Category: MIXES

ambient music, MIXES, surround

Siren Song (Mix)

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 – like the beautiful flute-playing by Jean-Christophe Bonnafous, or the mysterious singing sound of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko that was recently discovered during the Rosetta space missions.
With just a little fantasy you can imagine the Philae Space Lander being attracted by the comet’s song – ultimately leading it to an untimely death.

ambient music, exclusives, MIXES

Mental Health Hotline (Mix)

“Mental Health Hotline” is the second ‘collaborative dialogue’ created together with Christophe ‘Klankschap’ Ywaska.
(The first was “Both Were Moving“, 2012).

Each selection a reaction to the previous addition means the story may have some unexpected turns and views… especially with over 50 samples crammed into this adventurous hour of sound!

Be prepared for a dazzling – and possibly somewhat disorienting – joyride…

ambient music, MIXES, other-music, surround

Incidental Memories (Mix)

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 with soothing vocal chords from Silvestrov’s “The Lord’s Prayer”, the mood disintegrates and sometimes can become rather unsettling – depending on your own personal ‘incidental memories’, of course.

For reasons I can’t really explain, this mix works better if you listen on speakers instead of headphones – just let the airwaves flow for maximum immersion.

ambient music, MIXES, surround

Tristesse D’Automne (Mix)

This mix was created especially for Headphone Commute.
Thanks to H_C for publishing it, and for the beautiful introduction words:

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. But among all the shadows there’s a small ray of light. And with that glow comes the music… For today’s exclusive podcast, Peter van Cooten weaves in layers of haunting soundscapes spanning the gray-scale of the ambient universe. It’s a gorgeous soundtrack to the season of tears… I hope you will enjoy!

ambient music, MIXES, surround, videos

Parallax (Mix)

“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.

“My ears hear what others cannot hear.”

“Parallax“ is the visual effect that, when you are moving yourself, objects closer to you seem to move by faster than objects in the distance, which slowly seem to move with you in the same direction.
In sound, drones seem to create a somewhat similar effect.
In some way that is what this mix is about: the background sound slowly moving along with you while some other fragments pass by so quick you cannot even focus.
Just don’t try to focus.

“…Now I see things that were hidden from my eyes…”

ambient music, MIXES, other-news, videos

Rust (Mix) – The Video Version

When publishing the mixes for Ambientblog, I have always been looking for a way to ‘visualise’ the artist credits for the mix.

Most of the fragments and samples used in the mix-collages are almost indistinguishable, yet the interested listener might want to find out about the release details. 
This is why most mixes on ambientblog also feature a ‘sequence scheme’ image which shows the building blocks of that particular mix.

For my most recent mix, “Rust”, I decided to try out a different feature: a video version, which is showing the track details at the very moment they are used in the mix.

ambient music, MIXES, surround

Rust (Mix)

The title of this mix is taken from the beautiful soundtrack it heavily leans on: Alexandre Desplat’s “Rust and Bone” (“De Rouille et D’Os”).

“Rust” usually refers to ‘decay’, but in dutch “Rust” simply also means ‘rest‘, (‘tranquil – or ‘repos’ in french).

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…

ambient music, MIXES

26 Shades of Darkness (Mix)

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.
Presenting a wide range of music from well (and lesser) known artists – covering most of the ambient/electronic/post-classical/improv spectre, the compilation is an overview and ‘who’s who’ of what’s happening at this very moment.
Its diversity of sounds and musical ideas will appeal to everyone with open ears.