Thursday, June 07, 2007

Music for Stargazing Vol 1

Sorry for the long delay between mixes! Life has been busy and complicated lately and time has a way of slipping by. I also thought I’d breeze through putting this mix together but I ended up tweaking it for weeks to try and get all the sound levels right. I also will try my best to not let too much time go by before my next mix. I have two mixes (unrelated to this current mix) that I have collected most of the tracks for, so I will be starting those soon. Thanks so much for all your kind words and concern. They mean everything to me.

I would like to present: Music for Stargazing Vol 1. The idea for this mix was generated several years ago actually. 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.

Downloads (right click, save target as):



Cover Art & Score (467k Zip)

Stream:

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. GrassowBaghiriGleisberg – 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

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi!

Your links don't seem to be working at present, have you removed the files?

Thanks!

nrvnet said...

Sorry folks! My file hosting service is screwed up today. I am working with them to resolve the download problem. Please keep trying to download the file now and then.

I will post an "all clear" on the main page when download issues are resolved. Thanks for your patience!

dave said...

What more can i say,absolutely superb,can't wait for the one.

Low Light Mixes said...

"...Go grab a beer, pop this mix onto your MP3 player..."

It's Saturday night & I've already accomplished the "go grab a beer" part(times 3) so now I'll play the mix while sitting outside on the deck.

Thanks for the mix!

eric morabin said...

man.. I absolutely love your mixes.. each piece of your work is a trip through creation and mind.. massive respect for you curiosity and test in music.. and thanks for the gifts you offer
eric from Paris
http://myspace.com/sohamsounds

nrvnet said...

eric,

Thank you so much for your kind comments. Knowing that people like you enjoy the mixes I put together make it all worthwhile. There will be more to come in the next few months. Thanks for listening from Paris! :)

David Mead said...

I was just listening to the Lonesome Traveler mix and thought, I should go and check if there was a new one.

Looking forward to hearing this one.

Thanks.

thinkevolution said...

THANK YOU.
Antonio.

Anonymous said...

This is just an outstanding mix of music. You can easily meditate your mind to this over and over again. Great selection of tracks that merge seamlessly into a collage of music ambience !! I look forward to VOLUME 2.

nrvnet said...

David, Antonio and Ryan,

Thanks for the great feedback! Volume 2 of Music for Stargazing is a couple mixes down the line so please be patient. ;) I have a few other things coming soon which I hope you will like as well.

bigmarecki said...

I just came across your blog looking for diatonis stuff, downloaded this mix and... got flabbergasted.
Very dreamy and atmosferic. Next time I will be making love I am going to put it on. Keep rocking my man!

Thanks for that!

nrvnet said...

marecki,

Yours is the first comment I ever received stating that someone intends to have sex while listening to one of my mixes. LOL! You rock marecki! I'm glad you like the mix. :)

Harry Towell said...

I have on-going issues regarding the limited disk space remaining on my hard-drive. So what I do is download big mp3 mix files, listen to them on my iPod for a few days and then over time I work out which are the couple that I will buy...then I delete the large mix-file to conserve space.

I must say, that in over six months, this mix still remains on my system and is regularly played whilst I walk or sleep. It's a truly fantastic arrangement of delicate Ambient tones. I actually attribute this mix as the instigator of my new-found passion for all things Ambient. I've been producing some of my own material, downloading HUNDREDS of tracks from a diverse range of artists all because of the inspiration this mix provided.

Whenever I put it on, usually when I go to bed, it seems familiar yet eerily unfamiliar too; like reminiscing on old forgotten dreams.

Thanks for this mix and the others too! and thanks for getting me into ambient music...

Harry,
Audio Gourmet
http://www.webbedhandrecords.com/wh098-audio-gourmet-earths-exit-door/

Pauly P said...

Loving this mix, and the rest of yours. Exactly the music that sends you where you want to escape to.
Check this for one of mine:
http://balearicskirmish.blogspot.com/2008/06/80-minutes-of-just-enough-ambience.html

Anonymous said...

I downloaded this mix way back in '07, and I've probably listened to it 1000 times since then. It's my go-to track for especially difficult coding problems. Thanks a lot!

Amine said...

lamperinternational phone cards
Sweet dream or a beautiful nightmare
Somebody pinch me, your loves to good to be true

Anonymous said...

<3

Anonymous said...

hey world. I am an old listener and lover from years and years back, but I can honestly say that this mix, and other similar ones,are ones I still come back to and listen to regularly. Right now I'm listening to it nightly--and this is years and years later. I guess I'm not the only one like this. For meditation, sleeping, thinking, coding... I think this mix is having more impact and sticking power than any other album or any other music I know--and I don't think it's just for me. I hope Rick, you read this. Peace

Anonymous said...

This was the Smell's Like Teen Spirit of space mixes. What I'm trying to say is: It's the f~~~ing best, greatest and most influential!!! God-bless

Anonymous said...

I remember listening to this more than a decade ago. It touched me deeply and has been on my mind ever since. I've changed machines a number of times and seem to have lost the .mp3 file. Could anyone be so kind as to send me the set? Thank you.
irra_lans[аt]abv[dоt]bg

Anonymous said...

This is like looking at the space in the field in upstate New York where once the best part of a century earlier Hendrix did star spangled banner. This is the ambient music version. The musics gone—or is it? It’s on my laptop still. But here the memory remains, are we drawn back by a feeling of hoping to recapture that which you never can, the earlier feeling when the world was younger and more things seemed possible? Now you’re just an older aging you, creeping through the ruins, trying to justify to yourself why you’re doing it. Nostalgia yearning poignant loss Hope dreams memories renewed love appreciation rebirth wonder thoughtfulness joy