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

I was somehow thinking Kayn's 'Tektra' & Tudor's 'Rainforest' were going to make the top 100, let alone at least one Zoviet-France (vote-splitting in the latter case insured doom, but everyone who voted SAWII should probably just buy that new Z-F box)

happy the NASA Voyager tapes made it (my #1). people may have caught up with Irv Teibel, but given how big the interdisciplinary Science-Art field has gotten over the last 20 years / grants written by sound artists promising to make beautiful sound from data streams, I think people have got to catch up with the career of Dr. Jeffrey Thompson sooner or later. Tuomas posted the cover art for the most widely distributed version, the 5 CD box on Laserlight, you could find across the US budget priced in every rest stop / roadside diner with gift store / K-Mart so god knows how many copies they sold, but it was a LOT. sadly those versions don't mention which planets are featured on each volume -- a user on Discogs has finally answered my questions, and it turns out they are remixes, crossfading between planets from the original 10 CD Brain/Mind series, and also mentions the sound is a little less 'brilliant'. I get why Tuomas consolidated the nominations into the most widely distributed version, but my vote was for the one currently available on Spotify, which is the complete original Brain/Mind set -- with a fondness for the original batshit interdisciplinary Science / New Age Healer liner notes & packaging. iTunes sells it for $10 or you really go into the wormhole and buy direct from the verified healer himself for $184.97 (and get a Neuroacoustic Sound Table Delivery System while you're there, financing available)

https://www.discogs.com/label/114509-BrainMind-Research
https://scientificsounds.com/index.php/store/nasa-space-sounds

while a lot of his other music is more typically Hearts of Space, some of the other pieces are more in line with the Voyager series, like 'Celestial Dolphin' and the later fearsomely titled Gamma Meditation / Awakened Mind System, and I am loving the ads I get when searching those pieces out on youtube

https://open.spotify.com/album/5s8KIKe4zZXQxTxCqdWbIT

etc

Thanks for doing this poll, ILM--I'm excited to dive into things I'm not familiar with. I didn't get to vote because life has been very un-ambient lately. But glad to see 'On Land' place so high--it's been my touchstone for rich, immersive ambient for 20+ years.

If I had made a list, it would've included a lot of albums represented on this mix, which isn't entirely/exactly ambient--though clearly ILX takes a big-tent approach to the term--but gets at the feelings and sounds I'm looking for from it. A lot of heavy mixing, finding pieces that somehow fit together, so even what you already know well will sound different here.

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/musicophilia_00_various_-_translucence_1974-2018_cover.jpg?w=1024

Various – ‘Translucence‘
A Tribute to Brian Eno | (1974-2018)

01 [00:00]
Yazz Ahmed – “Exhale” (2017)
Egisto Macchi – “Le Genti del Deserto” (1974)
Mnemonists – “Limbs” (1981)

02 [05:00]
Earthen Sea – “Delicately In the Sunlight” (2017)
Cliff Martinez – “Will She Come Back” (2002)

03 [09:50]
Pauline Oliveros – “Suiren” (1989)
Francisco – “Cosmic Beam Experience” (1976)
Susumu Yokota – “Saku” (2000)

04 [15:50]
Passengers – “Theme From ‘The Swan'” (1995)

05 [18:50]
Luciano Cilio – “Studio for Winds” (1977)
Paul Motian – “Psalm” (1982)
Bernard Parmegiani – “Geologie Sonore” (1975)

06 [24:20]
Daniel Littleton – “Elegy #1” (2002)
Monoton – “HZ Waltz” (1982)
David Sylvian – “The Wooden Cross” (1986)

07 [29:20]
Huun Huur Tu – “Harmonics in the Wind” (1999)
Brian Eno – “Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills)” (1982)
Peter Gabriel – “Powerhouse at the Foot of the Mountain” (1985)
Matthew Herbert – “Forest Montage” (2002)

08 [34:20]
Shoko Hikage – “Sakura Zukiyo” (2013)
Chuck Johnson – “Riga Black” (2017)

09 [41:50]
Yo La Tengo – “Shortwave” (2018)
Tod Dockstader – “Approach” (2005)
Gigi Masin – “Tharros” (1986)
Michael Brook with Brian Eno – “Pond Life” (1985)

10 [46:00]
Arvo Part – “Spiegel im Spiegel” (1976)
Robert Fripp & Brian Eno – “Wind on Water” (1975)
The Haxan Cloak – “The Mirror Reflecting (Part 1)” (2013)

[Total Time: 56:30]

You can download or stream it here: https://musicophilia.wordpress.com/2018/04/03/tribute-to-brian-eno-translucence/

Stars of the Lid and Their Refinement of the Decline was the album we were spinning on repeat on the CD player in the hospital room when my wife was going through labor. I think we switched to it from Aerial by Kate Bush since while both were pretty chill SOTL was working better for her.

oh how i wish we hadn't gone with Sheer Hellish Miasma

Pretty satisfied with the poll results except for Day of Radiance in the Top 10. Essence/Universe would have been much more appropriate and is a better record. I think the whole Eno Ambient series notoriety pushed up higher than it needed to be.

Also Fennesz' Black Sea is way way better than Endless Summer, more "ambient", more cohesive, and looking at the results, three of us felt very highly about it. Shame it didn't place.

would have voted Harold Budd's Lovely Thunder up very high, for Gypsy Violin alone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myomvbgu99E

Bold didn't place.

Max Richter Sleep
Fennesz Black Sea
Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks
Global Communication Remotion: The Global Communication Remix Album
Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works Volume II
Biosphere Substrata
Stars of the Lid The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid
Laraaji Essence / Universe
Steve Roach Structures from Silence
Global Communication 76:14
Future Sound Of London, The Lifeforms
Susumu Yokota Sakura
Mountains Centralia
William Basinski The Disintegration Loops
Orb, The The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
Autechre NTS Session 4
Tangerine Dream Phaedra
KLF, The Chill Out
Oneohtrix Point Never Rifts
Fripp & Eno Evening Star
Brian Eno Ambient 4: On Land
Gas Narkopop
Brian Eno Music for Films
Manual Bajamar
Tim Hecker Harmony in Ultraviolet
Slowdive Pygmalion
Yagya Rigning
Brian Eno Ambient 1: Music for Airports
Suzanne Ciani Seven Waves
Gigi Masin Talk to the Sea
Laurie Spiegel The Expanding Universe
Jóhann Jóhannsson Fordlandia
Laraaji Ambient 3: Day of Radiance
Chapterhouse / Global Communication Blood Music: Pentamerous Metamorphosis
Ryuichi Sakamoto Async
Brian Eno Discreet Music
Gas Pop
Autechre Garbage
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith Tides
Woob Woob 1194
Fripp & Eno (No Pussyfooting)
Vangelis Soil Festivities
Jonas Munk Absorb / Fabric / Cascade
Vangelis & Dr. Stergios Tegos Microneurosurgery with Video Tapes
Higher Intelligence Agency / Biosphere Birmingham Frequencies
2814 新しい日の誕生
Ambiant Otaku Ambiant Otaku
Vladislav Delay Anima
Yagya Stars and Dust
Secede Tryshasla

oh how i wish we hadn't gone with Sheer Hellish Miasma

― Rory end to the lowenbrow (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, July 3, 2019 1:34 AM (twenty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/GregariousSlipperyKoi-small.gif

XP Dang, lot more came up in the results from my ballot than I was expecting. For those who are interested, check the bolded albums in the top 25 or so of my ballot above for some missed classics. And of course, Hammock's Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow, which is as worthy as anything in the top 10 and a true "ambient" record and I'm kicking myself for not nominating and stanning for vocally early on.

I also find it funny I voted for one of the few GAS albums not to place! boooooo

bold didn't place. oh and I guess I DID vote for World Of Echo in the end.

WEIGHTED

Brian Eno Ambient 1: Music for Airports
Brian Eno Ambient 4: On Land
Francisco López La selva
Aeolian String Ensemble, The Lassithi/Elysium
Gas Königsforst
Gas Pop
David Jackman Sol mara
La Monte Young & Marian Zazeela The Tamburas of Pandit Pran Nath
Andrew Chalk & Christoph Heemann Mirror of the Sea
Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works Volume II
Nocturnal Emissions Spiritflesh
Arthur Russell World of Echo
Climax Golden Twins Lovely
Eyvind Kang Live Low to the Earth, in the Iron Age
Orb, The The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
Organum Vacant Lights
Pauline Oliveros / Stuart Dempster / Panaiotis Deep Listening
Spacemen 3 Dreamweapon
Various Artists I Am the Center: Private Issue New Age Music in America, 1950–1990
Vladislav Delay Multila
Zoviet France Just an Illusion
Brian Eno Discreet Music
Coil presents Time Machines Coil presents Time Machines
Harold Budd / Brian Eno Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror
Nurse with Wound Soliloquy for Lilith

UNWEIGHTED

Brian Eno Lux
Brian Eno Thursday Afternoon
Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks
Chihei Hatakeyama Minima Moralia
Coil Megalithomania!
Datacide Flowerhead
Emeralds Allegory of Allergies
Emeralds What Happened
Experimental Audio Research Beyond the Pale
Fripp & Eno (No Pussyfooting)
Fripp & Eno Evening Star
Gas Narkopop
Gas Zauberberg
Gigi Masin Talk to the Sea
Gigi Masin Wind
Grouper A I A: Dream Loss
Harold Budd / Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois The Pearl
HIasos Inter-Dimensional Music
Laurie Spiegel The Expanding Universe
Muslimgauze Veiled Sisters
Nurse with Wound Salt Marie Celeste
O Yuki Conjugate Equator
Popol Vuh In den Gärten Pharaos
Virginia Astley ‎From Gardens Where We Feel Secure
Voice of Eye Transmigration

I really loved reading this thread, thank you all

didn't vote, but if I had, Coil Presents Time Machines and Oval - 94 Diskont would have been my two top votes, not sure which order

Yes raise a glass for Tuomas, really well done. I really appreciate how you took the time to post a considerate response to my random queries here. I am disappointed about the lack of Namlook but as you point out it's partly a publishing issue. His output is inconsistent in my view, there's no one LP I can point to as a solid representation of his style. I'm not familiar with your selections of his though so maybe those will show me wrong. Such a long listening queue from this thread.

I don't regret not voting as I don't have the breadth of ambient knowledge as most voters here seem to. Although if I'd had an inkling of how the results would play out I might have felt compelled to vote to push down some of the Eno, which in my case would have likely been replaced by yet more Biosphere.

Various Artists - Pop Ambient 2002

- brimstead

Haha this is apparently the only one of the Pop Ambient comps I don't have. Recent years have seen the quality slipping imo. Or just treading water really.

Higher Intelligence Agency / Biosphere Birmingham Frequencies

...

For those who are interested, check the bolded albums in the top 25 or so of my ballot above for some missed classics.

- octobeard

Hey someone voted for one of my noms, fist bump. I've randomly selected your Fennesz pick as one to check out, anything else in particular you'd recommend for one drawn more to the "trancebient" or industrial-lite extremes of the ambient plane rather than endless Eno?

...And another thing. Last post I swear, but speaking of trance:

I would absolutely take a playlist/recommendation list for the more beat driven/trance stuff of the early-mid 90s as I'm largely ignorant of it - partly down to aesthetics (which I'm working on) but like I say, mostly it's a case of not knowing where to start.

― Good cop, Babcock (Chinaski),

Disc 3 of Sasha & Digweed's first Renaissance Mix is a good starting point, although likely widely reviled here. There's also that legendary Oakenfold Goa set but the only version I've found has a persistent buzz in the right channel.

For fun, I made a top 100 list based on the poll results... this is the top 100 *artists* by total points. Any collaborations were scored by giving each artist involved the same amount of points the album received, and I combined solo artists performing under different names (Namlook, Tetsu Inoue, Dirk Serries/Vidna Obmana, Vangelis, etc). I might have missed a few but I'm pretty sure it won't affect the top 100:

1.  Brian Eno                      7202
2.  Gas                            1844
3.  Stars of the Lid               1779
4.  Harold Budd                    1746
5.  Aphex Twin                     1745
6.  Daniel Lanois                  1541
7.  Biosphere                      1360
8.  Steve Roach                    1223
9.  Global Communication           1036
10. Tangerine Dream                 947
11. Laraaji                         820
12. Stuart Dempster                 779
13. Tim Hecker                      744
14. Orb, The                        731
15. Robert Fripp                    717
16. Roger Eno                       711
17. Autechre                        692
18. William Basinski                688
19. Vangelis                        669
20. Fennesz                         666
21. Oneohtrix Point Never           657
22. Windy & Carl                    653
23. KLF, The                        614
24. Hiroshi Yoshimura               611
25. Colleen                         606
26. Zoviet France                   576
27. Loscil                          564
28. Ryuichi Sakamoto                543
29. Manuel Göttsching               532
30. Pauline Oliveros                515
31. Lustmord                        514
32. Caretaker, The                  499
33. Alio Die                        496
34. Eluvium                         478
35. Arthur Russell                  459
36. Laurie Spiegel                  456
37. Éliane Radigue                  438
38. Tetsu Inoue                     415
39. Jon Hassell                     411
40. Future Sound Of London          406
41. Keith Fullerton Whitman         400
42. Bohren and Der Club of Gore     395
43. Thomas Köner                    391
44. Vladislav Delay                 388
45. David Hykes & Harmonic Choir    386
46. Earth                           378
47. Gigi Masin                      369
48. Susumu Yokota                   362
49. Labradford                      361
50. Harmonia                        360
51. Miles Davis                     343
52. La Monte Young                  340
53. Marian Zazeela                  340
54. Raison d'être                   340
55. Andrew Chalk                    339
56. Robert Rich                     337
57. Slowdive                        332
58. Winged Victory for the Sullen   327
59. Dead Texan, The                 326
60. Iasos                           294
61. n/a                             293
62. Nurse with Wound                287
63. DeepChord                       286
64. Chapterhouse                    285
65. Max Richter                     283
66. Michael Stearns                 281
67. Alva Noto                       275
68. Oval                            273
69. Boris                           267
70. Hammock                         266
71. David Sylvia                    265
72. Holger Czukay                   265
73. Constance Demby                 250
74. Oren Ambarchi                   248
75. Popol Vuh                       247
76. Syntonic Research Inc.          247
77. Mountains                       241
78. Kyle Bobby Dunn                 240
79. Meg Bowles                      238
80. Deathprod                       236
81. Terekke                         236
82. Pete Namlook                    235
83. Raymond Scott                   234
84. Charlemagne Palestine           233
85. Spacemen 3                      231
86. Ian William Craig               230
87. Marsen Jules                    230
88. David Behrman                   223
89. Woob                            219
90. Henry Flynt                     218
91. Justin Bieber                   217
92. Sunn O)))                       217
93. Michael Brook                   214
94. Robert Turman                   211
95. DJ Olive                        207
96. Tod Dockstader                  207
97. Richard Skelton                 205
98. 2814                            202
99. Ekkehard Ehlers                 201
100. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith          201

Various Artists - Pop Ambient 2002

- brimstead

Haha this is apparently the only one of the Pop Ambient comps I don't have. Recent years have seen the quality slipping imo. Or just treading water really.

Tuomas, thanks so much for running this poll. This was awesome and you are awesome.

I had a split ballot.

WEIGHTED

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Volume II
Pauline Oliveros / Stuart Dempster / Panaiotis - Deep Listening
Brian Eno - Ambient 4: On Land
David Hykes & The Harmonic Choir - Hearing Solar Winds
Harold Budd - The White Arcades
Steve Roach - Quiet Music: The Original 3-Hour Collection
Michael Stearns - Encounter (A Journey in the Key of Space)
Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno - Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks
Pulse Emitter - Xenharmonic Passages
Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music For Airports
Steve Roach - Structures From Silence
Don Slepian - Sea of Bliss
Harold Budd / Brian Eno - Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror
Chubby Wolf - Ornitheology
David Casper with Scott Cossu, Jami Sieber & T'ao Chu-Shen - Crystal Waves
Iasos - Inter-Dimensional Music
Vangelis - Invisible Connections
Tangerine Dream - Zeit
Lustmørd - Heresy
Ingram Marshall - Fog Tropes / Gradual Requiem
Antrilon - Mind Erase
Sarah Davachi - Qualities of Bodies Permanent

UNWEIGHTED

Les Halles - Transient
Norman Westberg - 13
X.Y.R. - Reflections
Leandro Fresco & Rafael Anton Irissari - La Equidistancia
Christopher Willits - Horizon
Loscil - Sea Island
Star Turbine - The Sleeping Land
Head Phone Over Tone - Solar Sails
SleepResearchFacility - Deep Frieze
Marsen Jules - Beautyfear
Brian Eno / Peter Chilvers - Reflection
Jeremy Bible - Music for Black Holes
Tod Dockstader - Aerial #1
Tom Heasley - Where the Earth Meets the Sky
Biosphere - Shenzhou
Seconds in Formaldehyde - Suchness #3
Windy & Carl - Antarctica (The Bliss Out, Vol. 2)
Jonas Munk - Absorb/Fabric/Cascade
Thom Brennan - Mountains
Global Communication - 76:14
Harold Budd - Lovely Thunder
M. Geddes Gengras - Hawaiki Tapes
Kyle Bobby Dunn - Bring Me the Head of Kyle Bobby Dunn
Pulse Emitter - Planetary Scale Synth Hypnosis
Greg Davis - Mutually Arising
Warmth - Essay
Deep Magic / Pine Smoke Lodge - Split
Thomas Köner - Permafrost

12 - Don Slepian - Sea of Bliss

right on

can anyone tell me what 5,4,3 were? page won't load for me - too many youtubes.

#5 Gas - Pop, 13 votes, 1 #1 votes, 771 points
#4 Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid, 12 votes, 1 #1 votes, 795 points
#3 Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports, 18 votes, 1 #1 votes, 1119 points

I wish I loved Gas as much as everyone else does. On paper it should be the ideal thing for me, it just ends up feeling like treading water. I'm going to keep listening though, in hopes of a gradual breakthrough.

XP thanks lukas!

Thanks for organising! My weighted ballot is...

Arthur Russell - World of Echo
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Manuel Göttsching - E2–E4
Jon Hassell / Brian Eno - Fourth World Vol. 1: Possible Musics
Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
Brian Eno - Ambient 4: On Land
Colleen - Captain of None
Various Artists - Mono No Aware
Jon Keliehor - The Beginning of Time
Iona Fortune - Tao of I
Harmonia & Eno '76 - Tracks and Traces
Hiroshi Yoshimura - Green
Pendant - Make Me Know You Sweet
Hiroshi Yoshimura - Music for Nine Post Cards
Happy Meals - Full Ashram Devotional Ceremony (Volumes IV - VI)
Cucina Povera - Hilja
X.Y.R. - El Dorado
Penelope Trappes - Penelope One
Various Artists - Bblisss
Colleen - A Flame My Love, a Frequency
Cucina Povera - Zoom
Huerco S. - Untitled

page won't load for me - too many youtubes.

― massaman gai (front tea for two), Wednesday, 3 July 2019 05:23

pro tip for this kind of thread: go into Preferences and untick the "show images" box for a bit

As it appears I was the only one to vote for it, can I heartily recommend last year's The Fifty Eleven Project by Kasper Bjorke Quartet

https://www.theransomnote.com/music/track-by-track/track-by-track-kasper-bjrke-quartet-the-fifty-eleven-project/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO7Ui7cZMVs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0soJe31PdQ

So much good music to explore. I've tried the Hykes Solar Winds album a number of times over the years but it's never really 'caught'. A bit of context works wonders for me and reading about the cistern chapel suddenly opened everything up. Wow.

Thanks again for the poll, Tuomas.

And cheers for the trance recommendations, viborg!

The Ian William Craig record is really gorgeous and is making me weep tbh, thanks to those who placed it on their ballots.

https://www.amazon.com/DNA-Repair-528-Brian-Baxter/dp/B001MS7IQI

4 out of 5 stars - mission accomplished
March 24, 2011
Format: Audio CD Verified Purchase

Sound is what you get and turned down to a low background level truly accomplishes the purpose of balancing with 528 Hz.
It is very simple and direct...no fluff.

19 people found this helpful

--

great product
May 16, 2014
Format: Audio CD Verified Purchase

I enjoy using this cd to listen to the frequency of the upper C note. It seems to be relaxing or exhilarating depending on my needs.

2 people found this helpful

--

The real deal folks.
February 23, 2017
Format: Audio CDVerified Purchase

I have 3 other DNA repair CD's and they sound pretty and musical. This is the real stuff, pure and powerful, not for everyone. It has improved the quality of my sleep, no kidding. I thought I was just in my head but when my wife made the same comment to me (with out a single comment from me about my sleep pattern) that she is sleeping great with it in the back round.

--

ONE SOUND
April 30, 2011
Format: Audio CDVerified Purchase

THIS ENTIRE CD IS ONE SOUND.
IT IS NOT A PLEASANT SOUND, IT REMINDS ME OF THE 12 NOON WHISTLE THAT GOES OFF THE FIRST WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH.
I PLAY IN ON ONE PLAYER WHILE I LISTEN TO ANOTHER HEALING CD, WHEN TREATING ILL PATIENTS, THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW THAT IT IS ON.
I HAVE NO RECORDS TO INDICATE THAT THE DNA IS REPAIRING AT THIS TIME.

4 people found this helpful

--

Works like a charm!
April 30, 2013
Format: Audio CD

This 528 Hz therapy worked like a charm on my DNA!

But I got my tones here, for free:

[...]

And also, this does not work.

Thanks for playing!
Jason

3 people found this helpful

One thing I've taken from this poll is a newfound appreciation for Music For Airports. I've enjoyed Eno's other ambient albums but MFA always just sounded a bit dull to me. With this type of music there is of course a fine line between something being deep/immersive and just plain boring and I felt that it was on the wrong side of that. I gave it another chance after the poll results and for some reason now I get it, so that's good

It seems like ambient's become quite a lot more popular over the last few years. I'm wondering if that's because people are more stressed than they used to be or is it just the way that trends in music work (or a bit of both). I certainly use it for self-care when I'm not feeling great.

I'd say it's the opposite? People work less and less, more time for relaxation, slower lifestyles etc. Spas, wellness, yoga, all booming. Ambient is the soundtrack to that.

People work less and less

uh this is patently false in most of the world

if there's any driver here it's "stress" about the end of the world actually happening in front of our eyes

https://ourworldindata.org/working-hours#the-decline-of-working-hours-per-year-after-the-industrial-revolution
(and this is just for workers, add to that aging populations with more and more retirees)

n 1980, the average worker clocked in 38.1 hours per week, which isn't that much below today's weekly average. However, back then, the typical worker only put in 43 weeks of work over the course of a year for an annual total of 1,638.3 hours. In other words, we're now spending roughly an extra 173 hours per year at our jobs in one way, shape, or form.

And that number doesn't even tell the whole story. Because an estimated 40% of U.S. employees regularly work more than 50 hours per week, and 20% work more than 60 hours per week, there are plenty of folks out there who might easily come close to hitting the 3,000-hour mark year after year (keeping in mind that these are the same people who are likely to forgo vacation time to meet deadlines and stay ahead of work-related obligations). And that could spell trouble not just for their physical health, but their productivity.

https://www.fool.com/careers/2017/12/17/heres-how-many-hours-the-average-american-works-pe.aspx

Siegbran and his Refinement of the Decline (of Working Hours)

Stuck In Traffic? You're Not Alone. New Data Show American Commute Times Are Longer

I don't know, but the combination of (more free time to enjoy long-form art) + (rise of relaxation/mindfulness/yoga) + (more old people who like slower music) looks like a perfect storm for ambient music to me.

oh I totally agree! I just think your perspective is a bit Euro-centric here and doesn't seem to match the actual data

also, stress :)

it’s cause people don’t listen to music anymore, they just put it on

just kidding

hence all the “is this ambient” talk. maybe it doesn’t matter if it’s all ambient now anyway

Personally I'd say that ambient music has more in common with self-care tools like ASMR or guided mindfulness exercises than other types of music in terms of how I use it to relax and/or deal with stress. It's mainly functional music for me.

I went to see O Yuki Conjugate and Zoviet France recently and it was like some kind of group relaxation session. It made me feel more like I was listening to ASMR than on a night out.

wow that's an amazing double bill!

I reckon it's more that the web just facilitates bringing affinity groups together. I certainly don't see any day to day evidence of more people listening to ambient music, but my internet interactions might lead me to think that way. Dunno.

I remember first getting into Richard Skelton back in 2010 and buying one of the 200-limited runs he produced (with pine cones and little bits of moor detritus included) and realising I legitimately knew in real life 10 people who owned one and internet-knew another 25. I could have been forgiven for thinking everyone was listening to Skelbo.

Loving that Caretaker album. Not sure how I'd not come across it before.

Reminds me a lot of playing Bioshock

I was always underwhelmed by anything Aphex Twin