It’s hard to talk about the evolution or history of Ambient music without mentioning American duo Windy & Carl, or indeed their long-time supporting label Kranky. With releases dating back to the early 1990’s, Windy Weber and Carl Hultgren’s sound can be the purest of textured ambient music, layered with reverb, delay and effects. And then as albums progress, you may find yourself pushed into the Space Rock/Experimental spectrum with their instrumental and guitar-heavy approach coming to the fore instead of the background. At times, oven the course of their ~30 year career, the dreamier (Pop) side of music can even be heard, citing massive 80’s punk and rock influences, and the rare vocal additions that float in and out of their discography. With such a history, and only so much an intro can do, I took the time to send over a few questions to the duo, with the hope of shedding some light on their inspirations, sound and thoughts on Ambient music in general. Read below for an insightful interview with them both.This mix comes as a perfect soundtrack for our time, in both this moment and indeed today’s world, where we’re treated to a simple, yet blissful curation of textured music, much akin to the infamous Windy & Carl approach. From the duo’s heavy influences in Durutti Column, to label-mates Labradford, and legendary compositions from Aphex and Suzanne Ciani. Float away with some gentle tones that have inspired Windy & Carl. The new album by Windy & Carl titled Allegiance and Conviction is out now on Kranky. DownloadTracklist:1- Durutti Column - Sleep Will Come 2- Stars Of The Lid - Porch (edit #28) 3- Suzanne Ciani - Paris 1971 4- Aphex Twin - Rhubarb 5- Thomas Koner - Kanon (Part 1: Brohuk) 6- James Leyland Kirby - So Pale It Shone In The Night 7- Aphex Twin - Blue Calx 8- Labradford - Air Lubricated Free Axis Trainer 9- Bark Psychosis - Pendulum Man 10- Fennesz - Liminality 11- Arthur Russell - Sketch For "Face Of Helen"~Interview with Windy & Carl Feb/March 2020ASIP - As a band that traversed many years and ‘fashions', I’m interested to know what you think of ambient music today and it’s apparent big media ‘revival’ we see year-on-year. You guys must get bored seeing that pop-up again and again over the years given how long you’ve been a part of it? W - Ambient music - that’s funny. I can't tell you how many people went gaga for those Numero and Light In The Attic comps, and then decided they too had to make ambient music, especially with keyboards. And no - we don't fit into that scene nor have we ever really been invited into that scene. We seem to somehow be eternally our own floating orb in this world, and that is fine.C - I have been enjoying that there have been a lot of re-issues and collections of Ambient artists who were doing this long before the big media revival which has been taking place during the last handful of years. I'm not bored with it at all, but I do find it very curious that people we know who were once in rock bands (Indie Rock, Garage Rock, etc) that are now 'Ambient artists' all of the sudden.W - When we started, we listened to a lot of sub pop bands - Codeine, Dinosaur Jr, Mudhoney - and groups like Sonic Youth, Neil Young, My Bloody Valentine, Teenage Filmstars and Opera and Country and a million other things. We started recording songs and they were songs - short and rather formulaic, and one of our very first reviews said we sounded like the Durutti Column.As we started making longer form pieces, we had reviews that mentioned Brian Eno. so 1) we have not done a thing that is even close to being Brian Eno worthy as a reference, and 2) the only Eno we had EVER listened to was Roxy Music and the Baby's on Fire album. so we were just plain confused. How the hell was what we were doing in long form pieces like Antarctica any relation to Baby's on Fire? We did not get it at all, until a handful of years later we heard Eno’s Ambient albums. I still don't really feel that