 Cloudkicker kicks out a nice instrumental piece of ambient metal that even my cat likes (and she hates everything). A higher recommendation than that I can not give you. "You And Yours" is a holiday present from Cloudkicker and you'll find it a free instant download (no email address required) on Bandcamp.
0 Comments
 01. Oneiro - Christmas Time Is Here 02. Meteer - Hearken! (Outside Bethlehem) 03. Rogue Spore - Yuletide Gadget Overload 04. Poodleplay Arkestra - Christmas Morning 1979 05. Hadrocodium wui - Here Again 06. Cousin Silas - December On The Dunes 07. Bing Satellites - Before Dawn 08. SineRider - Vetur 09. Eko_fisk - Merseyway 241270 10. Anthing - Talvilaulu 11. The Silent Committee - Snowfall 12. Mr. Ghost - The Contortionist's Christmas DOWNLOAD AT BFW Another free Ambient compilation for y'all. See our entry on "All Is Calm" where, in complete futility, I attempt to explain the genre. Here, we get a bit more of a Christmas theme and quite a diverse group of styles, including some shoegaze and experimental efforts. Nice to see the Bing Satellites again. I loved Oneiro's "Christmas Time Is Here" (not the Peanuts tune) and was quite fond of Cousin Silas' "December On The Dunes" as well. This seems less an "unwinding" album than "All Is Calm". Nonetheless, I think BFW can be proud of this one (and I'm quite sure they didn't need me to tell them that). There are a bunch of places you can download "The BFW Christmas Album 2010", but you might as well head straight to the source (they've got the other spots listed anyway).
 The Swedish Ambient band Ad Dios has a tradition of recording their take on an ancient carol each year. In 2008, it was "Once In Royal David's City". For 2009, the band recorded "Hosianna". This year, the band recorded two songs in their own unique style--"In The Bleak Midwinter" and "Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant". They've put all four up, plus the cover art (same as last year's) for your downloading or listening pleasure. If the sweet electronica of Ad Dios is something that really strikes your holiday longings, the band's recent album "Avalon Revisited" includes a pair of Winter themed tunes. To get the free recordings they've collectively titled "Season Of Tranquillity", just head on over to the Ad Dios web site.  1. Moon Song 1 (Frost) - Bing Satellites
2. Bjornoya - John Praw 3. Deliquesce - Benjamin Dauer 4. Snow Flake And Fire Place - Lucette Bourdin 5. The Calf Before - Ambienteer 6. Moon Song 2 (Long Night) - Bing Satellites 7. Living Inside A Snow Globe - Leonardo Rosado 8. Crackly Embers - Elypixa 9. Silver Leaf Gold - Miranda 10. Winterscape 1 - Sounds The Songs of Seabirds 11. Tumble Down - Ambienteer 12. Waiting For The Cover Of White - Altus 13. O Holy Night - Phillip Wilkerson A man of many and sometimes unexpected talents, The King Of Jingaling, Brad Ross-MacCleod--the beloved and revered proprietor of FaLaLaLaLa.com-- is also the host of an Ambient music Internet radio program, "Free Floating", which is part of the Ambient StillStream network. For the unitiated, Ambient music can cover quite a bit of ground. Some New Age music would be considered Ambient. Some not so much. Same with Electronica. Some artists whom you might see in a Progressive Rock play list might qualify, too, such as Brian Eno or Vangelis. Ambient music is all about arranging the music in such a way as to provoke certain kinds of sensations and visualizations. "Free Floating" is actually a pretty decent description. Of course, this explanation is coming from someone who has a minimal understanding of the form, me, even if I enjoy some of the music. Some time ago, The King sent out a call to Ambient artists through his show and corresponding blog to compose and/or record a piece that represented the winter/solstice/holiday season to them. The result of that call is "All Is Calm", a Creative Commons collection freely available for download through the Free Floating site. With one exception, Phillip Wilkerson's beautiful rendition of "O Holy Night", these are not the kind of "Christmas" songs you've heard before. These are miniature winter symphonies of a kind that, hopefully, will cause you to experience the more calming sensations of the season--like a 4:00 A.M. snow flurry when, otherwise "all is calm". My personal favorite, here, Lucette Bourdin's "Snow Flake And Fire Place", had exactly that sort of effect on me. Also, it's kind of hard not to like an artist with the name "Bing Satellities". Sample the collection and/or download it free at the Free Floating web site. "All Is Calm" could be just the antidote you seek for the general chaos of the holiday season.  Some Ambient Electronica from Julie Straw, aka Pinklogik. This free download from Soundcloud is called "Snowflakes". I gotta say, I'm not sure where Julie lives, but her snowflakes sound a lot heavier than mine. Nonetheless, the song is hypnotic and soothing, once you get into it, and that's sort of the point of Ambient music.  1. Maoz Tzur (Rock Of Ages) - Remix by Mark Rushton (Iowa)
2. Die Goldene Chasene - Remix by xntrxx (Netherlands) 3. Sivivon Sov Sov Sov - Remix by Paula Daunt (Germany) 4. Ose Shalom - Remix by Diego Bernal (Texas) 5. Thermoglyphics - Remix by Dance Robot Dance (Pennsylvania) 6. Chanukah Chag Yafe - Remix by ocp (Portugal) 7. Hava Nagila - Remix by Roddy Schrock (New York) 8. Yishama-O-Rama (Radiata Edit) - Remix by Cut Loose (NZ) We're about midway through the Festival of Lights and this is our first free strictly Hanukkah entry (if you missed it, we did have a Hanukkah track from Mary Carves The Chicken early on). This album of remixes was put together by Tablet, an on-line magazine celebrating Jewish life and culture. They contacted the chosen people of another distinct and misunderstood culture--remixers--and asked them if they would be interested in deconstructing and reconstructing the music of Hanukkah (or, in the alternative, festive music of other Jewish celebrations). The response was an overwhelming "Hell, yeah!". The art of remixing is to take an original work and shape it into something completely new without destroying the integrity of the original. And, here, Tablet's Marc Weidenbaum has assembled some great ones, from the bouncy "Chanukah Chag Yafe" from ocp to the reverent ambient pop of "Maoz Tzur" from Mark Rushton. Visit Tablet to learn more and download the whole project free. |
The FREE ListHere we hope to direct you to some of the Christmas music on the web that can be yours absolutely free. We will not direct you to mp3 or sharity sites, here, but only to artist sites, label sites, and other authorized and unquestionably legal locations. ArchivesDecember 22-31, 2010 Categories
All
 |
RSS Feed
