Tag: soundscape

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, RECOMMENDATIONS

Bjarni Gunnarsson – Processes and Potentials

Over three years since the release of his impressing debut album ‘Safn 2006-2009‘ (which collected some of his earlier solo work), Bjarni Gunnarsson (from Reykjavik, also known as one half of Einóma) presents the second full album release under his own name.

The beautiful package of ‘Processes & Potentials‘ contains 7 colorful inlays, one for the cover and one for each of the six different tracks of this album.

Just like he did on ‘Safn’, Bjarni chooses his musical position wilfully, creating soundscapes that are remarkably different from most in current ambient/electronic music.

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, RECOMMENDATIONS

Stephan Mathieu – Un Coeur Simple


Mathieu-Coeur

Shortly after reworking David Sylvian’s “Blemish” on “Wandermüde“, Stephan Mathieu presents another impressive work.

“Un Coeur Simple” (“A Simple Heart”) is the soundtrack of a play based on Gustave Flaubert’s novel, which was published in 1877 as the first of three tales.

In creating his personal soundscapes, Mathieu has always preferred using old source materials, things of the past, like wax-cylinders and 78 rpm records, as his source material….“a fascination for the past expressed through cutting-edge tools”.

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, RECOMMENDATIONS

Tmymtur – Yusei + Kooh

** This post has been edited to add info about the “Kooh” remix version: read below **

Any album that is created using “microscopic particles that were developed by myriads of voices”, and claims to include “many territories of ultra-high frequencies, marking over 20 kHz that human ears are incapable of catching” immediately gets my undivided attention.

Especially when “these ultra-high frequencies are often included in sounds of nature such as the flow of the river, the forest, the waterfalls, and the wind blowing through the trees. Most of these which we consider as comfortable nature sounds include these ultra-high frequencies, and it is also said that these ultra-high frequencies have the effect to make the human brain relaxed.”

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.

ambient music, MIXES, surround

Broken Lines (Mix)


HAL's eye

If you have ever watched Stanley Kubrick‘s “2001 – Space Odyssey“, you will definitely remember the impressive scene in which the memory modules are slowly taken away from HAL, the ship’s main computer, because it started to disfunction and became a threat to the astronauts and their mission.
Just before his memory fades completely, HAL remembers being programmed to sing“Daisy”, one of his earliest digital ‘childhood memories’.

With this scene (as well as with HAL‘s name), Kubrick directly referred to the IBM 7094 computer (used to control the Mercury and Gemini space flights, as well as the Apollo missions) which was programmed to sing Daisy in 1961 – a remarkable accomplishment at that time!

Computer systems revolting, loss of memory, human utterings that seem to come from lost souls….
I guess you’d better be prepared for a dark and suspenseful listening hour …

If you have listened to this mix, I’m really curious to know what you think, so please let me know!
(and please let your friends know, also… just spread the word and make these mixes heard …  thanks for your help!)

ambient music, MIXES

"Both Were Moving" (Mix)


image by Asifthebes

At the closing of 2012, I’m proud to present this new ‘dialogue mix’  (the only other collaboration on ambientblog is the “Division Dialogue“ mix created together with Muttley in 2010).

When Christophe Ywaska, creator of the weekly Klankschap radio shows on VillaBota webradio (whose mixes can also be found on Mixcloud, by the way) suggested working on a mix together, I knew we were in for a sonic treat. 
Klankschap mixes are never “just” ambient – or “just” any other genre for that matter. Their tracklistings are a display of a deep knowledge of all kinds of experimental music, both new ánd old.
Due to their nature, they dó require some ‘active’ listening, though: they’re never meant to be ‘easy listening’ background music.

And the same is true for this mix, “Both Were Moving”: this is clearly no ‘ambient’ mix – it’s a sonic rollercoaster ride!