Ambientblog Mixes

For the 7th year, the Dutch radio station Concertzender schedules an 8-hour ambient all-nighter on the night of the Winter Solstice (December 21, 2025). Compiled by four radio producers – Roel Janssen, Harrold Roeland, Bob Rusche, and myself – each of us presenting a two-hour selection. My contribution is closing the night, between 5am and 7 am. I’m not sure how many listeners will make it to the last part of the eight hours. That’s the reason I also post my contribution here as part of the Ambientblog Mix series. This mix is NOT intended to help you sleep! On the contrary, I hope it’ll help you stay awake for a bit, or maybe induce some interesting hallucinating moments in your half-sleep. A two-hour trip through many different soundscapes: sometimes comforting, sometimes nót so comforting, and sometimes confusing. For a more detailed tracklisting and a download option,  visit ambientblog.net Tracklist: 00:00 Mendel Kaelen – Fertile Voids 03:52 Ø (Mika Vainio) – Etude 7 06:12 Nesa Azadikhah – The Wound Where The Light Enters 07:32 Clarice Jensen – 1,2 09:42 Bill Brennan & Andy McNeill – Reverie 12:21 Meriheini Luoto – Unessa, Lumessa 14:02 Lukas Lauermann – Varve III.2 15:49 Le Code – And If I Left 17:25 Loneward – Upon These Secluded Hills 19:34 Kasper Bjørke – Dynjandi 21:42 Annie Bloch & Emily Wittbrodt – III 25:32 Louise Rossiter – Fairytale Journey On The Bloodstream 28:28 Dave Graw & Blair French – The Van 31:02 Dean Hurley – Splendor 31:13 Jon Hopkins & Ishq – Part I: Altar 33:10 Claire M. Singer – Aisir 36:33 Cecile Seraud – Errance Cosmique 1 37:17 Micah Levi – Bothy 38:14 Jon Hopkins – Singing Bowl (Ascension) 41:18 Jóhann Jóhannsson & BJ Nilsen – Intro 42:19 Longswarm – Beyond Words 42:37 Éric La Casa – Le Littoral 43:58 Steve Roach & Soriah – Stars Of Darkness 48:06 Christopher Colm Morrin – 02 51:17 Sonmi451 – A Nice Little Quandary 54:29 Crows Labyrinth & Perry Frank – Daylight Sonata 57:15 Michael Grigoni & Pan•american – Blue Tears Never Dry 58:42 Sleep Research Facility – Stealth Source 2 1:03:20 Monolake – Inwards (VLSI Version) 1:06:08 Yann Novak – Music For Restaurants 1:10:36 Alva Noto – Ritual Reprise 1:12:35 Brooddark – Fatal pressure 1:14:23 Sam Rosenthal & Projekt Artists – Trip 1 (Instrumental) 1:17:27 Fumio Miyashita – See The Light (Abridged) 1:19:50 Lawson & Merrill – Dark Angel 1:23:28 Erik K. Skodvin – Alone In The Dark 1:24:47 Laraaji & Kramer – Immersion 1:26:19 Multicast Dynamics – Unknown Place 1:29:09 Pinkcourtesyphone – A Stunning Blandness 1:31:04 Carl Stone – Shing Kee (1986) 1:34:07 Joachim Spieth – Shine 1:38:41 Erik Levander – Avstånd 1:40:35 Saapato – Highway At Night (feat. James Bernard & Marine Eyes) 1:43:13 David Cordero & Kenji Kihara – Silver Grass In Koajiro No Mori 1:45:05 Jean C. Roche – Guanare-Barinas 1:46:50 Peter Knight – The Coiling Of The Tide 1:50:56 Yann Novak – Seeing Light Without Knowing Darkness feat. G. Brenner 1:54:29 Yann Novak – Seeing Light Without Knowing Darkness 1:58:21 Andrew Heath – Aber Bach (23.04.12) 1:58:03 Mendel Kaelen – Fertile Voids

After publishing many ambient mix-collages (87 and counting!), I decided to challenge myself. What if I combined ambient soundscapes and classical music? Would that work out? This proved to be more difficult than I expected. It proved to be much easier to combine abstract atmospheric music than ambient music with 'program music' like classical. It proved even more difficult when choosing from 'classical classical' music such as baroque music, polyphonic choir music, or music from the absolute giants (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc.). Maybe because I definitely wanted to retain an introspective atmosphere, but also include some 'tension - release dynamics' to avoid the mix becoming too 'easy listening'.With only two exceptions, the 'classical' fragments come from contemporary composers. Also, this mix features fewer layers playing simultaneously (compared to my previous mixes). In that respect, this is more like a 'mix-tape' than a 'collage'. All titles used in this mix are fragments, only small parts of the original compositions. So: if you hear something you like (and I hope you do), please check out the original. For a detailed tracklisting and more info visit https://www.ambientblog.net.

The Winter Solstice Ambient Night on Concertzender Nederland has become a yearly tradition: this is the sixth edition already of the 8-hour ambient music night presented by four of their radio show hosts. Like in all previous editions, I'm honored to close the night with a two-hour collage. My contribution is presented here, but for those interested, the complete night will remain available on demand from the Concertzender Nederland website. Other than you might expect, this mix is not intended to make you sleep. On the contrary, the challenge is to keep you awake in these last two hours of this ambient music night. Which will probably be quite hard if you're listening in real time. As usual, only very few tracks are played in full here. Most are fragments, sometimes samples, taken from much longer pieces (which you can check out using the list below). This time, the overall key of this mix is E minor. For a detailed tracklisting and more info (including a surround version), visit ambientblog.net.

My 2-hour contribution to the fifth edition of the 8-hour Winter Solstice broadcast on Concertzender Nederland. For this fifth Winter Solstice mix, I chose fragments (most of them heavily edited) that are all more or less in the same key. In the first hour all tracks are in B-minor, in the second hour the tracks are in F-minor (first half) and A-minor (closing half). These chords define the overall atmosphere: from 'solitary, melancholic' to 'obscure, funereal', and finally 'tender, soothing'. At least, that's what the theory says. In the end, it's the listener that associates his emotions with the soundscapes. But one thing is clear: these two hours definitely fit the darkest and longest of nights. For a detailed tracklisting and more info (including a surround version), visit: https://www.ambientblog.net/?p=30221

Could this be ‘the saddest mix of all time’? I don’t think so myself, I would rather call it melancholic – in a pleasant way. But it’s a fact that all of these tracks are in D minor (Dm), which is said to be ‘the saddest chord’:“The D minor chord (often written as Dm) is a chord that evokes a sense of melancholy and contemplation on the negative side of situations. Like many other minor chords, Dm can create a heavy, serious atmosphere — and sometimes even creates an almost otherworldly sense of drama.” For a detailed tracklisting and more info (including a surround version), visit: https://www.ambientblog.net/?p=28862