Like a consistent undercurrent, there’s some artists that seem to have been around for years, cropping up with beautiful releases and never failing to please, never straying too far from their craft and consistently earning respect from likeminded producers and listeners. Michael Cottone is one of them. Hailing from Detroit, he dig deeps to find the beautiful textures and sounds of ambient music, sometimes straying into the more dubbier stuff, but always rooted in the softly-softly, dreamy approach we love here at ASIP.
With releases on notorious labels such as Tench, SEM (now retired) and more recently Dronarivm, Michael represents an ever evolving yet timeless genre of music that is designed for escapism, further more described by himself as “optimistic nostalgia”. You’ll find elements of shoegaze, drone, dub, and heavy processing throughout his catalogue, with a desire to “blur the lines between soundscape and structure”. Michael’s latest album ‘Expanses‘ and his previous, ‘Dustloops’ epitomise this approach, with for example, melodic downtempo tracks such as ‘On Golden Swamp’ sitting comfortably next to the processed dubby ambient sounds in ‘Green Being’.
As you can imagine, his influences and his isolatedmix could’ve attempted to summarise his many influences styles and approaches, but instead Michael has chosen to focus on the more ambient side to his music. Those familar with these artists will already be able to feel the warmth and grain in this mix – a homage to the many ambient artists out there that take good care in wrapping you in comforting music.
“This is my take on an ambient mix, although it’s not all purely ambient in the traditional sense. What most of these pieces probably have in common is a certain timeless sound. I love music that has a textural, almost tactile – some grit and dirt. What would it sound like if you buried some of your favorite vinyl, dug it up after 50 years and played it? In my opinion, there is no better way to make something timeless than to remove it from the present, both in terms of genre and time period” – The Green Kingdom.
Download (direct)
Tracklist:
01. Stars of the Lid – Gasfarming
02. The Humble Bee – Other Sleepers
03. John Foxx & Harold Budd – Sunlit Silhouette
04. D_Rradio – Still In A Storm
05. Pawn – Entrance-Stairs
06. The Remote Viewer – Take Your Lights With You
07. Paavoharju – Ursulan Uni
08. ISAN – Cinnabar
09. David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto – World Citizen (Taylor Deupree remix)
10. Skyphone – Dream Tree Lemurs
11. Auburn Lull – Snowtongue [Dub 1_KILN Rebuild]
12. Foxes in Fiction – Static Cults
13. Jan Jelinek – Moiré (Piano & Organ)
14. Andy Stott – New Ground
15. Triola – Das Wunder Der Kulperhutte
16. Pye Corner Audio – Nostalgia Pills
The Green Kingdom Bandcamp | Facebook | Soundcloud
