Autumn seems perfectly suited to ambient music, especially ambient with a tinge of melancholy. I was thinking about doing an fall-themed mix when Paul approached me with his fully curated mix for autumn. Perfect!

Here's what Paul says about this mix:

“Dedicating this one to my sister, Miriam Walter, professor of nursing at Chico State University in Northern California. Her birthday is today, September 19th.

This turned out to be mostly guitar and piano, although I always (and still) intended it to be a going-to-sleep mix. Like most of my playlists for LLM, it starts out moderately slow and gets progressively slower and quieter. Just a bunch of beautiful tunes, with a touch of melancholy that I always associate with fall, and surrendering into tranquility.”

• 00:00    Peter Chilvers & Jon Durant - Always Autumn (Always Golden Sands 2020)

This mix is pretty much what the title says - a collection of quiet/ambient tracks featuring the beautiful sounds of the pedal steel guitar.

I did another pedal mix two years and since then it seems to be easier to find practitioners of the ambient steel guitar sound. Only one artist, Chuck Johnson, is repeated from that mix in this one. Here's the first mix:  http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2019/09/ambient-twang.html

All that's left to say is go relax with some steel guitar & maybe a good bourbon around a campfire.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Devendra Banhart & Noah Georgeson - In a Cistern (Refuge 2021)

I love guest mixes because they expose me to tracks I might have otherwise missed in the monthly deluge of new releases. This new mix comes to us from Michael Southard(Time Rival) of Triplicate Records. I've included a few Time Rival tracks in mixes over the years so I was excited when Michael agreed to put together a mix of some of the best his label has to offer.

Here's a blurb from Michael about this guest mix:

Triplicate Records is an artist run independent record label founded in 2018 by Michael Southard (Time Rival), Bryan Kraft (BVSMV), and George Ernst (Suncastle).  We cover a lot of ground in regard to genres, but mostly stick to electronica, ambient and experimental.  “Vantage” is a collection of music from our back catalog that highlights the softer side of what we do.  Mixed and curated by Time Rival and featuring phenomenal new music from Ian Hawgood, Belly Full of Stars, Chris Randall, and much more.

All of this music is available through our Bandcamp page:  https://triplicaterecords.bandcamp.com/ 

 Thanks for an excellent set!

Triplicate has also made a small run painted CD - R version of the mix available at their bandcamp page... https://triplicaterecords.bandcamp.com/merch/vantage-limited-edition-painted-cd-r

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• Ian Hawgood - Flutter Echo Refrain – 0:00:00

Moteer released music from 2003 to 2011. It was run by Andrew Johnson and Craig Tattersall, who record as The Remote Viewer. The label specialized in, as Harry Towell, founder of Whitelabrecs records, put it -  "lo-fi folk and glitchy, electro-acoustic goodness." They don't even have a website anymore to link to so you're on your own in tracking down some of the releases.

This set starts at the beginning with the first Moteer release, Commercial Body Fittings by Clickits. And it continues chronologically to the last release, On Fell. In between we get music from The Boats, Part Timer, El Fog, Need More Sources, Tokyo Bloodworm and more.

Sit back and enjoy this little journey back to the 2000s for some off-kilter, clicky, twinkling ambience.

Cheers

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Clickits - september sounds like this (commercial body fittings 2003)

Last year at this time I did a mix called "simply ambient" which was a nice, straightforward mix of ambient tracks. This mix is a sort of follow up titled "purely ambient." There is no theme, no story being told by the music, no big concepts. Just ambient music, pure and simple.

This might be the start of a series of mixes - utterly ambient, perfectly ambient, naturally ambient, totally ambient, etc. This would be allow me to get some of the tons of new music that I listen to every month into mixes without having to wait for an appropriate theme. Every track in this mix is from 2021.

So kick back and relax to some purely ambient music.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Ambalek - In the Curled Combes (Fremder 2021)

I few weeks ago the good folks over at The Slow Music Movement sent me a couple tracks by Wiki Chaves. After listening I immediately knew I had to construct a mix around the laid back guitar style. A style The Slow Music Movement calls - "Perfect for all your beach lying, garden barbecuing, hammock slouching, sunbathing, holiday taking soundtrack needs."

Here's a link to the latest Wiki Chaves release: https://wikichaves.bandcamp.com/

From there I listened to guitar music for a couple of weeks, collecting tracks with a similar vibe. There were some artists I knew right away that I would include like Khruangbin, Bill Frisell & William Tyler. Some were new discoveries like Tommy Guerrero & Jeffrey Silverstein. While others were older tracks I was happy to rediscover such as Steve Hiett, Pat Metheny, Durutti Column and Yo La Tengo.

I like how the mix takes a more acoustic turn about half way through. Starting with new music from The Phonometrician then an old track from Calexico to even older tracks from Charlie Haden & Pat Metheny and Yo La Tengo.

Many of the mixes I do tend to focus on new music because that's what I'm listening to at the time. This mix, however, hits on 5 decades of music and it's pretty cool how they mesh together.

Artist/album links:

• https://wikichaves.bandcamp.com/

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Wiki Chaves - Pleasure Point (Raiz 2021)

• 00:00    Kitaro - Wonderland 2 (An Ancient Journey 2001)

I have been lucky to have had some awesome guest mixes this year. The streak continues with this excellent modern classical mix called "Cello Mood Swings." It's an excellent collection of music that features the cello. Duh! 

This tracklist comes from loyal listener, Kevin, who was also responsible for last year's Japan themed mix - "Not Seeing is a Flower"  Which you can find here - http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2020/07/not-seeing-is-flower.html  Kevin collected a bunch of great tracks and I put them together as best I could and the result is pretty darn awesome.

Here's what Kevin says about this mix:

"The idea for this actually came from Tina Guo's haunting version of the Rains of Castamere (Game of Thrones). As I was putting the list together it suddenly dawned on me just how many women have chosen the cello as their main instrument. I tried to make it female only cello players but couldn't quite find enough tracks. The title, Cello mood swings, fits because as an instrument, the cello is brooding and melancholic. But it can be soothing and relaxing as well."

Thanks for another great mix!

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Hildur Guðnadóttir - Bathroom Dance (Joker OST 2019)

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Djivan Gasparyan - I will not be sad in this world

One of my favorite new indie albums of 2021 is An Overview on Phenomenal Nature by Cassandra Jenkins. It's a mostly fairly quiet, folky album. Except for the last cut which is instrumental with a kind of jazzy/ambient vibe. I knew immediately that I wanted to use it in a Sunday morning mix. Then I realized that it had been more than a year since I'd done a Sunday mix.

So here it is - Sunday Morning Music Vol. 21 - Dreamland. It sounds just like the Cassandra Jenkins I described above - jazzy/ambient with a sunny feel. There are two vocal tunes - one by Sam Gendel and the wonderful Dreamland by Joni Mitchell.

There's not much else to say other than grab the Sunday paper, a cup of coffee and hang out with this mix.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Time Rival - Breakfast with Birdsong (Fell 2020)