Music For Sunrise

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Music for Sunrise

I received a lot of really nice feedback on my last mix Music for Stargazing Vol 1. Thanks for all of the nice comments. One listener asked if I could go from night to day and do a sunrise mix. So, per your request, I would like to present: Music for Sunrise.

This mix, like the last, was inspired by the annual trips I take to a lake cottage in northern Wisconsin. Besides putting together music mixes for looking at the night sky I had also, over the years, collected tracks to play in the early mornings. The tracks collected for this sunrise mix are ambient in nature--songs that give a sense of an awakening dawn sky. Most of the tracks also have a Classical Music "sound" to them. I’ve always associated early mornings with Classical Music and that first hot cup of coffee. I also included a few very slow, quiet Classical works in the mix as well. Music for Sunrise was originally inspired by the work of Harold Budd. He is an amazing piano player with a massive body of excellent ambient compositions. The album he did with Brian Eno, Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror, was my first introduction to him many moons ago. If any album evokes “dawn” this beautiful work would be it. So, the next time you awake at dawn, grab a hot cup of joe and play Music for Sunrise. I hope you enjoy it.

Downloads (right click, save target as): MUSIC FOR SUNRISE

T R A C K L I S T I N G

Deon Rowe - Early Morning Birds (field recording)

Olivier Nijs – Cornfield Insects and Birds (field recording)

Harold Budd & Brian Eno - First Light

John Foxx & Harold Budd - Long Light

James Johnson – Remembrance

Kit Watkins - Beauty Drifting

Patrick O'Hearn - A Lovely Place To Be

Aaron Copeland - Appalachian Spring: Andante

Rachel's - Egon & Wally Embrace and Say Farewell

Michael Hoppé - Martin Tillman - Tim Wheater - Long Ago

Erik Satie - Gymnopdie I (Orchestration Debussy)

Roger Eno - Days Like This

John Didlock – Dawn Chorus (field recording)

Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending

Max Richter - Sunlight

Henry Purcell - Sonata for Trumpet & Strings in D Major - Adagio

Stars of the Lid - Jon McCafferty - Anchor States - Part I

Budd-Garcia-Lenz - Somos Tres

Roger Eno - Turning

Harold Budd - Robin Guthrie - The Memories Returning

Helios - Halving the Compass

Posted by nrvnet at 11:29 AM 13 comments  

Music For Stargazing Vol 1

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Music for Stargazing Vol 1

Sorry for the long delay between mixes! Life has been busy and complicated lately and time has a way of slipping by. I also thought I’d breeze through putting this mix together but I ended up tweaking it for weeks to try and get all the sound levels right. I also will try my best to not let too much time go by before my next mix. I have two mixes (unrelated to this current mix) that I have collected most of the tracks for, so I will be starting those soon. Thanks so much for all your kind words and concern. They mean everything to me.

I would like to present: Music for Stargazing Vol 1. The idea for this mix was generated several years ago actually. I take an annual trip to a lake cottage in northern Wisconsin. It’s far out in the country, away from the wash of city lights. At night, the sky is filled with an amazing blanket of stars. At this lake cottage I got in the habit of sitting out at night to look at stars and enjoy a cold brew. Besides stars I could also often see satellites track across the sky and any number of shooting stars. Years ago I decided to put together a CD mix made specifically for sitting out and looking at stars. I went for tracks that, in my mind, gave the listener a very slow, drifting, expansive and somewhat awe-inspiring feel. Some of the artists that were the biggest inspirations for this mix include Steve Roach, Brian Eno and Jeff Pearce. This is a more straightforward mix than some of my others and utilizes fewer, longer tracks.

Over the years I have collected dozens of tracks I used for various stargazing mixes. The tracks used in this mix are from my old collection of stargazing cuts. I did a newer mix of cuts last year in The Stars My Destination mix. I did reuse a couple tracks from that mix because they were from the original collection. So, here is the first of what may be a series of Music for Stargazing mixes for the Hydrogen Cafe. Go grab a beer, pop this mix onto your MP3 player or burn it to a CD and slap it onto a boombox, head out into the night, and enjoy the magic of stars. This mix would work well as a sleep mix too. I hope you enjoy it.

Downloads (right click, save target as): MUSIC FOR STARGAZING VOL 1

T R A C K L I S T I N G

• Michael Stearns - Baraka Finale (excerpt)
• Night sounds field recording
• Ashera – Violet Night Perfume
• Steve Roach - Glimpse
• Grassow–Baghiri–Gleisberg – The Different Perception of Light
• Diatonis – Glass of Starlight
• Jeff Pearce – Inner Light
• Brian Eno - Stars
• Amir Baghiri - Sleep Well (Part Two)
• Ma Ja Le & James Johnson - Methane Sea (Live)
• Jeff Pearce - Vestiges
• Steve Roach – The Return
• Stars of the Lid – Dust Breeding (1.316)+
• Brian Eno - Drift
• James Johnson - Drift
• Jeff Pearce – From the Quiet Hours
• Steve Roach – Magnificent Gallery

Posted by nrvnet at 5:27 PM 20 comments  

The Dharma Bums

The Dharma Bums

A new year brings a new mix. The first mix for 2007 is called The Dharma Bums. The title is taken from a book by Jack Kerouac which covers his exploration of Buddhism and the search for Truth. With this new mix I wanted to expand on the ethno-ambient feel of one of my other mixes, Tea Time at Brian Eno's House. The Dharma Bums was also greatly inspired by the amazing field recordings done by The Quiet American and the superb ethno-ambient music of Loren Nerell. Loren Nerell uses his own field recordings from Java and Bali in his work. My hope was to create a Pan-Asian soundworld using music inspired by, or artists from the Middle East, India and Indonesia.

This is the most complex, multi-level mix I have ever done and I am quite proud of the results. If you look at the music mix score (a jpeg contained in the Cover Art and Score Zip file you can download below), you will see that at any given time, there are at least two and sometimes up to seven different pieces of music or field recordings playing simultaneously. I used a total of 32 different Quiet American field recordings in the mix (on the music score, all Quiet American field recordings start with "QA"). I even made a small field recording myself. I hope you enjoy it.

I would like to dedicate this mix to The Quiet American and Loren Nerell.

Lightbright Dharma Bums soulwalk through old time. Gamelan Buddhas sing wailing cries of joyful sunsand. Stone cities appear like ghosts from rivers of ancient karma. Sitars sing Salaam songs soulsung with the first voice. Monks chant the way of higher truth in rainforest insect soundscapes. Ancient future cities team with peoplestreams that vibrate Kama Sangha dreams. Sheiks ride horses of sound across desert moonwaves. Duduk birds glide among templespires, passionwings stretched toward enlightenment.

Downloads (right click, save link as): THE DHARMA BUMS

T R A C K L I S T I N G

• Numerous Quiet American field recordings
• Brian Eno + David Byrne - Arabic Sample #1
• Gamelan Madu Sari - Dreams He is a Ball of Fire...or a Hummingbird (ii)
• Alio Die & Festina Lente - Movimento Nel Cielo Sotto
• Soundtrack - Little Buddha - Raga Kirvani
• Loren Nerell - Indonesian Soundscapes Track 2
• Ravi Shankar - Raga Malkauns Alap
• Al Gromer Khan - Mumtaz
• Daniel Lentz - Lascaux
• Alio Die & Festina Lente - L'orlo, La Fune, Il Niente
• Jon Hassell - These Times
• David Parsons - Lahaul Valley
• Djivan Gasparyan - Apricot Tree
• Loren Nerell - Hiasan (Ornament)
• Peter Gabriel - Open
• David Parsons - Darshan
• Jon Hassell - Emp
• L. Subraminiam - Wandering Saint
• Soundtrack - Little Buddha - Nepalese Caravan
• Steve Roach and Loren Nerell - Texture Wall
• The Year of Living Dangerously Soundtrack - Kwan
• Jim Cole and Spectral Voices - Nuage
• Peter Gabriel - Disturbed
• Jon Hassell - Power Spot
• Jon Hassell - Malay
• Gamelan Madu Sari - Thinly Roundly
• Robert Rich - Calling Down the Sky
• Marsen Jules - Eillet en Delta
• Mawlawiyah Music of the Whirling Dervishes - Na't-i Sherif
• nrvnet field recording
• Michael Stearns - Baraka Finale

Posted by nrvnet at 5:47 PM 21 comments  

Lonesome Traveler

Lonesome Traveler

This is the third installment of the Lost Lake Stories cycle. This mixup was inspired by the movie Paris, Texas featuring an awesome soundtrack score by Ry Cooder. The movie opens with a man walking alone in the desert with nothing but the wind and sun for company. I took this image and decided to create my own soundtrack of a solitary lonesome man traveling in an empty quiet western landscape through deserts and small backwater towns…towns that whisper instead of shout. Keeping with the literary theme of the previous two mixes, the title comes from a book by Jack Kerouac, Lonesome Traveler, about his hobo-like wanderings through 1950’s America and Mexico. The mix has a decidedly twangy western feel to compliment Ry Cooder’s amazing slide guitar while keeping a slow, quiet ambient progression. The jpeg “score” for this mix is included in the Cover Art and Score Zip file below. Also, right below is the “soundword” description for the mix I did again trying to use a Kerouac-like automatic writing style. I hope you enjoy this new mixup. And remember, I like comments!

L o s t L a k e S t o r i e s C h a p t e r 3: LONESOME TRAVELER

Lonesome Traveler walks through ghosttown dreams and desert sandsky searching for slow memories of a brightskip life. Sunheat washes over lazy landscapes shimmering slitscan in still life. Warm wind blows guitarsong for lonely days of heathaze lands and moonsurf nights. Timetrip towns in oldtime, lost among backwater roads and black and white Kodaks. Shining stargazes of forevernever hope. Lone footfalls on sand and sidewalk spying distant boys on bikes and sundress breezeflutters against softblue sunwashed skies. A storyneverending journeysearch for sunmelted ice cream cones and porchcold lemonade laughter mixed with quiet smiles and warm words from melted hearts and clouddrift minds. He walks between seconds of memorytime.

A boxgathering rises in the farscape edge of the sky. Yearning feet turn on the brightmelted blackribbonhighway. Alonetown echos emptynothing sounds as Traveler passes through on silent strings of memories. Alone.

Downloads (right click, save link as): LONESOME TRAVELER

T R A C K L I S T I N G

• Various Soundfiles – Little Children Movie
• Ry Cooder - Paris, Texas
• Steve Roach and Roger King - A Bigger Sky
• Ry Cooder - Brothers
• Loren Connors - Whispers
• Steve Roach and Roger King - First Sunrise
• Yuichiro Fujimoto - Listen to November Steps
• Yellow 6 - Summersend
• Robin Guthrie - Pale
• Ry Cooder - Nothing Out There
• John Fahey - Finale
• Loren Connors - Lullaby (the 1st)
• Steve Roach and Roger King - Rain and Creosote
• Handsome Family - Last Night I Went Out Walking
• Daniel Lanois - Carla
• Yuichiro Fujimoto - Handwritten Map to Sea
• Grails - Canyon Hymn
• James Blackshaw - Granite and Wineglass
• Ry Cooder - No Safety Zone
• Ry Cooder - Cancion Mixteca
• John Fahey - View (East from...Riggs Road B & O Trestle)
• Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd - Goodbye to Wendy
• Hammock - The Silence
• Loren Connors - Grandmother
• Ess - Gee-gem
• Steve Roach and Roger King - Ghost Train
• Ramblin' Thomas - Poor Boy Blues
• Deaf Center - Lobby
• Loren Connors - Jesuits
• Loren Connors Voice of the Ocean, Despair Not!
• Yuichiro Fujimoto - History of Dreams
• Ry Cooder - Dark Was the Night

Posted by nrvnet at 3:02 PM 6 comments

The Book Of Dreams

Here is the second installment from the Lost Lake Stories collection of mixups. The title, Book of Dreams, is taken from a book by Jack Kerouac (as will the next several in the Lost Lake Stories collection). I tried to make this mix dream-like, having pieces of music float from one into another and fade out then back in again later as often happens with dreams. The music overall is very quiet with both ambient and acoustic elements present with a heavy reliance on strings (violin, cello). There is multi-level mixing and several field recordings, both Quiet American and a couple of my own, that whisper and play in the background like voices and distant sounds in dreams. The jpeg “score” (see post below) for this mix is included in the Cover Art and Score Zip file below. Also, right below is the “soundword” description for the mix I did trying to use a Kerouac-like automatic writing style. It turned out kind of crap new-agey, but what the hell! Remember--I like comments! I hope you like the Book of Dreams…

L O S T L A K E S T O R I E S C H A P T E R 2: BOOK OF DREAMS

The Book of Dreams, washed up on the misty fractal shore of Lost Lake, lightcracks a door to a universe of one. A keybook to an endless flight of moonkissed waters and sunREM skies. Nocturnal tripscan reflections of lucid life and silent sound. Joyflight voices soar over sepia mountains of suspended memory. Starlost cafes serve cups of liquid mind and plates of drifting Bohdi clouds. Lazy days of passing suns shadowcast effervescent trancelight. An endless rain of warm melted thoughts drip from the petals of lifeflowers. Metashapes combine under the brighthaze of Hypnos creating transparent particle cities. Heavenly boats slip dreamsoft through carpets of stars tranceguided by the steering hand of Morpheus. Guided through the middle path between lightdark lands and remembering the nevertruth.

Downloads (right click, save link as): THE BOOK OF DREAMS

T R A C K L I S T I N G

• Peter Gabriel - The Nest That Sailed the Sky

• Talkdemonic - Verite

• RF - Ladder in Place

• Roger Eno & Plumbline - With Insight

• Voices of Alex

• Eluvium - All The Sails

• Stars Of The Lid - The Artificial Pine Arch Song

• Biosphere - Dissolving Clouds

• nrvnet Field Recording

• Various Quiet American Field Recordings

• Underworld - Please Help Me

• Solyaris - IPromisethatOneDayEverything

• Vir Unis & Chris Short - Monastery of The South

• Sylvain Chauveau - Ocre

• Cepia - Malcesine

• Alio Die - Suspended Feathers

• 12 Monkeys OST - Dreamers Awake

• Philip Glass & Foday Musa Suso -Prison Song

• Sylvain Chauveau - Le brasier de tristesse

• Slowbow - Elegy

• Mountains - Hundred Acre

• Sydney M - Chords Echo 2

• Mountains - Paper Windmill

• Vidna Obmana - Float through Nights

• Francesco Paladino & Opium - Me, the Sky Sleeping

• Alio Die - Ruins Garden Drones

• A Produce - The Far Shore

• Clickits - Nibblah

• RF - On the Bus That I Had Chosen

• David Byrne - Canal Life

• Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd - Neil's Theme2

• Lisa Gerrard - Empty Water

• Peter Gabriel - The Nest That Sailed the Sky

Posted by nrvnet at 6:12 PM 14 comments

The Stars My Destination

The Stars My Destination

L O S T L A K E S T O R I E S 2 0 0 6

This 2006 collection of Nrv Net mixups was inspired by the writings of Jack Kerouac (who could have guessed?). After having read several of his books over the past year I decided to use a literary theme as a central core for these four mixes. The titles come from three Kerouac novels and a book by Alfred Bester. The mixes themselves range from straightforward linear mixes to multi-level mixups, with sometimes as many as six different sound files being played simultaneously. Each mix has a story accompanying it that gives a “soundword” description of the mix. I tried to channel Kerouc in the writing style. The first mixup, The Stars My Destination, is an ambient drift mix meant to be played while stargazing. There is more multi-level mixing going on in this one. With apologies and respect to Jack Kerouac I hope you enjoy the Lost Lake Stories...

L O S T L A K E S T O R I E S C H A P T E R 1: THE STARS MY DESTINATION

Countdown to celestial fireburn in soulburst flight and the Stars My Destination. Blue move streak melts into inkblack veil of infinity. Starshine in a speck of life absorbs all that was the memorycore being. Mind dissolves, touching gravity wells of mechanical move. Chromosphere dreams float past ecliptic worlds of heliocentric desire. Lightyears pass in glistening spikeshards of spacetime. Softspun cores of hydrogen cloudlight move past binary bursts of quasar prominence. Redshift suns stream, holding a billion thoughts of singular sound vibrating through the silent expanse of zodiac radiance. Arms of sparkling starlight stretch toward the singularity of firelife. Traveling through the infinite core of drifting starsound, eyes open to see a sea of lights against darkblack sky as galactic whispers fade into endless night.

Downloads (right click, save link as): THE STARS MY DESTINATION

Please leave a comment if you like the mix.

T R A C K L I S T I N G

• August Stars – The Twilight Turns From Amethyst to Deep and Deeper Blue

• Steve Roach and Loren Nerell - Ecopoiesis

• Various Apollo Sound Files

• Manual - September Swell

• Amir Baghiri - Triton

• Loscil - Windless

• Diatonis - Corona

• James Johnson - Ma Ja Le - Methane Sea

• Diatonis - Clouds and Mirrors

• Milieu - Lazy Days on our Hillside

• Amir Baghiri - Sleep Well (Part Six)

• Oophoi - Hymns to a Silent Sky

• August Stars - Reflection of the Bridge of Sighs

• Cliff Martinez - We Don't Have To Think Like That Anymore

• Manual - Bajamar

• Milieu - Inside the Majestic Hand of God

• Manual - Reminiscence

• Oophoi - Ism-el Azam (Birth and Death of Sound)

• Steve Roach - Truth in Passing

• Jim Cole and Spectral Voices - Celestial Tides

• Dialogue from 2001: A Space Odyssey

• Gyorgi Ligeti - Lux Aeterna

• Genesis - Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats

• Jon Jenkins – Calling

• Yellow Magic Orchestra - Loom

• August Stars - Two Queerly Placed Melancholy Windows

• Hammock - You May Emerge From This More Dead Than Alive

• Milieu - Parasol

• Milieu - Lazy Days on our Hillside

• Chase Smith - A Curse of Beauty

• Dean de Benedictis - The Mocking of Consequence

• James Johnson - Drift

• Steve Roach - The Passing Time

• Harold Budd & Brian Eno - An Echo of Night

Posted by nrvnet at 9:04 PM 1 comments