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

booooo

voted for both those last two. Chill Out is still sort of a perfect album to me so I rated it higher. Love Ultraworld too but there are some bits on that album that haven't exactly held up...that said, a surprising amount of it does. pretty impressive considering it's nearly 30 years old by now!!

The Pearl: TOO LOW.

I thought Playthroughs was a lock so what do I know.

On Land
No Pussyfooting
SOTL
Basinski
SAW II

and Music For Airports

and Pop

maybe the Eyvind Kang album?

No Pussyfooting already appeared, at the 44th spot.

I more or less expect SAWII to be top five but somehow it feels ~wrong~ for that album to be in a top five ambient all time thingy? (I love it but didn't vote for it, it's not an ambient album at all, for me)

didn't vote but i'm going to see Steve Roach play in August, he's doing the legacy album thing and playing Dreamtime Return.

One thing I've found interesting is how much Eno there is in the poll... Sure, he's the codifier of the entire genre, but would a top 100 funk albums poll have 20 James Brown records on the list? Possibly?

I'd love the Eyvind Kang record to be there. Feels too niche, like.

October Language?

Sounds like a dare. xp

Eno did so many great collabs with other important ambient dudes, so his footprint is probably bigger than it would be if he'd only worked on his own.

So did Namlook, and he's almost invisible in this poll.

LBI please explain SAWII not being ambient for you?? I won't argue, I'm just fascinated.

apollo gotta be top 10 as well

i think saw2 will be #1

agreed, I can see it being a rout

I'm counting three Enos in the top ten and two SoTL. At least one Biosphere. Basinski. SAWII. And at least one album that will surprise me, apparently.

Holding out for Enya Watermark.

Hoping for another Harold Budd, maybe ‘Lovely Thunder’, possibly a bit niche also Paul Horn’s ‘Inside the Great Pyramid’.

One thing I've found interesting is how much Eno there is in the poll... Sure, he's the codifier of the entire genre, but would a top 100 funk albums poll have 20 James Brown records on the list? Possibly?

― Tuomas, Monday, July 1, 2019 10:56 PM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Probably, yes? Though I assume Funkadelic/Parliament would rack up the votes, too.

There are so many branches growing out of the ambient stem. 'Lifeforms' to me feels more like 'psychedelic chillout' than ambient per se (and I did vote for it). Max Richter's 'Sleep' is pure neo-classical (w/ strong religious imagery). They owe to ambient for sure, but is it ambient on it's own? I don't know. But I do think they deserve to be here. Eno isn't the be all and end all, we might as well just have ranked Eno's ambient albums here. Fact is that a lot of stuff has grown out of what was initially a rather singular definition of ambient. Such is the beauty of a genre evolving imo.

So did Namlook, and he's almost invisible in this poll.

― Tuomas

He's the only artist I allowed multiple (3) releases of on my ballot, but alas...

A tad disappointed (but not really that surprised) by the almost complete absence of the darker side of ambient in these results, save for that one Deathprod album.

Stalker was in there too

LBI please explain SAWII not being ambient for you?? I won't argue, I'm just fascinated.

― but everybody calls me, (lukas), Monday, July 1, 2019 11:06 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I do really love SAWII, but it's always felt like "Aphex doing his best imitation of ambient music" to me, instead of being genuine ambient music? It feels very song-oriented; or rather, vignettes or templates of ambient music. Yet not the real thing. What I appreciate about it is his audacity to play with ambient music and get away with it, but it still feels like he's pulling my leg. On a more mundane yet equally important level: it sounds fucking great, but it will never cease to sound like a copy of ambient music to me, a replica. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever, and I play it more than half I voted for, but that's why I couldn't bring myself to vote for it.

I guess Namlook's lack of poll success is also because he released over 200 albums, with limited printings of 300/500/1000/2000 copies? Whereas Eno has less albums, and they've been easier to find?

LBI: thank you I feel exactly the same about Aphex-doing-ambient. Aphex as IDM I have a lot more time for.

SAW II is a hell of a lot more ambient that SAW, though

One thing I've found interesting is how much Eno there is in the poll... Sure, he's the codifier of the entire genre, but would a top 100 funk albums poll have 20 James Brown records on the list? Possibly?

perhaps the confusion as to what counts as "ambient" has something to do with this...everyone agrees those Eno records count

LBI so is it mainly because of the track lengths? Or because you’re hearing him being “ironic” or something?

I get where you're coming from but this would disqualify like my entire ballot

I so wish i had participated in this. So many favourite records and a ton of ones that are new to my ears and a total revelation, so thanks loads for this. World Of Echo is all time but I am with the it's not ambient crew.

I wonder if we will see any Fax in the top 10? 2350 Broadway?

As I said upthread, I suspect non-overlapping fandoms because to me it is inconceivable that Lustmord's The Place Where the Black Stars Hang or the Vidna Obmana's The River of Appearance wouldn't be top 50 (at least) in an ambient albums poll. They are both pretty prolific, too, and have done a ton of interesting collaborations. Yet there are plenty of artists placing that I've never even heard of.

There are too many good ambient albums.

LBI so is it mainly because of the track lengths? Or because you’re hearing him being “ironic” or something?

― brimstead, Monday, July 1, 2019 11:57 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I don't think it's irony per se, though I can see why one would think that. I do think the music is genuine. But there's definitely something that makes it sound like 'Aphex doing ambient' instead of just being, you know, ambient. If ambient, for me, is one side of a cliff (or the cliff itself), Aphex is on the other side trying to bridge the gap, really hard. The vignettes sound like exercises in ambient, not ambient itself.

Siegbran, the Bohren & der Club of Gore "Black Earth" record also placed.... though one could argue about whether it's dark ambient, it's in that whole sub sub genre for sure, i think. it's also fucking awesome.

it'll be interesting to see the 101-150 results for sure

I do think dark ambient is underrepresented, but that's hardly surprising.

Please do check out David Lynch's 'The Air Is On Fire' (and don't be scared off by Lynch's name on it). A magnificent, cold, industrial dark-ambient record.

something that makes it sound like 'Aphex doing ambient'

I think Blue Calx and the power station on acid track after it bridge the gap, but that makes sense. Ambient requires artists to do less and that's not a natural fit with RDJ. The vitality or foolishness or whatever that made his work so distinctive originally is at odds with the ambient ideal. Interesting though that maybe his most revered album is the one where he tried and failed to abide by less is more.

Blue Calx is definitely the song with the most lasting power on it for me. Good point on his maximalist approach being in opposition to ambient aesthetics but he's generally infused his music with pop sensibilities even at its strangest, so maybe those pop sensibilities being tuned to a less manic style contribute to the reverence for SAW 2.

xpost

I'd like to investigate some of this dark ambient but it is now four hours before the new moon and I feel like The Pearl is a perfect soundtrack for this moment so the investigation will have to wait.

try out the place where the black stars hang by lustmord

I Am The Center is ridiculously good, ha

https://lustmord.bandcamp.com/album/the-place-where-the-black-stars-hang

Widely credited as the originator of the “Dark Ambient” genre.

An apt recommendation. So far it is dark without laying it on too thick, a bit cinematic though. I like the Bohren & Der Club of Gore too.

it's got great low-end if you have the speakers for it... cinematic yes, some latterday lustmord is literally video game music, he must have done a film score by now.

considering how wide the field for ambient seems to be, I'm wishing I'd nominated/voted for Mirrorring's Foreign Body now.

10. Stars of the Lid: Stars of the Lid and Their Refinement of the Decline (2007)
625 points, 10 votes 1 first place vote.

https://i.imgur.com/F8TxxaG.jpg?1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp_uq5mHOD8

I love The Tired Sounds of... but it's never been a real go-to album for me. But this, this is something quite incredible. The fact that it's so long and dense almost put me off, but I've had it on my walkman going to work and back and it just *eats* the time because it's so beautiful.

I suggested a colleague give it a listen and he was actually misty-eyed by about half way through the second disc. It's difficult to pick a standout, but I think it would be The Daughters of Quiet Minds - at about nine minutes in it becomes pretty much the most gorgeous thing I have ever heard.

Does anyone else get a kind of spectral, one-tenth speed MBV feel off this at all - like the sound Loveless would make when the radio waves finally hit the edge of the galaxy...?

― Bill A, Monday, May 21, 2007 1:04 AM

so beautiful...

*ahem* some dust in my eyes

― rionat, Monday, December 21, 2009 11:00 PM

this one sure is a grower

initially it just sent me back to tired sounds. the electronic textures are a little stranger / other on that one, and the sections where they go for those long, long strung out endless swells on one chord... there are some Steve Roach records in that ballpark, many other classic space records I could mention, but since that's almost _all_ that's done on those records, it can get a bit wearying. but in the context of these records where the fully composed string sections suddenly roll over into these almost endless swoons, it's kind of devestating

the new one favors the strings even more, even closer to classical, which at first sounded duller -- sounded even less distinct from the 80's space music stuff that Tired Sounds seemed to be a 00's update of, but the compositions have emerged through repeat listening and now the streamlined classical move is absolutely working for me, a move closer to center that just works. probably works for a much wider audience as well because this new one's not as overtly 'electronic', just really strung out classical (like an _even sparer_ take on side two of Eno's Discreet Music).

― Milton Parker, Wednesday, May 23, 2007 1:33 AM

"december hunting" is playing on the stereo in my bedroom while my roommates' band is playing a song in the living room in the same key with fiddle and banjo and it sounds AMAZING.

― macropuente (map), Friday, October 26, 2018 6:06 AM

9. Laraaji: Ambient 3 - Day of Radiance (1980)
642 points, 11 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/QJ57wMa.jpg?1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hes0hRY9v8

all praises be to the invisible infinite wealth which is now currently composing us and our experience. may we unfold as the alignment with this vibration, perfect presence of divine being, of most harmonious presence. may our appreciation for the infinite creator expand and receive greater depth in our personal unfoldment, and may we be released from the need to complete or perfect any person, place or thing, and free enough to be involved and enjoying the already eternal completion and perfection. with all praises be to this one within this one for this oneness as we are eternally this united channel of the infinite presence of our most beloved spirit soul.

― the late great, Sunday, November 24, 2013 8:53 PM

side 1 has three dances. side 2 has the ocean drones. it's beautiful, shouldn't be out of print.

― Milton Parker, Saturday, September 22, 2007 2:03 AM

Laraaji ? anything off of Day Of Radiance
If you going to cheat, cheat right away right? Unheard by me until a couple of months ago this record is Ambient (3) and hence the concept of song and track is pretty loose. Phasing (insert metallic, acoustic stringed instrument here) and tiny hints of Eno intervention maybe. Cool and luscious.

― LRJP! (LRJP!), Sunday, September 4, 2005 1:55 PM

on my one (half-tab) acid trip c.'82 someone put Evening Star on at dusk and sure enough there was an evening star! actually it was real bright so probably a planet. earlier we sat in a pagoda listening to Day Of Radiance…

so many people have listened to Eno's music while asleep I wonder if it has an additional subconscious resonance (burned into memory?) for them/us.

― Paul, Thursday, July 10, 2014 7:54 PM

I prefer Stephan Micus fwiw.

TOO HIGH

Ultraworld is one of my favourite albums but I only threw it a token non ranked vote here as it's too beat heavy to be ambient.

Refinement is my favourite SOTL record, think it was top 5 on my ballot

8. William Basinski: The Disintegration Loops (2002)
688 points, 11 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/ZuUYuJ1.jpg?1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjnAE5go9dI

Oh, veel meer dan enkel 'de moeite waard'. Ik vind het een duizelingwekkend epos, een muzikaal monument voor vergankelijkheid en teloorgang. Het overstijgt de platische idee van enkel een uiteenvallend tapelint en stelt allesomvattend de trage maar onstuitbare ‘ondergang der dingen’ centraal. Het gaat over leven en dood.

― Gerard (Gerard), Tuesday, August 3, 2004 11:52 AM

reminded me of 'i am sitting in a room' in the way that distortion slowly, gradually take over.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, June 20, 2004 1:08 PM

Yeah, I was wondering about the Basinski angle- as I see it, melancholy and memorialization are also critical and reflective modes, albeit oblique ones. It seems like he just regarded it as symptomatic of a certain shock rather than explanatory in a wider sense, and criticized the pieces for only working along those lines.

He essentially stated that repetition in "The Disintegration Loops" represents a precise re-enacting of the events as they happened, as opposed to a replaying and correcting of the events as he (Dahlen) would have hoped for.

To me, this runs contrary to what "The Disintegration Loops" is about. It takes brief, bewildering moments of fear, melancholy, and shock and stretches those moments into hours. The reflection and explanation isn't there because those "source" moments don't leave any time for that sort of reaction.

So yeah, why Dahlen criticised the piece for being so submissive is a bit confusing.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, March 28, 2005 8:46 PM

William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops - hopefully you'll only need part 1 if you're sleepy. If you're awake, they're genius.

― southern lights (southern lights), Wednesday, March 17, 2004 2:34 AM

I only have the four Disintegration Loops and I love all of them. I used to work at this all night cafe and around 4 the place would clear out and I would play these as I would mop and clean up. I miss jobs where I could play music late at night.

― Jacob Sanders, Thursday, February 4, 2010 2:34 PM

7. Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno: Apollo - Atmospheres & Soundtracks (1983)
711 points, 12 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/DpD9uSl.jpg?1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcWwtQmAt7E

apollo = stunningly beautiful, one of my most played albums in recent times.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Wednesday, July 21, 2004 6:42 PM

apollo sounds dated (very 80's discovery channel music) but it WORKS.

― cutty (mcutt), Sunday, April 11, 2004 9:50 AM

Ambient music always meant more than that. It may be perceived by some as functional, but by its very nature it cannot possibly be classified as "background" music. Take "Music For Airports" for example - the purpose was to give the listener the sensation of flying, so prepare them for the experience of being airborne, to whet their appetite, so to speak. This is a challenging and ambitious aim, that perhaps reached its zenith with "Apollo", a series of soundscapes inspired by the Apollo moon landings. And yes, they do give the listener the sensation of floating in space without the aid of narcotic enhancement.

This is what makes listening to ambient music, an active as opposed to a passive experience, as it's raison d'etre is to stimulate the mind and imagination of the listener.

― Brian Peter George St Baptiste De La Salle Eno, Tuesday, November 20, 2001 3:00 AM

"An Ending (Ascent)" is probably the prettiest thing Eno has done with (more or less) the same progression as "The Big Ship" from "Another Green World" (see also: "Spinning Away," etc.). It's actually quite remarkable how well the music goes with the truly inspiring "For All Mankind" movie.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Sunday, April 11, 2004 8:46 PM

A word on my favorite of the ambient recordings: Apollo has been my before-bedtime album for almost twenty years: I love how it's never quite unobtrusive enough, coughing up sounds and textures that dare you to dismiss them, especially in the second half.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, April 19, 2018 3:36 AM