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-- MixTape 8: After Airports, Before Orbs [obscure 80s ambient; other oddities of the era]
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MixTape 8: After Airports, Before Orbs [obscure 80s ambient; other oddities of the era]

It can't be understated the significance Brian Eno had in ambient music's formative years, nor the impact Alex Patterson had taking the genre into new avenues. But what about the 10 years between? It wasn't all just Eno, his buddies, and 70s new wave composers (Vangelis, Jarre, etc) making the stuff, was it? Not at all.

Gathered and mixed together here for your listening interest and pleasure are a variety of tunes and compositions of that time period. This is by no means a collection of 'greatest hits', full of instantly recognizable names (sorry, no Roach) and songs (were there any ambient 'hits' in the 80s?); rather, it's a spotlight on the influential, the unheralded, and the obscure. Oh, and all the analog hiss of old recordings you can handle!

Feedback, as always, is welcomed, encouraged even.


AFTER AIRPORTS, BEFORE ORBS



Click to listen!

TRACK LIST: (total runtime 1h,47m)

1. Kevin Braheny - Ice Forests Of Orion (1988)
2. Iasos - The Angels Of Comfort (1978)
3. Steve Hillage - Garden Of Paradise (1979)
4. Zoviet France - Untitled (B1) (1983)
5. J.D. Emmanuel - Part III - Evening Devotional (1986)
6. Richard Burmer - Riverbend (1984)
7. Robert Turman - Flux 3 (1982)
8. Dada - Yuuen � Inraku � Gaki (1978)
9. David Parsons - Gangotri (1982)
10. J.D. Emmanuel - Visions During Movement (1981)
11. Kevin Braheny - Lullaby For The Hearts Of Space (1980)
12. Alan Hawkshaw - Saturn Rings (1979)
13. Michel Magne - Plane Alpha II (1978)
14. Joel Vandroogenbroeck - Meditative Contemplation (1980)
15. Quiet Point - Empty Corridors (1987)


(PS: special thanks to Sushipunk for hosting this for me, as it seems Soundcloud didn't like one of the tracks in here )

Very clever name, unfortunately the Sushi link is broken so I can't check it out

D'oh! Thanks for catching that. What I get for c+p'ing the abbreviated version of the link.

Fixed.

Absolutely loved this. Some great retro-futuristic melodies, would be great for a sci-fi game or something. Everything was all-new to me, as my first exposure to ambient music (and what was responsible for me getting deeply involved in EDM to begin with) was The Orb.

quote:

Originally posted by Mr Game+Watch Absolutely loved this. Some great retro-futuristic melodies, would be great for a sci-fi game or something.

Funny you should say that, as that Vandroogenbroeck guy went on to become one of the earliest chiptune musicians. There's actually quite a few interesting little 'future connections' in that list of names.

But... no one else comments? I swear this mix isn't all noodly pseudo New Agey stuff! Hm, maybe I need to change the genre names in the thread title.

Amazing mix. Finally someone is making a mix of 70's 80's ambient and new age. I thought I was the only one who listened to that stuff on this forum

Huge fan of Iasos!!! I have one of his ultra-rare cassette tapes from 1975.

Big fan of Hearts Of Space

It took me a while, but I listened. Very cool, but very weird. I can't believe all these tracks are so old, they sound great!

quote:

Originally posted by Magnetonium Amazing mix. Finally someone is making a mix of 70's 80's ambient and new age. I thought I was the only one who listened to that stuff on this forum

Honestly, aside from the usual suspects (Eno, etc.), I can't say that I regularly do; however, I've been researching ambient's overall history lately, and gathered up a ton of tracks in the process. Felt some of the lesser names deserved a showcase.

And yeah, ambient and New Age tended to go hand-in-hand in the early years, sharing the same synthy attributes and atmosphere. Then New Age got... well, corny, a bit too focused on actual musicianship than simple droning synth sweeps. Least that's the divide between ambient and New Age that I found.

This looks interesting. Will listen.

Oh yes. Downloading this post haste.

quote:

Originally posted by Sykonee And yeah, ambient and New Age tended to go hand-in-hand in the early years, sharing the same synthy attributes and atmosphere. Then New Age got... well, corny, a bit too focused on actual musicianship than simple droning synth sweeps. Least that's the divide between ambient and New Age that I found.

It is hard to put a satisfactory line between ambient and New Age, I agree. The question interests me enough that I made a thread about it:

http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=636964&forumid=1&s=#.T_MoZmaHHng

To paraphrase what I said in that thread: New Age puts you in a place to observe, whereas Ambient makes you a part of a place to be. In a way, that's also where you see some of the similarities when you get into the 'meditative' aspects of both.

Case in point is Steven Halpern, who's often credited in pioneering New Age music. His idea is using musical tones for healing and meditation, very much New Age concepts, but when you listen to some of his music, it has many of the attributes we'd associate with ambient (droning synths and such). Plus, some of the artwork associated with his work seems like it should be in a psy-chill vid!




New Age though that 'scene' may be, the music is quite effective in making you a part of a place, even if that place might be your inner consciousness.

In the process of listening. Whichever track is on about 61 minutes in is pretty sweet.

Great flow, and some awesome tracks.

Awesome!

Any chance of flac?

Really liking the track at 27:40

quote:

Originally posted by ziptnf I can't believe all these tracks are so old, they sound great!

You should try listening to 50s musique concrete some time (look up karlheinz stockhausen)

Ha, those musique concr�te and electroacoustic guys did some wild stuff.

Halim El-Dabh - "Element, Being, And Primeval"

This one says it's known for being the oldest electronic music in existence:

quote:

This is possibly the earliest piece of electronic music ever composed, or more specifically, the first piece of electronic tape music, also known as "musique concrete" or "electroacoustic" music. Halim El-Dabh, then a student at Cairo, Egypt, produced this music piece using samples taken from an ancient Egyptian "Zar" ceremony. He edited, manipulated and arranged these sounds to create the earliest piece of electronic tape music. He first presented his piece at an art gallery event in 1944, predating Pierre Schaeffer's musique concrete recordings by four years. Having borrowed a wire recorder from the offices of Middle East Radio, El-Dabh took it to the streets to capture outside sounds, specifically an ancient zaar ceremony. Intrigued by the possibilities of manipulating recorded sound for musical purposes, he believed it could open up the raw audio content of the zaar ceremony to further investigation into "the inner sound" contained within. According to El-Dabh, "I just started playing around with the equipment at the station, including reverberation, echo chambers, voltage controls, and a re-recording room that had movable walls to create different kinds and amounts of reverb." He further explains: "I concentrated on those high tones that reverberated and had different beats and clashes, and started eliminating the fundamental tones, isolating the high overtones so that in the finished recording, the voices are not really recognizable any more, only the high overtones, with their beats and clashes, may be heard." His final 20-25 minute piece was recorded onto magnetic tape and called The Expression of Zaar, which was publicly presented in 1944 at an art gallery event in Cairo. This version is a 2 minute sample of the original 20-25 minute piece.

Halim El-Dabh - "Wire Recorder Piece" (1944)

quote:

Originally posted by Vector A In the process of listening. Whichever track is on about 61 minutes in is pretty sweet.

Visions During Movement. Yeah, ol' J.D. has some really unique keyboard tones. Kind of reminds me of the aesthetic IDM guys sometimes try to capture, then I remember he was doing it years before IDM was even a thing. (oh, and here's a fun-fact regarding where Evening Devotional came from )

quote:

Originally posted by lostpsyte Really liking the track at 27:40

That would be Zoviet France. They're often credited as being dark ambient pioneers, and figured it'd be a fun contrast following a couple 'New Agey' tunes with that one. It practically parodies that triangle ting in Garden Of Paradise.

And sorry, no flac, though I'm not sure it'd improve the sound quality by much. Gotta remember a number of these came from tape-only releases as far back as the late 70s (not to mention well-worn vinyl). There just ain't no getting 'round that lo-fi quality, which, of course, is part of the charm.

Yeh but in flac it'd be accurate low fi charm, not tape distortion and mp3 distortion.

yeah, for some reason this has been in my phone for way to long, listened to half of it a few weeks ago when i walking around a part of v�ster�s city. i didn't know where i was but i kept on going and the music helped since the time was around 22:00 and it was a desolate place.

but anyhow, managed listened to it in full yesterday. liked it a lot.

Thanks all.

hey gang... great mix. greetings from London town. If you like this sort of stuff I made an ambient/new age mix myself a few months back... check it out here



http://jeffssecretcigarette.wordpre...lanetary-waves/

Love

So I took a listen to it.

I have to admit the first 15 minutes or so were rather erratic. It seemed less of a mix than a collection of songs. After that, though, things started flowing much nicer, and was an enjoyable listen overall.

Funny how we both used Garden Of Paradise, yet you fade yours out of the mix at the exact moment of the song where I fade it into mine.

I must of missed this but it looks right up my alley.

Reminds me of watching old documentaries about space, or visiting planetariums. I'm sure this type of music was played and crystallized the experience in the mind for me. In fact, I fell in love with electronic soundscapes at about 7 years of age after hearing Jarre in a blow-up planetarium at my first school. True story bro.

Just kicked things off and I like the direction. Thanks for doing this mix sir.

quote:

Originally posted by sunsurge I must of missed this but it looks right up my alley. Reminds me of watching old documentaries about space, or visiting planetariums. I'm sure this type of music was played and crystallized the experience in the mind for me. In fact, I fell in love with electronic soundscapes at about 7 years of age after hearing Jarre in a blow-up planetarium at my first school. True story bro. Just kicked things off and I like the direction. Thanks for doing this mix sir.

Yeah, shows like Cosmos definitely had a musical influence in my early childhood. I did gather up quite a bit of 'planetarium music' while researching ambient's roots (Kevin Braheny's Hearts Of Space label is filled with material!), but I didn't want that to be the main focus of this mix, as that stuff gets too noodly in duration. It deserved a nod here and there tho'.

This was just great. Usually when I listen to old music these days I feel it's quaint, but that's all I feel. But this stuff really gets to me, its just so enchanting and imaginative.

Bytheway, have you thought about getting some of those beatport/juno sample widgets on the articles on your blog? Since you're tackling the old stuff again. I listen to a lot of the modern ambient and it'll be nice to see if I can spot some influences.

Funnily it's really been your mixes that influenced my own mixes the most. good to see you keeping it up.

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