Your nominations for the ILX AMBIENT ALBUMS POLL (nominations close on Friday, May 31st)

if you don't fall asleep to that song and dream about death, you're not even alive

so excited for this poll!!!!!

On the one hand, I think brimstead is right to raise questions about what 'ambient' means with regards to a lot of these albums. On the other hand, a lot of music I really love is being included so it's going to be a great list, whatever we call it.

Jonny Nash - Eden
Novisad - Novisad
H. Takahashi - Body trip
H. Takahashi - Low power
X.Y.R. - Reflections
Bakground - Saved Data Trilogy
Novisad - Seleya
Microstoria - SND
Rob Theakston - I Am Waiting For You To Stop Being Mad At Me
Dolphins Into The Future - Canto Arquipélago
Craig Kupka ‎– Crystals - New Music For Relaxation 2

(23/30)

Robert Fripp and Brian Eno - Evening Star

1/30

Steve Hillage - Rainbow Dome Musick

2/30

Garlo - Vent de Guitares

3/30

Brian Eno - Neroli
Local News - A Simple Dream Pass
Milieu - A Warm Wooden Hollow

(26/30)

thank you tuomas for running this thing!

Sarah Louise - Nighttime Birds and Morning Stars
Head Phone Over Tone - Solar Sails

5/30

Michael Stearns “Planetary Unfolding”
David Casper “Crystal Waves”
David Behrman “On The Other Ocean”

Michael Stearns - Encounter
Marsen Jules - Beautyfear
The Seattle Harmonic Voices - Harmonic Voice

9/30

sweet noms brimstead, haven't heard a bunch of those, glad that u love Zoviet France as much as I do

Not yet mentioned:

Various Artists - Music for Films Vol. 3
Sunn O))) - The Grimmrobe Demos
Steven Stapleton & David Tibet - The Sadness of Things
Robert Rich - Trances/Drones
Main - Firmament IV
Laurie Anderson - The Ugly One with the Jewels
Laraaji - Essence/Universe
Jon Hassell & Brian Eno - Fourth World Vol. 1: Possible Musics
Jon Hassell - Fascinoma
Harold Budd - The White Arcades
Harold Budd - The Room
Harold Budd - Perhaps
Deep Listening Band - The Ready Made Boomerang
David Lynch & Marek Zebrowski - Polish Night Music
David Hykes & the Harmonic Choir - Harmonic Meetings
Alvin Curran - Songs and Views of the Magnetic Garden

Maybe not:

David Lynch & Alan Splet - Eraserhead soundtrack
- If you could cut out the scary bits and keep the industrial hiss and distant Fats Waller

Laurie Anderson - United States Live
- Too many non-ambient pieces across the four discs to qualify as a whole, but 23 out of the 78 tracks are on my sleepytime/ambient playlist. That voice talking is probably the closest I get to an ASMR trigger.

strumming music by Charlemagne Palestine.. ambient? really?

joda clément - i hope you like the universe
+minus - a rainy koran verse [UK live]
c schulz & hajsch s/t

3/30

Hideous Lump, are you nominating those albums under "not yet mentioned"?

ach, wanted to nom mohnomishe & eostre but figured they were too industrial

whatevs, i nom
15: _zoviet*france_ mohnomishe
16: _zoviet*france_ eostre
17: levantis: romantic psychology vol.1
18: philip jeck: stoke
19: anthony manning: islets in pink polypropylene
20: arve henriksen: chiaroscuro
21: christina kubisch: mono fluido
22: deep listening band & the long string instrument - suspended music
23: organum: submission

24: jim o'rourke: long nights

is Lanterna's first self-titled album ambient?

Karma Moffett - Golden Bowls of Compassion
NASA Voyager Space Sounds - Symphonies of the Planets
Douglas Quin - Antarctica
Andrew Skeoch & Sarah Koschak - Spirit of the Outback
John T Bullitt - Night of a Thousand Songs
Tod Dockstader - Aerial 1
Alain Kremski - Music for an Unknown Temple
Roland Kayn - Tektra
Thomas Köner - Permafrost
Steve Roach - Immersion One
Else Marie Pade - Et Glasperlespil (for Faust Suite, 1962)
Stuart Dempster - Underground Overlays from the Cistern Chapel
Asmus Tietchens - Eisgang
Joe Jones - Solar Music
Peter Warren & Matt Samolis - Bowed Metal Music
David Tudor - Rainforest
Roy Montgomery - Temple IV
Roger Winfield - Voices of the Wind
Environments 7 - Intonation
Rostov Chimes
Ragnar Grippe - Sand
Brian Eno - Neroli (disc 2 - New Space Music)
Francois Bayle - Erosphere
Vangelis - Tegos Tapes
The Iatmul Of Papua Niugini - Music of Oceania
Paul Schutze - Apart (disc 2 - Sleep)
Stephen Kent - Family Tree (disc 2 - Deep Space)
Don Slepian - Sea of Bliss
Geoffrey Chandler - Starscapes
Luc Ferrari - Éphémère II

michael t. bullock + andrew lafkas - ceremonies to breathe upon
john tilbury / keith rowe / kjell bjørgeengen - sissel
oren ambarchi / john tilbury - the just reproach
jürg frey - l’âme est sans retenue I
haptic - abeyance

8/30

Brian Eno - Neroli (disc 2 - New Space Music)
Paul Schutze - Apart (disc 2 - Sleep)
Stephen Kent - Family Tree (disc 2 - Deep Space)

If these are multi-disc albums, you can't just nominate one disc, you have to nom the entire album.

Kraftwerk - Autobahn

1/30

I noticed one of my nominations (Novus Magnificat) had already been nommed by Dan Worsley, so I have one more nomination to use:

Meg Bowles - Blue Cosmos

(30/30)

>If these are multi-disc albums

just consider those as shout-outs to how good their second halves are then

Brian Eno - Music For Films
Steve Reich - Music For 18 Musicians
Global Communication- Pentamerous Metamorphosis
Tangerine Dream - Phaedra
Max Richter - Sleep
Iasos - Inter-Dimensional Music
Daniel Lanois - Purple Vista
System 7 - Point 3: Water

(17/30)

24: loren chasse - the air in the sand
25: takehisa kosugi - catch wave

Might as well nominate Scum at this point.

Eluvium - Lambent Material
Julianna Barwick - Nepenthe
Autechre - NTS Session 4
Global Communication - Remotion: The Global Communication Remix Album

4/30

Scum is a stretch obv but I’ll hold off nominating Darkspace or Lustre.

What about Filosofem? Or dungeon synth in general?

Hoedh - Hymnvs
Inade - Aldebaran
Lustmord - The Place Where The Black Stars Hang

3/30

Various - I Am the Center: Private Issue New Age Music in America
Henry Wolff & Nancy Hennings - Tibetan Bells IV: Bells of Sh'ang Sh'ung

7/30

Yes I'm nominating those.

Labradford - Mi Media Naranja
Hallock Hill - The Union
Laurie Spiegel - The Expanding Universe
The Wind-Up Bird - Whips
Loren Mazzacane Connors - As Roses Bow
Xela - The Dead Sea
Alan Lamb - Night Passage
Windy & Carl - Antarctica
Piano Magic - Son de Mar

(30/30)

strumming music by Charlemagne Palestine.. ambient? really?

Heh, I’m feeling that way about a truckload of these

Growing: s/t

PGWP, you nominated this, but neither Discogs nor Wikipedia has any info on Growing having released a self-titled album... Which album did you mean?

Marsen Jules - Lazy Sunday Funerals
Marsen Jules - Yara
Biosphere - Cirque
Monolake - gobi. the desert
Steve Roach - Dreamtime Return
Donato Dozzy - Plays Bee Mask

6/30

Perhaps the scandal leading up to this poll will allow us to define ambient music once and for all. Musicologists, take note.

I love ambient music, and I love some music included here that is absolutely not ambient music, but I just can't bring myself to argue about it, so i'm just not going to participate in this as long as stuff like this (which I love, btw) is included: https://soundcloud.com/origin-peoples/tommy-awards-side-a-op001

There's nothing about this that is ambient. Also, if Steve Reich is included, then you have to include Bach and Beethoven too. It's either Classical or Modern Classical, but it's not ambient. Anyway, as I said, there is no satisfactory resolution to this argument, and since shit this isn't ambient will be included, I see no point in following or participating. Why not just call it 'Music You Can Chill Out To' or 'Would be decent with a spliff and a comfy sofa'.

Just rename it it "the ambient/new age/drone/space/bio/furniture/vibes" poll and call it a day

^^^

I'd also like to cull some entries, lest it become the arty electronica poll. Will take a stab this weekend.

You guys are so embarrassed by nerds arguing about genre boundaries that you don't think it's worthwhile to try singling out the best ambient albums?

I was OK with looking at this as a poll of non-beat-oriented drone-like music with an electronic component and accepting all of it but Steve Reich did raise my hackles a little: although there is definitely a connection between minimalism and ambient, Reich was going for something that would inspire "closely detailed listening", arguably the opposite of "non-intrusive background music". Music for 18 is also very rhythmic and entirely acoustic, if that matters. Still, there IS a connection so.

There's a connection, but I don't feel at all bad about drawing a line that excludes all Reich. Trust me, he wouldn't want to be in this poll anyway.

Giusto Pio-Motore Immobile
Andrew Chalk-Baroque Screens
Andrew Chal-The Cable House
Vikki Jackman-Whispering Pages
Jan Jelinek/Masayoshi Fujita-Bird Lake Objects
Michael Brook-Hybrid
Arp-Inversions
Inoyama Land-Danzindan Pojidon
Dean McPhee-Four Stones
Gas-Zauberberg
Ian Middleton-Well of Sorrows
Jonathan Fitoussi-Imaginary Lines
Robert Turman-Beyond Painting

13/30, with apologies for genre boundaries/definitions etc.

The Seven Fields of Aphelion - Keep the Ocean Inside

4/30

There's a connection, but I don't feel at all bad about drawing a line that excludes all Reich. Trust me, he wouldn't want to be in this poll anyway.

THE POLL THAT STEVE REICH DOESN'T WANT YOU TO VOTE IN.

NUMBER FIVE WILL SHOCK YOU!