2019 mixes (VI): Matthew Erik Hanner

Matthew Erik Hanner runs the Aural Canyon label, well known for releasing excellent ambient and new age tapes. He sent us his own selection of music from 2019, an eclectic mix of ambient and experimental music for a deep listening experience.

~Daniel


Tracklist:

ana roxanne - Nocturne 0:00
扎克 - Pure Violet 5:35
Qoa - Krakatoa 9:21
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Joy 12:04
Black Taffy - Para Los Campana 16:56
Tengger - Middle 20:08
ann annie - wander into 24:55
Clams Casino - Healing 28:35
Visible Cloaks, Yoshio Ojima & Satsuki Shibano - Anata 30:32
Matt Valentine - Rockbottemless 32:58
Dallas Acid - I Fågelns Sång 38:45
ML Wah - Head Out 41:19
r beny - Echo's Verse 46:32
Channelers - Coming To Fullness 51:53
Sam Wilkes - Run 55:56
Tim Hecker - Step Away From Konoyo 60:40
Shlohmo - By Myself 64:30
Pan American - Shenandoah 68:15
Bill Callahan - Morning is My Godmother 73:49

*

2019 mixes (V): Sean Conrad

Greetings, dear follower! Today we resume our 2019 mix series for a special mixtape made by Sean Conrad ~ an artist and label curator whose work must be familiar even to our least frequent readers. Through the years, Inner Islands label remains one of our most beloved labels simply because it shares the same aesthetics and feeling we always tried to carry on here on Microphones. Some of the most soulful ambiences and gentle new age hymns are being released at Inner Islands and under Sean's main aliases ~ Ashan and Channelers, among many others which you can always explore through Discogs. Sean's mix features tunes radiating love and light, joy of the being here on this planet and simply experiencing being a human with all its ups and downs ~ as an ongoing project of neverending evolution. Hope you'll enjoy it! ~ piedpaper

Tracklist:

0:00 ~ Malibu ~ Nana (Like A Star Made For Me) (Joyful Noise, White Label Series, 2019)
3:38 ~ Julianna Barwick ~ noon (Commend, 2019)
07:21 ~ Jogging House ~ Traverse (Dauw, 2019)
12:47 ~ Emily A. Sprague ~ Synth 2 (RVNG, 2019)
20:17 ~ Wanderwelle & Bandhagens Musikförening ~ Before The Rain (Semantica Records, 2019)
23:43 ~ H. Takahashi ~ Pollen (Where To Now? Records, 2019)
31:30 ~ Green-House ~ Peperomia Seedling (Leaving Records, 2019)
34:47 ~ Andrew Pekler ~ Hy Brasil (Faitiche, 2019)
39:20 ~ peafowl - part two ~ (Self-Released, 2019)
47:17 ~ Jefre Cantu-Ledesma ~ Joy (Mexican Summer, 2019)

2019 mixes (IV): Tim Six

Today we share a mix by our friend Tim Six, an ambient and drone musician from Russia who also has been releasing music as Creation VI, in addition to some other collaborative projects. He is also a member of the Microphones family -he writes as Pied Paper, here and on his other blog. In addition to his activity as an artist, he runs ΠΑΝΘΕΟΝ, a label known for their wonderfully crafted physical editions of drone and ambient albums, and Global Pattern, which focuses on ambient vaporwave cassettes.

His mix is a travel of consciousness through cosmic realms of organic drones and electroacoustic mysteries. Listening to it, you feel like you're looking at unknown depths in the sky surrounded by the wild magic of nature. And it has a hidden surprise: last minutes are an advance of his upcoming album. Enjoy!

~Daniel

Tracklist:

00:01 ~ skyminds ~ farther reaches (auasca, 2019)
05:15 ~ подозрительный предмет ~ белые капли бодхичиты (pearly snowdrift, 2019)
09:55 ~ ancient greens ~ indoor jungle (permanent touch, 2019)
12:50 ~ tuluum shimmering ~ blue water sunray pt. 4 (tuluum shimmering, 2019)
15:40 ~ million brazillians ~ strange oasis iii (nonlocal research, 2019)
19:35 ~ ukujula ~ magqabi_mashizhai_tashi溫柔輕盈 (self-released, 2019)
23:20 ~ pool of light 光淵 ~ 霾 haze (wv sorcerer, 2019)
28:20 ~ nite lite ~ oracle (stunned records / sun ark, 2019)
33:55 ~ cheekbone ~ moon night (muzan editions, 2019)
38:05 ~ pjs ~ symbiosis (shimmering moods records, 2019)
43:15 ~ rem koral ~ ego death (pantheophania, 2019)
47:45 ~ 幻 想 風 景 ~ 星間風 (global pattern, 2019)
52:05 ~ 猫シ corp. & telepath ~ lost promises (hiraeth, 2019)
56:35 ~ tim six ~ evening petichor (virtual dream plaza, tba 2020)

creation vi / tim six

pantheon

global pattern

~~~

2019 mixes (III): Daniel Guillén

The next part of our series of mixes of 2019's music is delivered by Spanish ambient composer Daniel Guillén, known for his well-received cassette releases as Lunaria and his own name. Daniel is also part of Microphones family and passionate listener and collector of new age and ambient genres, both past and modern. Daniel's selection is full of warmest droning tapestries and coziest contemplative soundscapes, along with nature sounds and, maybe even eco-futuristic visions. 

Tracklist:

01 Lửa - Tôi thấy ~ CHO OYU records

02 Sarah Louise - Daybreak ~ Thrill Jockey

03 Warmth - Wildlife ~ ARCHIVES

04 Tim Six - Crystal Travelling  ~ Virtual Dream Plaza

05 Matt Lajoie - The Center and the Fringe ~ Flower Room

06 Inner Travels - Forest ~ Inner Islands

07 Robert Rich - The Abiding Wheel ~ Self-released

08 Hexvessel - Visions of A.O.S. ~ Century Media 

09 Prana Crafter & Tarotplane - Jagged Mountain Melts at Dawn, Pt.1 ~ Beyond Beyond is Beyond 

10 Skyminds - Morning Way ~ auasca

11 Rem Koral - Purity of Perception ~ ΠΑΝΘΕΟΝ

12 Thom Brennan - Soundgardens Part 4 ~ TMB Soundworks 

13 Max Corbacho - Echo of Longing ~ Silentsun

14 Logic Moon - I See Planets ~ Whitelabrecs

15 Anthéne - Wind Catcher ~ Home Normal

16 猫 シ Corp. & t e l e p a t h - Into the Dream ~ Hiraeth Records

daniel guillen / lunaria at bandcamp

~~~

2019 mixes (II): Andreas Holderbach

Next in this series of 2019 year end mixes is by Andreas Holderbach, one of the people who run Muzan Editions. This label has been releasing excellent music for a while and some of their albums are featured in several of the mixes we have got.

His mix is a journey through the realms of abstract electronic, drone and expansive ambient music with a cold and introspective feel that seems to fit nicely with the current weather in the northern hemisphere. Thanks Andreas!

~Daniel

Tracklist:

(00:00) Celer - (06.24.17) Birds inside the high halls of Hangzhou, (06.23.17) Shanghai red line, metro karaoke (Xie Xie; Two Acorns)
(02:09) Cloistral - Այրում (Որպես ջուր; offworldcolonies ltd.)
(06:33) oqbqbo - Rei (Untitled; Posh Isolation)
(11:35) Vallmo - f u (Ruin Walls; Northern Electronics)
(14:14) Cheekbone - Flow between (Cheekbone / Hirotaka Shirotsubaki split; Muzan Editions)
(18:14) Ryan J Raffa - Riverbank (Landscapes and Self Portraits; Mystery Circles)
(24:22) David Granström - Approaching the horizon (A Distant Color, Secluded; XKatedral)
(30:12) Genoasejlet - Et strejf af sølv i vandet (V/A-The Lament of Electra; Janushoved)
(34:12) MAbH -Little wands for magic wings (On Being Pollinated; Third Kind Records)
(43:08) Endurance & Kris Keogh - 1.3 (Processed Modular Works; Obsolete Staircases)
(46:06) Günter Schlienz - Phonoptomètre (Lissajous; Cosmic Winnetou)

muzan editions

(Photo by Andreas Holderbach)

2019 mixes (I): Steve Targo

Dear readers, we hope you are having a good beginning of the new year -and decade. Regarding the decade, it's been an amazing one for our musical explorations. This blog has been getting a little slower lately but we still love it and try to do our best to keep it the place of peace and musical pleasure it has always been to us. This time, we thought we'd do something different in celebration of the new year. I think it's safe to say that all we at Microphones in the Trees have somewhat oposite feelings about making lists. You know, when you love music so much it can be fun and so hard at the same time to make a selection. Also, you would never finish listening to all the wonderful music is being made nowadays. Covering it all is impossible because there are always more and more hidden gems to discover.

So, although we enjoy making lists, this time we planned to do something different. We asked some artists and label owners to submit some of their favourite music of the year in a mix, and we got some really awesome mixes to share with you.This post is the first of a series that will release these personal pictures of the year that is gone. 

Today we present a mix by Steve Targo, well known for his beloved project Inner Travels, which has given us so much aural pleasure in recent years. He chose to include some of the music from past times he listened to in the year along with music from 2019, and this turned out to be a really special mix. Thanks Steve!

Happy new year everyone, and enjoy the music!

~Daniel

Tracklist:

1. Skyminds: “Sunrise Trails the Growing Dawn” (Skyminds) ~ Auasca

2. Deuter: “Easy Is Right” (Celebration)
3. Pharoah Sanders: “The Golden Lamp” (Wisdom Through Music)
4. Qi Hammer: “Gulab Jamoon” (Gobi 65) ~ s/r
5. Endurance: “Outside” (Endurance/PJS split) ~ Crash Symbols
6. Inoyama Land: “Fairy Tale” (Commissions: 1977-2000) ~ Light in the Attic
7. Rhucle: “Aloe” (Photosynthesis) ~ Patient Sounds
8. Sun Ra: “Journey Among the Stars” (Cosmos)
9. Daniel Guillén: “Rainbow” (Inner Vision) ~ Muzan Editions
10. Pulse Emitter: “Ice Grotto” (Calming Winds) ~ Muzan Editions
11. Jonas Munk & Nicklas Sorensen: “Here” (Always Already Here) ~ El Paraiso Records
12. Agitation Free: “Laila” (Live ‘74)

inner travels

(photos by S. Targo)