Ambient Recommendations

The trombone is one of the great ambient instruments, maybe the greatest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tvMp4XDICU

And there's some great Ambient Tuba in Tom Heasly's work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMHDFOw1yU

oh check this out: https://craigkupka.bandcamp.com/track/trombones-of-lithia

And there's some great Ambient Tuba in Tom Heasly's work.

On the Sensations of Tone is phenomenal.

Also highly recommended: Vikings of the Sunrise, by Stephen Scott (bowed piano ensemble).

i have been listening to stephen scott quite a bit recently, too. New Music for Bowed Piano is the one i have, so i listen to it the most

I've recommended this in so many threads by now but hell, this Ron Miles album is magnificent. It's just Miles' trumpet recorded in the massive water tank at Rangeley in Colorado.

https://tanksounds.bandcamp.com/album/bardo-tank

i can also vouch for Les Halles, they've been on my EOY lists a few times

I saw Ron live years ago, when I was still living in Denver. Witness was in my rotation for years. Thanks for the heads up on this one.

The new recordings of a string quartet playing Beethoven in the tank sound pretty incredible.

https://roundsound.tanksounds.org/album/slow-beethoven

There was a cluster of albums in the early 2010s that were all broadly ambient and all seemed to explore a similar aesthetic: rough, metallic drones and squalls, full of dread and buried spite. Some were on the Subtext label but also thinking of things like Ben Frost. Listening to Roly Porter's *Aftertime* just now and damn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcqE9QdUHlc

I'm way behind on listening to newer things on Subtext but I'll co-sign their early/mid 2010s output

Seeing Emptyset live was excellent, and there's an album by Paul Jebanasam -- Continuum -- that I got really into before also seeing him live

The last time I saw Roly Porter was at a festival opening for Sunn O)))!

I'm way behind on Subtext too tbf. Love Paul Jebanasam! Rites, the one before Continuum (I think) is magnificent.

there was a band called Cloaks that sounded a lot like emptyset but kinda disappeared after 3 releases. i wonder about them from time to time.

Deathprod gives me the same feels too. and the old Main and Disjecta stuff somewhat. is funny to me that a lot of people from disparate musical backgrounds (dubstep, shoegaze, drone...) end up in this space

total departure from this recent discussion, but i am in love with this record.

https://goldenbrown.bandcamp.com/album/luminous

音​は​光​る (The Sound Is Shining) by Michiru Aoyama

Aptly titled, this one. From 2013. Gorgeous. https://organic-industries.bandcamp.com/album/the-sound-is-shining-oi008

'Slow Moment' could easily be 3 times as long: https://organic-industries.bandcamp.com/track/slow-moment

Been following this dude for a bit now, really loved The Infinity Room and Weaponized Serenity and now he's dropped Cold Ecstasy. There's a wonderful anthemic quality to a lot of these tracks, featuring sampled female voices and chords progressions that evoke melancholy and wonder simultaneously (though by the end of the record can get a touch predictable). If I was younger this record would be an ideal "post-rave" soundtrack.

https://3six.bandcamp.com/album/cold-ecstasy

this Golden Hallways album is very soothing

https://goldenhallwaymusic.bandcamp.com/album/rules-chance-vol-3

this Tim Jackiw thing is great, lofi fragments

https://timjackiw.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-music-98

intrigued by the golden hallways, caretaker vibe

The 3six Cold Ecstasy record is indeed fabulous. Not sure if you've heard 3six and Black Swan (Drones for Bleeding Hearts) - In Four Parts from 2019 but it rules

Big fan of this 2009 LP from Nami Hotatsu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOtn12oxjik

Gutted to share that Steve Roden has passed away after battling Alzheimer’s for the last 6 years. He was not even 60 years old.

News was shared on his Instagram account. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw35RGExQ9D/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

This was posted on the Balearic thread but thought it needed to be here too: the new Johnny Nash is lovely https://jonnynash.bandcamp.com/album/point-of-entry

I'm not a regular itt, but I just listened to the new Andra Ljos album and loved it: https://andraljos.bandcamp.com/album/megalithic-statues-of-vishapakar

I got into this recently. Dickie Landry was in the Phillip Glass Ensemble and some of his solo stuff has been reissued. Kind of on the minimalism side of ambient.

https://dickielandry.bandcamp.com/album/fifteen-saxophones

New Lemon Quartet is lovely (could almost be on the ECM thread tbh): https://lemonquartet.bandcamp.com/album/artsfest

been listening to the Hands That Bind (ost) by jim o'rourke since it was released in July. really pleasant mix of electro-acoustic drones with what sounds like prepared piano, vibraphone, strings (possibly some electric guitar--could be the piano though) ...

https://jimorourke.bandcamp.com/album/hands-that-bind-original-motion-picture-soundtrack

relaxed instrumental bits alternating with more dissonant & alien-sounding electronics. it's a nice contrast to the more harsh Steamroom material (hard to compare) ... it's nicely varied, more straightforward than much of what i've heard from mr. o'rourke lately. not sure if it's been discussed on ILX yet? apologies if so..

The Lemon Quartet one is lovely, thanks for the rec.

I can never decide which thread to bump but I posted some recent discoveries/faves on Rolling ambient/chill out/drone/moodz thread: from 2010s 'til infinity!

Cheers for the Lemon Quartet recommendation!

I've been gobsmacked by Laurel Halo's new album 'Atlas'. My favorite kind of "ambient"--dense, detailed, active, both beautiful and unsettling. I've liked her previous records, but this one is on another level:

https://laurelhalo.bandcamp.com/album/atlas

It may be gauche to say so, but I also am really happy with how my own most recent "thick" ambient record came out. Consists of a thirty-minute, six part suite of organ, double bass, guitar, Rhodes, piano, and field recordings, plus a cover of Low's "Laser Beam". All sales benefit the Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance, in Mimi Parker's memory.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6-3RTRWcAAauI0?format=jpg&name=large

https://ianmanire.bandcamp.com/album/evensong

I still need to make some time for the Laurel Halo, I haven't been in a power ambient mood but I do love low-passed piano.

Humbly submitting bc I think some people here would enjoy it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXH995qc-k0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIuBnqZ3kZI

loving the Lemon Quartet

Also really feeling the new Airhead album of weightless micro drum & bass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YePcha74xFM

(maybe it's an EP, or albumlet)

been spinning ellicist's "point defects" alot for marking essays etc - it's in a sweet spot between tetsuo inoue's "world receiver" and some of jim o'rourke's more sprawling efforts https://i.discogs.com/ZYKRywReEmcAq4koH7d6l9uB3s7pGP-Vetfl61FjEH4/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEzNTc5/ODExLTE1NTY4ODQz/OTItNTMxMC5qcGVn.jpeg

sorry, "tetsu", wherever he may be, bless that man.

Ok the Laurel Halo record is really something, it actually feels like floating underwater (she also played 'Lumeri' from upthread on her NTS show, what a world!).

I've been making an 'ambient' 'jazz' playlist that's mostly Jakob Bro and Jim Hall, suggestions welcome for that...

I've been making a similar nu/post/ambient jazz thing: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6SKAtGSn6CBN2hNPyT0Kgd?si=fb088929dfa1447c

Ooh thank you, will definitely listen

Would welcome any recommendations!

Here's the jazzy one I just started - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7AYLYgDPQ0S6nsiBBm1Rjb?si=3c724c2a710c49da

And here's my giant all-purpose 'ambient' playlist - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4aZn29MzNXEARJrCfEA4Lx?si=0d3c8db49a1a4437

The motherlode!

(Here's my ambient/drone/new age one: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7Gq0B1R9cUK2g1pkEX04Fn?si=70c58bd2eb0f4767)

Nice mix. Any track off Matthew Sage and Raymond Zander's Parayellowgram would fit in nicely imo. Also Hat Dog from the new Honestly Same record.

Nice, yours is much deeper since I generally have full albums on mine.

Thanks for the M. Sage album recommendation. Gorgeous stuff.

We're still doing the radio show, but I haven't been posting them here (or anywhere, lol).

Latest episode: https://www.mixcloud.com/DublinDigitalRadio/no-place-like-drone-041023-lowercase-laments/

1. Zvuku - Part 2 Bridge - The Slow Loss - Frontend Synthetics (08/23)
2. Autechre - notwotwo - Quaristice - WARP (2008)
3. Kuma - The Holy Ocean Of Eternity - We Have Dark Friends - Frosti (09/23)
4. Infinite Limb - Electric Reeds - Of Ambience and Americana - Centripetal Force (09/23)
5. Savvas Metaxas - pt.4 - Magnetic Loops III - LINE (04/23)
6. Akhira Sano - Look Back To Differentation - Phase Contrast From Recollection - 12k (06/23)
7. Stephen Vitiello & Steve Roden - The Spaces Contained In Each - The Spaces Contained In Each
8. Elijah Knutsen - Vending Machine Sound - Music For Vending Machines 1 (2023 Remaster) - Memory Color (2020/2023)
9. Hatsü- Meraki - Meraki - Not On Label (08/23)
10. Natalia Beylis - Mermaids - Mermaids - Touch Sensitive (09/23)
11. Stephen Roddy - Leviathan - Leviathan- Fiadh Productions (06/10/22)
12. Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement - Refuges From Black Magic - Black Magic Cannot Cross Water - Hospital Productions (2012)
13. Conducive - Vendedor Ambulante - Modern Prophecy - V33 Records (01/23)
14. Worriedaboutsatan - Keygen Variations 2 - - These Clouds… sound in silence (05/23)
15. Grischa Lichtenberger - 0611_26_lv_1_c - Works for Last Work - raster - artistic platform (04/23) 16. Arian Shafiee - Sillage - Engines In Unity - VDSQ Records (09/23)
17. Maria W Horn - Towards the Diamond Abyss / The Navigators - Celestial Shores (w/ Mats Erlandsson) - B.A.A.D.M. (09/23)
18. Andrea Marutti - The Pulsating Silence - The Subliminal Relation Between Planets (Live In Archiaro) - Nextera (2008)
19. Yann Novak - Traversing the Substrate - The Voice of Theseus - Touch Music (07/23)
20. 400 Lonely Things - Parlor Tricks - Mother Moon - Cold Spring (04/23)
21. Kate Carr - Shy, typically alone or in pairs - A Field Guide To Phantasmic Birds - Room40 (17/11/23)

Surprised to be putting this here but this is a nice collection of very moody modular drone

https://vinceclarke.bandcamp.com/album/songs-of-silence

Keep coming back to the new Mister Water Wet:

https://sodagong.bandcamp.com/album/cold-clay-from-the-middle-west

Made a mix with some of my favorite ambient/drone/compositional/etc. tracks from 2023:

'The Unease,' a short mix of my favorite ambient, textural, drone and experimental music of 2023:https://t.co/To9Lu6nIvV

with Richard Skelton, Tim Hecker, @karenvogtmusic Natalia Beyils & Eimear Reidy, Chuck Johnson, Mizu, @KumaTKG @Sailclothsounds @LaurelHalo Hilary Woods pic.twitter.com/rvOYVI05jW

— Musicophilia - @musicophilia.bsky.social (@musicophiliamix) December 21, 2023

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/musicophilia_00_various_-_unease_2023_cover-front.jpg?w=3600

Various – ‘The Unease’
2023

01 [00:00-03:20] Richard Skelton – “Hypervelocity” (‘Selenodesy’ 2023)
02 [02:45-07:50] Ian Manire – “Evensong, Part Five” (‘Evensong’ 2023)
03 [07:35-10:05] Tim Hecker – “Total Garbage” (‘No Highs’ 2023)
04 [09:15-13:45] Karen Vogt – “Losing the Sea” (‘Losing the Sea’ 2023)
05 [10:00-21:10] Natalia Beylis & Eimear Reidy – “The Whistling Dust” (excerpt) (‘She Came Through…’ 2023)
06 [15:45-18:45] Daily Rituals – “Wild Dusk Singing” (‘Aftersongs’ 2023)
07 [18:05-24:20] Old Saw – “Spinner’s Weave” (‘Sewn the Name’ 2023)
08 [20:50-25:10] Chuck Johnson – “Interrogation” (‘Burdon of Proof’ 2023)
09 [24:40-28:35] Mizu – “Prelude (An Eternity of Light)” (‘Distant Intervals’ 2023)
10 [28:35-32:40] Samuel Adams – “Shade Studies” (excerpt) (‘Current’ 2023)
11 [31:40-36:05] Kuma – “All We Can Do Is Carry On with Grace” (‘We Have Dark Friends’ 2023)
12 [33:40-37:05] Sailcloth – “Civil Twilight” (‘Resting Fields’ 2023)
13 [36:35-40:50] Laurel Halo – “Earthbound” (‘Atlas’ 2023)
14 [40:30-43:20] Hilary Woods – “Burial Rites” (‘Acts of Light’ 2023)
15 [43:05-46:40] J.P.A. Falzone – “Sublunar Harmonies” (excerpt) (‘Sublunar Harmonies’ 2023)

[Total Time: 46:40]

https://musicophilia.wordpress.com/2023/12/21/year-end-the-unease-2023/

https://thme-sound.bandcamp.com/album/nocens

quite calming

Great discounts on one of my favorite long-form producers. Gorgeous suites of various spaced sonics and muted beats. https://variantsonics.bandcamp.com/ Code is xmas23