The idea for this mix was generated several years ago. My friend Dave (from Low Light Mixes) and I take an annual trip to a lake cottage in northern Wisconsin. It’s far out in the country, away from the wash of city lights. At night, the sky is filled with an amazing blanket of stars. At this lake cottage we got in the habit of sitting out at night to look at stars and enjoy a cold brew. Besides stars we could also often see satellites track across the sky and any number of shooting stars. Years ago I decided to put together a CD mix made specifically for sitting out and looking at stars. I went for tracks that, in my mind, gave the listener a very slow, drifting, expansive and somewhat awe-inspiring feel. Some of the artists that were the biggest inspirations for this mix include Steve Roach, Brian Eno and Jeff Pearce. This is a more straightforward mix than some of my others and utilizes fewer, longer tracks.

Over the years I have collected dozens of tracks I used for various stargazing mixes. The tracks used in this mix are from my old collection of stargazing cuts. I did a newer mix of cuts last year in The Stars My Destination mix. I did reuse a couple tracks from that mix because they were from the original collection. So, here is the first of what may be a series of Music for Stargazing mixes for the Hydrogen Cafe. Go grab a beer, pop this mix onto your MP3 player or burn it to a CD and slap it onto a boombox, head out into the night, and enjoy the magic of stars. This mix would work well as a sleep mix too. I hope you enjoy it.

T R A C K L I S T I N G

1. Michael Stearns - Baraka Finale (excerpt) 2. Night sounds field recording 3. Ashera – Violet Night Perfume 4. Steve Roach - Glimpse 5. Grassow–Baghiri–Gleisberg – The Different Perception of Light 6. Diatonis – Glass of Starlight 7. Jeff Pearce – Inner Light 8. Brian Eno - Stars 9. Amir Baghiri - Sleep Well (Part Two) 10. Ma Ja Le & James Johnson - Methane Sea (Live) 11. Jeff Pearce - Vestiges 12. Steve Roach – The Return 13. Stars of the Lid – Dust Breeding (1.316)+ 14. Brian Eno - Drift 15. James Johnson - Drift 16. Jeff Pearce – From the Quiet Hours 17. Steve Roach – Magnificent Gallery

Additional artist links can be found on my main blog site here.

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Cover art & mix score Zip file for The Dharma Bums.

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The title of this mix is taken from a book by Jack Kerouac which covers his exploration of Buddhism and the search for Truth. With this mix I wanted to expand on the ethno-ambient feel of one of my other mixes, Tea Time at Brian Eno's House. The Dharma Bums was also greatly inspired by the amazing field recordings done by The Quiet American and the superb ethno-ambient music of Loren Nerell. Loren Nerell uses his own field recordings from Java and Bali in his work. My hope was to create a Pan-Asian soundworld using music inspired by, or artists from the Middle East, India and Indonesia.

This is the most complex, multi-level mix I have ever done and I am quite happy with the results. If you look at the music mix score (a jpeg contained in the Dharma Bums Cover Art and Score Zip file in the post above), you will see that at any given time, there are at least two and sometimes up to seven different pieces of music or field recordings playing simultaneously. I used a total of 32 different Quiet American field recordings in the mix (on the music score, all Quiet American field recordings start with "QA"). I even made a small field recording myself. I hope you enjoy it.

T R A C K L I S T I N G

1. 32 Quiet American field recordings (entire mix) 2. Brian Eno + David Byrne - Arabic Sample #1 3. Gamelan Madu Sari - Dreams He is a Ball of Fire...or a Hummingbird (ii) 4. Alio Die & Festina Lente - Movimento Nel Cielo Sotto 5. Soundtrack - Little Buddha - Raga Kirvani 6. Loren Nerell - Indonesian Soundscapes Track 2 7. Ravi Shankar - Raga Malkauns Alap 8. Al Gromer Khan - Mumtaz 9. Daniel Lentz - Lascaux 10. Alio Die & Festina Lente - L'orlo, La Fune, Il Niente 11. Jon Hassell - These Times 12. David Parsons - Lahaul Valley 13. Djivam Gasparyan - Apricot Tree 14. Loren Nerell - Hiasan (Ornament) 15. Peter Gabriel - Open 16. David Parsons - Darshan 17. Jon Hassell - Emp 18. L. Subraminiam - Wandering Saint 19. Soundtrack - Little Buddha - Nepalese Caravan 20. Steve Roach and Loren Nerell - Texture Wall 21. The Year of Living Dangerously Soundtrack - Kwan 22. Jim Cole and Spectral Voices - Nuage 23. Peter Gabriel - Disturbed 24. Jon Hassell - Power Spot 25. Jon Hassell - Malay 26. Gamelan Madu Sari - Thinly Roundly 27. Robert Rich - Calling Down the Sky 28. Marsen Jules - Eillet en Delta 29. Mawlawiyah Music of the Whirling Dervishes - Na't-i Sherif 30. nrvnet field recording 31. Michael Stearns - Baraka Finale

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Cover art & score Zip file for Lonesome Traveler.

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This mixup was inspired by the movie Paris, Texas featuring an awesome soundtrack by Ry Cooder. The movie opens with a man walking alone in the desert with nothing but the wind and sun for company. I took this image and decided to create my own soundtrack of a solitary lonesome man in an empty, quiet desert landscape traveling through small backwater towns….towns that whisper instead of shout. The title comes from a book by Jack Kerouac, Lonesome Traveler, about his hobo-like wanderings through 1950’s America and Mexico. The mix has a decidedly twangy western feel to compliment Ry Cooder’s amazing slide guitar while maintaining a slow, quiet, ambient progression. I hope you enjoy this mix.

T R A C K L I S T I N G

1. Various Soundfiles – Little Children Movie 2. Ry Cooder - Paris, Texas 3. Steve Roach and Roger King - A Bigger Sky 4. Ry Cooder - Brothers 5. Loren Connors - Whispers 6. Steve Roach and Roger King - First Sunrise 7. Yuichiro Fujimoto - Listen to November Steps 8. Yellow 6 - Summersend 9. Robin Guthrie - Pale 10. Ry Cooder - Nothing Out There 11. John Fahey - Finale 12. Loren Connors - Lullaby (the 1st) 13. Steve Roach and Roger King - Rain and Creosote 14. Handsome Family - Last Night I Went Out Walking 15. Daniel Lanois - Carla 16. Yuichiro Fujimoto - Handwritten Map to Sea 17. Grails - Canyon Hymn 18. James Blackshaw - Granite and Wineglass 19. Ry Cooder - No Safety Zone 20. Ry Cooder - Cancion Mixteca 21. John Fahey - View (East from...Riggs Road B & O Trestle) 22. Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd - Goodbye to Wendy 23. Hammock - The Silence 24. Loren Connors - Grandmother 25. Ess - Gee-gem 26. Steve Roach and Roger King - Ghost Train 27. Ramblin' Thomas - Poor Boy Blues 28. Deaf Center - Lobby 29. Loren Connors - Jesuits 30. Loren Connors Voice of the Ocean, Despair Not! 31. Yuichiro Fujimoto - History of Dreams 32. Ry Cooder - Dark Was the Night

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Cover Art & Score Zip file for Book of Dreams.

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The title of this mix, Book of Dreams, is taken from a book by Jack Kerouac. I tried to make this mix dream-like, having pieces of music float from one into another and fade out then back in again later as often happens with dreams. The music overall is very quiet with both ambient and acoustic elements present with a heavy reliance on strings (violin, cello). There is multi-level mixing and several field recordings, both Quiet American and a couple of my own, that whisper and play in the background like voices and distant sounds in dreams. The jpeg “score” for this mix is included in the Cover Art and Score Zip file in the post above.

T R A C K L I S T I N G

1. Peter Gabriel - The Nest That Sailed the Sky 2. Talkdemonic - Verite 3. RF - Ladder in Place 4. Roger Eno & Plumbline - With Insight 5. Voices of Alex 6. Eluvium - All The Sails 7. Stars Of The Lid - The Artificial Pine Arch Song 8. Biosphere - Dissolving Clouds 9. nrvnet Field Recording 10. Various Quiet American Field Recordings 11. Underworld - Please Help Me 12. Solyaris - IPromisethatOneDayEverything 13. Vir Unis & Chris Short - Monastery of The South 14. Sylvain Chauveau - Ocre 15. Cepia - Malcesine 16. Alio Die - Suspended Feathers 17. 12 Monkeys OST - Dreamers Awake 18. Philip Glass & Foday Musa Suso -Prison Song 19. Sylvain Chauveau - Le brasier de tristesse 20. Slowbow - Elegy 21. Mountains - Hundred Acre 22. Sydney M - Chords Echo 2 23. Mountains - Paper Windmill 24. Vidna Obmana - Float through Nights 25. Francesco Paladino & Opium - Me, the Sky Sleeping 26. Alio Die - Ruins Garden Drones 27. A Produce - The Far Shore 28. Clickits - Nibblah 29. RF - On the Bus That I Had Chosen 30. David Byrne - Canal Life 31. Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd - Neil's Theme2 32. Lisa Gerrard - Empty Water 33. Peter Gabriel - The Nest That Sailed the Sky

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Cover art Zip file for The Stars My Destination.

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Link to Mix "Score" at Picasa-Open Link in New Window-Click "Download Photo" on right

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Several of my "nrvnet mixups" were inspired by the titles of books I like. I decided to use these book titles as an inspiration in the construction the mixes. The title for this mix comes from a book by Alfred Bester. The Stars My Destination is an ambient drift mix meant to be played while stargazing. There is a fair amount of multi-level mixing going on in this mix. I hope you like it.

T R A C K L I S T I N G

1. August Stars – The Twilight Turns From Amethyst to Deep and Deeper Blue 2. Steve Roach and Loren Nerell - Ecopoiesis 3. Various Apollo Sound Files 4. Manual - September Swell 5. Amir Baghiri - Triton 6. Loscil - Windless 7. Diatonis - Corona 8. James Johnson - Ma Ja Le - Methane Sea 9. Diatonis - Clouds and Mirrors 10. Milieu - Lazy Days on our Hillside 11. Amir Baghiri - Sleep Well (Part Six) 12. Oophoi - Hymns to a Silent Sky 13. August Stars - Reflection of the Bridge of Sighs 14. Cliff Martinez - We Don't Have To Think Like That Anymore 15. Manual - Bajamar 16. Milieu - Inside the Majestic Hand of God 17. Manual - Reminiscence 18. Oophoi - Ism-el Azam (Birth and Death of Sound) 19. Steve Roach - Truth in Passing 20. Jim Cole and Spectral Voices - Celestial Tides 21. Dialogue from 2001: A Space Odyssey 22. Gyorgi Ligeti - Lux Aeterna 23. Genesis - Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats 24. Jon Jenkins – Calling 25. Yellow Magic Orchestra - Loom 26. August Stars - Two Queerly Placed Melancholy Windows 27. Hammock - You May Emerge From This More Dead Than Alive 28. Milieu - Parasol 29. Milieu - Lazy Days on our Hillside 30. Chase Smith - A Curse of Beauty 31. Dean de Benedictis - The Mocking of Consequence 32. James Johnson - Drift 33. Steve Roach - The Passing Time 34. Harold Budd & Brian Eno - An Echo of Night

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Cover art Zip file for A Perfect Rainy Day Thinking of Old Memories

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Here is a straightforward mix I did last year. Something to listen to on rainy days...

And what does the rain say at night in a small town, what does the rain have to say? Who walks beneath dripping melancholy branches listening to the rain? -Jack Kerouac

T R A C K L I S T I N G

1. INTERLUDE 1 Rain (0:14)
2. Sigur Ros – Untitled (2:45)
3. Trembling Blue Stars – The Far Too Simple Beauty (3:29)
4. World Standard – Snowflakes (7:49)
5. Goldmund – Pahelia (6:04)
6. Sylvian Chauveau – Minéral (2:56)
7. Idaho – Levitate Pt. 2 (4:21)
8. Harold Budd – Avalon Sutra (3:37)
9. INTERLUDE 2 Rain (0:30)
10. RF – Spring (7:59)
11. Goldmund – Anomolie Loop (1960 – 1969) (6:59)
12. Sigur Ros – Untitled (2:34)
13. Helios – Sunes Christmas (3:57)
14. George Winston – Black Stallion (3:48)
15. Broken Social Scene – Guilty Cubicles (3:02)
16. Talk Talk – I Believe In You (6:15)
17. Muse – Blackout (4:17)
18. INTERLUDE 3 Rain (0:15)
19. Vangelis – Tears In Rain (2:51)

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Cover art Zip file for Tea Time at Brian Enos House.

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Link to Mix "Score" at Picasa-Open Link in New Window-Click "Download Photo" on right

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Here is the very first true "mixup" I did last year and previously posted on Low Light Mixes. Tea Time at Brian Eno's House is based on an idea of being invited to tea at Brian Eno's house and what one might hear from his in-house sound installation. I tried to approach the mix in an “Eno-esque” fashion, building track upon track. The foundation of the mix is made up of long-form Eno cuts (Neroli, Thursday Afternoon, etc.) that play at very low levels throughout the mix. On top of that are Quiet American field recordings that fade in and out. On top of that are various Eno and other artist tracks mixed end to end and sometimes together. So, at any point in the mix, there are 2-5 things playing at the same time.

The Eno speaking parts are from a long interview with him. I cut 2-10 second pieces at random from the track. I then assembled bunches of those pieces together, somewhat at random, at various points throughout the mix. So, you get Eno speaking in “nonsense words” that weirdly make sense in a way. I hope you enjoy it.

T R A C K L I S T I N G

1. An interview with Brian Eno - Eno Speaks
2. Brian Eno - Neroli
3. The Golden Oaks - Candles Dangling from Boxwood Branches
4. The Quiet American - 3 Trains
5. Helios - Easy Days
6. Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon
7. John Fox, Harold Budd - Adult
8. Robert Rich - Weightless Morning
9. Brian Eno - IKEBUKURO
10. The Quiet American - Short Train
11. Shuttle358 - Chessa
12. Clickits - Weirdloop
13. Kiln - Season
14. Brian Eno - Chamber Lightness
15. Clickits - Riverfolk
16. Brian Eno - Caught Between
17. The Remote Viewer - Listening to Ballad of the Band
18. The Quiet American - Waking
19. Broken Social Scene - I Slept With The Bonhomme At The CBC
20. Amute - A l'ombre de 12000 medias
21. Brian Eno - A Long Way Down
22. Brian Eno - Drift Study
23. Brian Eno - Soft Dawn
24. Brian Eno - Discreet Music
25. The Quiet American - First Light
26. Helios - Mulier
27. Brian Eno - Lantern Marsh
28. Alva Note + Ryuichi Sakamoto - Uoon I.mp3

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