Monday, January 08, 2007

The Dharma Bums

A new year brings a new mix. The first mix for 2007 is called The Dharma Bums. The title is taken from a book by Jack Kerouac which covers his exploration of Buddhism and the search for Truth. With this new 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 proud of the results. If you look at the music mix score (a jpeg contained in the Cover Art and Score Zip file you can download below), 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.

I would like to dedicate this mix to The Quiet American and Loren Nerell.




Lightbright Dharma Bums soulwalk through old time. Gamelan Buddhas sing wailing cries of joyful sunsand. Stone cities appear like ghosts from rivers of ancient karma. Sitars sing Salaam songs soulsung with the first voice. Monks chant the way of higher truth in rainforest insect soundscapes. Ancient future cities team with peoplestreams that vibrate Kama Sangha dreams. Sheiks ride horses of sound across desert moonwaves. Duduk birds glide among templespires, passionwings stretched toward enlightenment.

Downloads (right click, save link as):

MP3 [69:01m] (192k) (95 mb)
T R A C K L I S T I N G

1. Numerous Quiet American field recordings
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. Djivan 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

17 comments:

nrvnet said...

No offense taken Wes. :) The file name and ID3 tag should all be in english. So, I'm not sure what happened. I've test downloaded the file a few times and played it in Winamp and Windows Media Player and everything including the file name seems fine. So I'm not sure what the problem is. Sorry.

nrvnet said...

ID3v1 Tag:

Title: The Dharma Bums
Artist: nrvnet
Album: The Dharma Bums
Year: 2006
Genre: Ambient
Comment: a nrvnet mixup

;)

nrvnet said...

I'm glad you liked it Wes. Thanks. :)

Anonymous said...

really enjoying this so far -- thanks a lot! :)

Anonymous said...

Fantastic mix. I really enjoy this one. Props for your hard work.

Anonymous said...

Very good apart from the segment around 51 to 55 minutes in (perhaps John Hassell's Malay?) which really jars the senses and is, in my view, mixed in at too high a level at the beginning - unless the intention was to shock the listener out of a relaxed state.

Anonymous said...

Is there a new mix on the horizon

Anonymous said...

hey man -
these mixes are beautiful. i'm listening to Lonesome Traveler now, and it's great working music. thank you!
but i'm bummed that there don't appear to be any links anymore attached to the cover art .zip files.
can you put the cover art back up again? or send me a link?
many appreciative thanks.
joshua

thinkevolution said...

Hello,
I'm back again to congratulate you on this amazing mix.

nrvnet said...

Thanks for all the positive comments anonymous, joshua and antonio! It makes it all worthwhile!

Anonymous: I am working on another mix now. I hope to have it posted within a week or so.

Joshua: All the cover art links should work now. Switchpod changed some filenames on me. Let me know if you still have problems: nrvnet9@gmail.com

Low Light Mixes said...

I second the motion for a new mix. Your adoring fans are growing restless! Give us some more music!!

thinkevolution said...

hello,
been a while i haven't visited. i thought i'd find more music for my head and soul. i hope your mix will be complete soon.

viva el ambient!

Anonymous said...

Fantastic Music, man !!!
Really makes me drift away and change the perspective ... Thanks a lot !

nrvnet said...

Thanks anonymous. I'm glad you liked Dharma Bums. Comments like yours mean a lot to me. Thanks again!

-Rick

Harry Towell said...

Been listening to this one regularly for over six months...it's absolutely fantastic!!!

I was at a house party last night, and at 4am it was just me and another lad; I showed him the opening ten minutes of this and he was literally bowled over - couldn't believe how good this sounds! Gave him directions on how to find/download it for himself.

Thanks again!

Harry,
Audio Gourmet

Anonymous said...

since i've found this blog ...i dig your mixtape ..this dharma bums are great ...it's exotic world music mixtape ..close my eyes n let the journey grow ;)
me from indonesia that gamelan stuff are great

thx

danzadanzi

nrvnet said...

danzadanzi,

Thank you very much for your kind words. To have someone from Indonesia give this mix such compliments is high praise indeed. I am honored that you liked this mix.

Rick (nrvnet)