Ambient Recommendations

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Tom's making it tough here. Ambient but not ambient. But we all love a challenge..;-) It seems like you're looking for something light, fun, pleasant but not too new agey. This rules out all Gas 'cept for Pop, which only gets dark at the end (and which you really should hear.) Thinking about this meade me realize how much ambient stuff I listen to has a darker flavor. Anyway, a few off the top of my head:

Susumu Yokota - Sakura or Grinning Cat (definitely fits in w/ your request for something "sentimental", and I think you'll like the variety.)
Mouse on Mars - Vulvaland
Oval - 94diskont ("Do While" seems like it could be what you're looking for)

― Mark, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Luomo, Vocalcity

― M. Matos, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Luomo, Vocalcity

I need to hear this.

― Mark, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Well the original question is a bit tougher than I thought it might be. Cos as I was saying to Jess last night, Chill Out is seen as this great seminal record but in fact almost nothing sounds much like it.

― Tom, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

maybe what we need to look into then are actual field recordings...i think i have my research project for the rest of the day.

― jess, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I've never heard Chill Out (something I've been looking for used for years...all I ever find is many copies of White Room.) What's it sound like?

― Mark, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

tom and i sort of both happened upon the field recording aspect at the same time, and it really does. conceived (although it's really to lazy to be conceptual, although everything they did was conceptual) as a "travelogue" it's sort of like an extra horizontal, americana version of "the orb's adventures beyond the ultraworld" replacing the cosmic-ness with unmanipulated samples of elvis songs, etc. it's pretty damn unique.

― jess, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

really too lazy, of course.

― jess, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It's basically meant to be a drive at night across some part of America (might be an imaginary America), drifting in and out of consciousness with the radio on. There's a great bit where it goes into a bit of Last Train To Transcentral, giving the impression that the whole album is a dream one of the other KLF records is having.

― Tom, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I read some article about it, possibly written by someone here, I'm not sure and it sounded like the best album ever. I will have it.

― Ronan, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

How timely, just bought Chill Out this week, it miraculously escaped purchase through the years. Anyways, it is pretty unique. The thing I found a bit touching was how positive it sounded. It really feels naive in that "Acieed Culture is going to change things" sorta way.

― Omar, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

That's what I like about it too Omar and kind of the point of this thread. It's such a cop-out making 'dark' records, don't you think?

― Tom, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It's such a cop-out making 'dark' records, don't you think?

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...

― jess, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'm just following my whim of the day. I'd try being a candy raver but I don't really have the waistline.

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.

― Tom, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Obviously Boards of Canada Tom, though I know you don't like them. In the AMG they are filed under ambient techno whereas the Orb and KLF are filed under ambient house but who cares. "Everything You Do Is a Balloon" is a wonderful piece of music to doze and dream to. One of the few tracks I know I'd like to put on repeat and fall asleep to. I have not yet listened to the whole of "Music Has the Right to Children", but what I have heard was good. The difference between BoC and the Orb is definitely that the Orb's music is more trance-like whereas BoC is warmer (the stuff I have listened to at least is). There are lots of samples in BoC's music. Maybe "Geogadii", the new one to come out soon is for you Tom.

― alex in mainhattan, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It's such a cop-out making 'dark' records, don't you think?

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).

― Omar, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think it’s the combination of "positive" and "good" ambient music that makes it tough. Think of how many soothing new age records are floating around (I am fascinated by the ambient/new age connection, & how the borders are much more porous than experimental electronic producers would like you to believe. There's a good article in there somewhere.)

― Mark, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

bernhardt gunther is great in an uneasy not quite sure what emotional message is being conveyed. i like the later stuff better where it's more tonal and the sounds are actually sourced from instruments. beatless - it should be borne in mind, but kinda like what i expected morton feldman to sound like before i heard his stuff. ie traces of classical rhetoric are GONE. crossing the river(night music); time, dreaming itself ; and brown on blue (or vice versa - cannae remember) (for mark rothko) are super special nothingness - recommended by me (dubious?)

― bob snoom, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Markus Guentner, Jess. And yes, it's fantastic.

Maybe "Bola- Soup"?

― Todd Burns, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think 'Orbvs Terrarvm' is underrated.

― Mind Taker, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Modulations and Transformations 4 on Mille Plateaux is my favorite one of all their overblown comps. Ambient but with lots of surprises.

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 (twenty-two years ago) link

PS Blissful ambient got old real fast, believe me.

― Ben Williams, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I can't imagine "World Receiver" being made without "Chillout" as an example. Music and field recordings together like transparencies. But if "Chill Out" is a drive across America, "World Receiver" is a train under the sea, running from freight depots in Sweden to caves under the Brazilian jungle, to a dirty bit of sidewalk in Hong Kong, and you're sort of deliberately letting your attention wander from thing to thing. Get it Tom.

Inoue's also written a piece called "Waterloo Station" that supposedly interpreted architectural drawings of the station as musick?? Has anyone heard this?

― Tracer hand, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I like Inoue's work with Atom Heart, esp. Datacide's Flowerhead, better than any of his solo stuff that I've heard. Flowerhead is just gorgeous, especially at low volume levels -- though there's a ton of stuff going on that you can only fully hear when you turn it up, it still feels full and intriguing at quiet volume. A very rich album -- when I first got it, I think I listened to it almost every night for about 2-3 months, without getting tired of it at all.

― Phil, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Somebody's already mentioned it, but Victorialand by the Cocteau Twins has got to be one of the all time great "ambient" albums. I would also recommend "Strange Cargo III" by William Orbit and "Journey into Sacchinanada" by Alice Coltrane (although this gets a bit frenetic in parts).

― justin case, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yeah blissful ambient got old but then I got old too so now I want it again.

I will get that album Tracer - sold!

― Tom, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ambient i like or music that has the "ambient effect" on me:

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 (twenty-two years ago) link

Simon Fisher Turner - Revox.

A lot of ambient sounds (by it's nature I suppose) very neutral, this record sounds very English. Ecclesiastical but quite playful. I could imagine that if Powell and Pressburger were making movies today this is the kind of soundtrack they'd use. I think he worked on Derek Jarman's blue which I haven't heard unfortunately.

― Billy Dods, Saturday, 26 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

one month passes...

try Wunder on Karaoke Kalk records. not exactly that old-school bleep vibe, but there are many amazingly filtered and interesting vocals to make up for the lack of samples. think Tortoise at their most multi-instrumental best, sliced and edited in such a way that arcs of sound from the source are fitted to new time signatures and rhythms, bpms just above heartrate, that build uniquely to crescendo where other, lesser artists would have allowed it to remain melancholy, Wunder's sounds are grounded and affirming

― chz whz, Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

My odd recommendation: the song Drown by the Golden Palominos (i.e. Anton Fier and Nicole Blackman, in that incarnation.) It is quite synthy and sexy. It fits well on a mix tape of mine against an Autechre Amber track. That album, why maybe a little too straightforward, has a few quite playful tracks. Not far off from Bola's Soup (which is another good suggestion.)

― bnw, Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I second 'Space' by KLF. Insides - Clear Skin? Or the old standards - Terry Riley's - Rainbow in Curved Air? Or Manuel Gottsching - E2-E4. Robert Fripp + Eno - Evening Star. Ryoji Ikeda's Matrix has some moments that DO incredible things or follow the advice on the Muslimgauze thread. And there's a site called minicomm.org run by plunderphonic folk PeopleLikeUs with many very eclectic sets (one of the only times I've heard someone mixing Chris Watson's Field Recordings into a set) BTW - My must-have Thomas Koner is Permafrost

― K_reg aka nick, Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Why hasn't anyone mentioned Metal Machine Musick? Huh Huh Huh?

― , Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

There's a ridiculous ad running now on US cable TV for some yuppie "Chill Out" compilation described by an English gent breathily listing Massive Attack, Tangerine Dream, Sade.....OK, mate.

Seriously, you should try Ulrich Schnauss Far Away Trains Passing By.

― Curt, Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

fuckin' Zoviet France - Shadow Thief Of The Sun !!!
Media Form - Beauty Reports
most Harold Budd

― Paul, Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

sorry Tom - helps if you read the header blurb - those (post above) are regular ambient recommendations: go to sleep to or get lost in

― Paul, Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

For som uppdats about ambient master Robert Leiner, please surf on to http://www.fleebite.to/robert%20Leiner%20infomatica.html

― Webmaster, Tuesday, 12 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

either REQ album - beats odd nosdam by a nose

― bob snoom, Friday, 15 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

six years pass...

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 (fifteen years ago) link

two years pass...

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 (thirteen years ago) link

playing around w/ that filled me w/ hope & happiness

― Lamp, Friday, 4 March 2011 01:53 (thirteen years ago) link

That's really cool ZS. Thanks for the link

― van smack, Friday, 4 March 2011 01:58 (thirteen years ago) link

two months pass...

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 (twelve years ago) link

lovin this Caretaker album. haven't fallen for an ambient record so quickly in ages

― thistle supporter (mcoll), Thursday, 16 June 2011 03:56 (twelve years ago) link

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 (twelve years ago) link

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 (twelve years ago) link

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 (twelve years ago) link

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 (twelve years ago) link

how about kenneth kirschner?

― j., Friday, 17 June 2011 09:16 (twelve years ago) link

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 (twelve years ago) link

two months pass...

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 (twelve years ago) link

Skipping 838 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

https://thme-sound.bandcamp.com/album/nocens

quite calming

― Lowell N. Behold'n, Friday, 22 December 2023 18:54 (three months ago) link

Great discounts on one of my favorite long-form producers. Gorgeous suites of various spaced sonics and muted beats. https://variantsonics.bandcamp.com/ Code is xmas23

― Psychocandy Apple Grey (Pyschocandles), Sunday, 24 December 2023 08:40 (three months ago) link

Donnacha Costello is shutting down his bandcamp and everything is pay what you like. There's some fantastic stuff in there.

https://donnachacostello.bandcamp.com/

― droid, Sunday, 24 December 2023 14:23 (three months ago) link

23 for 23.

https://www.mixcloud.com/DublinDigitalRadio/no-place-like-drone-271223-23-for-23/

1. Fortresses - Hear - Dragon’s Eye (07/23)
2. Kate Carr - Unlikely to be heard - A Field Guide To Phantasmic Birds - Room40 (11/23)
3. Jeannine Schultz - Picture No. 1 - Pure - Polar Seas (08/23)
4. Sebby Kowal - Goodnight - Wonders - Decaying Spheres (29/12/23)
5. Savvas Metaxas - 01 - Magnetic Loops III - Line (04/23)
6. Tape Loop Orchestra - Part 2 - Onde Sinusoïdale Et Bande Magnétique - Quiet Details (11/23)
7. Ian Hawgood - Movement VIII - and then there was nothing - Home Normal (06/23)
8. Andrew Heath & Anne Chris Bakker - Muen - Solia - Polar Seas (08/23)
9. Marja Ahti - Shrine (Aether) - Tender Membranes - Black Truffle (09/23)
10. Lawrence English & Lea Bertucci - Dust Storm - Chthonic - American Dreams (08/23)
11. Natalia Beylis - Black Sea, 1967 - Mermaids - Touch Sensitive (09/23)
12. Brian Eno - And Let It In (Instrumental) - Foreverandevernomore (Forever Voiceless Edition)
13. Cv313 - suspended in a moment [someplace else] - Suspended In A Moment [Someplace Else] W/Variant Refocus - Not On Label (03/2023)
14. Ola Sandberg - 3/3 - Invisible Room Volume Two - Castles in Space (10/23)
15. Linnley - Foregone Delusion - Filiform - Space Surgeries (12/23)
16. Isolated Community - Into The Mirror - Pit Full of Ghosts - See Blue Audio (01/23)
17. Marta Salogni & Tom Relleen - March - Music for Open Spaces - Hands In The Dark (05/23)
18. Yara Asmar - three clementines on the counter of a blue-tiled sun-soaked kitchen - Synth Waltzes And Accordion Laments - Hive Mind Records (10/23)
19. K-Group - Occasional Garden - New Series 1 - Knotwilg (09/23)
20. Lia Kohl - became daily today - The Ceiling Reposes (03/23)
21. Liz Helman - The Colour of Water - The Colour of Water - Flaming Pines (11/23)
22. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Severed Belonging - Severed Belonging (09/23)
23. Anja Lauvdal - Silk - Farewell to Faraway Friends Vol 1 & 2 - Small-town Supersound (08/23)

― droid, Tuesday, 2 January 2024 19:10 (three months ago) link

three weeks pass...

will be cool to check out.

realizing i may have misplaced my cassette copy of Ambient 1 and i'm super bummed. hoping to find it when i move soon.

― Swen, Monday, 29 January 2024 18:49 (two months ago) link

three weeks pass...

wondering if would be apt to start a thread for "daytime ambient" or "upbeat ambient" - stuff i listen to while i'm at work

would anyone else have a need for this / know of a thread that already exists / is this useless given the availability of other threads?

― Swen, Thursday, 22 February 2024 16:11 (one month ago) link

I'd be interested in that thread!

― OneSecondBefore, Thursday, 22 February 2024 18:14 (one month ago) link

For awhile I had an 'office techno' (very distinct from business techno obviously) playlist, very minimal/dubby/repetitive stuff. Can't remember what was all on it but like Basic Channel, the new Donato Dozzy would fit, etc.

― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Thursday, 22 February 2024 19:21 (one month ago) link

I'd definitely follow the thread but not entirely sure what 'upbeat ambient' is!

― I would prefer not to. (Chinaski), Thursday, 22 February 2024 20:25 (one month ago) link

Deepchord?

― Evan, Thursday, 22 February 2024 20:26 (one month ago) link

Sofie Birch

― default damager (lukas), Thursday, 22 February 2024 21:11 (one month ago) link

my pal Ceremonial Abyss put out a new one that's pretty lovely, to my ears.

https://ceremonialabyss.bandcamp.com/album/betrayal

― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Thursday, 22 February 2024 23:37 (one month ago) link

I'd definitely follow the thread but not entirely sure what 'upbeat ambient' is!

― I would prefer not to. (Chinaski), Thursday, February 22, 2024 8:25 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

you know, what got me thinking about it is putting on xtal by aphex twin. and sort of a go hawaii vibe by casino versus japan. that's sort of where my mind goes in this venture. maybe I'll do it, it would be seriously useful for me.

― Swen, Saturday, 2 March 2024 21:58 (one month ago) link

though I think daytime is a better descriptor than upbeat, I just don't want to feel like I'm swimming in dark underwaters when I'm working, although I pretty much would like to feel like that at all other times

― Swen, Saturday, 2 March 2024 22:03 (one month ago) link

The Detroit Variant group (cv313, Intrusion) just put out a bunch of lovely long form pieces. Kind of expensive ($18 each) but each one is 2 hours plus of some great clouds of sound.

https://variantsonics.bandcamp.com/album/analogue-oceans-w-digital-exclusive-limited-edition-set-variant-conduction
https://variantsonics.bandcamp.com/album/suspended-in-a-moment-someplace-else-w-variant-refocus
https://variantsonics.bandcamp.com/album/depths-of-perception-submerging-waves-variant-submersion
https://variantsonics.bandcamp.com/album/subtraktive-reprise-w-variant-etherscapes

― Psychocandy Apple Grey (Pyschocandles), Saturday, 2 March 2024 22:25 (one month ago) link

inoue’s ambiant otaku is so goddamned good

― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 3 March 2024 12:25 (one month ago) link

am I the only one that gets into Iasos? I guess he's pretty (very? lol) new agey but I'm obsessed

― Swen, Wednesday, 6 March 2024 13:56 (one month ago) link

inter-dimensional music is an all time classic

― c u (crüt), Wednesday, 6 March 2024 14:40 (one month ago) link

yessssss so glad i didn't just out myself haha <3

― Swen, Wednesday, 6 March 2024 14:43 (one month ago) link

https://lakemary.bandcamp.com/album/its-okay-you-can-open-your-eyes-now

this was posted on the fahey thread, wonderful steel guitar work

― corrs unplugged, Thursday, 7 March 2024 12:01 (one month ago) link

:) lake mary is so good

― z_tbd, Thursday, 7 March 2024 15:58 (one month ago) link

two weeks pass...

this is one of those random records that blows up due to the youtube algorithm. pretty good i thought

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZacsXFFbWk
Witan - Alchemy

― budo jeru, Tuesday, 26 March 2024 04:53 (three weeks ago) link

three weeks pass...

Really excited about this one:

https://htoo.bandcamp.com/album/cycle

― Evan, Thursday, 18 April 2024 16:34 (two days ago) link

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1283938153_10.jpg

― Evan, Thursday, 18 April 2024 16:34 (two days ago) link

Ooh! Great cover art, and that sample song is awesome. I'm excited now too.

― OneSecondBefore, Friday, 19 April 2024 18:21 (yesterday) link

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