I can't decide which of these Best Ambient mixes I like the most. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to listen all 3 all day, every day until the end of the year. Then the journey starts all over again.

As another year comes to a close, it's hard to believe I've been at this for 17 years. Yikes! I'm not sure how long I'll keep creating these mix but I at least have to make it to 20 years, right? If I ever retire from my day job this seems like the perfect retirement activity. Forget golf, I just want to listen to music and create mixes(and go to movies, concerts and funky restaurants.)

Here's to a hopefully less chaotic 2023.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Seabuckthorn - Of No Such Place (Of No Such Place - Laaps)

Not much to say other than here is Best Ambient 2022 part 2. 

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Snufmumriko - Langt under noll (Radio Mnemosyne - Dronarivm)

Man, these lists are tough to assemble. So why do I does this? Mostly because I enjoy the exercise of reviewing the tons and tons of music that is released over the year. It's a more active and intentional listening mode that I switch to at this time of year. I love checking out other lists to see what I may have missed. But mostly I'm just a music dork who likes lists. So here it is my favorite ambient music of 2022.

My Top 10 Ambient Albums of 2022

1. Ecovillage - The Road Not Taken [Laaps]

Here's the rest of the list in alphabetical order:

• 't Geruis - Bain D'Étoiles [Laaps]

I've done three separate mixes to celebrate the best ambient music of 2022 and I will post one a day.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Ecovillage - Silent River(ft. Henrik Meierkord & Ruven Nunez) (The Road Not Taken - Laaps)

I have been a casual fan of Manuel Gottsching for a long time but I never really dug into his discography until the last few days with the news of his passing. I don't have time to write much about him so I'll cut & paste a few things from Pitchfork.

"Manuel Gottsching, the Ash Ra Tempel bandleader who went on to compose the electronic cornerstone album E2-E4, died last Sunday (December 4).

Göttsching made his name in the West Berlin underground scene in the late 1960s and early ’70s. He was a core member of Ash Ra Tempel, a krautrock linchpin with revolving members including Tangerine Dream’s Klaus Schulze. The loose, shapeshifting outfit released five influential albums between 1971 and 1973. Göttsching’s solo debut, 1975’s Inventions for Electric Guitar, was subtitled Ash Ra Tempel VI; from then on he mostly produced records under his own name or as Ashra, such as the 1976 classic New Age of Earth.

In 1981, after a visit to Schulze, Göttsching improvised the composition that became known as E2-E4, hoping to throw together some listening material for an imminent trip. That mysteriously perfect hourlong exercise, which combined Prophet 10 synth pulses with waves of electronic percussion and electric guitar, came to define his post-krautrock output. After composing the track, Göttsching later recalled, the billionaire and Virgin Records owner Richard Branson invited him to his houseboat and, upon hearing the track, advised Göttsching that it could make him a fortune. But Göttsching decided to release the full improvisation on his friend Schulze’s label, without overdubs, in 1984, and it appeared to have little impact.

Though E2-E4 sold poorly, it had—unbeknownst to Göttsching—made its way across the Atlantic and into Larry Levan’s Paradise Garage sets, as well as the collections of key electronic music innovators. As Pitchfork’s Mark Richardson wrote in a 2016 review, the improvisation “wound its way across the world, morphing and changing with formats and remixes, finding new contexts, a music that is constantly in the process of becoming.”

It was a nice trip through Gottsching's music making this mix. I hope he is improvising with his buddy Klaus somewhere.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Ash Ra Tempel - Traummaschine (Ash Ra Tempel 1971)

Here's what Paul says:

"Native American flutes. A bit of Ireland, a bit of acoustic guitar (with echoes of India), interspersed with Tibetan bells, wind chimes, and a recent track by Steve Roach that is his most sublime composition since “Structures From Silence.” So, a bit of variety, but all with a consistent tone of serenity—my most soothing mix yet.”

Here links to all the music used in this mix:

• https://mysticjourney.net

Thanks Paul for another great mix!  Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00    Suzanne Teng & Gilbert Levy - Sounding the Bell (Shimmer 2022)

05:25    Michael Stearns - Monk with Bell (Baraka 1993)

07:42    Sherry Finzer - Obsidian Shadows (Synesthesia 2022)

10:55    Jeff Johnson & Brian Dunning - Shepherding the Wind (Coming, Going 2022)

13:55    Jarguna - Garden of the Mantras (Prospective Animiche 2019)

21:35    Stevin McNamara - Aubade (Om Guitar 2020)

29:00    Forrest Fang - Song of the Wanderer (The Bok of Wanderers 2020)

34:15    Manrose - Tengpoche Monastery (Dhyana Aman 2010)

40:43    Suzanne Teng & Gilbert Levy - Mother and Child (Shimmer 2022)

45:55    Steve Roach - What Remains(excerpt) (Projekt2022 2022)

53:01    Calm Whale - Blue Moon Wind (Blue Moon Meditation 2017)

60:00    end

A couple of weeks ago I posted the Numinoustrings mix which featured a track by Seabuckthorn. I like the vibe of that mix and how the Seabuckthorn cut fit in. So I reached out to the man behind Seabuckthorn, Andy Cartwright, to see about him creating a guest mix. I was psyched when he said yes!

I am happy to present Transcendental Freq. Similar to Numinoustrings, it falls into the ambient/modern classical category. This set does exactly what I love about guest mixes - it combines familiar artists with new discoveries and tosses in a surprise or two. Andy saves the best surprise for last - an unreleased Seabuckthorn song recorded last year.

Here a link to Seabuckthorn music on Bandcamp - https://seabuckthorn.bandcamp.com/music

And here are links to all the music used in this mix in the order in which they appear:

• 00.00   Seabuckthorn – Fell Into Journey (Laaps 2022)

I was going to say - "...and now for something completely different" because this mix is louder than normal. But having recently posted a Robert Fripp mix I guess this isn't "completely different." However, this mix is, as the title says, a little louder than a normal Low Light ambient mix.

As per usual the mix started with one album in particular - Mox by Mox from 1998. I absolutely loved it when it came out in '98. I stumbled upon it a couple weeks back and decided to build a mix around non-ambient instrumentals. Some of the tunes have a kraut rock vibe, some are jazzy, some have a retro feel, and others are just cool. More than half the tracks are from 2022 with one of the old ones going all the way back to 1973.

I hope you enjoy this diversion. We'll be back to ambient soon. Oof, I just realized that I should start thinking about best of the year lists. Any suggestions?

Cheers!

T R A CK L I S T :

• 00:00 MOX - Wig (MOX 1998)

Many times a new mix is inspired by a track or album. In this case it was the new album, The Road Not Taken by Ecovillage.

The album is full of long, deep string vibrations that carry you along from track to track, place to place, and memory to memory. This is one of my favorite albums of the year.

So I went looking for, not just string based tunes, but tracks that had a similar slow, reflective pull. Sometimes a mix with track that are too similar can be stale but in this case the mix becomes one long meditation. As the tracks bleed one into another I experience an almost devotional trance, an ethereal sojourn. 

Here are links to all the music used in this mix in the order in which they appear:

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Ecovillage - Ascend(ft. Henrik Meierkord) (The Road Not Taken 2022)

Well, Christ on a bicycle, this midterm election season was a shit show. So here is a mix of beautiful ambient tracks to help us all heal and recover.

Here are links to all the albums used in this mix in the order in which they appear:

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Uther Moads - Future Waves (Uther Moads 2011)

I wasn't planning on making a Halloween themed mix but a couple of days ago I heard a new album called "Xiuxiuejar" by Hekla and I knew I had to use some tracks in a mix. Hekla is an Icelandic musician who use the theremin to create haunting, other-worldly soundscapes. Perfect for a Halloween mix.

Some of the other tracks follow a similar vibe I have used for creepy mixes in the past, sort of a dark jazz feel. Then I mix in some noisy stuff, some ambient & some other oddities. I don't want these mixes to be ultra dark doom ambient but this is more off-kilter than most Low Light Mixes.

After finding the theremin tracks from Hekla I was reminded of a very theremin-like instrument - the Ondes Martenot. It looks like a piano or organ but sounds like a theremin and it's played by sliding a ring attached to wires up and down the keyboard. Check out this video for an idea of how it's played and what it sounds like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0aflcF0-ys  

There are two tracks in the mix that use the Ondes Martenot. They are Tindersticks - The Strangler & Christine Ott - Pluie. I believe Christine Ott plays the instrument on the Tindersticks track as well as her own. Radiohead is famous for using the Odnes Martenot in a few songs. Maybe I'll make an entire mix featuring the instrument someday.