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

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.

― Tuomas, Thursday, June 27, 2019 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

What Windy & Carl album includes heavy metal guitar?? If you like Antarctica you should like every single W&C album.

Depths (the other one in the poll) begins with a distorted sort of squall, right? Is it that sort of "doom drone" sound that you dislike, Tuomas? I'm personally a fan, but can see how someone could be turned off by that type of sound... I do think that the rest of that album is intensely beautiful and that the beginning isn't necessarily indicative of its remainder.

I guess it's safe to say that you didn't vote for any Sunn 0))) albums, then ;-)

Yeah maybe they use distortion here and there but that’s not at all indicative of their records.

I always wanted to love Flying Saucer Attack but their guitar tone gave me headaches.

aww I love that shit but it's way too rockin to be ambient aside from isolated tracks

Depths (the other one in the poll) begins with a distorted sort of squall, right? Is it that sort of "doom drone" sound that you dislike, Tuomas?

speaking of amazing bill laswell re-edits / re-mixes of classic (spiritual) jazz, this whole thing is worth checking out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkffKy_7v3A

also re: henry flynt, i wanted to share this recording, also from '81 and also featuring c.c. hennix on tamboura:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnma2Q2QHGI

and also xp yes the "back porch hillbilly blues" records are amazing !!

lastly there is this radio broadcast from '13 that is arguably the most brilliant thing HF has ever done and especially recommended if you like tape loops / weirdo electronic experiments with violin samples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LstLpd_iVWA&t

^ last link gets really wild around 5m, apparently these are recordings from the '70s ? woweee

also "in a silent way" isn't an ambient record what in heaven's name is going on here

Nothing much. Just the rampant lawlessness that ensues whenever the polis's social contract is breached.

Several albums in this poll so far haven't been ambient by a strict definition. I guess IaSW got grandfathered in because it was so influential to the development of ambient.

40. Harmonia & Eno '76: Tracks and Traces (1997, reissued in 2009 with extra tracks)
360 points, 6 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/cBo8SQS.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dVvUogQVtM

I heard a track from the Harmonia/Eno '76 album yesterday. Beautiful stuff. I never knew a Harmonia/Eno record existed!

― i;m thinking about thos Beans (Michael B), 12. huhtikuuta 2016 17:34

the harmonia+eno tapes were home recordings/demos/jams never meant for release and shouldn't be judged by the same standards, although they are also completely beautiful in their own right.

― (Jon L), 4. marraskuuta 2003 10:24

Three minutes into the reissue - gorgeous. The first two tracks are an awesome addition/introduction to the 'ambient schaffel" of "Vamos Companeros" and from there on it's, well, terrific textures, really. I only had a low bitrate rip (that I listen to at work a lot), this is a massive improvement. Great work from Groenland records on the packaging, as usual.

― willem, 21. syyskuuta 2009 21:54

it's a shame harmonia 76 doesn't get more accolades. i think the recent tracks and traces reissue w/ the extra trax is my favourite harmonia overall. parts of it are so dark and weird, but it still has that delicate, melodic roedelius touch here and there

deluxe is waking up sunday morning music, musik von is like a druggy early morning after party, live 1974 is hypnotic; but none have that perfect late night wooziness like harmonia 76

i love the setup as well -- eno, cluster and michael rother in a farmhouse just jamming out every day and pressing record. such an inspiration

― that habit kick man (r1o natsume), 8. elokuuta 2010 23:59

reissue is so good

can't believe these three tracks were left off the first time

other tracks completely remastered, much clearer / less fuzzy, sounds less like demo fidelity. though the appeal of this album is still that the playing is on the casual side. the long sprawling drone tracks are still my favorites.

packaging much better this time around. ilife's liner notes are a bit on the precious pie side but they're not boring and I'm right there with him when it comes to getting sentimental over just about everything every single one of these musicians recorded around this time

all day listening

― Milton Parker, 11. lokakuuta 2009 3:19

39. Vangelis Papathanassiou: L'apocalypse des animaux (1973)
360 points, 7 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/CJN1sAb.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGZp3KweVtA

L'Apocalypse is maybe one of the most beautiful albums ever, it's totally flooring from start to finish.

― frogbs, 6. tammikuuta 2014 19:41

he seldom lets himself go longform cosmic, side 2 of l'apocalypse, beauborg, invisible connections, but when the unmoving camera's tightly focused on an opened spine for hours, you've got the license for some deep musical thinking

― Milton Parker, 5. joulukuuta 2013 2:53

L'apocalypse des Animaux has some really compelling atmospheres, for sure — "Création du Monde" sounds familiar as hell. I think it would be particularly disturbing for those who find Apollo to be Eno at his most innovative — I don't, so it isn't.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), 15. syyskuuta 2005 16:19

I'll never forgive Vangelis for ruining my best pair of jeans. Perfect fitting vintage 517s. Intro to L'Apocalypse Des Animaux took hold of me and inspired me to do this kind of cosmic hillbilly dance, like something from that all-primates production of SEven Brides for Seven Brothers. I dropped into a squat and RIIIIP! You don't just find vintage 517s like that every day, Papathanassiou!

― andrew m., 10. tammikuuta 2014 22:20

Looks like anytime I'm searching for quotes for any of these albums, there is a thoughtful Milton Parker/Jon L post available. So thanks, Jon, for writing all those things here throughout the years.

As a sidenote, anyone care to share what their favourite ambient(ish) ECM releases might be?

Gee, that Vangelis excerpt sounds exactly like a thing I should already be acquainted with!

I didn't put Apocalypse des Animaux high on my ballot, but it wasn't possible to leave off an album that has Creation du Monde on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0QQJfPi3ps

Vangelis is one of those on again/off again sorta artists for me but there are a lot of moments in his catalogue that make me want to cry. a lot of them are on this album

38. Susumu Yokota: Sakura (1999)
362 points, 6 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/Ribu7sY.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Ribu7sY.jpg

sakura > all albums ever, except maybe 4 or 5 really great ones.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, April 13, 2004 1:45 AM

We're playing Sakura by Susumu Yokota in the office this morning, and whilst Billy & I both love it, Julie (who's 15 years or so older than us and an punk/Velvets/Hendrix/Joni Mitchell/Janis Joplin fan) hates it and can't see the attraction in it at all. She says "computers and music don't go together- 'electronic music' is an oxymoron to me". She says she cannot hear any melody in it nor understand why anyone else would enjoy it.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, July 24, 2003 1:00 PM

this record is so amazing! when i got it, i must've listened to it 20 times in a row. i did an ilm search on it not too long ago, but didn't find anything. the aural equivalent of a wong kar wai film.

― prada robot (disco stu), Wednesday, April 13, 2005 6:06 AM

Sakura came out when I was 19 or so, and it blew me away. One of my favorite ambient albums still. Grinning cat is also excellent. Can vouch for Image, Triple time dance, and symbol too. I never really connected with his houser stuff but "on and on" and "re: disco" were super addicting tracks for me.

― Michael F Gill, Wednesday, July 15, 2015 2:06 AM

Ah, sorry, here is the Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jicNeV2ftY

never heard of this either, cool cover

I'm a bigger fan of Yokota's '90s house and techno records than his later downtempo ones, but admittedly Sakura is the best one of the latter bunch, a beautiful and sublime album. RIP.

37. Tim Hecker: Harmony in Ultraviolet (2006)
364 points, 8 votes.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qse2KT65ZcE

Nothing beats Harmony In Ultraviolet for me.

― Evan, Tuesday, August 26, 2014 9:18 PM

Tim Hecker's Harmony In Ultraviolet was pretty high up my 2006 favourites. Superbly melding drone, discordant noise, and ambient atmospherics against a lush electronica, this was a big leap on from previous Hecker outings. Listen loud, listen passive.

― Mister Craig, Wednesday, May 2, 2007 11:50 PM

Harmony in Ultraviolet was always my favorite and I could never fall in love with his other albums in the same way however much I wanted to.

― Evan, Tuesday, April 12, 2016 6:47 PM

I def don't "get" Hecker at all

I finally connected with Hecker when I decided he was a noise artist whose records need to be played at extremely high volume, rather than an ambient artist with interesting textures.

The run from Harmony in Ultraviolet to Virgins is pretty outstanding.

I finally connected with Hecker when I decided he was a noise artist whose records need to be played at extremely high volume, rather than an ambient artist with interesting textures.

Yeah, I went to a “sound bath” event one time (they have these all the time here now?) and was sort of underwhelmed. But I went to an incredibly loud Tim Hecker show and it was just perfect, full brain rinse.

36. Tangerine Dream: Zeit (1972)
367 points, 7 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/6X7bRzb.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjvF36gzLF8

I sort of got the same feeling listening to this that I do when watching "2001: A Space Odyssey" in that it was just made in a different era and that this kind of music could never really be done today. Newer droney bands like GYBE usually have a lot more going on than this. Was a different time back then when it was okay to just space out in front of your record player for an hour+ at a time.

― frogbs, Wednesday, June 15, 2011 12:01 AM

I wonder if it's possible to make a record that sounds like this without smoking lots and lots of weed.

― Bass Solo (Matt #2), Wednesday, June 15, 2011 12:12 AM

Listening to this album on headphones all the way through in the dark feels like going on a journey into outer space. Top that.

― Garyln (La Lechera), Wednesday, June 15, 2011 1:34 AM

Classic classic classic, an album to lose yourself in, deep dark immersive droney goodness.

― phuturephase, Sunday, January 15, 2012 4:23 PM

they really pull off this marvelous sense of fluctuating otherness

like, you're not enveloped, you're not having a cinematic experience, you're not JUST 'going on a journey', the record doesn't take over your space and you don't always enter into its space, but you intermittently seem to encounter it as a thing in its own right

― j., Saturday, May 2, 2015 6:21 AM Bookmark

To me, Zeit feels like the first "proper" ambient album, aesthetically, moreso than any of their later, more electronic records. I mean, both in form and function it isn't really different from most droney space/dark ambient that's been released 20 or 40 years later.

And it still sounds awesome 47 years after it's release.

agree, great one

35. The Caretaker: An Empty Bliss Beyond This World (2011)
373 points, 7 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/Fi52yfi.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL998ajnjN4

Oh man oh man oh mannnn....

Just got back from a long city hall meeting for work... I was ballroom-minded all night, art-deco twinkling in the chandeliers, grainy landscape photos on the wall, cuddly static noise and crackles over the PA driving the voices to the background and the crackling and pops to the fore... and I come home and there it is! There it fucking is. The digital subscription delivers the new Caretaker album!

Oh man... A night to remember... I'm busting! I feel like a schoolboy being floored by a crush.

― ...wow! (Le Bateau Ivre), Friday, May 20, 2011 12:20 AM

Been hammering An Empty Bliss Beyond this World recently...what a perfect, heartbreaking, sentimental record that is. Sounds so...English?

― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke), Friday, March 1, 2013 1:23 AM

I love the Disintegration Loops to death but The Caretaker stuff is a lot more specifically 'about' various forms of memory degradation not 'cultural memory' - as the MP3 collection Theoretically Pure Anterograde Amnesia in 2005 and tracks such as Von Restorff Effect, Unmasking Alzheimer's and Libet's Delay suggest.

― Doran, Wednesday, September 28, 2016 9:37 PM

Like you, memory and all it entails, especially its shortcomings (loss, false memories, how they are stored and wired neurologically, memory conditions) is probably my biggest "hobby", field of interest outside of what I do for a living. Out of mere fascination. It was like that already well before I got to know The Caretaker. He is undoubtedly one of my all time favorite artists, for a lot of reasons, but the shared fascination of memory obviously a big one too. Your questions and reservations deserve to be looked at more closely. I'll give it a first try.

Caretaker's focus on memory's flaws and rare conditions started out way earlier than his HAFTW records. I feel this needs to be pointed out. The massive 80 track collection 'Theoretically Pure Anterograde Amnesia' seems to have been his starting point of making music with the idea of memory malfunction and amnesia disorders behind it, conceptually. I was, and still am, deeply struck by the sheer power of that monumental release. And sonically I'd say it approaches Alzheimer's more truthfully than anything else he's done after that. For Alzheimer's isn't a romantic thing slowly and merrily sailingthe person suffering from it into a place where reality and dreams merge into something in between those states indefinitely. It's harsh, it's full of sadness and tears, frustration and utter helplessness (loneliness) for someone who half realizes he is going down that road but is unable to take a turn. I've seen the demise in my grandfather, and it was heart shattering. TPAA sonically is in many ways unforgiving, relentless, blurry, confusing and chaotic. Which is why it struck me as 'truthful' in a way (despite from being beautiful music).

― the tightening is plateauing (Le Bateau Ivre), Friday, October 7, 2016 8:23 PM

Oh man... A night to remember... I'm busting! I feel like a schoolboy being floored by a crush.

― ...wow! (Le Bateau Ivre), Friday, May 20, 2011 12:20 AM

This sounds nice enough, but kind of a one trick pony, doing some ambient filtering and editing to pre-1950s pop music, and that's it? And this guy has done like 20 albums of that? Or do the other albums sound different?

lol my thoughts exactly, but ppl love this stuff so hey I'm glad they get something out of it

I didn't mean to sound too critical, it does sound pretty cool to me, but can't imagine wanting to own more than album of this kind of stuff.

34. Éliane Radigue: Trilogie de la mort (1998)
378 points, 6 votes.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMfGLNrLvGA&t=308s

trilogie de la mort, and e=a=b=a+b, seem opposite ends of the scale?

i like trilogie, but i only really ever listen to the final track, koume, which is very rich sounding.

― charltonlido (gareth), Saturday, April 15, 2006 11:44 PM

listened to Jetsun Mila last weekend on headphones while hiking the Pacific coast. that & L’île re-sonante are the ones I listen to most often the last two years -- all of Trilogie d'la Mort is almost too heavy to casually throw on.

― Milton Parker, Thursday, March 12, 2009 1:12 AM

loved this bit from that interview:

I ’ve been working alone
for so much of my life. My only assistant
has been my cat .
I would always know something was wrong
when she made a face , but when she was
very quiet I’d just carry on .

― original bgm, Saturday, October 8, 2011 11:51 PM

trilogie d'la mort on has been on repeat for the past two weeks while i read / sleep / do yoga etc

― until the next, delayed, glaciation (map), Friday, September 9, 2016 5:14 AM

and sit and eat chocolate and nuts like i'm doing right now.

― until the next, delayed, glaciation (map), Friday, September 9, 2016 5:17 AM

Sorry, I dunno why that Youtube isn't working, let's try another one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnbGirPTgF0

what is with all the heavy noise

starting to think a lot of my personal favorites in my top ten won't make it

can't imagine wanting to own more than album of this kind of stuff.

reminds me of a gentle dig at Edward Ka-Spel/Legendary Pink Dots that I read years ago I think in Bananafish magazine "no one can ever accuse Edward Ka-Spel of glossing over ideas" - obviously there are still artists like that where I get obsessed and don't care and *do* end up with like 20 albums that are fairly similar

This one is one of my absolute favourites, so I'm glad it made it this high. To me, Radigue's drone music and Trilogie de la mort especially are the most extreme example of stripping music to its absolute minimum while still retaining its emotional core. On the surface the tones seem static but once you start listening more carefully, they soon create an vertigo effect of continously sinking/ascending deeper/higher with no firmament in sight. You can sense all the spiritual searching mournfulness, and transendence that comes with an extended piece composed in the memory of one's dead son.

wow, that caretaker album is amazing. reminds me of one of my own favorites, Vangelis' May '68 album (which he called a symphonic poem)... sorta meta-evocation of place, in that it evokes both the place and the imperfections of the act of recalling it, a sort of narrative seasickness that is pleasant like opiates or a rollercoaster.

damn, good post - that def gets at what I've seen others say about why they like it so much

I finally connected with Hecker when I decided he was a noise artist whose records need to be played at extremely high volume, rather than an ambient artist with interesting textures.

his current live show (which i have never seen) features tons of fog. like so much fog you can't even see other people in the room. that, combined with what i assume to be very loud volumes, would be an excellent way to experience his music

When I tripped over an amp and broke my leg in three places, I finally got it.

(Hecker is great.)

I saw him play in Marfa back in April, with the Konoyo ensemble... there were indeed a ton of fog machines, although the performance space was a cavernous warehouse with a lot of windows in the middle of the day, so that aspect probably didn't work. Sounded like standing next to the tracks while a freight train went by though.

this is an interesting poll, in that you can tell many people are refraining from voting from deeply loved all time favorites simply because of their personal definitions of ambient. I didn't vote for IASW or the Radigue or the Conrad or the Palestine yet I'm still relieved to see them here (simultaneously sad Radigue didn't place higher, she is an all time favorite but I'm like a cat picked up by the back of its neck thirty seconds in to any of her pieces, even when they're playing quietly, can't check e-mail can't drive a car can't sleep)

>So thanks, Jon, for writing all those things here throughout the years

ILILM

Just wanted to say thank you for this thread, I have quite a few things on the list so far but have been on the lookout for ambient music recommendations recently.

Unfortunately I need to sleep and can't post any more entries today, and I'll be busy for the rest of the weekend... But I'll continue the countdown on Monday and will finish it on Tuesday. Sorry about the delay.

This sounds nice enough, but kind of a one trick pony, doing some ambient filtering and editing to pre-1950s pop music, and that's it? And this guy has done like 20 albums of that? Or do the other albums sound different?

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