I was recently introduced via @greenwoods to ‘Sleeps with the Fishes‘ a 1987 collaboration between Pieter Nooten and Michael Brook. I’m immensly grateful to her for enlightening me. If you love ambient, this is a must have album.

One track in particular I love is Several Times II, but at just over two minutes, its beauty is all too short for me. To help me sleep last night, I stretched and layered it with a little bit of additional reverb into an 11 minute aid to allow you to drift gently off. Here is the result of that.

Only available as a stream for copyright reasons. That said, there is every chance I might be asked to remove it. I sincerely hope not.

I implore you to track the album down and buy it.

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Whilst going through an old MySpace account I came across something I did in 2008 for a remix competition on RealWorldRemixed before my ambienteering days.

Sevara Nazarkhan has a magical voice. I hope you like this and will check out more of her music at http://www.myspace.com/sevaramusic.

Only available as a stream for copyright reasons.

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This rather wonderful surprise appeared out of the blue and has knocked me sideways.

I urge you to listen to it as it really brings some of my work to life in a way that I could not. You can stream or download it from here via Soundcloud.

If you can, please follow @djchloeharris on Twitter and check out some of her other terrific mixes and sets via Soundcloud.

A massive thank you to her and to all of you that have taken the time to listen to my output since this all began last February. It’s been a joy.

I’m struggling to be v.creative myself at the moment, so I am looking to others for some inspiration. Who better to draw that from than Elbow. I love this band. I have taken this version of Red from their ‘Noisebox’ EP and I’ve cut out three small samples, stretched, effected and blended them back together. In order to ensure this piece reflects the whole of the band, Guy’s vocal is in there, but it’s fleeting.

Only available as a stream for copyright reasons.

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I just love Imogen Heap. She could sing the ingredients from the back of a cereal box and I’d be enchanted. I took the beautiful vocal snippet from the second track on her album ‘Ellipse’ then stretched, effected, transposed and layered small segments of it. The result is an eight minute dream-like soundscape that still sounds just the way she does. Hope she’ll forgive my using a sample without permission? I’m too shy to ask for fear she’d not like what I’d made with it.

Only available as a stream for copyright reasons.

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More experimenting with drone versions of tracks that I love have led me to taking the first 45 seconds of a David Byrne song from his 1981 release ‘The Catherine Wheel’. Given that he co-wrote this with Brian Eno, it feels like an appropriate work to stretch out into something densely ethereal.

I have had a few odd emails berating me for my use of some simple free software in the making of these drones. The idea/technique may be a simple one, but finding the right passage of sound on which to use these tools, is the main skill of these works. Thankfully, the general response is a positive one. :)

Once again, only available as a stream for copyright reasons.

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As you may know I am a fan of @mapmap on Twitter. His work and collaborations at Dust Breeding are a constant source of pleasure. So much so, that one piece he has made in an Unrecnow/oo-ray recording session, was so gorgeous that I had to extend it. Seven minutes have become 56 and I think it’s a beautiful soundscape.

The original can be found here.

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Sun Spots.mp3

After the great feedback and the most visitors in one day from yesterday’s track, I have decided to create some more of these.

This is the rather sombre and brooding track ‘Faust Arp’ from Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ album.

Lots of stretching and a thick cloud of Reaktor reverberation make this sound totally immersive. At 33 minutes long, you’ll need to take a little time out with a pair of headphones and a comfortable prone position. I used it to get back into REM sleep in the early hours of this morning, it seems ideal for this. It took me underwater, swimming with seahorses. Where will it take you?

This piece can, once again, only be offered up as a 320kbps stream as I don’t have copyright clearance.

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I am having immense fun using the netbook to create vastly stretched out soundscapes from just a few minutes of music. This is a beautiful Talk Talk track called ‘ I Believe In You’. It is essentially just the track pulled out into a vast 50 minute piece. To get the most out of this, it requires a late night, a tired mind and comfortable listening position. If I get good feedback I will explore creating more of these.

This piece will only be offered up as a 320kbps stream as I don’t have copyright clearance.

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Whilst refurbishing a PC for my little boy, I decided to install my old Ableton Live 6 onto it so that he can play around with some sounds. To check that it was all working properly, I decided to play around with a ten second sample from Talk Talk’s track New Grass. All I did was create four instances of Simpler and manipulated the playback of each of them using a few of Ableton’s built in effects and a some free VST filters.

It’s melancholic and repetitive, which is just how I like it.

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Grass.mp3
Grass 96kbps.mp3