Most of the time with my mixes I'll stumble upon one or two tunes that spark an idea. In this case I rediscovered an old electronic album that I had in college. It's a compilation called "Music from the 21st Century."

That album got me thinking about science fiction music, whether it's music used in sci-fi or just tunes that sound like they should be in a sci-fi film.

T R A C K L I S T :

00:00 Vangelis - Blush Response
04:00 Synergy - A Presuming to be Modern I
06:50 Richard Pinhas - L' Ethique
11:20 Lights Out Asia - All These Worlds are Yours
13:15 The Black Dog - Lounge
14:15 Frank Comstock - On the Dark Side of the Moon
16:00 Michael Garrison - Escape (music from the 21st century)
18:20 Synergy - Disruption in World Communications
22:00 David Bowie - Abdulmajid
25:10 Elf Machine - Evolutions Arrow
29:00 Underworld & John Murphy - Capa Meets the Sun
30:45 Vector Lovers - Girl + Robot
32:50 Maps & Diagrams - Skynet
35:30 Bruce Courtois - Inside the Black Hole (music from the 21st century)
37:10 Vangelis - Longi...

I guess it goes all the way back to Ambient #1 : Music for Airports, the piano is a perfect instrument for the contemplative, ambient music in the mixes found here. This mix is devoted to the ambient piano.

T R A C K L I S T :
00:00 Sissors & Sellotape - untitled #1
01:51 Cepia - Malcesine
03:23 Jon Hopkins - water
04:20 Cluster & Eno - ho renomo
07:45 Ruben Garcia - Rainy Day
13:15 Tim Hecker - sketch 1
17:20 Tomoyoshi Date - the sound of the moon
20:10 Antonymes - 301210
24:50 Loscil - City Hospital
28:28 Willitts & Sakamoto - Reticent Reminiscence
32:00 Talvihorros - Hallowed
33:15 A Winged Victory for the Sullen - minuet for a cheap piano
36:00 The Beautiful Schizophonic and Yui Onodera - nubian clouds over Saskia
41:00 Spheruleus - Blueprint
44:25 Janek Schaefer - eyrie of the phoenix
45:30 Harold Budd & John Foxx - After all this Time
50:25 Sissors & Sellotape - untitled #4
52:15 Tape Loop Orchestra - the word on my lips is your ...

This is an odd mix. All the music has been stretched or slowed down so much that the tunes are unrecognizable from the originals. The slowed down result is perfect for meditation, sleeping or daydreaming.

I used a great little program called Paul Stretch which you can find here... http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/

It take music and stretches or slows it down dramatically but still keeps it very musical. I've used the program a few times for mixes in the past but never for creating an entire mix.

All the tracks are slowed by at least 10x to 15x. It's kind of amazing to me how it was possible to create something entirely new from the source material. Steve Reich's Six Marimbas seemed to work well because it's so repetitive that you still got a sense of movement even slowed way down.

00:00 Cliff Martinez - First Sleep
05:30 Steve Reich - Six Marimbas
12:15 Noto & Sakamoto - By This River
21:00 Anonymous 4 - medie noctis tempus
21:40 Tangerine Dream - Tangram
34:45 Steve Reich - Six Marimbas
52:50 Budd & Eno - A Stream with Bright Fish
1:00:00 end ...