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

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'm guessing everybody is too chilled out to rave about that Heathered Pearls album. I'm serious, if you like Gas or the melodic stuff on SAW 2... you will not be disappointed. No I'm not street teaming I just really really love this record.

ALSO: Strike by 154 (aka newworldaquarium) is a semi-recent classic of very minimal gauzy warm ambient house (as much as Gas is ambient house, anyway)

Strike is like a real time soundtrack of watching the sun set over a smog filled city

copped the Loyal album upon seeing the first mention of it, but have barely listened to it. it's pleasant, though. the music has a warm, degraded quality.. like it's worn. parts of it reminded me of philip jeck, with the repetition and delay. but it's more sweet, melodic. also, the fun years. strong 'the fun years' vibe

Yeah, that sweet warm degraded sound.. It's like van halen's brown sound compared to top flight sterile robot crap

http://www.discogs.com/Minus-A-Rainy-Koran-Verse-UK-Live/release/629227

breaking the rule again, but i heard this just recently. if you've any love for the final track of I'm Happy, and I'm Singing, and a 1, 2, 3, 4 by jim o'rourke, it's up your alley.. it's really spare but it has a similar sense of bittersweet/melancholy. not pulse-oriented, however

just gave that heathered pearls album a listen while hugging a napping cat <3 it is v beautiful, thank you for the rec

something about it reminds me of a hazier ver of the yume nikki ost in a way i am finding it hard to articulate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGM8-YN5B64

the loops feel v sweet & emotional on tracks like "left climber". it's like gas, yes...

curious about this label: http://www.discogs.com/label/19403-Spekk

ambient labels should strive for more individuality. i really hate "movie soundtrack" ambient. i even started a dumb thread about it, i think!

http://s3-origin-images.politico.com/news/101007_lou_dobbs_face_ap_328.jpg

https://youtu.be/9bCPU305vpE

Dirk Serries + Rutger Zuydervelt - Buoyant (album preview)

has a sort of Fennesz/Stars of the Lid vibe.. pleasant

Eleh – Homage is incredible: http://open.spotify.com/album/5wiZraNKzkUN6CwbXJnVAF

I love this album art, too. Not sure if it was on the original or just the reissue.

http://importantrecords.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/release_full/imprec/homage_final_0.jpg

slsk'ing it now, thanks :)

You know when you come across an album and it's so directly in your sweet spot you might as well have pulled the thing out of your heart? Why did I only just discover Eyvind Kang's Live Low to the Earth, in the Iron Age? Absolutely glorious.

barbieri as good as ever <3

xp forgot to respond to jordan but those all rule too, went through them yesterday - the jakobsons record probs the highlight

Just sticking my head into this thread to see if Sa Pa's "Ambeesh" has been recommended and it hasn't so here I am to let you know it's recommended

https://sa-pa.bandcamp.com/album/ambeesh

First track here is all-time icy ambient. Still figuring out how I feel about the rest.

https://kevinrichardmartin.bandcamp.com/album/sub-zero-2026-remaster

This Rod Modell Frequencies In The Fog album is really nice

https://silentes.bandcamp.com/album/frequencies-in-the-fog

wow, really feeling this kwes. album kinds on warp. reverbed out reveries. i totally vibe with this stuff

https://www.discogs.com/release/36669901-Kwes-Kinds

srry, meant to post bandcamp link https://kwesmusic.bandcamp.com/album/kinds

The Booker Stardrum album is very very good.

Appleblim!

https://quietdetails.bandcamp.com/album/liminal-tides

New Rosenau & Sanborn is really good, I loved the first one.

Possibly the shortest EP that I'll love this year (under 8 min!), but Bossada is one of my very favorite underrated musicians (saxophone/piano/producer)

https://bossada.bandcamp.com/album/living-room

This is really excellent, very detailed and tactile (and engaging while still being, y'know, ambient)
https://quietdetails.bandcamp.com/album/thoughts-persist

This is an extremely strong addition to the fake gamelan canon:

https://tylerfriedman.bandcamp.com/album/metlasr

New Hatchback album is glorious. Four long form ambient pieces that are a balm for the soul

https://hatchbackk.bandcamp.com/album/phaser-for-the-ocean-chorus-for-the-moon

v nice

I seem to fall under the ambient umbrella, and this is my new one:

https://chrisirregardless.bandcamp.com/album/honeycomb-ghost-logic

I've been rinsing these Damian Dalla Torre albums, 'I Can See My Dreams' and 'Happy Floating'. Really rich albums, good writing, lots of live instruments, very Tortoise-y at times but also veering into more electronic territory.

https://damiandallatorre.bandcamp.com/album/happy-floating

https://damiandallatorre.bandcamp.com/album/i-can-feel-my-dreams

sounds great! love the live instrumentation

the hatchback album really hitting the spot, too

https://maximedenuc.bandcamp.com/album/nachthorn

Nachthorn takes its name from one of the 78 stops that make up the main organ in St. Antonius Church in Düsseldorf. This instrument, equipped with a system developed by the German company Sinua, offers the possibility of controlling all of its keyboards and timbres via a computer. The organ thus becomes a powerful synthesiser.

MIDI-controlled giant organ! second track is the one to preview in order to get hooked

― disco stabbing horror (lukas), Wednesday, 1 October 2025 00:17 (seven months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ctrl-F'd for this, as I only recently heard it. It's astounding

Excellent sax drone:
https://p-e-r-f-label.bandcamp.com/album/morte-lil-s

― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Friday, February 27, 2026 1:55 PM (two months ago) bookmarkflaglink

been listening to this almost constantly for months

Nice! I've been going back to this one on Moon Glyph (Lynn Avery & Cole Pulice), just gorgeous. Love the Ambrose Akinmusire cameo.

https://moonglyph.bandcamp.com/album/phantasy-reality

That Forca Maior link is broken now, I think the label changed their bandcamp url?

https://p-e-r-f-co.bandcamp.com/album/morte-lil-s

Excellent new one from Malcolm Pardon of Roll The Dice:
https://malcolmpardon.bandcamp.com/album/flesh-and-bones