Oh - this vein = ambient records that are sentimental, that you can go to sleep to or get lost in, but that are paradoxically full of charming individual moments. Lots of great samples would be a plus, ha!
I do have a bit of other ambient - mostly not on CD which is one reason I can't put it on - but I'm not going to start listing the CDs I rejected cos it might limit your choices.
― Tom, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
Moving beyond the 'duh, Eno' factor -- Lull and Thomas Koner are both very good if not exactly merry.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― Melissa W, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― chippy, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
WELL. Hm...weird as it may sound, you could almost call His Name is Alive's second album ambient. Then again, there's always Vangelis.
― william, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― Dan Perry, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― chaki, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
Ah, bless you, Dan, of course. Mi Media Naranja also does the business, as does a fair amount of Stars of the Lid.
― dbini, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― DJ Martian, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― Clarke B., Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
Aix Em Klemm, p'rhaps? (Is this a collaboration between someone from Labradford and someone from Stars of the Lid or did I dream that?) Less drone-y/more interesting than SOTL.
― clive, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
I'll also second Melissa's recommendation for Tangerine Dream's Phaedra.
― Sean Carruthers, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
I could go into a whole realm of spacey, weird ambience a la Hash Jar Tempo, Bugskull, and more.. but I'm reluctant in fear of effigies of me stamped "ROCKIST" being burned.
― Brian MacDonald, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
Tom, try: Ultramarine's Every Man & Woman Is A Star, if you haven't already. Also obviously: The Beloved's "The Sun Rising".
For blissful undulating ambience, there's Global Communication's 76 14 and Dettinger's Intershop. I'm currently listening to Miss Dinky's Melodias Venenosas i> which is quite charming rippling-but-dinky ambient synth pieces, but I'm not quite sure if I'd recommend it unreservedly yet.
As for the spacy wacky samples... that's trickier. Arguably this tendency in Orb and KLF is more a nod towards the contemporary Acid House/DJ Records boom rather than something that is inherent to much ambient. So I could see, say, early 808 State fitting the bill, but they were only ambient in fits and bursts ("Sunrise" is great though).
― Tim, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― jess, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― Brock K, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― patrick, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― Curt, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― Omar, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― michael, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― Mark, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― M. Matos, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― Tom, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― jess, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― Ronan, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
a cop out only in that it's easier than making some positive. but come on tom, you gotta agree dance tends to get good when it goes a little dark. not all the time, but...
I do think certainly in the field of 'ambience' you find 'darkness' getting a little overdone - this is surely down to the subconscious need to differentiate it from new age heh.
― alex in mainhattan, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
Maybe. The thing that always struck me in regards Eno's On Land is how dark it sounds, whereas I was expecting something more light/happy since these were supposed to be memories of childhood places. It probably is, as Jess says, harder to make something positive (just can come up with some of these Boards of Canada minatures like 'Olson' as an example, arguably some tracks on SAW 85- 92).
― bob snoom, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
Maybe "Bola- Soup"?
― Todd Burns, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― Mind Taker, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
David Toop's Screen Ceremonies is good for when you want to feel like you're watching a sadistic ritual involving monkeys in the rainforest.
Also like Lamonte Young's Well-Tuned Piano and Morton Feldman's For Samuel Beckett lately, they're kind of ambient...
Miles Davis, He Loved Him Madly.
I always thought Systemische was Oval's best album. 94 Diskont is almost all one track, and it's kind of boring after a while.
Just the very words Chill Out bring on flashbacks...
― Ben Williams, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― Tracer hand, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― Phil, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― justin case, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
I will get that album Tracer - sold!
old Biosphere stuff Solar Quest: The Orgship the Freezone compilations on SSR lots of artist on extreme records like Lights in a fat city, Vidna Obmana, Paul Schütze Autechre: amber
going back into time indeed...
― Johan, Saturday, 26 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― Billy Dods, Saturday, 26 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― chz whz, Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― bnw, Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― K_reg aka nick, Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― , Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― Curt, Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― Paul, Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― Webmaster, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
― bob snoom, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink
golden claw music.
the ambient-techno-dub spin off by bloke from PWEI.
dug this out today as a random choice and loved every minute, all of which just made me seriously wish i was part of this weekends crusty-techno-dub weekend @ glade (orb/system 7/dreadzone/the grid etc etc)
― mark e, Monday, 14 July 2008 20:02 (4 years ago) Permalink
this is my favorite ambient music of the year so far - and you made it (sorta):
http://www.inbflat.net/
― Z S, Friday, 4 March 2011 01:33 (2 years ago) Permalink
playing around w/ that filled me w/ hope & happiness
― Lamp, Friday, 4 March 2011 01:53 (2 years ago) Permalink
That's really cool ZS. Thanks for the link
― van smack, Friday, 4 March 2011 01:58 (2 years ago) Permalink
at the end of the most recent Ultima Thule podcast they played a lot of Trans Aurora, the new one by James Gordon Anderson, whose stuff I don't otherwise know but Trans Aurora sounds pretty amazing to me - almost like an inverted Steve Roach in that the notes shift relatively rapidly but occur in a similarly beatless landscape, and retain their textures but aren't as bassy...very weird stuff to my ears, really good I think
― brad whitford, witchfynder general (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, 3 June 2011 09:27 (1 year ago) Permalink
lovin this Caretaker album. haven't fallen for an ambient record so quickly in ages
― thistle supporter (mcoll), Thursday, 16 June 2011 03:56 (1 year ago) Permalink
that Caretaker album is my album of the year flat-out at this point. also notable for having a solidly interesting concept; at first the startling jumps from track to track kinda threw me, but the more I think about it the more I figure that's what remembering stuff when you've got Alzheimer's actually feels like.
― XBOX BING GOATSE (jamescobo), Thursday, 16 June 2011 06:51 (1 year ago) Permalink
i really like the two new stephan mathieu records this year, 'a static place' on 12k and 'remain' on the line label/imprint.
http://12k.com/
http://www.lineimprint.com/editions/cd/line_047/
they could just as well go on the rolling drone thread, wherever it is.
it looks like there are lot of other good ambientish and ambient-related things on 12k, some moving over more into modern-composition/new-music territory.
― j., Friday, 17 June 2011 01:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
this michael ranta, mike lewis, & conny plank record, Mu, is blowing my mind lately.
check it out here: http://holywarbles.blogspot.com/2011/05/michael-ranta-mike-lewis-conny-plank-mu.html
― dronestreet, Friday, 17 June 2011 03:22 (1 year ago) Permalink
Of the things I've heard on 12k, I think my favourites were Lawrence English's A Colour for Autumn and Giuseppe Ielasi's August. The Marcus Fischer one had lots of good write-ups last year, I need to go and listen to that again. All these are on Spotify btw if anyone's ineterested.
― cloaca flocka flame (NickB), Friday, 17 June 2011 09:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
how about kenneth kirschner?
― j., Friday, 17 June 2011 09:16 (1 year ago) Permalink
Not someone I know, but heaps of mp3's on his website:
http://www.kennethkirschner.com/
― cloaca flocka flame (NickB), Friday, 17 June 2011 09:23 (1 year ago) Permalink
stillstream.com
internet radio station that is just unbelievably good
― pathos of the unwarranted encore (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, 4 September 2011 18:20 (1 year ago) Permalink
i came here to bluster that stillstream is no sleepbot, but it sort of is. +1
― ☆, Sunday, 4 September 2011 18:40 (1 year ago) Permalink
Alio Die - Suspended Feathers: Is this good?
― qpә (EDB), Sunday, 4 September 2011 23:58 (1 year ago) Permalink
I just bought it, and it is!
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Tuesday, 15 November 2011 17:55 (1 year ago) Permalink
"Seriously, you should try Ulrich Schnauss Far Away Trains Passing By"
werd. is that 9 years old already?
also:
http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Forest-Baka-Beyond/dp/B00000062C/ref=pd_sim_m_11
as sampled in:
http://www.amazon.com/Paths-1-7-Future-Sound-London/dp/B000003RVU/ref=sr_1_6?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1321542759&sr=1-6
― messiahwannabe, Thursday, 17 November 2011 15:13 (1 year ago) Permalink
Ambient songs I've discovered recently that I'm pretty into:
But yeah, recommendations would be appreciated.
― 3×5, Thursday, 27 December 2012 04:01 (4 months ago) Permalink
i'm recording an ambient album at the moment! i suppose it would be bad for to post my own work though. i'm taking most of my inspiration from eno, + a smattering of recent chillectronic indie stuff like toro y moi, bon iver (ok not electronic or strictly ambient, but close enough for inspiration) and adding that aesthetic to the stuff my indonesian bandmates normally do. so, looking for recommendations same as 3x5.
my 3rd and 4th cents: Blade Runner Esper Edition OST
i don't think eno sounds new age-y very often though. at least not the classics like on land, ending (an ascent) etc. did you *really* not like, say, music for airports? perhaps playing in the background in another room as you do something else? i've yet to hear cheesy new age stuff that sounds at all similar to music for airports
― messiahwannabe, Thursday, 27 December 2012 04:55 (4 months ago) Permalink
*bad form