Broken Lines (Mix)

 

HAL's eye

If you have ever watched Stanley Kubrick‘s 2001 – Space Odyssey, you will definitely remember the impressive scene in which the memory modules are slowly taken away from HAL, the ship’s main computer, because it started to disfunction and became a threat to the astronauts and their mission.
Just before his memory fades completely, HAL remembers being programmed to sing“Daisy”, one of his earliest digital ‘childhood memories’.

With this scene (as well as with HAL‘s name), Kubrick directly referred to the IBM 7094 computer (used to control the Mercury and Gemini space flights, as well as the Apollo missions) which was programmed to sing Daisy in 1961 – a remarkable accomplishment at that time!

Computer systems revolting, loss of memory, human utterings that seem to come from lost souls….
I guess you’d better be prepared for a dark and suspenseful listening hour …

If you have listened to this mix, I’m really curious to know what you think, so please let me know!
(and please let your friends know, also… just spread the word and make these mixes heard …  thanks for your help!)

Sequence Scheme



Playlist

Track Start – Sample Length – Artist – Title
Album Details

  • 00:00 03:33 Huan Qing – Guang Wu Road #108
    Hexiefu, 2011, FM Productions Ltd, FM3CD01
  • 01:27 02:16 Hiroki Sasajima – Nanoparticle
    Escala 2.3.1 Ice, 2012, Escala 2:3
  • 01:46 03:25 Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf – Die Hungervogellockvorrichtung
    Kall Trä, 2012, Empiric Records emrec 1
  • 03:51 01:46 Maile Colbert/Simon Whetham – Light Brutal
    Meditations on Light, Reconstructions, 2011, Monochrome Vision mv35
  • 04:47 01:11 Neil Milton – The Broken Lines
    Brave New World, 2011, FeedbackLoop Label FB010
  • 06:02 01:43 Pierpaolo Leo – Bioluminescence
    Underwater Noises, 2010, Ephre Imprint IC/eph01
  • 06:28 01:50 Alio Die – Little Pain
    Funeral Songs, 2001, Crowd Control Activities CCA 026
  • 07:25 03:33 Max Richter – When She Came Back
    Elle S’Appelait Sarah, 2010, Jade 6997269
  • 09:24 05:06 Loscil – Endless Falls
    Endless Falls, 2010, Kranky krank141
  • 12:57 02:15 Ex.Order – Shuchu Ryoku Part 3
    Incendium III, 2011, Loki Foundation LOKI 54
  • 14:31 02:33 Specta Ciera – There Were No More Days After That
    Ceci N’Est Pas Une Pipe, 2009, Public Spaces Lab PS010
  • 15:23 04:17 Somatic Response – Fear Chasing Hope (Zombie Subway HC Edit)
    …And Darkness Came, 2012, Headphone Commute HCD001
  • 16:45 04:52 Stanley Kubrick – HAL Memory Unload Sequence
    2001, A Space Odyssey, 1968, MGM
  • 18:22 06:02 Runar Magnusson – The Heathen Harp: A Pärt for the Dreamachine
    Options, 2009, Hljóðaklettar – #HKUSB1
  • 21:31 01:55 Holly Herndon – Breathe
    Movement, 2012, RVNG Intl RVNGL 15
  • 23:15 01:45 [Blank] – Sueño
    Sueño, 2012, F4TMusic F4TS001
  • 23:50 02:52 Dustin O’Halloran – Fragile No. 2
    …And Darkness Came, 2012, Headphone Commute HCD001
  • 25:33 05:20 Richard Chartier – Rendered 1_2009
    10, 2011, Room40 DRM410
  • 27:16 05:19 Y Create – Diablo Coast Range
    The Walls Are Whispering vol. II, 2004, EE Tapes EE05
  • 31:33 02:01 Pawel Grabowski – Untitled
    Essays on Radio: Can I Have 2 Minutes of Your Time?, 2005, Cronica 020
  • 32:14 03:31 Carlos Suarez – Vanitas
    Escala 2.3.1 Ice, 2012, Escala 2:3
  • 33:53 02:27 Enrico Coniglio – Calls of the White
    Dialogue One, 2011, Silentes CD 201128
  • 35:51 03:40 Alva Noto – Stalker (For Andrei Tarkovsky)
    For 2, 2010, Line Line_044
  • 38:35 00:59 Kate Carr – One Minute For the Stars
    One Minute For the Stars, 2011, SEM Label, SEM 011
  • 38:37 04:34 Runar Magnusson – The Delicate Work of the Creator
    The Greatest of the Great, 2005, Hljóðaklettar
  • 39:13 08:52 Sala – The Hollow Pine
    Somewhere on the Edge, 2012, Gruenrekorder GRUEN 100
  • 40:19 06:15 Antonymes– Collapsed
    Five Pieces, 2012, Rural Colours RC050
  • 46:10 01:15 Machinefabriek – Cymbal (edit)
    Sequence 3, 2012, Future Sequence SEQ003
  • 46:33 03:05 Andrew Liles – Foreigner
    New York Doll, 2004, Infraction INFX 013
  • 48:36 02:20 Atom TM – Vienna
    1I3835Tra3Um3, 2010, Rather Interesting RI 067
  • 49:55 03:36 Lawrence English – A Ballad for the Machine
    Loud Listening, 2012, Cronica 067
  • 51:51 03:44 Dead Voices On Air – From Afar All Sparks and Glee
    From Afar All Sparks and Glee, 2010, Lens Records LENS0118
  • 54:14 05:01 Bass Communion – Dronework
    Dronework, 2005, Headphone Dust HDBCCD14
  • 56:50 01:35 IBM 7094 – Daisy Bell
    programmed by John Kelly and Carol Lockbaum,
    accompaniment programmed by Max Matthews (1961)
  • 59:15 End

Download Broken Lines Now 99Mb (59:15 min.)
[Alternative download from Archive.org]
[DTS – Surround Version also available]
 
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do,
I’m half crazy all for the love of you.
It won’t be a stylish marriage,
I can’t afford a carriage,
But you’d look sweet upon the seat
Of a bicycle built for two.
(Harry Dacre, 1892)

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

35 Comments

  1. Peter Spaargaren (via Facebook)

    I love these mixes. Would it be possible to release it on other platforms like Spotify? It’d make it a lot easier to listen to on the road and such 👍

      1. Peter Spaargaren (via Facebook)

        Damn, I can’t stress enough how much I enjoy this. It’s so fascinating to listen to. Mindboggling sound design full of surprises throughout. Each track does something completely unique and I’m in constant awe of the skill of the artists that create these magnificent pieces. Not to mention how it’s mixed so perfect, creating some amazing moods / stories that simply can not be compared with anything else.
        I’ll be going through the full collection now. Any personal favorites / recommendations that I should check out first? 🙂
        Thanks for making these mixes. It’s truly appreciated.

    1. Ash

      This is one of the best ambient mixes I’ve ever heard. I’ve burnt it to CD as I don’t stream and it gets played often. I’ve paid good money for ambient mixes which aren’t half as good as this.

      1. Thank you very much for these lovely words, they make me happy!

        BTW – if you’re used to paying for mixes, might I suggest the Donate button on the right? 😉
        (Just joking of course – the mixes are free to download because I use other people’s music to create them, so I should not make any money from their work. It’s just a labour of love!)

  2. Toshiba-3 (via Mixcloud)

    Well, that was really great. Also funny ’cause I added a mixtape featuring HAL as well the same day. However the unload sequence is the part I didn’t want to use 🙂

  3. Devin Underwoord (via Twitter)

    It’s actually not your fault. The net label that released that song mis-spelled the artist name.
    Thank you VERY much for your support! Glad you enjoy my music. 🙂

  4. Stephen Fruitman (via mailinglist)

    The number of books written on a subject is hardly a serious barometer of veracity and Amazon is not exactly the Index of Research Abstracts. None of these madcaps is taken the least bit seriously by the scientific and scholarly community. Their “research” is tendentious and quite frankly mainly made up of a little fact mixed with a lot of fiction. (Like Fox News.) But like you, I too would rather stick to the music in this forum.

  5. Simon Baush (via mailinglist)

    Oh yes, let me correct my point here. Anything below is pure, unsubstaniated speculation by wild-eyed conspiracy theorists. Now go back to Fox News and believe everything they tell you because hey, it’s on TV, so it must be true.

    Just kidding, do a search on amazon for mind control, monarch programming, mystery religions of babylon.. and see how many books were written on the subject. But anyway, I should have posted this on the website directly. Sorry for being off-topic. Keep the good mixes coming Peter!

  6. Stephen Fruitman (via mailinglist)

    With all due respect, shouldn´t this be prefaced by the fact that the info is pure, unsubstaniated speculation by wild-eyed conspiracy theorists?

  7. Simon Baush (via mailinglist)

    I’m about halfway through my second listening and it’s pretty good indeed!
    I’ve always been fascinated by Kubrick’s 2001. As in most of his movies, there is so much more than what meets the eye.

    As if the theme wasn’t weird enough, I’d like to add that the ‘Daisy’ tune not only refers to the computer program but to something even more sinister.. mind control. Kubrick himself was an insider from birth and he knew very well what ‘Daisy programming’ meant. If you are courageous enough, check this out: http://www.whale.to/b/mengele.html

    Chilling!
    Simon

  8. Max Delissen (via Facebook)

    Hebben we in Nederland een goed woord voor wat de Engelsen ‘mindboggling’ noemen? Volgens mij niet, dus vooruit dan maar: de nieuwe mix van Peter van Cooten is Completely and Utterly Mindboggling! Luister en huiver!!!

  9. Runar Magnusson (via Facebook)

    Check out this first mix of the year by Ambient blog / Peter Van Cooten. Amongst other things you will hear yours truly mixed with HAL 9000 being turned off. Super nice.