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

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!

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?

― Tuomas, Friday, May 17, 2019 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sorry, it's The Soul of the Rainbow and the Harmony of Light. For some reason Spotify lists it as s/t though I knew that was incorrect!

Ok, thanks!

Steve Reich - Music For 18 Musicians

Groovypanda, you nominated this, but there are several different recordings of this composition. Which one do you want to nominate?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X14B7JHAooNtfPbNilJ1xPshNaKBbL6q-8E1xUdM7xU

Here's a link to the nominations so far, lemme know if something's missing. (I've corrected some of the artist and album names, so your nomination might be elsewhere alphabetically.)

As for the debate on what's ambient, I have no way of making that judgement, so I'm not gonna disqualify anything... And the nomination process in polls like this is always a bit messy, but I do agree that this is not a poll for just any kind of minimal music, or music to smoke weed to, or experimental/artsy electronic music in general. So hopefully when it comes the time to vote you do stop to consider that ambient is narrower than those definitions, even if it's not easily defined by conventional genre boundaries.

SunnO))) - Flight of the Behemoth

I mean, I loathe to use Pitchfork as a measuring stick, but their list, which includes a KFW intro and blurb by a bunch ppl who are over the age of 35 (Beta/Sherburne/Richardson/Masters/Reynolds) has a very open attitude towards what is considered "ambient"

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9948-the-50-best-ambient-albums-of-all-time/

fantastic work tuomas

personally prefer a wide definition myself

I mean, everyone can vote for THE ARTIST CLEARLY INTENDED THIS MODULAR SYNTH RECORD AS MUSIQUE D'AMEUBLEMENT PER THE DICTATES OF SATIE but that's not as fun imo

Also, I'm probably very close to my full noms but here's some big dogs that we've overlooked in case someone else wants to nominate them

Mort Garson - Plantasia
Philip Corner - Satie Slowly
Raymond Scott - Soothing Sounds for Babies Vol. 1
Raymond Scott - Soothing Sounds for Babies Vol. 2

Colleen - Les Ondes Silencieuses

15/30

Fripp and Eno - No Pussyfooting
Sakamoto and Alva Noto - Vrioon

Vangelis, "L'Apocalypse des animaux"

Steve Roach - The Magnificent Void
Steve Roach - Quiet Music

Robert Rich - Calling Down the Sky
Robert Rich - Humidity

The Necks - Mosquito
Johan Johansson - Fordlandia

Looks like I get five more

Raymond Scott - Soothing Sounds for Babies Vol. 1
Bohren and Der Club of Gore - Black Earth

that pitchfork list is kinda dumb, we talked about it at the time. like tim hecker, fennesz, pretty laptop noise... lol

Sorry

After 5-6 weeks of listing to Bacharach songs this will be a nice tonic.

but that's not as fun imo

Part of the fun for me here is trying to figure out why some records feel ambient to me and some don't. Replica? Returnal? Persian Surgery Dervishes? Some of my favorite records, but they scratch a different itch.

But say Rifts isn't my definition of ambient either but fine, it's definitely part of the same fantasy musical universe as Structures From Silence.

So it is written, so shall it be done.

Eno Moebius Rodelius - After the Heat

Oöphoi – Static Soundscapes: Three Lights At the End of the World
Antrilon – Mind Erase
MWVM – Rotations
Lull – Like A Slow River
Hazard – Wood
Deep Magic / Pine Smoke Lodge – Split

15/30

Les Halles – Transient

16/30

^^^ good one

I think ambient-ness for me has something to do with difficulty of perceiving movement, lack of drama, also just a general diffusiveness and um.... driftiness... a sense of distance/absence/“not there”-ness, indirect, sonic blankets

Fennesz/Tim hecker include plenty of actual bursts of noise. and bald faced emotion. I like em both

Steve Reich/tony Conrad/Niblock stuff is so intense and lysergic it just doesn’t float or sit enough

I also hate sentimental gooey “ambient” that sounds like it could soundtrack a serious moment in a stupid movie/tv show. The ambient equiv of like Explosions In the Sky.

Ok end rant, only posi non-annoying brimstead from now on promise

Norman Westberg – 13
Mark Wastell – Come Crimson Rays

18/30

Irresistible Force - Dreamfish

This should be: Dreamfish - Dreamfish, and is Mixmaster Morris + Pete Namlook