Ambient Recommendations

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (983 of them)
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-four years ago)

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-four years ago)

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

Maybe "Bola- Soup"?

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

I think 'Orbvs Terrarvm' is underrated.

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

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-four years ago)

PS Blissful ambient got old real fast, believe me.

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

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-four years ago)

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-four years ago)

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-four years ago)

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-four years ago)

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-four years ago)

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-four years ago)

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-four years ago)

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-four years ago)

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-four years ago)

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

, Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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-four years ago)

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

Paul, Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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-four years ago)

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-four years ago)

either REQ album - beats odd nosdam by a nose

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

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 (seventeen years ago)

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 (fifteen years ago)

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

Lamp, Friday, 4 March 2011 01:53 (fifteen years ago)

That's really cool ZS. Thanks for the link

van smack, Friday, 4 March 2011 01:58 (fifteen years ago)

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 (fifteen years ago)

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

thistle supporter (mcoll), Thursday, 16 June 2011 03:56 (fourteen years ago)

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 (fourteen years ago)

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 (fourteen years ago)

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 (fourteen years ago)

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 (fourteen years ago)

how about kenneth kirschner?

j., Friday, 17 June 2011 09:16 (fourteen years ago)

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 (fourteen years ago)

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 (fourteen years ago)

i came here to bluster that stillstream is no sleepbot, but it sort of is. +1

, Sunday, 4 September 2011 18:40 (fourteen years ago)

Alio Die - Suspended Feathers: Is this good?

qpә (EDB), Sunday, 4 September 2011 23:58 (fourteen years ago)

two months pass...

I just bought it, and it is!

the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Tuesday, 15 November 2011 17:55 (fourteen years ago)

"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 (fourteen years ago)

one year passes...

Ambient songs I've discovered recently that I'm pretty into:

  • Michael Hoenig - Voices of Where
  • Eno/Fripp - Wind on Water
  • Throbbing Gristle - E.Coli
I would be interested in some recommendations based on these criteria:

  • From the 70s
  • Clocks in under, or around, 10 minutes, tops
  • Stands the test of time. This doesn't mean it has to sound contemporary, but that it doesn't just sound like stock film score by today's standards, or 'New Age' in the most pejorative sense.
To me, most Eno fails to meet the third criterion, and most Kosmische or Berlin School stuff fails the first. I love 'Sunrise in the Third System' and The whole album Phaedra by Tangerine Dream, but find almost all of their other material pretty tedious, even from that time period.

But yeah, recommendations would be appreciated.

3×5, Thursday, 27 December 2012 04:01 (thirteen years ago)

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 (thirteen years ago)

*bad form

messiahwannabe, Thursday, 27 December 2012 04:55 (thirteen years ago)

one year passes...

Surprised Biosphere's substrata did not get mentioned as a "field recordings mixed with music" example. Also Cirque.
Tetsu Inoue's World Receiver is a great call. I love these kinds of albums, they do funny things to my brain.

brimstead, Sunday, 2 March 2014 19:12 (twelve years ago)

so sleepy so awake

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

cog, Sunday, 2 March 2014 19:50 (twelve years ago)

Surprised Biosphere's substrata did not get mentioned as a "field recordings mixed with music" example.

I'm not sure if there are actual field recordings on that album? I remember reading a interview of him before the album was released, where he mentioned that the album was inspired by his visit to Tibet, and to some Buddhist monastery there. The interviewer then asked if he'd taken a recorder with him, to record the music of the Buddhists and use it on the album. And he said no, he felt that it would've been wrong to record their music and use it like this, because it's sacred to them. He then explained that he didn't have any recorder with him in Tibet; the album is thematically based on the Tibet trip, but what he did was try to recreate the sounds he heard there after he trip was over, in his studio. (Though of course it's possible he did some field recordings in Norway and used them on the album,)

That seems like an interesting approach to doing this sort of ambient music, and I think that between the lines he was also criticizing the cultural appropriation of the "world techno" artists of that era, such as Banco de Gaia, who were straightforwardly sampling the (sacred) musics of other peoples.

Tuomas, Monday, 3 March 2014 08:08 (twelve years ago)

Though of course it's possible he did some field recordings in Norway and used them on the album,)
Yeah I'm just talking about what I'm hearing on the record, not anything Tibet related. Incidentally, he did release an album of field recordings from mountain climbing in the Himalayas, it was pretty cool.

brimstead, Monday, 3 March 2014 16:29 (twelve years ago)

Okay, I checked the interview, it's in the book that accompanies the Trance Europe Express 3 comp, I misremembered it a bit. It was Nepal where he went, not Tibet, but he did go to some Buddhist monastery. And he says he actually meant to bring a DAT machine along, but forgot to. He told one of the Sherpas helping him that some Westerners sample the music from this place and use it in their productions, and it was the Sherpa who said, oh, it's sacred music, they probably wouldn't be happy if you sample it. So in the end he says it was a good thing he forgot the DAT. In the interview he also explains how Substrata came to be formed by his experience in Nepal and the lack of recorder (the interview is from 1994, and he never mentions the name of the album he's working on, but I assume it's Substrata, because it was the next solo album he released after the interview, and it totally sounds like what he's describing there):

In the end, I had to use my brain as a sampler, just remember what I was hearing. You know how, sometimes you might pick a particular smell in a particular situation and then, afterwards, that smell will always bring back the original memory. I find sounds are like that too. I played my friends some stuff I was working on the other day, and they all said it brought back Nepal for them.

I guess the mountain climbing field record was done at another time, then? There's also that album he did with Higher Intelligence Agency, which was recorded live at a festival in his hometown, and which uses mostly just sounds recorded there, like the snow melting and cable cars creaking. That one's pretty good too, real old-school conceptual ambient.

Tuomas, Monday, 3 March 2014 22:12 (twelve years ago)

four years pass...

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/musicophilia_00_various_-_translucence_1974-2018_cover.jpg?w=1536


Various – ‘Translucence‘
A Tribute to Brian Eno | (1974-2018)

01 [00:00]
Yazz Ahmed – “Exhale” (2017)
Egisto Macchi – “Le Genti del Deserto” (1974)
Mnemonists – “Limbs” (1981)

02 [05:00]
Earthen Sea – “Delicately In the Sunlight” (2017)
Cliff Martinez – “Will She Come Back” (2002)

03 [09:50]
Pauline Oliveros – “Suiren” (1989)
Francisco – “Cosmic Beam Experience” (1976)
Susumu Yokota – “Saku” (2000)

04 [15:50]
Passengers – “Theme From ‘The Swan'” (1995)

05 [18:50]
Luciano Cilio – “Studio for Winds” (1977)
Paul Motian – “Psalm” (1982)
Bernard Parmegiani – “Geologie Sonore” (1975)

06 [24:20]
Daniel Littleton – “Elegy #1” (2002)
Monoton – “HZ Waltz” (1982)
David Sylvian – “The Wooden Cross” (1986)

07 [29:20]
Huun Huur Tu – “Harmonics in the Wind” (1999)
Brian Eno – “Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills)” (1982)
Peter Gabriel – “Powerhouse at the Foot of the Mountain” (1985)
Matthew Herbert – “Forest Montage” (2002)

08 [34:20]
Shoko Hikage – “Sakura Zukiyo” (2013)
Chuck Johnson – “Riga Black” (2017)

09 [41:50]
Yo La Tengo – “Shortwave” (2018)
Tod Dockstader – “Approach” (2005)
Gigi Masin – “Tharros” (1986)
Michael Brook with Brian Eno – “Pond Life” (1985)

10 [46:00]
Arvo Part – “Spiegel im Spiegel” (1976)
Robert Fripp & Brian Eno – “Wind on Water” (1975)
The Haxan Cloak – “The Mirror Reflecting (Part 1)” (2013)

[Total Time: 56:30]

Really pleased with this "thick" ambient mix--I'd say it works per the "wallpaper music" definition but works even better as sound given your attention. Features a lot of heavy mixing of multiple tracks in a very seamless flow, and stumbled across a lot of great interactions--the blend between Shoko Hikage's koto and Chuck Johnson's pedal steel pieces at around 34:20 especially seemed as if they were born to be together. Hope you'll enjoy:

https://musicophilia.wordpress.com/2018/04/03/tribute-to-brian-eno-translucence/

Soundslike, Saturday, 25 August 2018 17:31 (seven years ago)

Been listening to this tonight - really lovely! Did you use lossless sources at all? If so could I get a lossless copy?

octobeard, Monday, 27 August 2018 03:59 (seven years ago)

Looks great, can’t wait to delve in. Thx soundslike!

calstars, Monday, 27 August 2018 05:52 (seven years ago)

the meadow and the trees cracking up some bank holiday bevvies before climate change and developers pummel with fists

Melina Serser at Pluie/Noir https://soundcloud.com/pluie-noir/pluienoirpodcast079

and

Nathalia at Intrinsic https://soundcloud.com/experimentintrinsic/intrinsic-nathalia

saer, Monday, 27 August 2018 07:26 (seven years ago)

yes! it's superb

nxd, Tuesday, 21 April 2026 14:15 (one month ago)

This is in the fake gamelan zone, but I was pretty blown away by it:
https://tylerfriedman.bandcamp.com/album/metlasr

Jordan s/t (Jordan), Tuesday, 21 April 2026 14:18 (one month ago)

I'm glad you posted this again as have been meaning to listen and forgot x

nxd, Tuesday, 21 April 2026 14:23 (one month ago)

And I had a good workday recently listening to this guy's records:
https://damiandallatorre.bandcamp.com/album/i-can-feel-my-dreams

Jordan s/t (Jordan), Tuesday, 21 April 2026 14:39 (one month ago)

three weeks pass...

rote and disinterested sounding dx7 lines, some ms10, pleasant water splish-splash, very prominent meowing and sample collage
not saying i love it straight away but will revisit for sure
fans of shimizu’s ‘kakashi’ and ‘music for commercials’ should check it
https://soave.bandcamp.com/album/sullaccordo-mimetico

this is a reish on an italian label that seems pretty cool… but it looks like rvng put out a comp that got more love

Home Alone Again Or (Deflatormouse), Monday, 18 May 2026 02:14 (three weeks ago)

two weeks pass...

i've mentioned it before and it may seem a bit strange given his hard dnb background, but I'm enjoying my new Technical Itch ambient LP

he's just put out volume 9 and made the previous 8 'pay what you like'. i had the first two and this has prompted me to pick up vol7 and it's just been playing on a loop ever since.

it's quite dark, reminds me of main at times.

https://technicalitch.bandcamp.com/

koogs, Friday, 5 June 2026 02:37 (five days ago)

those are cool!

shaking babies (map), Friday, 5 June 2026 02:39 (five days ago)

started listening to vol7 on my laptop ... purchased so I could play on my full system with sub ... MUCH better

disco stabbing horror (lukas), Friday, 5 June 2026 03:14 (five days ago)

Robert Turman has a new one, I haven't heard it yet

https://robertturman.bandcamp.com/album/andromeda-flx-260

Cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria de Episcopio, Friday, 5 June 2026 04:25 (five days ago)


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.