Also, a word on my mixes: only brief samples of songs are used, always being tweaked or adjusted in some way by myself, and always presented in ONE long, continuous track. I am NOT giving away anyone’s music, if you enjoy the sample of an artist in one of my mixes, I urge you to go out and buy the album on vinyl and support the artist. That is the whole reason I am making these!
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Thunderstorms over Detroit (Free Field Recording on Soundcloud)
The last week or so has featured a lot of powerful storms in the Detroit, MI area. Luckily I was able to capture some high quality audio from one of those thunderstorms, and edited it down into the best 9 minutes. If you click on the link below it will take you to my soundcloud where you can stream and download the clip in 320 kbps MP3.
RJ Stefanski - Amazing Thunderstorms over Detroit (Free Field Recording)
enjoy and pass along to your friends.
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The Retired Cosmonaut [Single w/ free mediafire download]
After debuting on soundcloud for a few days, here is the download link for my new two-part single “The Retired Cosmonaut”. Each track runs for about 9 minutes and incorporates several Spring themed found sounds (birds chirping in my parents backyard), with original instrumentation and samples taken from AM radio broadcasts. The Mediafire link includes both tracks in high quality lossless WAV format, with the album art attached, just click through the title right below!
The Retired Cosmonaut [Soundscape Single Sides A+B, WAV files]
Pass along and enjoy. All sounds and found sounds by RJ Stefanski, 2013.
Now Available to stream here on Soundcloud:
The Retired Cosmonaut [Soundscape Single Sides A/B]
A new release from RJ Stefanski, two lengthy journeys totaling nearly 20 minutes of found sounds edited into dark ambient soundscapes influenced by acts like Stars of the Lid and Gas. Side A features a new original piano piece, bird sounds, and my nephew’s voice as heard over a one year period. Side B ditches the keyboards for pure sound, and a small glitch of a sample taken from arabic-spoken AM radio.
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Mix 2: Mini Anthology of Ambient (For Cameron) [2013 Remastered Edition] WAV & Mp3 Link
An extremely soothing 42 minutes of some of the most important artists in the ambient genre, mixed together with field recordings and designed to help my (then) newborn nephew Cameron fall asleep. This is available for streaming on soundcloud (link in my last blog entry below), however I also wanted to make this something you can download and take wherever you go. So below you have two different download options, one is in 320 rate MP3, the other is in the lossless WAV format, and is gigantic. Even the Mp3 version is still in much better quality than the original file from 2 years ago, so either is an upgrade.
Mini Ant. of Ambient [2013 Edition] MP3 @320
Mini Ant. of Ambient [2013 Edition] WAV (1/2 GIG!)
Enjoy, happy sleeping!
Featuring: Biosphere, Sigur Ros, Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, Radiohead, Markus Guentner, The Sight Below, Gas, Stars of the Lid, Marconi Union, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Four Tet, Boards of Canada.
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Mini Anthology of Ambient [2013 Revised & Remastered Edition]
Mini Anthology of Ambient (For Cameron) [2013 Edition]
(click on title above to be directed to soundcloud)
My second mix, which originally was released over 2 years ago, is now streaming in a remastered and revised form. Fans of the original will hear a more smoothed out, slightly louder project. I also added two artists who were not on the first: Stars of the Lid, and Marconi Union. All of the details including the full tracklisting, is available by clicking through the link above. Enjoy.
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Click on the cover image above to be directed to soundcloud to stream my debut full-length album. Any fans of my mixtapes or my field recordings should find something to enjoy within the 12 tracks and 64 minutes of everything from IDM/ambient techno, to pure new age soundscapes, to indie folk pop. Each track has been designed to flow seamlessly into the next, creating a uniquely immersive listening experience. I would think my album would appeal to fans of my biggest influences, experimental acts like Animal Collective, Stars of the Lid, Gas, Boards of Canada, Pink Floyd or Tool.
Hope you enjoy, please pass along.
Source: SoundCloud
mix 15: In the Fog / / Outside the Night [experimental techno mix]
Another project while I finalize my debut album, “In the Fog / / Outside the Night” is perhaps my darkest mix yet, 45 minutes that blur the distinction between dancefloor friendly and spaced out, psychedelic headphone listening. A brief drone intro from Tim Hecker & Actress sets the listener into a thick fog, slowly relenting as the oddly metered beats of Efdemin and Villalobos take hold. Field recordings appear and disappear, but the grimy 6 a.m. vibe is constant as the pulse changes from frantic (Happa rmx Four Tet) to subdued (Silent Servant).
image editing for cover art above by myself, download link in title below:
In the Fog / / Outside the Night [45:27]
Tracklisting:
// Intro: Tim Hecker “In The Fog II” & Actress “N.E.W” / Efdemin “Time” / Ricardo Villalobos “I’m Counting” / Lawrence “Coltsfoot” / Oneohtrix Point Never “Where Does Time Go?” / Vessel “Vizar” & “Plane Curves” / Vladislav Delay “Osottova” / Burial “Ashtray Wasp” / Four Tet “Jupiters” (Happa Rmx) / Terranova “Take My Hand “ (TORB Mix) / Von Haze “Outside the Night” (Blondes Mix) / Pantha du Prince “Welt am Draht” (Moritz Von Oswald version) / Bjork “Dark Matter” (Alva Noto remodel) / Silent Servant “Moral Divide” & “Process” / Outro: Tim Hecker “Harmony in Blue III” & Actress “N.E.W.” //
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mix 14: Winter Weather Advisory (A Blizzard Mix)
Another new, brief project: “Winter Weather Advisory” is a continuous 39 minute journey into a frostbitten landscape of ambient clouds, stately swells of piano and strings, and of course, theme-specific field recordings. The mix is bookended with found sound of boots crunching on snow and was somewhat intended as a soundtrack for a night time walk into a blizzard. Tracks were chosen that fit this cinematic, somewhat gloomy atmosphere: with titles like ‘Fluffy Tufts” and “Then It’s White”, and artists with names such as “Voices from the Lake”, everything complimenting the tundra vibe.
Photo above taken by me of Belle Isle, Detroit. High quality download link in title below:
Winter Weather Advisory Mix [39:10]
The tracklisting is as follows:
Foundsound intro / Voices from the Lake “Circe” / Pole ‘Karussel” / Yagya “Snowflake 5” / Mohn “Einrauschen” / Sigur Ros “Von” / Cocteau Twins “Fluffy Tufts” / The Field “Then It’s White” / Sigur Ros “Med Sud…” & “Straumnes” / Biosphere “Shika” (The Sight Below Rmx) / Markus Guentner “Express Yourself” / Voices from the Lake “Mika” / Yagya ‘Snowflake 6” / Voices from the Lake “Circe” / Foundsound outro
Support these artists and buy their albums and please share this link to your tumblr followers and friends.
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mix 13: Buried Reefs (a nature doc soundtrack)
A briefer mix while I finish my debut album, “Buried Reefs” is the latest chapter in my ongoing obsession with ambient and drone music. Taking cues from the Boards of Canada school of warped VHS psychedelia, “Buried Reefs” offers a meditative retreat from the chaos of the holidays, layering twinkling synths and drones over brief field recordings and actual narration from vintage nature doc shorts. I would highly recommend this as part of a playlist with some of my previous ambient/downbeat mixes, perhaps as a buffer between “Mini Anthology of Ambient” and “Set the Controls for the…”
Artwork above created by me, high quality link in title below:
Buried Reefs: Nature Doc Soundtrack (@320) [28:14]
featuring:
Intro: Blondes “Amber” (Variation in Cm by Rene Hell) + Bibio “Moistened and Dried” / Deon “#05” / Emeralds “Summerdata” / Lone “Koran Angel” + Boards of Canada “a is to b..” + Bibio “The Clothesline and the Silver Birch” / Jurgen Muller “Sea Bed Meditation” / Atlas Sound “Christmas Synths” / Lone “Buried Coral Banks” / Keith Fullerton Whitman “ACGTR SVP” / Gas “Pop 1” / Stars of the Lid “The Atomium: Part Two” / Oneohtrix Point Never “Stress Waves” / Casino Versus Japan “Blue Vacation Part 5” / Outro: Brian Eno “Lux 2” + Blondes “Amber” (Variation in Cm by Rene Hell) + Bibio “Everglad Everglade” /
If you enjoy the mix please support the artists and buy their work, and spread this mix to your friends. Thanks!
While I finish up my debut album, I am going to be putting up some smaller scale projects that I have been working on in the interim. Click on the title below to be directed to my soundcloud page where you can listen to this mix now in high quality mp3.
BURIED REEFS (a soundtrack to a nonexistent nature documentary)
sonofawidow asked: Your mixes are incredible. It's insane how close our tastes are!
Thank you so much Matt, it means a lot to hear feedback like that :) I put a lot of time into the last few mixes and it makes it all worth it when I see people are really downloading and enjoying them! Our tastes are quite compatible for sure.
-RJ
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Mix 12: Reach For Your Mind (A Techno / Dub DJ Set feat. the Detroit People Mover)
After a brief period of being streamed on my soundcloud page, my 12th mix is now here for download. What began as a just-for-fun DJ set around this years Detroit Electronic Music Festival slowly evolved into a full fledged project, and again the newest chapter in my ongoing integration of original field recordings into traditional mixtapes. As the title track slowly fades into focus you will hear over 20 separate found sounds being triggered to heighten the tension: frogs, crickets, birds, stormy weather, creepy AM preachers pitched down to satanic growls are all just the tip of the iceberg. As the mix title suggests, sampled AM voices are not the only significant addition to my 12th project, as the sounds of Detroit’s mini mass transit rail, The People Mover, help keep the flow throughout the near hour running time. Part of why I decided to take on the concept of a traditional DJ set was that it would illuminate just how much I can stretch that idea with my field recordings, and add my own spin on the atmosphere of each track. One of my most realized transitions to date arrives early in the duration, as I chop and pitch down the Goldfrapp vocals on “A&E”, freezing them over Andy Stott’s “Submission” with added water effects, all before Gas’ solemn “Zauberberg III” rises from the ocean floor. Hopefully equally suited for both headphone listening or the dancefloor if you’re open minded to what counts as “danceable”, download by clicking the title below and enjoy! (artwork above based on my own photo/art, high quality Mp3 link in title below)
REACH FOR YOUR MIND - (A Found Sound Techno Set feat. Detroit People Mover) @320 kbps
Feat.
(FoundSounds intro) / Kaito - Reach for Your Mind / Luomo - Medley Through / Goldfrapp - A&E (Gui Boratto Remix) / Andy Stott - Submission / Gas - Zauberbeg III / Battles - Toddler (Kanding Ray Remix) / Blondes - Water (Bicep Remix) / Efdemin - There Will Be Singing / Pantha du Prince - Butterfly Girl / James Blake - Klavierwerke / Fluxion - Prefuse / Simian Mobile Disco - Put Your Hands Together / Tolga Fidan - Seve / Scuba - Lights Out / Walls - Into Our Midst (Esperanza Remix) / (FoundSounds outro) /also feat. Pariah, Mouse on Mars, Black Dice.
Mix 12: Reach For Your Mind (A Techno / Dub DJ Set) - streaming now on soundcloud
Reach For Your Mind - A Techno / Dub DJ Set feat. the Detroit People Mover <—— Click to be directed to my newest mix, streaming in high quality MP3 on soundcloud. Just another techno mixtape? Think again, check out the intro as over 20 separate field recordings are layered together and lull you into a trance that won’t let up for almost a full hour. Put on your best headphones and enjoy! Again, any likes, reblogs, or kind words to your friends are appreciated!
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Hello everyone, just wanted to point out again that I’ve been shifting my focus a little from just posting my projects here for download, to also having them streaming on soundcloud. Just click on the photo above to be directed to that page, which also houses clips of my field recordings (some can be downloaded too) which have not been made available on tumblr so far. It should also be noted that the photo above is indeed my newest mix, the 12th so far in my ongoing series. This mix will be popping up soon to stream on soundcloud for a short period before it is available to download here. Keep your eyes peeled! Thank you again so much for your continued interest and support for my work!
-RJ
the Sound of Glaciers Melting.
Source: SoundCloud
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stream my anthology of field recordings
RJ’s Anthology of Found Sounds (May 2011- July 2012) [<—click to stream on Soundcloud]
Anyone who has been following my mixtapes knows how integral my field recordings have become in the process, and have really turned into a whole passion of mine on their own. So for the first time you can hear my recordings all on their own, over 20 hours of audio cut down into the best 13 minutes. The resulting sound collage is a soothing, sometimes funny trip through everything from a mall parking garage announcing where your car is parked, a Muslim call to prayer, chirping crickets and cicadas, and so much more. If you are a musician, in a band, a DJ, a film producer, or ANYONE who uses and needs sound in their work, please contact me to arrange for a collaboration! Please reblog and pass along to anyone you think would be interested. All of my sounds are recorded with a Tascam DR-03 linear PCM/MP3 recorder in a high quality formats. Thanks and enjoy!
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