. Trees shed their colors and tighten their belts. And people begin to prepare for winter.
“I’m not formed by things that are of myself alone” This is the key quote (taken from Stoker) for this mix, which is also ‘not formed by things of itself alone’. Every detail, every short sample, has its origin in another context, another musical composition, from which it is taken to find a new place in a completely different context.
“Rust” usually refers to ‘decay’, but in dutch “Rust” simply also means ‘rest’. But – as we say in Holland: “Rust Roest” – or: “Too much rest will make you rusty…” In other words: don’t expect just ‘tranquil’ sounds in this mix.. This is nót meant to be your average ‘healing session ambient’ soundtrack… so be prepared…
The sheer volume of the Headphone Commute’s ‘…And Darkness Came’ compilation – issued as a charity fundraising for the victims of Hurricane Sandy, and boasting 87 tracks (over 6 hours) of music – was also a kind of invitation to create a mix from it.
