I Scream Sunday

Last week we did a show called Cold Sun, and in the course of the show I was asked if I were going to play anything by the project called Cold Sun. I confess I had forgotten about this particular project (shame on me!), and we didn’t have any of the music in our library… until now. This week I’m making up for it by playing tracks from Cold Sun, also known as Simon Slator, a longtime ambient artist based in the UK.

Antarctica

Mount Erebus

Antarctica

Rain

Piano in the Rain

L’arc-en-ciel

In the second hour, the live set will be called Colder Sun and is inspired by the sounds of Cold Sun.

It’s interesting how random remarks in life cause crazy inspiration. This past week I read a weather update from our local (very skilled) meteorologist who referred to the “cold sun” — and that hooked me. So here’s a very chilly show about the sun in winter, and other types of cold light.

playman54: “Misty Light Through Skeleton Trees” (Reflections of Winter Landscapes)

Christopher Short – Guitartronics: “Strange Lights in the Mist” (Winter Soundscapes 2014)

ontol: “the sign of a sideways winter never showing you should” (photocopies)

Darkened Soul: “Winter’s Cold Stare” (Seasons of Dark and Light)

mindSpiral: “Winter Garden” (Curiosa Positronica)

George L Smyth: “Winter Sun” (Haiku Music, Volume 5)

usr/sbin: “Night Fog, Morning Sun” (Deep Winter, North Texas Skies)

zucchini: “grey sky” (winter EP)

Juta Takahashi: “The Door into Winter” (The Door into Winter)

The live set in the second hour is called Cold Sun.

Black Sun

White Dwarf

Penguins

My Mistress’ Eyes

Cold Sun

Today is the full “Snow” moon, shining its cold light on the winter world.

Loneward: “Hush Upon the Wind” (Moongate)

Conni St. Pierre: “Setting Moon” (Between the Branches: Legends Of The Wild)

Roy Mattson: “Melancholy Moon” (Melancholy Moon)

Jack Hertz: “Late Last Night We Played With The Moon” (FOURTH WORLD IS – Jon Hassell Tribute)

James Shain: “Did the Moon Shine” (Windowless Journey)

In the second hour, the live set is called Snow Moon, and is inspired by the Winter Embrace series by Altus, which is one of the sets of works that got ʞu¡0ɹʞS into ambient music in the first place, and has been in many ways a model of the production values I’ve been chasing lo these many years.

A large swath of the US is covered in dangerous ice and freezing rain this weekend. The ʞu¡0ɹʞS household has taken refuge outside the worst of it, but we know that some others of the RadioSpiral family are stuck in it. So today’s program is all about the ice, and we’re keeping good thoughts about all the folks stuck in the cold. No live set today — I didn’t bring the right gadgets to play a live show today. There’s also no video stream today.

Janne Hanhisuanto: “Icescapes Movement 1” (Icescapes)

Bing Satellites: “On The Ice” (The Visitor)

Chris Kuborn: “Ice Caves” (Static Movement)

Somnarium: “Ice” (Frost)

Ben McCarthy: “beneath the ice, the river still flows [feat. Lighght]” (Decorative Arts)

Jim Ottaway: “Stars of Ice” (Deep Space Blue)

Robert Rich: “Ice Fields” (Live Archive Volume 4 (Alien Zoology))

Lucette Bourdin: “Moonlight on Ice” (Nordic Waves, Vol. 1: Winter)

Cousin Silas & Kevin Lyons: “Fire & Ice” (The Worlds Of Cousin Silas & Kevin Lyons)

Paul Nagle: “ice water trips” (the silent kingdom)

Lingua Lustra: “Ice Age” (Ice Age)

January and February tend to feel disproportionately long after the lights and anticipation of the winter holidays. But there is beauty in the bleakness, too — the quiet and stillness a good reminder that we can slow down for a while, and look inward. Today we feature a variety of artists from the RadioSpiral library:

Sydalesis: “Bleak Landscape” (Living Machine)

Altus: “Winter Embrace – Part II” (Winter Embrace (15th Anniversary Edition)

George L Smyth: “The Heavy Winter Sun Appears” (Haiku Music – Volume 2)

Cousin Silas: “The Stream Never Froze In Winter” (Festive)

Lily Pond Orchestra: “Winter Stars Over Lily Pond” (Soft Observations)

Christopher Short – Guitartronics: “Step Into the Light” (Winter Soundscapes 2014)

grum~pe: “A Bleak Outlook” (Guided Apophenia)

Jack Hertz: “Winter Breeze” (Compilated)

Erik Wøllo: “Winter Tide, Part 2” (Winter Tide / Live at SoundQuest Fest 2021)

Altocumulus: “Gothick Winter” (Unreleased)

playman54: “Shadow Tracks of Ghostly Snow Beast” (Reflections of Winter Landscapes)

Jack Hertz & Wolfgang Gsell: “A Cold Winter’s Light” (Sleeping Trees On Earth)

It’s an odd thing: the title of the live set for today came to me in a dream, with no other guidance. So I’m making today’s show about vibrancy, electricity, vitality, and joy.

Bing Satellites: “Electricity” (The ambient world of Bing Satellites, volume one: 2008 – 2010)

Broekhuis, Keller & Schönwälder feat. Raughi Ebert & Thomas Kagermann: “Electric Chess” (Repelen Revisited)

Spheric Lounge: “Electrically Charged Air” (Session 67 19.11.2006)

Church of Hed: “Electric Sepulcher” (Electric Sepulcher)

Indigo Symbol: “Electric Temple” (Parallel Worlds)

Robert Carty: “Electric Skies” (Ethereal Deserts)

M.NOMIZED: “Electric Bubbles” (Minimal Stories)

The live set in the second hour is called Electric Bones, and will be an indulgence in joyful dance music.

And to close the show, we played

Boogie Belgique: “Forever & Ever” (Nightwalker vol 1)

4T Thieves: “Drifting in the Clouds” (The Singles)

Erik Wøllo and Byron Metcalf: “Earth Luminous” (Earth Luminous)

The twelve nights of Yule begin around the solstice, which was last Sunday. These days are a liminal time when the veil between worlds is thin, and spirits, gods, and ancestors should be honored. It is also the time to welcome the return of the sun, who slowly wakes from his winter slumber. Our time starts in darkness, and then turns to greet the light. Welcome, one and all, to our Yuletide celebration! Wolcum Yole!

Crows In the Garden: “It’s Growing Dark” (Atom)

Michael Brückner: “Ancient Darkness” (Servant Of The Secret Fire (Drones, Atmospheres and Dreamscapes Vol. 1))

Franck Martin: “Dark Dance” (Cold)

Kevin Fletcher Tweedy: “Dark Forest” (A Distant Vision)

Not Your Average Hippy: “Balance With Nature” (Warm Ground Dark Sky)

Dimitris: “Can You Find Me In The Dark” (Black & White)

Phillip Wilkerson: “Cradled in Darkness” (Amorphous Worlds)

Lucette Bourdin: “Crack of Dawn” (Rising Fog)

In the second hour, the live set is another new effort from The Third Course, the collaboration between ʞu¡0ɹʞS and Pallid Mask, and it’s called Wolcom Yole!.

The Longest Nights (First Candle)

The Winter Goddess (Second Candle)

Lucia (Third Candle)

Today is the Winter Solstice in the northern hemisphere. During these darkest days (and that has more than one meaning of late), it is easy to forget that the sun will return, that the light will come again.

We’ll hear tracks from Edges of Solstice, a compilation created for Winter Solstice 2019 for a previous iteration of this show.

VÆRNA: “Winter’s Flight”

Mr. Spiral: “Cold Blue Night 1 – Prelude in Fugue (Machine)”

Robert Scott Thompson: “A Winter’s Sojourn”

playman54: “earthlight”

Museleon: “Rainbirds”

Karl Fury: “Wind, Stars, Ice”

In the second hour, the live set is called Darkest Night.

We continue the theme of snow for this week’s I Scream Sunday, with lots more great tracks from the RadioSpiral library.

George L. Smyth: “A Snowflake, A Cobweb” (Haiku Music Volume 5)

Conni St. Pierre: “Snowfields” (Mountain Spirits)

Spheric Lounge: “Snow” (Session 84 06.12.2007)

Bing Satellites: “Song for a Snow Day” (Snow Day)

John DuVal: “Snowflakes at Dusk” (Onward Through the Fog)

Cousin Silas: “30 Years” (The Snow Imposed Silence)

Syndromeda: “Snowflakes” (On Demand)

Jarguna and Nicola Serena: “Snow on the Concrete” (Amongst Jungles)

Fringo Chills: “Falling Snow” (…cooled)

sp3ct3rs: “whiteouts” (strays)

December Nightskies: “Blizzard” (I Hope You Find Yourself)

zucchini: “snow” (winter EP)

Snow has many characters, depending on humidity, temperature, wind, and so on. Light and fluffy, wet and heavy, cutting, comforting… Today we stand in the first snow of the season (yes, I know, it’s already snowed in many places)…

Scott Lawlor: “Midnight Ice Crystals” (Reflections of Snow)

Shane Morris: “Walking in the Snow” (Silver Storm)

Subtle Sift: “Forsta Sno (First Snow)” (Somber Frequencies)

poemme: “falling snow on a silent night” (Frozen Passages)

playman54: “Snow drops Frozen midwinter night” (Reflections of Winter Landscapes)

Plexus: “Cascades in Snowflakes Blue” (The Music of Plexus)

Kuutana: “Snowflakes in the Moonlight” (Snowflakes in the Moonlight)

Tim Kays: “Overnight Snowfall” (Phenomena)

mindSpiral: “The Snowflake and the Star” (The 1 is Silent)

Lucette Bourdin: “The One Hundredth Name of Snow” (Nordic Waves, Vol. 1: Winter)