As I said a few posts back, I am a huge space science dork. My top 5 favorite NASA probes are: 1. Voyager 2. Cassini 3. Viking 4. Galileo 5. Spirit and Opportunity Number two on that list disintegrated in the atmosphere of Saturn today. Cassini was in orbit around Saturn for 7 years and made some of the most fantastic encounters of any planetary mission. The most amazing discovery concerns a little moon called Enceladus. Through Cassini, scientists have determined that Enceladus has a global subsurface saltwater ocean that might host hydrothermal vents. It's probably our best bet for finding life in our solar system. But Cassini was running out of fuel and rather than risk crashing into a moon and contaminating it, the folks at NASA decided to plunge the spacecraft into Saturn. Cassini will dive into the planet's atmosphere, sending science data for
as long as its small thrusters can keep the spacecraft's antenna
pointed at Earth. Soon after, Cassini will burn up and disintegrate like
a meteor.
This mix is a Requiem for Cassini. Rather than an electronic, space music feel I went with all neo-classical and soundtrack cuts. The track titles tell the story.
Two of my favorite albums this year are from Icelandic composers, Jóhann Jóhannsson - Orphée and Ólafur Arnalds - Islands. How does the tiny country of Iceland produce so many incredible artists? I don't know how but I'm happy every time new music comes from that mysterious place.
The moment I heard these two recordings I knew I'd have to make a new modern classical mix. All of the music here is fairly new and most of it has an accessible classical take with an ambient touch. http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/us/artist/johannsson/ http://olafurarnalds.com/works/ Cheers! [ s t r e a m ][ d o w n l o a d ][ i t u n e s ] T R A C K L I S T :
00:00 Johann Johannsson - Flight From The City
06:06 Ólafur Arnalds - Oldurot
10:27 Kenneth James Gibson - Poured Semi Silently Upon You
16:27 Matt Dunkley - Cycle 6
21:12 Johann Johannsson - A Sparrow Alighted Upon Our Shoulder
23:36 A Winged Victory for the Sullen - Atmos VII
26:00 Ólafur Arnalds - 1995
29:48 Sarah Neufeld & Colin Stetson - And Still They Move
32:23 Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Casino
34:00 Kenneth James Gibson - Long Gone Canadian Summer
As with all mixes this one had a specific starting point or inspiration - the incredible new album from Max Richter - Sleep. It's 8 hours long! 8 hours! Here's a link to purchase the full version... http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/us/cat/4795267 I'm a sucker for high concept projects so I was interested from the start. Add that to the fact that I am a fan of Richter's music and I knew I'd probably love it. And yup, I do. It's the perfect combination of Richter's classical style with an ambient sensibility. I knew I had to make a mix with tracks from the Sleep album. I decided to keep the whole mix in the classical realm. A lot of the tunes are new like the Besarin Quartet stuff. Some cuts I've been waiting to use for awhile now, like the John Luther Adams cut. As much as I like the Max Richter tracks I think my favorite track in the mix is Pie Jesu. The cut is from The Wine of Silence by Andrew Keeling, David Singleton and Robert Fripp. The music is based on Fripp's soundscape series, guitar improvisations that use tape loops and echo and reverb. From there Keeling and Singleton scored the soundscapes for orchestra. They finally subjected the orchestral recording to further electronic manipulation. The result is transcendent. It's a beautiful, beautiful album. The title of the mix comes from a favorite Andrew Bird song, Night Sky, and I thought it fit somehow. I really like the way each piece dissolves into the next on this mix. I hope you like it too. Enjoy [ s t r e a m ][ d o w n l o a d ][ i t u n e s ] T R A C K L I S T
00:00 Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - Farwell at Tinguit
02:15 Max Richter - Patterns(cypher)
05:55 David Wingo - Opening(Take Shelter ost)
06:55 John Luther Adams - The Light that Fills the World
11:20 Bersarin Quartet - die nachte sind erfullt...
15:50 Brambles - Such Owls as You
20:25 Metropole Orkest - An Ending
24:30 Fripp, Keeling, Singleton - Pie Jesu
31:35 Max Richter - Nor Earth, Nor Boundless Sea
39:05 Olan Mill - Tallole
42:30 Aphex Twin - Rhubarb orc. 19.53 rev
48:35 Keaton Henson - Elevator Song
51:40 Bersarin Quartet - verflossen ist das gold der tage
My good friend, Gene over at Ambient Landscape, asked me to do a guest mix for him and this mix is the result. Ambient Landscape is a great source of ambient info and mixes.
What got me started on this mix was an interesting video I found on YouTube by Wouter van Veldhoven called "two sad tape recorders." It's basically two portable reel to reel tape machines each playing their loops at the same time. Here's the video...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvvFdhNiMwM The sound of those two sad tape recorders reminded me of mixes I've done that combine very old recordings with new music that blends well with those scratchy, noisy old records. That's where this mix began and from there I went in search of old cylinder recordings, which have gotten easier to find since my first mix with this theme back in 2008. The vintage cuts that I used in the mix come from Edison cylinders recorded around 1906 to 1908. Most of the old tracks are effected in some way. Sometimes I slowed the original way down, other times echo and reverb were added. For many of them the original is combined with the effected version to create some bizarre other-worldly sound. The new music in the mix is a collection of stuff that seems to work well with this theme. Gavin Byars "Sinking of the Titanic" works on two levels - sonically is blends well with the tracks around it and it's about the sinking which took place in 1912. When thinking about music that uses cracking, scratchy noises I immediately thought of Harry Towell aka Spheruleus. And wouldn't you know it, Harry just released an album entitled "William Barber" that makes use of a wax cylinder recording from 1906 as it's inspiration and sound source. It's a wonderful album. You can find it here... https://spheruleus.bandcamp.com/album/william-barber It's remarkable how much excellent music Harry has put out over the years. Check out his music and his labels... http://spheruleus.com/ http://tessellate-recordings.com/releases/ https://audiogourmet.bandcamp.com/ I think the mix does a pretty good job of mashing up the old and the new. Enjoy [ s t r e a m ][ d o w n l o a d ][ i t u n e s ]
T R A C K L I S T :
00:00various - vintage recording montage
01:01The Edison Venetian Trio - Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still 1908
01:55The Edison Venetian Trio - Her Bright Smile(stretched and remixed)
03:50Gavin Byars - The Sinking of the Titanic(2007 version w/ Alter Ego and Philip Jeck)
06:00Gavin Byars - The Sinking of the Titanic(1994 version)
10:20William Basinski - Cascade
15:45Wouter van Veldhoven - two sad tape recorders(original and stretched played together)
18:27Ian William Craig - Second Lens
20:50unknown - 13_360º
23:00Otto A Totland - pinô
25:22Guy Gelem - Jerusalem
28:05Hans Kronold - The Swan 1906(reworked)
30:00Field Rotation - Zeitreise(remixed by the frozen vaults)
35:20Spheruleus and Friends - To Us Thy Memory Can Never Be Lost
37:20Octavio Yanez - Anita 1907(reworked)
42:05Bill Seaman and John Supko - The Hiding Place
43:50Hildur Gudnadottir - Birting
46:05The Frozen Vaults - Cloak of Lingering Fog
48:30unknown - flute and violin phrase slowed down 20x
49:49Spheruleus and Friends - All Good Things Come From Above
50:55Bill Seaman and John Supko - And the Ice Appeared Blue
