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

sleeve, so glad you're enjoying the Skelton, Flynt, and Behrman!!

For the former, it really is worth looking into his other records...particularly A Broken Consort's "The Shape Leaves," which is a lot more intense and LOUD than "Landings."

It certainly isn't "Everlovin'/Celestial Power," but if you like the Flynt and haven't heard the "Back Porch Hillbilly Blues" records, they're sort of...I don't know how to describe them, really, but there are some parts that verge on "country minimalism" and some parts that are quite "country acid trip and not that CCR bullshit," more "free" so to speak.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQEio9qEMCw

49. Jon Hassell / Brian Eno Fourth World Vol. 1: Possible Musics (1980)
309 points, 5 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/YbYGFo8.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFig-OiIwDo

Of the Hassell records proper I know, Fourth World Vol. 1: Possible Musics basically sets the table for the rest of the decade: African and Latin percussion (some electronic), richly-textured synthesizer pads and sometimes ambient sounds, with Hassell's trumpet modally surveying the landscape, itself electronically altered.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Thursday, August 12, 2004 2:10 AM

A lot of times (at least on Fourth World Vol.1, which is the one I know best), Hassell sounds like a very abstract image of "eastern"-soundingness. I hesitate to say anything like this since it's so obvious, but it does kind of interest me. I don't know enough to say, but it doesn't seem like he's actually consistently following any modes here, but there are all of these little gestures that evoke eastern, modal, microtonal music. The way one thing follows another, in the long run anyway, doesn't sound to me like anything you'd hear in, say, Indian (not that I know much about it) or Arabic music; but momentarily it does. Sort of an organic sampling effect. At least, I think that's what's going on. Also, at times his horn sounds more like what would be done with a voice than with an instrument. Without question, this music is good preparation for hearing non-western music (not that that is it's only value--I do like it as it is).

(He has studied Indian classical music though hasn't he?)

― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Friday, August 13, 2004 4:04 AM

The first time I heard Hassell was at 3am, 1985, on the radio... the previous show had just ended, the next DJ put on 'Charm' without any intro. Imagine listening to that piece for the first time without knowing how long it was going to last, always seemingly winding down and imperceptibly fading out, but then out of nowhere spiraling right back at you full force. I just sat there staring at the speakers for half an hour.

DJ never back announced the piece, either, I didn't find it again for another year...

― (Jon L), Friday, August 13, 2004 5:34 AM

And "Fourth World means: get yourself a world vocabulary; use it with subtlety and a keen sense of surprise; follow pleasure; trust your intuition (after you're sure you know what that is)."

I want to speak in parentheses...

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Saturday, August 14, 2004 8:19 AM

Never heard this album before either, in fact I've never had much interest in Eno and other older stuff like that. It does sound much better than the previous entry, though maybe the rhythms and especially the trumpet playing are too attention-grabbing for this to count as ambient?

these ritualistic tribal drums are mostly what makes it so good though.

Is there a Spotify playlist for the top 100?

I don't have a Spotify account, but obviously anyone else is free to compile such a list.

48. Tim Hecker: Ravedeath, 1972 (2011)
322 points, 5 votes, 1 first place vote.

https://i.imgur.com/vKCZ5zY.jpg?1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NkZVWXK5jM

'Ravedeath, 1972' is scratching me right where I itch. It somehow feels Hecker set out to make this his quintessential record. All his previous albums sort of flow into this one, combining his different approaches to sound/noise and melody. It's a very dark and threatening album (which is how I like Tim Hecker best).

― La descente infernale (Le Bateau Ivre), Friday, February 18, 2011 3:38 PM

the samples sound like they're in a similar vein to the "decaying music" of william basinski and the new version of the sinking of the titanic (an artist and a longform piece that i love).

― Daniel, Esq., Friday, February 18, 2011 3:45 PM

I didn't know of Hecker until last year, and Ravedeath/Pianos are pretty much always on in my house at the moment. Lovely, lovely music. Am working backwards through his other albums now.

― Not only dermatologists hate her (James Morrison), Tuesday, January 3, 2012 1:28

It's almost cliche, but many times of fallen asleep listening to Tim Hecker. Which is funny - sort of - because I'm pretty sure the last review I read of Ravedeath described it as "drone you can't sleep through" or something of that sort. Fucking nonsense. I'd play this to a kindergarten class.

― brodieopolari.... oh fuck it (kelpolaris), Saturday, May 21, 2011 7:38 AM

xx. The Dead Texan: The Dead Texan (2004)
326 points, 6 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/D8TBik4.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zebxXliFtg

I have been listening to The Dead Texan album all day and have not been able to do any work at all because it makes me think of wistful moments and fallen down broken glass towers and so I've been sketching all day instead. I love an album that's good to draw to.

― firstworldman (firstworldman), Thursday, February 10, 2005 3:01 AM

I saw Dead Texan on Tuesday, quite by accident, as they were supporting Final Fantasy. What incredible sounding music! I bought the CD/DVD afterwards, I was so impressed.

― Paranoid Spice (kate), Wednesday, October 26, 2005 10:45 AM

I know even less about the origins of this record, other than it is a side-project from Adam Wiltzie of Stars Of The Lid. Again I got this on a Kranky splurge. It has more of a classically ambient sound than the bulk of SOTL’s dronelike material, it’s very beautiful and restive, a little like Eno or Budd in places. Actually it’s probably a lot more like how Stars sound nowadays.

― disastrous sixth series (MaresNest), Tuesday, June 22, 2010 2:03

finally listened to the dead texan album - very simple 2 chord progressions with lovely deep bass floating in and out and understated melodies on top. definitely a keeper for me

― nonightsweats, Sunday, July 4, 2010 1:13 AM

Sorry, the placing for that is 47, obviously.

I’m surprised that 1194 placed so low, but I guess my ballot is refracted through a late 90s rave prism, which these results mostly aren’t so far.

I feel that “ambient house” as a subgenre/concept is critically at an all time low vs other strains of ambient.

46. A Winged Victory for the Sullen: Atomos ()
327 points, 6 votes.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXTlFx5z9_c

The new Winged Victory for the Sullen record, 'Atomos', is very, very beautiful. On my first listen but it's very pastoral and sounds like a soundtrack to a non-existent film. At times it's very reminiscent of Johannssons Virtulegu Forsetar, strings wise.

― definite classic, predicting a solid 8/10 from the p-fork boys (Le Bateau Ivre), Tuesday, October 7, 2014 3:08 PM

I don't see Winged Victory as 'new age' myself; I find it a broody, emotional moving piece of work albeit in a very subtle, subdued way. Perhaps it's also because I've been a long time SotL fan and for some reason have grown to respect Adam Wiltzie but also Dustin O'Halloran for their compositional qualities to not take it for generic new-age music (as my personal definition of 'new-age' tends to be: generic soothing music, which I quite frankly can't stand).

But it's a very fine, personal line.

― definite classic, predicting a solid 8/10 from the p-fork boys (Le Bateau Ivre), Saturday, October 11, 2014 1:34 AM

Yes yes I am not sure I love ATOMOS but it is amazingly well written and executed, holy cow. I've listened to it ten times now and it's still surprising me with how well paced it is, subtle expansions from track to track, really impressed.

― fgti, Tuesday, November 18, 2014 5:21 AM

i've been listening to atomos quite a bit since it came out and i've been really enjoying it. the emotional space it accesses is a bit more ambiguous than the debut which could be a bit like a nonstop cascade of melancholy. i was also surprised to hear far less piano than on the debut, since that tends to be dustin o'halloran's thing, but the arrangements here are quite lovely. that it's not as melodically driven makes some of the subtle shifts in sonics seem much more profound and moving.

― dyl, Sunday, November 2, 2014 1:45 AM

Sorry again, the release year for that one is 2014.

someday I'm probably gonna get really into SOTL and related stuff but that day has not come yet

Two Adam Wiltzie projects in a row. Speaking of Dead Texan, the various Christina Vantzou solo albums are really lovely (and in fact sound very similar to A Winged Victory for the Sullen).

IDK what it is about A Winged Victory, or at least "ATOMOS," that makes it much more digestible to me than any mainline SOTL that I've heard. Maybe because it's just one disc?

I feel that “ambient house” as a subgenre/concept is critically at an all time low vs other strains of ambient.

Yeah I guess the exoticism is out of fashion these days. I bet Chill Out and Ultraworld place high though.

Dead Texan being canonized here is fantastic, it deserves a much bigger audience (goes for more here, but this one especially).

Great run.

I feel that “ambient house” as a subgenre/concept is critically at an all time low vs other strains of ambient.
How quickly things shift, only a couple of years ago stuff like Aquarian Foundation was getting quite a bit of attention and hype as recalling old ambient house.

Well, four or five years ago. But there was a moment where revival would have been embraced.

Think I might have watched The Dead Texan doing a live soundtrack thing to Waking Life?

45. Slowdive: Pygmalion (1995)
332 points, 5 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/1spFFpC.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b07n8GST2LQ

Someone sent me a tape of Pygmalion three years ago, and I really liked it. The whole album is very good, but the first song, "Rutti", is mindbogglingly beautiful and an absolute masterpiece.

The experience of listening to that song for the first time is one I remember quite fondly: I was sitting in an electronic music studio in an empty mansion, late at night and in the middle of winter, and everything was dead quiet. I had just gotten the tape, and to be honest, wasn't expecting much (actually, what I was expecting turned out to be rather like Slowdive's earlier albums, which I heard soon after and didn't much like). So I was completely caught by surprise by what I heard: beautiful chords, hanging luminously in the air in the way that I thought that only Alan Sparhawk of Low could do. It was rich, understated, and utterly gorgeous. I won't bore you all with a play-by-play of my reaction to each new element in the song, but suffice it to say that I was continually amazed, especially when the shaker entered, about three or four minutes into the song, bringing the whole thing into time in the best possible way.

Whew!

― Phil, Wednesday, May 16, 2001 3:00 AM

Have to agree about Pygmalian, an absolute blinder, and just so typical of Alan McGee to drop an act just when they make a masterpiece! Their other albums I can take or leave to be honest, but I find them reasonably pleasant to fall to sleep to (and that's actually a compliment.)

― Chewshabadoo, Thursday, May 17, 2001 3:00 AM

classic for 'pygmalion' alone -- quintessential acid-comedown-during-the-sunrise music!

― geeta (geeta), Thursday, December 11, 2003 3:00 AM

I'm not sure about all this Mojave 3 business, but Souvlaki and Pygmalion (in that order) are utterly fantastic. Like being absolutely loaded with painkillers and wine and maybe some ecstasy (but you could never appreciate the music fully if you were actually on them all (at once, anyway)).

― Kevin Allen, Tuesday, May 16, 2006 6:33 AM Bookmark

Listening to this has left me completely baffled, as it sounds like... some kind of artsy folk rock? How does it fit into an ambient poll?

yeah it's basically adventurous shoegaze imo

sorry Tuomas I'm gonna have to write up a ticket here ;)

ya weirdos

44. Fripp & Eno: (No Pussyfooting) (1973)
337 points, 8 votes.

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

(No Youtube for this one, sorry. It seems to have been completely blocked from YT, with no music from it available.)

I have been listening (not 24 hrs a day, mind you) to Fripp & Eno's "No Pussyfooting" and "Evening Star" for 20+ years now, and I still like them. A lot of the "progressive" things I was listening to at that time have not held up very well for me, but these recordings have. A friend once described them as too cerebral, but I find much of the material on these two albums quite moving. Eno's background electronic grid is not terribly exciting, but it serves its perhaps as a background for Fripp's playing. I like other Fripp things here and there, but I think this is some of the best work he's ever done on guitar. Anyone else agree? Disagree?

― DeRayMi, Monday, November 5, 2001 3:00

'no pussyfooting' sounds incredible backwards. wow.

― milton parker (Jon L), Saturday, October 22, 2005 7:54 AM

i also used to think "swastika girls" >>> "the heavenly music corperation" -- maybe i was just really into eno's vcs 3 noises in the background, but once i started really getting into fripp's guitar, and listening for the changes, and how he interacts with the tapes i think i've changed my mind, it's all about this big swirling dark build that resolves with those low sweeping notes at the end and somehow morphs into this really hopeful music, i dunno like a trip that starts out bad and uncontrollable but once you reign it in you start to chill and have the best time

i think "swastika girls" reveals its beauty more immediately so maybe that's why i connected it with it first. the recurring lead is so so gorgeous

― 不合作的方式 (r1o natsume), Tuesday, July 27, 2010 7:19 PM

I made a tape of Fripp & Eno's "No Pussyfooting" for the Palestinian who taught me about Arabic music, but he said he had to turn it off. Weird things started happening around his shop. He seemed to think that it was music that stirred up the jinn. I think he was being serious (though he sometimes said things just to pull my leg).

― Rockist Scientist, Sunday, February 23, 2003 8:07 PM

Hey sorry everyone. I nominated Pygmalion. To me about 75% of it fits into what I would consider ambient. There was so much back and forth debate on the nomination thread about what is ambient, that finally I just put it down because I love it and would retract if anyone decided to veto. So, here we are. Still love it but I do agree that some of it does not fit.

It's okay, I don't want to sound overtly critical or genre-fascist. Obviously others thought it fits too, since they voted for it.

Love your snarky glosses, Tuomas (perhaps because I happen to agree with them almost systematically).

I adore Pygmalion but it's not ambient to the cop in me.

43. Eluvium Talk Amongst the Trees (2005)
340 points, 6 votes.

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

Interesting to see this thread resurrected because on a whim I decided to try Talk Amongst The Trees again tonight. And I do think I've given it plenty of chances now to say I think it sags in the middle. Starts out good enough, but then something happens in the middle with this one song that gets far too repetitive with this sequence of guitar notes. And then it ends okay, but I WANT THE PIANO BACK from the FIRST ALBUM THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Monday, April 4, 2005 11:06 AM

And yeah, there is no piano on Talk Amongst The Trees, but -- while I like Cooper's piano playing, it contrasts with the textures that play along it on Lambient IMHO. I'm glad he got the piano facet out of his system all in one release, and subsequently ditched it altogether on the new one, as I'm clearly most in love with the latest one, now that it's nothing but gorgeous other-worldly textures from stop to finish, no lame spots (sorry, Bimble, must agree to disagree with you there.). The final piece "One" sounds like a completely flattened, droned chorus of Depeche's "Enjoy The Silence", which is kinda neat.. would make a great segue somewhere in a DJ set.

― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, April 5, 2005 7:43 PM

Semi-melodic ambient stuff doesn't get much better than this.

― southern lights, Wednesday, April 6, 2005 3:40 AM

Silence if in bed, chill music if in a less sleep friendly environment. Pretty much programmed myself to fall asleep by track 4 of eluvium's talk amongst the trees, except in extreme cases of large italian man snoring like a dying rhino in the couchette.

― chad valley of the shadow of death (ledge), Thursday, August 4, 2016 3:39 PM

re: Slowdive I am also just kidding, couldn't resist (but yeah I didn't vote for it either, too much of a "full band" vibe for me)

never heard of Eluvium at all I don't think

42. Windy & Carl: Antarctica (The Bliss Out, Vol. 2) (1997)
341 points, 8 votes.

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

oddly enough windy and carl wake me up every morning - antartica's in stereo i use as a glorified cd alarm clock thing. well, nearly every morning - it's so ambient that sometimes i sleep through it.

― koogs, Thursday, November 7, 2002 2:42 PM

I have listened to three releases (Dream House/Dedications To Flea, Antarctica, and Depths), and I have to say I adore the quieter dronestuff (e.g. Antarctica and the first track on Dream House) as opposed to the noisy Fenneszish Depths (soz Ned).

― Où sont le Lord Custos d'antan? (Leee), Monday, April 16, 2012 1:34 AM

I’ve been listening to a shit tonne of W&C recently although to be fair that’s the norm as they are my go-to relaxing/sleep music. Lately I’ve been playing ‘Drawing of Sound’ a lot, it’s the one LP of theirs I don’t own a physical copy of and I’ve probably overlooked it as a consequence. Crazy thing is, it might be their best. I say that but I’d probably find W&C albums impossible to rank. One day I’ll swear by Antartica, the next Depths, and so on. Magnificently consistent band.

― Internet Alan, Tuesday, February 5, 2013 11:42 AM

This sounds much better than the other Windy & Carl album in the poll; I just personally can't stand the sound of heavy metal guitar.

Look like I should've voted for Antarctica!

Coming up next is one of the oldest albums in the poll. Probably controversial too?

41. Miles Davis: In a Silent Way (1969)
343 points, 5 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/UsU28jp.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHesqaMhh34

In a Silent Way has also been occupying a LARGE amount of my listening lately.

There are some grooves on there that are just thick.

― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Thursday, November 3, 2005 5:15 PM

The Complete Silent Way Sessions is amazing listening, not just for the extra music but for the insight --

The original take of 'Shhh/Peaceful' actually hinges upon an extended melodic phrase that sounds exactly like a Miles In The Sky era composition -- it's a fantastic melody they return to about every four minutes or so. The one bar riff (the descending two note bassline) is just a downtime noodle they stretch out on between that phrase.

Macero cuts the phrase out entirely, leaving just 14 minutes of the improvisation on that one bar riff. Then he takes one of Miles' improvised melodies over the riff, and repeats it at the very beginning and the very end so it becomes a motive that bookends the piece.

I always wondered how the musicians could stay so intensely, maniacly focused on such minimal material -- and the answer is, in the real life performance, they were building and charging towards a composed phrase which they'd refresh themselves with every four minutes before returning to the trance section. It must have taken balls for Macero to cut out the heart of the piece, but the result is nothing is the sound of musicians staying electrified on the most minimal materials imaginable, they would have arrived at either that structure or that magnified focused sound without the editing...

The original phrase they cut out, though -- it's prime Miles, totally beautiful

― milton parker (Jon L), Thursday, November 3, 2005 9:53 PM

Listened to In A Silent Way for the first time in ages today, using it, oddly, for background while writing (oddly, because I rarely write with music on at all). It was perfect. Something about that electronic hum in the background was both soothing and aided in concentration. I've always loved this record. And Jack Johnson, too. Johnson was the first Miles I really listened to, though I think I prefered it for McLaughlin at first. But now I hear something different and wonderful in it every time.

― moriarty (moriarty), Wednesday, November 9, 2005 7:00 AM

It's interesting that in both the Tim Buckley and Brian Eno biographies, both subjects got so obsessed with In A Silent Way that they listened to little else for a long period (nearly a year).

― Fastnbulbous, Wednesday, August 6, 2008 4:28 PM

wow @ teo:

Teo Macero: Miles would record his stuff, and then he’d just leave. He would sometimes say, ‘I like this or that,’ and then I’d say: ‘I’ll listen to it and I’ll put it together. If you like it, fine, if not, we’ll change it.’ So I was the one with the vision. Miles also had a vision, but he wasn’t really a composer, he didn’t compose in an organized way. It was happenstance. He played with these great musicians, and when they had played enough, I was able to cut out the stuff that wasn’t good, and piece something together from the rest. When we began editing In A Silent Way we had two huge stacks of 2” tape, 40-something reels in total. They were recorded over a longer period. It was one of the rare times Miles came to an editing session, because I’d told him, ‘This is a big job, you want to get your ass down here.’ So Miles said, ‘We’ll do it together.’ And we did. We cut things down to 8 ½ minutes on one LP side, and 9 ½ on the other, and then he said to me, “That’s my record.’ I said, ‘Go to hell!’ because it wasn’t enough music for an album. So I ended up creating repeats to make it longer. A lot of the stuff we cut was bullshit, and some of it is put out on this new boxed set. I raised hell at Columbia the other day and told them it was ridiculous they’re putting this bullshit out.

― festival culture (Jordan), Tuesday, February 18, 2014 10:50 PM

That's the final entry for today, will continue tomorrow.

ouch, pygmalion and in a silent way

*sounds of approaching ambient fascist police get louder*

I've fallen asleep to IASW more than once, didn't vote for it but these lower-40's placing seem right

IaSW is by far my favourite Miles Davis album, and even though it obviously has had a big influence on ambient and minimal electronic music (with people like Namlook and Pole having made records that are clearly following its example), I didn't feel justified voting for it here. In a jazz poll it would easily make it into my top 10, though.

The extended Laswell re-edit of IASW is also great, shame that ppl seem to ignore it, I suspect they confuse it with the terrible remix record that came out at the same time.

Oh, I didn't know about an extended edit, what's it called?

What Tuomas said = basically my thoughts. Top 3 all time album for me but don’t consider it ambient.. it is certainly mighty chill. The ultimate early morning album

XP - Here 'tis

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

as an aside, I’m kinda surprised no one nominated that lee gamble diversions thing

I'm going to upset some people but while I don't really care to argue whether Pygmalion is ambient, I will honestly say that I just don't get Slowdive. And I loooooooove Low, Bedhead, Duster, and other stuff that sometimes gets lumped with them.

(Multiple xposts) Yeah it didn't feel right voting for In a Silent Way even though it's one of my favourite albums of all time. I don't mind that it showed up though.

agree with you there, Gavin.