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

A Perfect Rainy Day Thinking Of Old Memories

A Perfect Rainy Day Thinking of Old Memories

Here is a straightforward mix I did last year. Something to listen to on rainy days...

And what does the rain say at night in a small town, what does the rain have to say? Who walks beneath dripping melancholy branches listening to the rain?
-Jack Kerouac

Downloads (right click, save link as): A PERFECT RAINY DAY THINKING OF OLD MEMORIES

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

• INTERLUDE 1 Rain (0:14)

• Sigur Ros – Untitled (2:45)

• Trembling Blue Stars – The Far Too Simple Beauty (3:29)

• World Standard – Snowflakes (7:49)

• Goldmund – Pahelia (6:04)

• Sylvian Chauveau – Minéral (2:56)

• Idaho – Levitate Pt. 2 (4:21)

• Harold Budd – Avalon Sutra (3:37)

• INTERLUDE 2 Rain (0:30)

• RF – Spring (7:59)

• Goldmund – Anomolie Loop (1960 – 1969) (6:59)

• Sigur Ros – Untitled (2:34)

• Helios – Sunes Christmas (3:57)

• George Winston – Black Stallion (3:48)

• Broken Social Scene – Guilty Cubicles (3:02)

• Talk Talk – I Believe In You (6:15)

• Muse – Blackout (4:17)

• INTERLUDE 3 Rain (0:15)Vangelis – Tears In Rain (2:51)

Posted by nrvnet at 8:42 PM 12 comments

Tea Time At Brian Eno's House

 Tea Time at Brian Eno's House

Here is the very first true "mixup". Tea Time at Brian Eno's House is based on an idea of being invited to tea at Brian Eno's house and what one might hear from his in-house sound installation. I tried to approach the mix in an “Eno-esque” fashion, building track upon track. The foundation of the mix is made up of long-form Eno cuts (Neroli, Thursday Afternoon, etc.) that play at very low levels throughout the mix. On top of that are Quiet American field recordings that fade in and out. On top of that are various Eno and other artist tracks mixed end to end and sometimes together.

So, at any point in the mix, there are 2-5 things playing at the same time.

The Eno speaking parts are from a long interview with him. I cut 2-10 second pieces at random from the track. I then assembled bunches of those pieces together, somewhat at random, at various points throughout the mix. So, you get Eno speaking in “nonsense words” that weirdly make sense in a way. I hope you enjoy it.

Downloads (right click, save link as): TEA TIME AT BRIAN ENO'S HOUSE

Please leave a comment if you like the mix.

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

• An interview with Brian Eno - Eno Speaks

• Brian Eno - Neroli

• The Golden Oaks - Candles Dangling from Boxwood Branches

• The Quiet American - 3 Trains

• Helios - Easy Days

• Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon

• John Fox, Harold Budd - Adult

• Robert Rich - Weightless Morning

• Brian Eno - IKEBUKURO

• The Quiet American - Short Train

• Shuttle358 - Chessa

• Clickits - Weirdloop

• Kiln - Season

• Brian Eno - Chamber Lightness

• Clickits - Riverfolk

• Brian Eno - Caught Between

• The Remote Viewer - Listening to Ballad of the Band

• The Quiet American - Waking

• Broken Social Scene - I Slept With The Bonhomme At The CBC

• Amute - A l'ombre de 12000 medias

• Brian Eno - A Long Way Down

• Brian Eno - Drift Study

• Brian Eno - Soft Dawn

• Brian Eno - Discreet Music

• The Quiet American - First Light

• Helios - Mulier

• Brian Eno - Lantern Marsh

• Alva Note + Ryuichi Sakamoto - Uoon I.mp3

Posted by nrvnet at 1:58 PM 12 comments  

The Hydrogen Café

I’d like to present The Hydrogen Café. I’ll be posting my own music mixes and maybe a few other things as well. Why “Hydrogen Café?” I’m a coffee fanatic so I liked the idea of a café—a place to come and sit a while, have a cup and listen to some music. And hydrogen is an element that is both simple and minimal yet underlies everything—kind of like ambient music and music in my life. So, welcome to the Hydrogen Café. I hope you’ll sit and stay a while. Most of the mixes will be ambient or quiet in nature but I do have a few that cross into jazz, classical and folk. I hope you’ll enjoy them.

I also have recently “discovered” the writings of Jack Kerouac and have become a huge fan, burning through several of his books this year. I tried to channel Jack, as you will see, with a few of my more recent mixes, with apologies to my own meager talents. So to close my first post on my first blog I’d like to leave you with Jack:

...the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'

- Jack Kerouac

Posted by nrvnet at 1:06 PM 5 comments