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

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

semi-related:

How Ambient Chill Became the New Silence

Hecker is a noise artist, it’s just pretty and cinematic and has harmonies and stuff

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

Finally catching up with the list:

[*] Ballasted Orchestra = YES. Why can't all SOTL sound like this?
[*] Liumin = if Basic Channel kept releasing stuff like "Phylyps Trak II/II" = YES.

finally listened to Strumming Music, well there's another CD I gotta buy (ordered the Behrman CD today, LP is more readily available but splits the track, also not on Spotify fwiw).

Can anybody recommend stuff that sounds like Robert Turman’s Flux?
― brimstead, Friday, June 28, 2019 7:05 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes but ahh will post on the morn post drunk haze love y’all

<3 <3

Hanging with Charlemagne Palestine today at his studio in Brussels. Charlemagne rules!! ❤️ #bearmitzvah pic.twitter.com/xIElzzWX3m

— Oren Ambarchi (@orenambarchi) June 27, 2019

Zeit is amazingly cold and deep. Along with Alpha Centauri and Atem, what a supreme trilogy of dark deep synth fantasias

Charlemagne is the shit. Schlongo!daluvdrone is my fav of what I’ve heard. It’s weird cause he has stuff that’s much closer to ambient than strumming music ok ok I’ll stop

the ambient poll went in unexpected directions and that is very very cool

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?

As someone who owns a couple dozen Alio Die CDs... slight variation on a theme is absolutely great if it scratches an itch.

^^ yeah Muslimgauze was exactly who I was thinking of with my post upthread, I still have dozens even after selling a bunch off

loving this radigue btw. la mort la merrier if you ask me :)

we call for devotion to subtle variation in the age of aleatory and non-persistent listening

list-dependent pissing is not an ameliorative clarification of such dull swales of emotion

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.

― Tuomas

I don’t disagree, but that album is AEBBTW.

The Caretaker stuff just isn't my bag— like I get why people are into it, it just doesn't "scratch the itch" as f.hazel said a bit upthread.

Now Richard Skelton? That's where my itch gets scratched.

Turns out I have some extra time tonight, so I'll post a few entries more...

woot!

33. Fripp & Eno: Evening Star (1975)
380 points, 8 votes.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW85KrKEphY

Side Two of Evening Star - An Index Of Metals - is one of the scariest songs I have ever heard.

― Damian, Tuesday, November 6, 2001 3:00 AM

I love Evening Star. Mixing that w/ some Windy & Carl is fuzzy drone heaven. Classic.

― Mark, Thursday, November 8, 2001 3:00 AM

Evening Star is such a better ambient record than Another Green World and yet the latter is the one that gets all the praise. Idiots.

― Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 7:42 AM

I've only heard Evening Star, but I love it. It's equally appreciable as background or for a close listen, and it has the one qualifier I've come to need from ambient music. I can't stand these constant 'round' synth tones, I don't know how to describe it, they're not bells exactly, but they're very cool and they turn me off everytime I listen. This has the kind of hiss I like, and of course the loops are cool too.

Index of Metals is my favorite track because it closely matches my favorite sound, the fireplace floo in the morning as it's wearing down. I used to sleep beside it before the bus on winter mornings, on the cold stone hearth, with that slowly modulating whistle, and it's just ingrained in my psyche as the most pleasant, wonderful sound.

― trashthumb, Saturday, October 20, 2007 8:27 PM

Never heard this one before either, but I'm on track two ("Evening Star"), and it sounds pretty nice. Not keen on guitar noodling in general, but this is all soft and mellow, and I love the peaceful synth washes.

it's OK, but it's no "No Pussyfooting". the side with the short tracks is kind of pointless iirc, at least one is just "Discreet Music" with guitar noodles added

Following on from Evening Star, it's a shame only 50% of Gone to Earth by David Sylvian is ambient, sides 3 and 4 are absolutely classic, especially if you love a nice low-key Robert Fripp:

https://youtu.be/tbJTOcdoRPU?t=3255

(that link should start at 54:15, which is the beginning of side three)

ps it's a pretty good Powell/Pressburger movie too

(oh yeah, Bill Nelson on guitar too)

Coming up next is the highest-rated multi-artist compilation in this poll.

Only one in the Top 100, no?

My favorite Fripp and Eno is the Air Structures 2lp boot, all of which (i think) is on here.

yeah that thing is awesome

I wondered when Pure Moods was going to show up!

32. Various Artists: I Am the Center - Private Issue New Age Music in America, 1950–1990 (2013)
382 points, 8 votes.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AADFqc84LEg

This might be comp of the year in terms of overall presentation/tie-in with current underground trends/sheer quality of content over such a long running time. It's really addictive, all I've been playing since the beautiful vinyl landed last week.

― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Sunday, November 10, 2013 11:08 PM

love this comp. I was worried it just wouldn't work; it can be a challenge to make a compilation of immersive ambient music that still flows well, especially when so many of the pieces are so iconoclastic / strange. but this is just great. even in the cases of the artists I'd heard of, they pick tracks that are obscure but still very representative (best example -- I love Don Slepian's process music work with the Alles synthesizer more than his live keyboard & flute music, so 'Sea Of Bliss' is a hallmark new age record for me, but I did not know about his other all-Alles cassette only album 'Open Spaces' -- http://www.discogs.com/Don-Slepian-Open-Spaces/release/556677)

the weekly music from the hearts of space show changed tack pretty dramatically in the late 80's as new age evolved, this compilation captures just how truly weird that show sounded to me in the early to mid-80's when I occasionally caught it on KPFA on sunday nights while trying desperately to do all the homework I'd put off all weekend. captures it a lot better than the HoS CD compilations & syndicated shows that came out later.

― Milton Parker, Monday, November 11, 2013 9:30 PM

bought the 'i am the center' comp on vinyl, would have paid twice as much for how good it is. really intrigued by constance demby, her cut on the comp is incredible. as is everything else, tbh. been a steven halpern head for some time already.

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Wednesday, November 20, 2013 9:11 PM

Seriously though, I'm not sure I've played a single compilation this much since, err, DGC Rarities. Aside from maybe one or two tracks, this thing is perfect for pretty much every mood. Maybe I'm just getting mellow?

― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Monday, December 9, 2013 7:27 AM

I remember the hype when that comp came out, but I felt I had enough new age music in my life already, so I didn't have any need to get it. Maybe I'll do one day.

great album, Douglas knocked it out of the park as the compiler, just perfect choices all around

32. David Hykes & The Harmonic Choir Hearing Solar Winds (1983)
386 points, 5 votes.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVfnWJm1nyE

I believe David Hykes' website has some info on his version of overtone chanting, mostly how it will bring about world peace and such.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, January 8, 2003 10:26 PM

the David Hykes record to die for: 'Hearing Solar Winds'. all overtone chorus moving slowly, one unbroken long movement that takes the time it needs.

― (Jon L), Wednesday, November 5, 2003 3:08 AM

i love it. i don't know how you would classify them. just your average trippy choir making strange mouth sounds and recorded in a cave somewhere. but beautiful! and mind-altering.

― scott seward, Wednesday, November 5, 2003 3:49 AM

I think my single favourite album of the 80s is David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir - Hearing Solar Winds. Seriously, one of the most beautiful albums I've ever heard. A whole choir of master overtone singers (able to sing melodies in overtones, hold fundamentals and change overtones, hold overtones and change fundamentals, etc.) singing in a resonant cathedral. Just some spectacular drones and sonics. Enveloping. Can feel like you're floating.

― sund4r (sund4r), Monday, August 29, 2005 8:19 PM

I was not aware of David Hykes at all when I started compiling the results for this thread, but as soon as I listened to that album online, I immediately bought a copy of it. It sounds amazing!

Whoops, sorry, that album is 31., not 32., obviously.

that one's a monster

https://www.discogs.com/Harmonic-Choir-David-Hykes-Hearing-Solar-Winds-Alight-Special-25th-Anniversary-Remastered-Edition/release/5010897

^^ you want to hear the original first, but if you've listened to that more than 30 times, this is a very interesting remaster which drastically alters the high end and condenses the composition by a good 5-8 minutes.

30. Bohren & Der Club of Gore: Black Earth (2002)
395 points, 8 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/6DepF4P.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvnROH91GLk

One of my favorite groups of recent years, sinister, bleak, doomy jazz music, absolutely fantastic.

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Monday, May 30, 2005 4:51 AM

whenever I'm listening to Black Earth I'm convinced they're the best band in the world

― Simon H., Sunday, May 13, 2018 8:58 PM

By far the heaviest "quiet metal" CDs I have are the last two by Bohren & der Club of Gore. Black Earth is massive doom metal disguised as a jazz trio.

― a. begrand (a begrand), Friday, January 26, 2007 8:47 PM

The most Lynchian stuff I've ever heard that hasn't actually been used on one of his soundtracks (yet) is that album Black Earth by Bohren and Der Club of Gore (Ipecac).

― Nate Carson, Sunday, April 6, 2008 2:21 AM

hearing solar winds was my #2!

i did a quick 30 second skim of the 'alight' version and yeah, that's waaay different! i'll give it more of a listen this afternoon