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

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.

the best new-to-me ambient album i have heard this year is the lisa gerrard album, the silver tree.
gorgeous vocals/production/sonic detail.
dark sounds vs layers vs production.
i mentioned this on the dedicated LG thread a few weeks ago and the fact that i was willing to send out cd copies to anyone interested given that the cds were being sold for bobbins.
i will of course extend that offer to the folks on this thread,
however, i will not be able to go back to the shop for a couple of weeks, due to the festive chaos, and so, there is a high probability that all of the cd copies will have been picked up by then.
but just in case.
and yes, the album is that good.
deep sensual trip hop styled ambience.
basically, the kinda stuff that soundtracks fragence adverts this time of year.

http://www.thesirenssound.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Jocelyn-Pook-Untold-Things.jpg

surely i am not the only person that thinks this is special ?

many x-posts but thank you xelab + others for the silent season recs :D

another one I've returned to quite a bit:
https://25000kittens.bandcamp.com/

very new agey & soothing, I often put it on while studying

essential:

http://www.discogs.com/Suzanne-Kraft-Talk-From-Home/release/7110013

one of my fav lps this year

the jonny nash LP on the same label is also excellent

spent so much time w/gas POP, didn't realize that Zauberberg is the real masterpiece.

they're all great but pop is not my fav!

zauberberg maybe best at invoking that sensation of motion without movement he does so well.

while we're violating the thread criteria, and since it doesn't seem to have gotten much attention here, leyland kirby's "sadly the future is no longer what it was" is my most cherished thing in this neighborhood from the past several years. it affects me so much it's kind of embarrassing: https://leylandkirby.bandcamp.com/album/sadly-the-future-is-no-longer-what-it-was

also haven't quite found a way into KAS's "euclid" like i have "tides," as others said.

loving heathered pearls from stuff posted i've listened to so far, thanks.

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

yeaahhh

http://vektroid.bandcamp.com/album/polytravellers

I've listened to "Euclid" several times this week and I'm beginning to appreciate it more and more... I guess my initial problem was that I expected it to be an ambient album of some sort, but really it's much more in Mouse on Mars vein, finding childlike joy in these hyperenergetic bursts of pretty sounds. I understand why this kinds of ADHD approach to electronic music can get tiring, but on the level of pure sonics I haven't heard a better thing this year.

Another valuable thread from Tuomas...

This wasn't my biggest year for ambient/etc. listening, and most of my favorites have been mentioned, including Jonas Munk's Absorb/Fabric/Cascade and Steve Hauschildt's Where All Is Fled. Does the Munk sample Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians, or just closely emulate it?

One 2015 treasure not yet noted here is Asmus Tietchens - Ornamente (Zwischen Null und Eins) (https://lineimprint.bandcamp.com/album/ornamente-zwischen-null-und-eins). Wonderfully delicate, transparent music made from inharmonic specks and washes of digital sound. Tietchens is evidently quite prolific, but new to me, I found the album via SFJ's 2015 EOY list (http://yearendlists.com/2015/12/sasha-frere-jones-89-favorite-albums-of-2015/).

http://dustedmagazine.tumblr.com/post/126440900914/joseph-clayton-millssifr-suppedaneum

plain and affecting, this is therapeutic listening

huntress is great too

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