SOUNDWAVE : 53 : AMBIENTBLOG

Today’s guest deejay is Peter van Cooten, host of Ambientblog and DreamScenes on Concertzender.

I ask each guest to deejay who they know who would be interested in participating in the show with a mix. Harrold Roeland, who was a guest deejay on Soundwave back in December, suggested Peter. I’ve known about Ambientblog for years and have listened to many of Peter’s mixes on Mixcloud. I’m thankful that Harrold made the introduction because Peter’s mix is exceptional.

Peter’s Soundwave mix.

Mix is not the word for what Peter does on today’s show.

It’s more accurate to say that Peter composed a concept album masterfully weaved from a multitude of sampled material. Take a look at the “playlist” below to get an idea of the scope of today’s show. It’s a work of art you get to immerse yourself in for the next hour.

Peter’s mix, like all of his Ambientblog shows, is an experience. Follow Ambientblog on Mixcloud to hear more of his work.

I’ve included an excerpt about today’s show from Peter’s website below.

Today’s show is special because it’s also Soundwave’s one-year anniversary.

I launched Soundwave to help me cope with the stress and isolation of COVID-19.

This close to what we all hope is the finish line of the pandemic its easy to forget that we were all white-knuckling it for the first couple of months. Every day was filled with existential dread. Would this trip to the grocery store kill me or someone I love? It’s exhausting to live that way.

During that time, I could not watch tv or movies or listen to music because they were not speaking to the truth of our new reality. I’d watch a tv show and fret how there was no social distancing and why the cast wasn’t wearing masks. Pop music was particularly difficult to listen to because it was so painfully vapid. How am I supposed to enjoy a love song when I might be a patient or a vector in this pandemic?

The only music that I could tolerate and gave me solace was ambient, classical, experimental, and instrumental music. It was the soundtrack for my stay-at-home lockdown. And if I found some relief with this music, why not share it with others? Any why not ask people I respect to share their mixes?

I’m humbled by everyone’s gift of generosity of time and effort. We’re all going through this together, each in our way. I’m grateful that during this pandemic that each guest deejay lovingly crafted mixes to share with us.

My first vaccination shot.

Today’s show is also special because today, I also got my first shot for the COVID-19 vaccination.

I was shopping for groceries when the Mercy Plaza Pharmacy called me and told me they had extra doses. Could I stop by for a vaccination? Most definitely.

My cilantro stymied the woman who was ringing up my items at the grocery store: were they regular cilantro or organic? She was about to do a price check when I explained that I needed to get the hell out of there to be vaccinated. I didn’t care about the cilantro’s cost; ring me up so I can leave! She understood.

The folks at Mercy Plaza Pharmacy couldn’t be nicer. They’re a family-owned business, and the owner checked up on me after my shot to see how I was feeling. We talked about San Diego, Sacramento, and our kids. This is going to sound weird, but I had such a great time that I can’t wait to go back.

So here we are a year later. We’re almost at the finish line. Hopefully, next year, this will be behind us, and we can all enjoy each other’s company. I’m looking forward to meeting some of you in person. Maybe I’ll even get to meet Peter.

Join us next week when our guest deejay will be Michał Milczarek.

See you then!

Ambientblog album art.

It’s my honour to open the second year of this series with my contribution. Of course, we can only hope that the series will continue for musical reasons, not because of the pandemic.

Clicking through the list of contributions, you’ll find that most of them are what I call mixtape-style compilations: a head-tail-mix of (full) tracks. Traditionally, my (Ambientblog) mixes are different (which does not mean necessarily ‘better’, by the way) in that they incorporate many sampled parts of tracks (a full-length track is either an exception or a very short track itself), mixed in a layered collage-style. I always try to shuffle the collage’s fragments so that they seem to melt together and thus start telling a different story.

Whether this is successful or not can only be determined by the listener.

This mix is simply named after the podcast Soundwave. It is a happy coincidence that it literally starts with waves—sonically manipulated by Jos Smolders—and ends with the same waves morphing into the sound of a cheering crowd.

Different kinds of soundwaves are all around us, every moment. Sometimes we’re aware; most of the time, we are not. This mix (hopefully) shows that it can be rewarding to take a moment’s rest to really listen and let the sounds affect you.

Thanks to Joseph Aleo for inviting me!

Jos Smolders “Plate 7”

Mia Zabelka & Icostech “The Final Stop”

Robert Scott Thompson “Still The Syllables Of Water Whisper”

Charley van Veldhoven & Túrion “Hemellichaam IV (Henrik Meierkord Recycle)”

FM Einheit & Susie Green “Joyful Pleasure”

Joey Largent “Below Diorite Waters”

Barbara Ellison “De Auflaan de Pussychat”

Jana Winderen “The Listener”

Grace Ferguson “Barnumbirr”

C-drík “An Imaginary Place Inhabited By Those Who Are Asleep”

James Osland & Finn Kelvin “Things That Have Form Will Alway Disappear”

Daniel Thomas Freeman “Crawling Out Of The Void”

William Basinski “For Whom The Bell Tolls”

Morgen Würde “Mittsommer”

Biosphere “Stordjupta”

Randal Collier-Ford “Eyes Of The Temple (feat. Northumbria)”

Merope “Alma”

Space Whisper “Park Date”

Innesti “Dark Describes An Arc”

Joost Lijbaart “Twinkling Night”

Pinkcourtesyphone “Another Interior”

f5point6 “Natural Selection”

Andrew Heath “I Sleep Above The Forest”

Lustmord “Journey Of The Dead Man”

Bow Quintet feat. Aidan Baker “Bryanbaum Variation”

Aase Frejadóttir “Saying It”

James Rushford “Musica Callada, Book I – Angelico”

Nick Luscombe “Tokyo Spring Birdsong”

Akropolis Reed Quintet “Homage to Paradise Valley: I. Ghosts of Black Bottom”

Kate Carr “I Spotted Some Backyard Dancing”

Olivier Alary “Khaltoum”

Kazuya Nagaya “the Book Of Sunken Memory”

Jos Smolders “Plate 5”

A Winged Victory For The Sullen “Every Solstice & Equinox”

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