The mind revealing itself to itself: the TOP 100 AMBIENT ALBUMS as voted by ILX

60. Alio Die: Aura seminalis (2008)
280 points, 4 votes, 1 first place vote.

https://i.imgur.com/fUgCzHJ.jpg?1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBBVt0opjtE

i had never heard of Alio Die and am totally smitten with Aura Seminalis, whoever nominated it I kiss you.

― blue light or electric light (the table is the table), Friday, June 14, 2019 11:19 PM

I played F. Hazel's rec, Alio Die's 'Aura Seminalis' tonight. Blissful. So good. (reminded me of Polish neo-classical/ambient dude Jacaszek, check him out).

― Uptown VONC (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, June 18, 2019 12:44 AM

The ancient melodies and styles of early music, it turns out, lend themselves particularly well to ambient, and Alio Die clearly knows exactly what to do with them, combining ambient electronic textures with field recordings and early music samples in beautifully textured looped pieces. The effect on the listener is very interesting. I’ve got a lot of early music in my collection, and as I noted in my previous post, one of the pleasures of this kind of music is being transported back in one’s imagination several hundred years to a very different, more natural world. Since a lot of early music is liturgical, that means visions of monastic courtyards and gardens, which is about as tranquil a vision as one can have. Combined and looped with ethereal ambient sound art, that effect is only enhanced to a hypnotically soporific level. And there are hardly any ambient musicians who can spirit me off to my spacy happy place like Alio Die does on these recordings.

Make Your Own Taste

That was not the Alio Die album I voted for, but it's still gorgeous, and I'm glad he made it to the top 100. Dude has put out something like a hundred albums, and every one of them that I've heard has been at least good if not great.

all I have is a 7" EP on the Drone label, excited to check these out and I had no idea there was so much

i gave diskont94 a bunch of points. i wouldn't call most of the oval i've heard "ambient", but to me diskont is very very ambient. the track could be 10x as long and it would have a similar effect

59. Ryuichi Sakamoto: Async (2017)
280 points, 6 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/AZvC2L3.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xhmVueRtLs

Got the new one, and currently on a second listen.

In short, it's fab. Yes, it's ambient/glitch (which may disappoint a few upthread) but with a much less austere tonal palette than the collaboration records (where he was basically adding piano ornaments to other people's dronescapes, not that there's anything wrong with that). It's low key but colourful - lurrrrvely Prophet 5 chords on Zure, for example. And the odd melodic flourish that'll make you well up a bit in places too.

Will see how it plays out over subsequent listens, but I'm loving it so far. What with the Revenant soundtrack being his best OST in years, his post-illness return to work on such stellar form is an inspiring thing to behold.

― bamboohouses, Monday, April 3, 2017 8:24 PM

i really like the combination of introspective, lyrical piano pieces with sound art tracks on async.

― Alex in Spree-Athen (alex in mainhattan), Monday, May 8, 2017 1:15 PM

while aysnc just breezed by like a cool autumn day on the first few listens, I've recently returned to it and found it to be a stunner. I thought his previous solo album Out of Noise was kind of boring but I really like the "14 flavors of ambient" thing going on here, not to mention how the title/theme "async" manifests itself in several ways. I wish it was a bit more melodic but only because the actual melodies on here are absolutely gorgeous. I like the plinky plonky stuff. Reminds me a bit of The Ship by Eno, not in any thematic way but rather how the openness and sense of space lets you hear the compositions in a number of ways.

― frogbs, Tuesday, May 8, 2018 6:01 PM

huh I considered voting for one of his albums with Alva Noto (which I like a lot) but this went right by me

(as in, I missed it in the noms list and have never heard it)

The next entry will be by far the longest album in the top 100.

Ah, I was afraid it wouldn't make it.

58. Max Richter: Sleep (2015)
283 points, 4 votes, 1 first place vote.

https://i.imgur.com/ru48ycw.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lauw7hvzDkE

Have been listening to the eight and a half hour version the last few nights (and days). Epic and absolutely beautiful.

― groovypanda, Wednesday, September 16, 2015 11:22 AM

anyway i decided to sleep to 'sleep' last night and this morning i feel very refreshed!

― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Monday, October 26, 2015 1:49 AM

it's very weird to be able to say: yeah, i guess this piece of music is fit for purpose

― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Monday, October 26, 2015 1:49 AM

i have fell asleep to this several times. i have absolutely nothing to say about it except that the first 20 minutes is pretty good. i'm assuming he put a lot of effort into that first track because it's the only one a lot of people will hear

― Karl Malone, Tuesday, November 10, 2015 11:47 PM

i like music for sleep now and again but i would never put on something i knew was 8 hours long. i've been listening while i'm awake to make the world feel more soporific.

i really like the religious feel of some of it.

― doing my Objectives, handling some intense stuff (LocalGarda), Tuesday, November 10, 2015 11:52 PM

Lol, that's not what I had in mind at all.

I like Sleep just fine, but there's something about Richter's prettified melodicism that rubs me the wrong way, it feels too neat and petit bourgeois. Though admittedly it fits the functionality of Sleep much better than his other albums, which I haven't liked that much.

Anyway, my "8 hour long soundtrack to sleeping" album vote went to Robert Rich's Somnium, which I think is better, and more ambient too, obviously.

Fully agreed, re: Richter's melodic, faux-classical vacuity.

I hope Somnium (which I voted for) will appear further along.

I did the sleep concert in NYC. I love Richter but I usually sleep to silence so it was not an easy night of sleep for me!

Yay Alio Die! I think he's said that he considers Aura Seminalis to be his finest work, but don't quote me on that. As noted, dude has like 50+ albums and it's all amazing stuff. Plus his label Hic Sunt Leones releases lots of cool other stuff.

56. (tie) Chapterhouse / Global Communication: Blood Music - Pentamerous Metamorphosis ()
285 points, 6 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/wAQueTv.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpj6vyxS4kw

yeah, global comm certainly had a deft touch with the remix. i've not heard that lamb remix though. 'pentamerous metamorphosis' was quite special. talk about alchemy - the worst record chapterhouse released (and there was some competition for that title) molded into one of the best global comm titles.

― jon dale, Sunday, October 24, 2004 6:47 AM

Pentamerous Metamorphosis is still my favourite thing, though. Footsteps or tick tocks, take your pick.

― Karen D. Tregaskin, Wednesday, August 18, 2010 12:43 PM

Pentamerous Metamorphosis really is something special. That headspace where the swoony end of drone/shoegaze bleeds into ambient techno, with or without guitars, will always be one of my absolute sweetest spots. (I rediscovered it and started caning it right around the time I started doing a lot of hiking in Cornwall, so it will really forever be associated with striding along bits of the coastal path towards some ruined wheal or other.)

― I'd rather be the swallow than a dick (Branwell Bell), Friday, January 24, 2014 11:44 AM

Forgot how much I loved 'Pentamerous Metamorphosis' by Global Communication back in the day. Haven't really busted it out in well over a decade, probably because '76:14' is always the go-to. This record is a lost classic of the genre and I'm surprised it doesn't come up in conversation more. I've never even listened to the original Chapterhouse material and inspiration from which it is born.

― yesca, Sunday, March 12, 2017 6:33 PM

Sorry, the year for that one is 1993, obviously.

xp re: Hic Sunt Leones - oh yeah I have an Andrew Chalk CD on that label!

and whoa I need this:

https://www.discogs.com/Francesco-Paladino-With-Alio-Die-In-Gowan-Ring-Jack-Or-Jive-Nocturnal-Sessions/release/1111211

I love that Paladino has an album with Alio Die called "Angel's Fly Souvenir"

f. hazel if you haven't ever heard the albums he did under the F.P And The Doubling Riders name, I love them very much

56. (tie) Tetsu Inoue: World Receiver (1996)
285 points, 6 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/iAa4qmX.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grlYRK1aSus

Tetsuo Inoue's "World Receiver" is ideal for drifting off to (if I had a stereo in my bedroom); the last track, barely there, repeats over and over and over and over....

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, June 28, 2001 3:00 AM

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.

― Tracer hand, Friday, January 25, 2002 3:00 AM

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, March 2, 2014 9:12 PM

https://phonaut.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/where-is-tetsu-inoue

I feel like Loscil's output walks a fine line between ambient and dub, but certainly falls into ambient a lot of the time.

For those who don't get it, I totally understand. But as someone who lived in Cascadia and has spent a lot of time in the Pacific Northwest, his music evokes the area better than many others i can think of...

hmm I've lived in Oregon for almost 30 years, so I really will give it another shot :)

That Pete Namlook died too young and Tetsu Inoue has disappeared off the face of the earth is obviously sad as it is, but the unfortunate side effect to that is that the Inoue/Namlook albums and his solo material for FAX are in a limbo, where no one can reissue them because Inoue can't be found to give permission to that. (Some other FAX artists have had their rights revert back to them, so in the last 2 or 3 years people like Biosphere and Klaus Schulze have reissued stuff they made for the label.) World Receiver is a great album obviously, but I do rate Inoue's FAX output even higher, and I feel the current state of its legacy has made those albums unnecessarily obscure, so they probably can't reach listeners who might otherwise enjoy them a lot.

I gotta go to sleep early tonight, so that's it for now. I'll try to roll out more albums tomorrow than I did today.

that is super interesting! i'd not heard some of the Namlook/Inoue stuff, really love it.

sleeve, here's a cut from Endless Falls that I love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdAgPn-HYao

(he's from Vancouver, BC, btw)

Btw, I hadn't heard of Loscil before, but I have enjoyed the two albums we've seen so far a lot, definitely one of the several nice discoveries I've made through this poll.

The pace is really good, Tuomas... you could even go a bit slower to let conversation about each placing go on a bit.

And I'll def. check out the Doubling Riders stuff, sleeve!

The pace is really good, Tuomas... you could even go a bit slower to let conversation about each placing go on a bit.

Yeah, I agree, but unfortunately due to work I can mostly post the entries within a 2 or 3 hour time window in the evening, Finnish time. But my summer vacation starts next week, so I can do the top 20 or 30 on Monday/Tuesday in a more relaxed pace. (I'll be taking a break from this on Saturday and Sunday because there's the local Pride plus my birthday party.)

So many good things. I didn't vote for Oval but it's a brilliant album. I'm not aware of the Global Communication (only know 76:14) so will check that out. The Tetsuo is glorious.

Which of his Fax stuff do you recommend Thomas?

I love the roll out so far - the pace is great.

Anyway, my "8 hour long soundtrack to sleeping" album vote went to Robert Rich's Somnium, which I think is better, and more ambient too, obviously.

I consider 76:14 a classic ambient release in my old-school fashion but couldn't vote for it because it's just too energetic overall... I love Pentamerous Metamorphosis though, surprised it didn't place much higher to be honest.

Which of his Fax stuff do you recommend Thomas?

Yeah, Pentamerous Metamorphosis is fantastic. Beta Phase probably my fave xp

Would also recommend this Loscil track from Plume for those who haven't heard him before

Top finds for me so far are Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Meg Bowles.

Looking forward to many more

I love Pentamerous Metamorphosis. I put three GC albums in my ballot. PM was the lowest ranked.

I'm the #1 vote for Sleep. It's everything I want an ambient album to be from a philosophical and execution perspective, and melodically it's immediate and memorable (to me). Monumental release.

Also feel Loscil is overrated a bit, but it's amazing ambient music. I think my considerations for ambient music include spacial fit and atmospheric context in addition to emotional connection when focusing on it directly. As a record you might listen to with intent and focus, it's certainly less engaging than what should be expected on most ballot polls, but as an atmospheric and spacial filler for background sound, Plume is quite brilliant.

An example of an ambient record that both fits in the foreground and background ridiculously well, see SAW II and Mountains' Centralia, both of whom I hope to see later on in this poll.

SAW II is a lock in for top 10 surely?

(And probably higher)

Funny, since I think I have a more liberal sense of what counts as ambient than others here (based on earlier discussions) - but as much as I love Loscil I did not vote for any of his records in this poll. I've always thought of him as a more chilled-out electronica artist. Perhaps I'm forever colored by Triple Point, which was more of a minimal techno record.

mmm this Richard Skelton is hitting the spot, thanks everyone

also holy fuck @ "you are my everlovin/celestial power" now I get why ppl are so into Henry Flynt (I took a couple of false steps)

David Behrman is also heartrendingly, achingly beautiful, def a Discreet Music vibe but with a side of No Pussyfooting and a chaser of electro-bleeps

so grateful to discover all this stuff

55. Fennesz: Endless Summer (2001)
286 points, 5 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/Pu2jh6o.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skygudx8Rrs

this is inspired by a comment someone made in the autechre thread regarding a friend who liked to listen to autechre during sex. i got to thinking about experimental laptop/abstract idm stuff and i realized that some of that music is actually quite sexy. case in point, fennesz' endless summer. it has the mbv-esque endorphin slur that makes it incredibly well-suited for intimate listening. i would recommend it. so, *rfi* SEXY laptop/glitch/abstract/minimal techno. otherwise tell stories about abstract music that you like to listen to when you're getting it on (and be honest).

― fields of salmon, 18. huhtikuuta 2002 3:00

head goes "Live in Japan" but heart goes "Endless Summer". I hadn't heard it, only read about it, before I bought it. I found it in a record shop in Barcelona, we came back to the apartment from a pre Sonar event a little wasted and I put it on. Amazing stuff. Still think about it being one of the best music discoveries of my lifetime.

― mmmm, 5. toukokuuta 2012 0:23

and i don't think of the beach boys when the phrase "endless summer" is mentioned... i'm instead reminded of a CLASSIC soundtrack to the 1966 bruce brown film by THE SANDELLS. I'd argue that the Fennesz title track "endless summer" borrows fairly heavily from the 2-chord strum of the sandell's "theme from endless summer"...

please bear in mind that i would never attempt to judge the quality of fennesz's music based on the cover art or title eitha... reductionists! listen to the music!

― gygax!, 6. marraskuuta 2002 0:49

Black Sea >>>>> Endless Summer

Hope it places

The other Behrmann I absolutely love is Leapday Night. I can't think why I didn't nominate it. Fucking weird old cover!

https://img.discogs.com/mJ_8dtJceY6SOaVtLbXv_0ErNH0=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-978862-1471213618-3295.png.jpg

Wow, what the heck are those arrow things? 😀

No idea! I've always had a 'blind pilot plays inexplicable boardgame before leaping to his doom' vibe from it.

Interspecies Smalltalk is great (closer to Terry Riley than a lot of his stuff but no worse for it):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDC5AoBa7uM

54. Thomas Köner: Permafrost (1993)
289 points, 7 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/YhqnAGW.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a7BU_kI7xQ

my favorite three are 'teimo', 'permafrost' and 'aubrite' (his 2nd, 3rd & 4th records), rolling quarter-speed gongs rolling into occasional layered fields, they all sit side by side really well, and any of them are a good starting point. I've played those records at night quite consistently over the last 5 years...

― jl (Jon L), 4. elokuuta 2003 7:59 Bookmark

thomas koner is good, perhaps a little bit simplistic and 'awed' in that biosphere way? very strong sense of place and emotional heft, certainly not nearly as agonized or ambiguous as 'on land'

― no love deb weep (nakhchivan), 16. helmikuuta 2015 21:15

the 3 disc thomas koner reissue that came out this year is so sick. coming from more of an industrial/techno background than much of the stuff in this thread, but it's about as dark and heavy as music gets

― lao gan ma (r1o natsume), 20. syyskuuta 2010 14:54