Mix of the Week 12/12: Only Silk 218: Chillout Sessions - Gorm Sorensen Mix
The Silk Music label pride themselves on delivering smooth ambient music that lives up to their namesake fabric. Their monthly Chillout Sessions, featured on the Only Silk radio show, shine a spotlight on their unique tone. The co-host Gorm Sorensen (aka Airillusions) is not only Silk Music's long-time A&R Coordinator of all chillout and downtempo releases but a master of mix curation.
The Danish producer specializes in chill out and downtempo music, heavily influenced by his love for piano melodies and wonderful harmonies, which shines through heavily on this mix. Every song is soft, with huge ethereal synths and wide, reverb heavy soundscapes that boom and echo out to the listener. There is a variety of ambient effects that keep the pace interesting, such as digital melodies and light trills, along with tranquil instruments like violins, pianos and jazz drums. This connects to the range of genres that Sorensen uses. The ambient effects and soft instrumentation tie every piece together, so nothing feels out of place, but the mix moves from some light electronica, to distant dubstep and to hip-hop. An example of this is Roberto Bronco’s hip-hop track ‘Move In Silence’, which has a solid beat, rapping and record scratching but it is slowed down and made more ambient with violins, reverb effects and harmonic pianos. Other standout tracks include Weathertunes’ ‘People Love’ and ‘Cure’, SineRider’s ‘Span’ and a collection of Silk Music’s own artists including Manu Zain, Allay, ElDera and Delectatio.
The one hour mix is exactly what Silk Music claims it is, a chill out session. The soft, distance of the music makes it easy to soothing the listener into a calm and relaxing state.
