Last year I had the opportunity to hike up a mountain in the Swiss Alps near Lauenen, Switzerland. It was truly an amazing experience made even more special by my companions who accompanied me, one of whom has been a guide to me both hiking up mountains and in life. I decided I wanted to try and capture this unique experience and put it to music. The first challenge, of course, was: how do mountains “sound?” I began collecting different pieces of music that seemed to reflect the feelings of my climb and represented the grandeur and majesty that are the Swiss Alps. Artists like Hammock, Deepspace, Jeff Pearce and Manual fit very well. Then I happened upon a documentary on Philip Glass on public TV. Several Glass pieces I thought perfectly captured the rhythm of Wandern—German for hiking—as did a piece by Parks. Other artists like Mark Isham, Bass Communion and Sigur Rós I thought captured well the feeling of finally reaching the top and seeing the amazing view—surrounded by peaks as far as you can see. Finally, I found other pieces representing the descent and end of the journey. Because the mix represents points along a journey I decided to label the different parts of that journey as “movements” which I have listed below along with the timecode where each movement begins. I also was able to incorporate a number of field recordings of wind, mountain streams and even cowbells in the mix. You’d be amazed at how many cows are climbing around the Alps!

So, with that I present to you Music for the Swiss Alps. This mix can’t possibly do justice to the beauty of the Swiss Alps. You will have to go and visit yourself to see what I mean. I would like to dedicate this mix to all of my friends in Switzerland but especially to my mountain guide and great friend who has taught me a lot about the Zen of Wandern and about myself. I will be returning to Switzerland soon to go Wandern again. I almost feel like I am returning home—to climb other mountains and find new paths to try and touch the sky.

- nrvnet, June, 2009

Movement 1. Voices (00:00)

Movement 2. Majestic (01:47)

Movement 3. Ascent (13:53)

Movement 4. Wandern (25:02)

Movement 5. Peak (34:28)

Movement 6. Transcendence (39:21)

Movement 7. Embrace (42:38)

Movement 8. Descent (47:16)

Movement 9. Remembrance (54:52)

Movement 10. Overflight (56:18)

Movement 11. Echoes (59:53)

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

1. David Sylvian - Laughter and Forgetting (excerpt)

2. Michael Stearns - Mantra/Organics

3. Leandros Ntounis – Arkadian Mountains Lagadia (field recording)

4. Hammock - This Kind Of Life Keeps Breaking Your Heart

5. Mark Rownd - Before There Was Rain

6. Deepspace - Arctic Sun and Weather Experiment

7. Jeff Pearce - The Emergence

8. Lawrence Dolton – Blue Lakes Creek (field recording)

9. Steve Roach, Michael Stearns, Kevin Braheny - The Canyon’s Embrace

10. PEI – Bigfish Tree (Zurich) (field recording)

11. Manual with Jess Kahr - Dawn Changes Everything.

12. Eisuke Yanagisawa – Marble Mountain (field recording)

13. Hammock - Eighty-Four Thousand Hymns

14. Olivier Nijs - Birds in the Morning (field recording)

15. Philip Glass - Island

16. Parks - Umber

17. Mark Isham - Sympathy And Acknowledgement

18. Bass Communion - Transcendence

19. Sigur Rós - Festival

20. Philip Glass - Choosing Life

21. Patrick Franke – Cows, cowbells (field recording)

22. Lisa Gerrard – Elysium

23. Peter Gabriel - The Nest That Sailed the Sky

24. Max Richter - Horizon Variations

25. Jon Anderson - Song of Search

The Swiss Alps

YESTERDAY brown was still thy head, as the locks of my loved one,

Whose sweet image so dear silently beckons afar.

Silver-grey is the early snow to-day on thy summit,

Through the tempestuous night streaming fast over thy brow.

Youth, alas, throughout life as closely to age is united

As, in some changeable dream, yesterday blends with to-day.

Uri, October 7th, 1797.

- by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Here is the second of 12 mixes from THC Series [20][12] for the 15 Minutes of Fame Mix Series. [02] Absolute Motion is another departure from the usual quiet ambient mixes on the Hydrogen Cafe. I wanted to do something that was much more polyrhythmic and incorporated cuts from some Berlin-school electronic artists like Tangerine Dream and Synthetic Block. I wanted to create something very rhythmic that flowed nicely together. I continued the idea of using conventional artists who did unconventional tracks and using conventional tracks in an unconventional way. Once again you will hear U2 masquerading as the Passengers along with the Twilight Sad (an AMAZING indie-rock band!) and Snow Patrol. Excerpts from these artists are intercut with some great polyrhythmic electronic tracks from Synthetic Block, the Irresistible Force, an amazing cut done way back in 1966 by Raymond Scott, Tangerine Dream, the Alan Parsons Project (I Robot was the very first LP I ever got!), a snippet of Vir Unis and a great cut by Saul Stokes. I also tried to incorporate field recordings that were rhythmic in nature as well.

THC Series [20][12] is a series of 12 mixes, all 20 minutes in length. I will intersperse these mixes with my regular long-form mixes throughout 2009. THC Series [20][12] will also be cross-posted on the 15 Minutes of Fame board. The Zip file below contains artwork for the mix as well as the “score” for the mix which is a jpeg capture of the timeline from the mixing software I use, Acoustica MP3 Audio Mixer. The score can show you exactly what is playing at any specific time code. I hope you like [02] Absolute Motion. This mix is meant to be played LOUD! ; )

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

1. Passengers – Slug (excerpt)

2. The Twilight Sad - Talking With Fireworks/Here, It Never Snowed (excerpt)

3. Synthetic Block - Sonic Approach

4. Snow Patrol - If There’s a Rocket Tie Me to It (excerpt)

5. The Irresistible Force - Spiritual High

6. Raymond Scott - The Bass-Line Generator (1966)

7. Tangerine Dream – Logos (excerpt)

8. Alan Parsons Project – Nucleus

9. Vir Unis - Pale Blue Dot (excerpt)

10. Saul Stokes – Fields (excerpt)

11. Snow Patrol - The Lightning Strike (excerpt)

[F I E L D R E C O R D I N G S]

1. John Arndt - Montego Bay

2. Matthias Kispert - Buddha Machines

3. Matthias Kispert - Weaving Factory

4. Cedric Deloche - Taipei aeroport interieur

5. Dave Pape - UK Photo Machine

6. Olaf Ross – cowbells

(′ab·sə′lüt ′mō·shən)

(navigation) Motion relative to a point fixed on the earth’s surface or to an apparently fixed celestial point.

(physics) Motion of an object described by its measurement in a frame of reference that is preferred over all other frames.

“Time has been transformed, and we have changed; it has advanced and set us in motion; it has unveiled its face, inspiring us with bewilderment and exhilaration.”

- Kahlil Gibran

…additional links and information can be found on my blog: hydrogencafe.blogspot.com

A good mate Mick invited me to participate in his “15 Minutes of Fame Mix Series” which asks folks to submit shorter-form mixes. There are some great mixes posted there, several excellent ones by Mick himself. So, I thought I would start a new series of short-form mixes for 15 Minutes of Fame. “THC Series [20][12]” will be a series of 12 mixes, all 20 minutes in length. I thought it would be really interesting to do some mixes that were experimental or more offbeat than the normal fare for the Hydrogen Cafe. And, limiting oneself to only 20 minutes forces you to choose tracks more deliberately and also can offer you the freedom of exploring a single idea that may not work in a longer mix. I will intersperse the THC Series [20][12] mixes with my regular long-form mixes throughout 2009. Maybe this way there won’t be months between mixes.   THC Series [20][12] will be cross-posted at the 15 Minutes of Fame site as well. Thanks for inviting me Mick!

The idea for THC Series [20][12]-[01] Monoamine Road came from a small collection of tracks I have been putting together made up of unconventional tracks from conventional artists. I stumbled upon a ambient track of all things from Doves, an indie-rock band (one of my favorites). It’s from a collection of b-sides and rarities. I also had never, until recently, listened to David Bowie’s Low album all the way through and discovered the Eno-inspired ambient-like tracks towards the end. Those, along with U2 masquerading as the Passengers, Crystal Method, and excerpts from Amusement Parks on Fire and Snopek (a great local band from Milwaukee from when I was in college), and a few ambient tracks thrown in, make up Monoamine Road. I also threw in several field recordings, including one of my own. I hope you like this trip down Monoamine Road.

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

1. Amusement Parks on Fire - Await Lightning (excerpts)

2. Doves - Where We’re Calling From

3. Jacaszek - Rytm to Niesmiertelnosc II

4. David Bowie - Art Decade

5. Passengers - Beach Sequence

6. Snopek – Solalex (excerpt)

7. Takagi Masakatsu – Piano

8. The Crystal Method – Vice (excerpt)

[F I E L D R E C O R D I N G S]

1. nrvnet – (fr) Lee HWY 01

2. Clemens von Reusner – Basel Soundwalk

3. PEI – Waterpark Tram 4

4. Marco Targa – Lungolago Lakefront

“What’s your road, man?–holyboy road, madman road, rainbow road, guppy road, any road. It’s an anywhere road for anybody anyhow.”

- Jack Kerouac, On the Road

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

- Robert Frost

Things have been really busy for me lately so I have not had much time to devote to the Hydrogen Cafe. But, I finally managed to finish a mix I started back in August. This mix is a follow-up to Music for Stargazing Vol 1which people seemed to enjoy. Like Vol 1, Music for Stargazing Vol 2 is a quiet, drifting mix put together specifically to accompany a night of stargazing. What makes this music suited for stargazing? It’s hard to say specifically, but, like my other mixes, I like to put together music that evokes an emotional response of some kind in the listener. So, for this mix I chose music that sounds the way I feel when I look at a star-filled sky.

Every summer, my friend Dave, from Low Light Mixes, and I go to a cabin in the north woods of Wisconsin. There aren’t any big cities around so there are no lights to drown out the night sky. The stargazing is spectacular. We often see satellites and shooting stars with the naked eye. I made a version of Music for Stargazing Vol 2 for this year’s trip. But, after listening to it up there, I decided I didn’t like parts of the mix and decided to redo it. Well even with the best laid plans, weeks turned into months. But, vowing to finish this before the end of the year (lol), I finally got the mix to a point where I was satisfied with it.

So here it is after a very long delay. I hope you enjoy Music for Stargazing Vol 2. With this mix, I took the advice of some listeners and encoded the mix at a bitrate of 320k—hence the larger file size. I’d also like to give a special shout-out to my listeners in Russia. I’ve gotten quite a few e-mails from folks in Russia lately saying kind things about my mixes. A special thank to everyone in Russia and around the world. Happy holidays and best wishes for the coming year.

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

1. Jean Francois Cavro - St Andeol de Clerguemort (field recording)

2. Laurent - Natural Night Sounds in Boquete (field recording)

3. Dave Michuda - Froggies (field recording)

4. Steve Roach - A Deeper Silence (excerpts)

5. Bitcrush - Prologue

6. David Tagg - Waist Deep Sea 1

7. Hammock - City in the Dust in My Window

8. David Helping - Loss of Words

9. Bersarin Quartett - Die Dinge Sind Nie So Wie Sie Sind

10. Cliff Martinez - Hi Energy Proton Accelerator

11. Steve Roach - See Things

12. Jasper Leyland - Charcoal Weir

13. Slowdive - Cello

14. Koda - Dark Secrets We Harbour

15. Talkingmakesnosense - Slow Grounding

16. Manual - Seleva

17. Deepspace - Slow Moving Lifeform 2

18. Stars of the Lid - Mulhlolland

19. Ashera - Temple Ritual

20. Steve Roach - Red Shore

21. Hammock - Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow

“We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them and discuss about whether they were made or only just happened.”

- Mark Twain

“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.”

- Bill Watterson

After a very long absence I am finally posting a new mix. I started a new job in January, so the past several months have been insanely busy. But the last few months have really brought a sea change in my life as well. My last two mixes really reflected my mood at the time. But, just when I thought the desolation and rain would last forever, things suddenly changed for the better. I feel like I have a whole new life. So, take it from me…don’t give up hoping. Change CAN occur. It just usually happens when you least expect it!

Given my improved mood, I wanted to put something together that echoed it. light cycles is the result. The original idea was to do another “Sunrise” mix. But I quickly discarded that because I felt it was too limiting. I love repetition in music–-music that uses the constant repetition of notes or themes or sounds as a basic structure to the composition. Modern composers like Philip Glass and Steve Reich have based most of their compositions on musical repetition. Berlin-school groups like Tangerine Dream have used sequencers since the early 70’s to great effect as an integral part of their music. Ambient music also has a strong component of repetition in it. Many of the ambient works by Brian Eno (Music for Airports, Neroli), for example, use repetition. I wanted to put together a mix where all of the pieces used repetition as a major part of the cut. I also wanted to use pieces that had an “ambient” feel to them but that also were bright or upbeat. The title of the mix was inspired by the movie Tron. light cycles starts out fairly slow and quiet but becomes more vibrant as it goes along. Near the end it almost rocks out with an amazing piece I stumbled across by Can. The Can piece Future Days uses repetition to great effect. This piece is also cool because it was done in way back in 1973 but still sounds amazingly contemporary.

I hope you enjoy light cycles. Like the last several mixes it is somewhat of a departure from the typical ambient drift and drone but I think it still evokes “ambient-ness” throughout the piece.

Let me know what you think. Bright times are ahead for the Hydrogen Cafe–and for me as well.

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

1. Kamen Nedev - Waves, Atlantic Coast, Porto, Portugal

2. Cliff Martinez - Is That What Everybody Wants (excerpts)

3. Budd-Garcia-Lentz - Pulse, Pause, Repeat

4. Sonmi451 - Second to None

5. Bobby Devito – Untitled Ambient Track

6. The Elf Machine - Buddha Zone 6

7. Fenton - Neon Giraffe

8. Shuttle358 - Calty

9. The Green Kingdom - Lucky Bamboo

10. Cliff Martinez - Is That What Everybody Wants

11. Thomas Fanger - Twinkling Sun

12. Saul Stokes - The Bright Tones (Even Brighter)

13. Dollboy - Juicyfruit

14. Isan - Cinnabar

15. Can - Future Days

16. Tangerine Dream - White Eagle

17. Underworld - To Heal

“To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world sparkles with light.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

While I was gathering music for the Desolation Angels mix, I was originally going to have both vocal and instrumental tracks. Once I started putting it together, however, I felt that having a mix of just instrumental and operatic cuts was best. So, I decided to put all of the vocal tracks left over from Desolation Angels together in their own mix which became Tears in Rain. It was actually fairly difficult to find tracks that had both sad lyrics as well as slow, somber backing music. Although somewhat of a departure from my other ambient mixes, I think the sad and melancholy mood I was going for turned out pretty well and the mix serves as a nice companion to Desolation Angels. The title is taken from the film Blade Runner. I hope you like it. This mix is also dedicated to my friend Katie, gone too long.

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

1. Various field recordings
2. Peter Gabriel – The Drop
3. The Montgolfier Brothers - Journey’s End
4. Canyon Country - Dead or Dreaming
5. Damien Rice - Sleep Don’t Weep
6. Porcupine Tree - Feel So Low
7. Peter Broderick - Another Glacier
8. Michael Andrews & Gary Jules - Mad World
9. Johnny Cash - Hurt
10. Cowboy Junkies - Spiral Down
11. Sigur Ros - Gong Endir
12. Azure Ray - Sleep
13. Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - Falling Slowly
14. Red House Painters - Have You Forgotten
15. Archive - Fold
16. Peter Gabriel - I Grieve

Cover art adapted from a photo I found online. After this mix, I promise to do something a bit brighter.

“There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.”

- Aeschylus

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-23f2a7b46dcfd47fba7c7915c2198f81}

“There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year’s course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word ‘happy’ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.”

- Carl Jung

This mix is dedicated to my friend Katie. Taken from us much too soon, her bright smile and love of life will forever illuminate our world.

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

1. Intro – includes segments from Beautumn – Blanket & Sigur Ros – Gong2. Dustin O’Halloran - Opus 37

3. Aram Khachaturian - Gayane Ballet Suite

4. Angelo Badalamenti - Final Miles

5. Roger Eno - Elevation

6. Clint Mansell - Together We Will Live Forever

7. Henryk Gorecki - Symphony No 3 - II Lento E Largo - Tranquillissimo

8. David Darling - Beginning

9. Rachel’s - Egon & Gertie

10. John Tavener - Fragments of a Prayer

11. Slowblow – Elegy

12. 12 Monkeys OST - Dreamers Awake

13. Sylvain Chauveau – Blanc

14. Steve Baker and Carmen Dave - For Whom the Bell Tolls

15. Barber - Adagio for Strings, Op. 11

16. Little Buddha OST – Evan’s Funeral

17. Talkdemonic - Veraison

18. Goldmund - Unbraiding the Sun

19. The Album Leaf – The Light

The title, Desolation Angels, is taken from a book by Jack Kerouac.

“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain.”

- Kahlil Gibran

This mix, like the last, was inspired by the annual trips I take to a lake cottage in northern Wisconsin. Besides putting together music mixes for looking at the night sky I had also, over the years, collected tracks to play in the early mornings. The tracks collected for this sunrise mix are ambient in nature–songs that give a sense of an awakening dawn sky. Most of the tracks also have a Classical Music “sound” to them. I’ve always associated early mornings with Classical Music and that first hot cup of coffee. I also included a few very slow, quiet Classical works in the mix as well. Music for Sunrise was originally inspired by the work of Harold Budd. He is an amazing piano player with a massive body of excellent ambient compositions. The album he did with Brian Eno, Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror, was my first introduction to him many moons ago. If any album evokes “dawn” this beautiful work would be it. So, the next time you awake at dawn, grab a hot cup of joe and play Music for Sunrise. I hope you enjoy it.

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

1. Deon Rowe - Early Morning Birds (field recording) 2. Olivier Nijs – Cornfield Insects and Birds (field recording) 3. Harold Budd & Brian Eno - First Light 4. John Foxx & Harold Budd - Long Light 5. James Johnson – Remembrance 6. Kit Watkins - Beauty Drifting 7. Patrick O’Hearn - A Lovely Place To Be 8. Aaron Copeland - Appalachian Spring: Andante 9. Rachel’s - Egon & Wally Embrace and Say Farewell 10. Michael Hoppe - Martin Tillman - Tim Wheater - Long Ago 11. Erik Satie - Gymnopdie I (Orchestration Debussy) 12. Roger Eno - Days Like This 13. John Didlock – Dawn Chorus (field recording) 14. Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending 15. Max Richter - Sunlight 16. Henry Purcell - Sonata for Trumpet & Strings in D Major - Adagio 17. Stars of the Lid - Jon McCafferty - Anchor States - Part I 18. Budd-Garcia-Lenz - Somos Tres 19. Roger Eno - Turning 21. Harold Budd - Robin Guthrie - The Memories Returning 22. Helios - Halving the Compass

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

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.

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