Rolling ambient/chill out/drone/moodz thread: from 2010s 'til infinity!

I don't think the discussion should be limited to stuff that's just come out, but preferably we should talk about newish records, so this doesn't just turn into old fogeys reminiscing the glory days of FAX and Rising High and em:t.

To get the ball rolling, here's my top 8 ambient albums of 2015 (partially copy+pasted from the techno albums thread):

1. Raw C + Pharmakustik ‎– Anamorph Specimens
* Excellent, droney and acid-tinged ambient techno (think of early Air Liquide and Khan & Walker albums) from Atom Heart's new label, No. If you buy this from their Bandcamp page, you get a 20-minute bonus ambient remix by Material Object, which is dope too.

2. Anna Thorvaldsdottir ‎– In the Light of Air
* An excellent modern classical album from this Icelandic composer, peformed by International Contemporary Ensemble. It's droney and minimal but not discordant, so good listening for ambient lovers. The package also includes a surround mix on Bluray, which I feel is the preferable medium for this kind of music, if you just happen to have a 5.1. speaker set.

3. Thomas P. Heckmann – Ghosts
* I think this is the first "proper" ambient album by this legendary producer and gearhead. Ghosts looks and sounds like a soundtrack to some imaginary science horror film, some cold and harsh dark ambient with occasional beats; simply put, it succeeds in doing what the Monolake album of the same name didn't quite achieve.

4. & 5. Omni Vu Deity - Vuunayatu & Nuiemu Rift
* These two albums are pretty much the opposite of "Ghosts", light and colourful and breezy ambient. They're supposedly inspired by, respectively, Polynesian and African music, but I'm not sure if I hear those influences, except for some gentle percussion samples and occassional disembodied voices, so you don't have to fear cultural appropriation here.

6. Lorenzò Montana - Vari Chromo
* Mr. Montanà has been on fire lately, releasing several quality ambient and IDM albums in the last two years. This one sounds like old-fashioned "home listening techno" with its syncopated beats and moody synth melodies, so nothing groudn-breaking, but boy is this guy great at producing it.

7. Material Object + Ishq ‎– Invisible Light
* These two acts from the opposite ends of ambient music, with Ishq specializing in soothing cosmic sounds, and Material Object in metallic drones. As expected, the result of their collaboration is somewhere in between, but it works. This one is also on No.

8. Lorenzo Montanà ‎– Nihil
* Another quality release from this guy, this album is more ambient and long-form than Vari Chromo. Some lovely, subdued and organic vibes to be found.

not really bought much ambient this year, but here are a few i have and enjoyed

in no particular order

- synkro - changes : old school synths and 90s ambient-techno mellow grooves on r&s. generic at times, but very pleasant

- jens-ewe beyer - emissary : released on the newly launched kompakt ambient label offshoot, kompakt pop ambient, that's for artist albums (as opposed to the pop ambient compilations). very sunday morning vs vangelis, featuring acoustic instruments mixed in amongst the usual ear candy synthetics.

- the orb - moonbuilding : this year i hit the kompakt groove hard. and this 2015 release hit the spot perfectly.

- sherwood and pinch - late night endless : not exactly ambient, but very laid back late night bass heavy dubbed out brilliance.

- lee bannon - pattern of excellence - cant recall too much about this, but i enjoyed upon its release.

- pop ambient 2015 - yes, more of the same, but when in the mood, this stuff is very addictive.

I haven't really paid attention to them recently, but are the Ultimae artists still doing good stuff?

I found the Jens-Uwe Beyer EP that just came out (Amor dark pink tencel satin suit) a lot more engaging than Emissary, which didn't really click with me at all tbh.

Thanks for the recommendations, Mark! Synkro in particular sounds like it's right up my alley, so I'll have to check that one out.

If we can recommend stuff that's a bit older, last year Oliver Lieb released Inside Voices (on Psychonavigation), his first ambient record in 20 years, and it's amazing! Pretty much my favourite "proper" ambient album of this decade. Like his 90s ambient music on Recycle or Die, this is cosmic and completely beatless, but it's not soothing and warm, rather than ominous and cold. If you can imagine Lovecraftian sense of cosmic dread put into music, this would be quite close. One track is called "Spooky Action at a Distance", which I think summarizes neatly what the album is all about.

Kevin Drumm's Tannenbaum is so majestic, i can rarely bypass it for anything else on dark winter nights. ditto Imperial Distortion. samples available on bandcamp.

hmmmmmm, is this where i put my pretty, coffee-table beats listening (like say this years EPs from Shigeto, Made of Oak, monte booker)?

Sure!

glad tuomas said that !
tis his thread, but i am all about coffee table beats ..
anything that is recommended that i can buy in a high street music emporium the better i.e. fopp/hmv/rise

http://glisteningexamples.bandcamp.com/album/oxidation-states

just heard this today.. thick, beautiful mass laden with troubling dissonances and delightful timbres. varied tonal zones, heavy vibes throughout

I mentioned it in the Ethereal/Goth thread, where it didn't really belong other than being released by Projekt, but Stratosphere's Aftermath is really, really good in 2015:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOCE_xNuMeQ

My favorite ambient record of the year was Jonas Munk's Absorb/Fabric/Cascade--really lovely stuff.

Also Chihei Hatakeyama released I think five albums this year, most of them good, but his collaboration with Federico Durand, magical Imaginary Child, was the tops.

Other runners up: Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's A Year with 13 Moons and Sam Prekop's last album, which wasn't really ambient but was all modular synth stuff. Chris Bissonnette put out a nice one on Kranky, too.

basinski: cascade - pulls the same strings he always does, the ones that walk you over to stare at the rain on the window

kaitlyn aurelia smith: tides - you just woke up and you can float above the heap of thoughts on suspended waves of synthesis for a little while, calmly

some of my favs from 2015 (these are all on Spotify in the US):

Sarah Davachi – Qualities of Bodies Permanent: incredible psychedelic analog synth/mellotron/flute drones, everyone should listen to this
https://ctatsu.bandcamp.com/album/qualities-of-bodies-permanent

Ryuichi Sakamoto / Illuha / Taylor Dupree – Perpetual: delicate and beautiful microsounds
https://12kmusic.bandcamp.com/album/perpetual

Benoît Pioulard – Sonnet
https://pioulard.bandcamp.com/album/sonnet

Thore Pfeiffer – Im Blickfeld

Ken Camden – Dream Memory

Steve Hauschildt – Where All Is Fled

Oh yeah I like that Kaitlin Aurelia Smith album too. She has another one, Euclid, that's also very good.

I want to like Euclid more but when i listen to it I hear a lot of sounds I really don't like! especially the chipmunk vocals. there are some parts that sound cool to me but too much of it just grates

I really love that Jonas Munk record though

yeah sarah davachi is great

Benoît Pioulard – Sonnet
https://pioulard.bandcamp.com/album/sonnet

This one is great. I love to put it loud on speakers and let these beautiful sounds fill the room.

The Perils album is pretty enjoyable too (Perils = Benoit Pioulard + Kyle Bobby Dunn)

Ryuichi Sakamoto / Illuha / Taylor Dupree

Max Richter Sleep is excellent although I must admit I haven't sat through the entire eight hours of it yet.

Any love here for the Northern Electronics label? Acronym, Föd Dödd, Varg (no not *that* Varg).

On the "Sleep" note, Robert Rich recently released a Bluray which compiles two extra-long "sleep music" pieces by him, the 7 hour "Somnium", which was previously released in 2001 on DVD, and the 8 hour "Perpetual". which is a new piece. They're meant to be used as background music to doze off to; I've done that on my sofa, and the music certainly works well like that. But considering the length, they're also suprisingly rich in tecture... Obviously, on the surface level they are very slow and unmoving, otherwise they wouldn't serve the sleep function properly, but there's a lot going on beneath the surface.

http://www.discogs.com/Robert-Rich-Perpetual-A-Somnium-Continuum/release/6204275

"tecture" = "texture"

After being inactive for almost ten years, Northaunt returned this year and Istid I-II should be a sure thing for anyone who liked Biosphere's 'arctic' period.

e/tape

https://soundcloud.com/etape/t-12

http://www.touchmusic.org.uk/images/245x/TO48.jpg

a classic

also, https://noticerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/i-hope-you-like-the-universe

came out this year, very finely detailed and subtle.

gotta second Imperial Distortion (Drumm), it's both airy and massive sounding.. definitely heavier than the Toral stuff, but calming in its massiveness. still put it on to help me sleep

n.b. leave off the last track, "we all get it in the end", for your sleepytime playlist

Haptic is also excellent.. fantastically detailed compositions. Abeyance, for instance, is very slight and airy on the surface but there's remarkable volume and detail to its makeup.

mattress.... i do it every time (take off that track), hah

Jason Lescalleet's The Pilgrim has a similar 'surprise', sonically very similar. another hour-long piece worth getting familiar (it's on Bandcamp)

kaitlyn aurelia smith: tides

Hey, thanks for recommending this, I bought it from Bandcamp. Like Crüt, I was a bit weirded out by some of the elements in "Euclid" (though I still like them if I'm in the right mood), but this is just excellent ambient music, so oceanic and soothing.

Any love here for the Northern Electronics label? Acronym, Föd Dödd, Varg (no not *that* Varg).

i'm a fan, these are really really good:

http://www.discogs.com/Ulwhednar-Withatten-1892/master/635076

http://www.discogs.com/D%C3%85RFDHS-M%C3%B6rkret-Kylan-Tystnaden-Ensamheten/master/890509

i'm prob repeating myself from the noize dude thread but

this is an absolute classic, everyone listen to it right now
http://www.discogs.com/Heathered-Pearls-Loyal/master/554972

Thanks for starting the thread Tuomas!

Seraphim Rytm's Aeterna album is my fave ambient thing lately, it is apparently inspired by Tarkovsky and his obsession with water, like a lot of stuff on the Silent Season label it is very watery/evocative of nature type ambient.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XKBTIMGk60

yea I love that too

what are some other standouts on silent season? not too familiar

been playing this jack jutson album a lot lately:
https://youtu.be/_Zce6sKmbek

<3 how each track has some type of wind sound rustling around it

Oh yeah, that's good stuff.

Dream Carpets too

https://youtu.be/a4-HcZAa_Yo?list=PLN3rJSAGi0v3ryuJL7eQ5PGrc3J6ePpj5

http://www.discogs.com/Alva-Noto-Xerrox-Vol2/release/1610507

alva noto - xerrox vol. 2 -- similar to tim hecker's work, though it's more exquisite.. super-fine textures and tonal zones. volume 3 was released this year, but it doesn't feel so well-realized.

xxxp

There is an excellent Silent Season comp. Asc has made 2 excellent albums this year and I quite dig Purl and a couple of years back I absolutely loved the Segue album, their follow up - not on SS - wasn't much cop though. They are not the most prolific of labels but I really admire their commitment to such a good aesthetic.

Wow @ this thread. So much to catch up on.

I'm serious about that Heathered Pearls album, it was one of those "I've been hearing this music in my head all my life" experiences

xerrox vol. 3 is fantastic imo, probably my favourite of 2015 in this vein

Asc has made 2 excellent albums this year

Yeah was about to mention that, I really liked Imagine The Future even though it sounds at times a bit too close to FSOL and Burial. Fervent Dream is the minimalist one, I have only just got that but sounds great on first listen.

If we can recommend stuff that's a bit older, last year Oliver Lieb released Inside Voices (on Psychonavigation), his first ambient record in 20 years, and it's amazing!

Speaking of techno artists releasing surprise ambient albums ...

http://editionsmego.com/release/EMEGO-215

I checked the Silent Season bandcamp page, but it seems all their CDs are sold out, even the one that came last month. :( And I'm not really into paying 12$ + taxes for a digital release alone. Do you have to like pre-order their stuff so you might get a copy?

I'm a big fan of Natalie Beridze/TBA, and enjoyed her ambient album this year, "Between The Naps," which also included her prepared piano pieces (not "prepared" in the John Cage sense, more like programmed via computer)
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUSRfoOcUe4b-Ok7VE3lQNYCIiuA4b_Um

She's also on the Gacha album "Send Two Sunsets," which isn't entirely ambient, but is mostly downtempo/lush. One of my faves this year.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLu6sgxcUkSyMfFg3kgEmZ5MSmFW_PWbkC

if only that surgeon was on cd.
sounds fantastic.

Anyways, speaking of decent prizes for digital music, I noticed you can buy all the digital releases (excluding the two of her albums which have been released on CD) by French ambient producer Zalys for 4.50 Euros or more:

https://zalys.bandcamp.com/

Her music is very traditional space ambient, just glacial cosmic drones and synths with no beats, so there's few surprises there, but if this kind of "slowly drifting through galaxies" music appeals to you (as it does to me), you get over 5 hours of that stuff for peanuts.

Maybe this is familiar to people, but I'm really enjoying this Alessandro Cortini record from 2017 after listening to an interview with him:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6fXNm5RvqVEMi2X7368caX?si=d262565de87b4fe6

Apparently all made on a Roland MC 202 in hotel rooms. Also he dropped approximately 1 million archival records on Bandcamp this year.

Making an album on a single piece of gear is very much my shit

love that Cortini record, glad it's still finding listeners.

yeah, I'm a big fan of Cortini's stuff!

if you haven't heard it already, I recommend checking out this M. Geddes Gengras album which was made on a Korg Volca FM (and in a hotel room like the Cortini):
https://umorrex.bandcamp.com/album/hawaiki-tapes

Ooh thanks! I too recently made an EP using the Volca FM primarily, but like sequenced dance music using samples for all of the bass and drums. The Cortini record made me wonder if I could do something more live & dubby with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZuea6aD3vw

Sort of weightless black metal/drone/shoegaze from a moniker of Golden D0nna/Auscultati0n:

https://regionalattraction.bandcamp.com/album/did-you-find-my-letter

Cross-post this to the rolling jazz, chill lo-fi beats to study to, and rolling low-passed L.A. post-Low End Theory people playing instruments threads

https://samgendelsamwilkes.bandcamp.com/

Also very Lounge Lizards-y at times

love the first one. that blake mills/pino palladino record has lots of wilkes on it too, similarly good

nice I really loved Sam Gendel’s album from last year. on the surface it’s like like jon hassell doing jazz standards but the weird production gives it a different vibe

Yeah, I love that, it's like its own radio station

I feel like this belongs here somehow - I'm going back to Jacaszek's 2001 LP "Glimmer" and this is just my sort of thing. Romantic electro-acoustic ambient with lots of dark lush timbres, wide soundscapes, a good mix of ... well everything, really - sampled traditional instruments, harsh electronic noise, harmony and dissonance. Looking forward to his other work, I'm going to check out KWIATY next.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-dq9Zn-UyQ

near the top of my list of "artists no one is obsessed with but me"

I really like that— he seems to have stopped making music.

glad you like it!

he's still going actually, I dig this from 2018: http://michaeltrommer.blogspot.com/2018/10/executive-shore-unawatuna-sri-lanka.html

https://www.discogs.com/artist/497234-Michael-Trommer

but yeah his newer stuff is very different. wish there was more hydraulic material.

also, if you like that, the rest of the comp it's on (Magnetic Blue, from Interchill) is worth checking out.

just loving the Sofie Birch album

is she part of a ... scene? I see a lot of collaborators on this record.

good question

a lot of the collaborators are from Copenhagen, afaik joined by common taste, interests, friends

but the international stuff I dunno, if there's a scene I'd like to be more familiar with it

https://lilienrosarian.bandcamp.com/album/every-flower-in-my-garden

"RYMbient" album that splits the difference between pastoral/cozy/childlike ambient and tape noise — riyl Nuno Canavarro, Colleen, Tim Hecker. ideally this should be used a soundtrack for a Netflix adaptation of Marianne Dreams/Paperhouse

I've also been loving Foresteppe and you c's Seven Sleepers EP from 2016. more folky and less noisy but sort of in the same vein

(er, 2009, not 2016)

(er, it actually was from 2016, not 2009. first thought best thought)

I like the Rosarian album, tho it has taken a minute to grow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTb4dlByJfc

yes please

https://laraajinumero.bandcamp.com/album/segue-to-infinity

$10 for the digital version of a 4LP set!

no previews, sadly, releases today though?

This Rival Consoles album from last year (Now Is) is really nice. Mostly beatless rhythmic synth pieces. I've seen the name but never really checked anything out until now.

I've really liked a few of his albums though he walks a fine line for me, the noisier and more experimental he is, the better.

Persona grabbed me the most. It is a good deep-listening headphones album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwS5cpqFCvo

Maria Steed - Green Eyes

sailing out to sea

Made some really great discoveries through the latest Trilogy Tapes NTS show, most notably Ernest Hood (jazz guitarist who lost the ability to play and walk from polio, made some amazingly ahead of their time records on zither and synth in the '70s, maybe all you hipsters already know about them?):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvFdJqbV8a4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUdSrNAgr2Y

And this lovely EP of tactile piano/cello/guitar pieces (Flaer - Preludes):

https://flaermusic.bandcamp.com/album/preludes

This new Moritz Von Oswald record is something, drone-y but has so much detail and depth with the choir elements, and just enough rhythm lurking under the surface

Really lovely record from Memotone on The Trilogy Tapes:

https://thetrilogytapes.bandcamp.com/album/tollard

I’m enjoying this Purelink album on Peal Oil:

https://purelink.bandcamp.com/album/signs

very chill moodz

Glad to see that record has somehow had such reach, I've enjoyed Akeem's dance music for years

xp hearing the Purelink for the first time after noticing it on Pitchfork's AOTY list -- brilliant stuff

Not sure where to put this, but I would have nominated it for the EOY poll if I had heard it a few weeks ago (came out in December). Pretty stunning electronics + Rhodes + vocal improvisations.

Joseph Branciforte + Theo Bleckmann - LP2
https://josephbrancifortetheobleckmann.bandcamp.com/album/lp2

no idea who ferdi schuster is but this rules

https://cosimapitz.bandcamp.com/album/nun

YES!!

I recently discovered that label exploring Gespensterland connections, love most of it

same label also did this stunning 90-minute tape of Arvo Part on guitar

https://cosimapitz.bandcamp.com/album/wherever-i-go

(which I fell asleep to just last night)

damn, i can already tell i'm gonna play the shit out of this

ha I immediately bought like six tapes from that label, the Balruin and Spiritual Emojis ones are good too

*Baldruin

Part album is sounding very lovely, ty sleeve

<3

immense vibe on this track

https://ufordia.bandcamp.com/track/earth-love

This is more like a film score than ambient music per se, but it's super good

https://svbkvlt.bandcamp.com/album/ministry-of-tall-tales