Ambient Recommendations

Thanks for the Tetsu Inoue recommendation upthread! Listened this morning and can tell I'm going to revisit for awhile.

Things I've been enjoying lately:
Sofie Birch - Themes For A Better Tomorrow Vol. II 'Hidden Terraces' (chill modular synth + field recordings)
https://vaagner.bandcamp.com/album/themes-for-a-better-tomorrow-vol-ii-hidden-terraces

H. Takahashi - Sonne und Wasser (warm take on Japanese minimalism)
https://wheretonow.bandcamp.com/album/sonne-und-wasser

Phil Struck - Schleswig-Holstein Aufnahmen (meandering/dark/warm soundscapes & miniatures, employs a drum machine or loops to a Cluster-esque affect at times)
https://philstruck.bandcamp.com/album/schleswig-holstein-aufnahmen

also the Steve Roach 'Quiet Music' reissues...don't know about anyone else, but ambient is about 90% of my listening this year.

That mix from the RBMA article on chillout is ace, thanks for pointing it out mark e

Another beautiful Poirier

https://kitrecs.bandcamp.com/album/plage-arri-re

The Motion Sickness Of Time Travel was new to me and I'm liking it a lot! So thanks!

this Kagami Smile album is huge sounding, seriously enveloping:

https://vill4in.bandcamp.com/album/dream-residue

feel like on ilx we once started to feel out the boundaries of a kind of “urban” vs “rural” vs “cosmic” vs “drug trip” ambient map.. or maybe it was just me trying to justify my indifference towards Stars of the Lid... but anyway this is definitely “urban” ambient

Dark ambient def feels underrepresented in these threads.

there was some of that in the ambient poll, too. seems impossible to pin down!

yeah I’m not a fan of dark ambient really, or “creepy” music in general.. love zoviet france tho, guess their stuff can get pretty dark

Deliberately creepy low-key horror dark ambient doesn't do much for me either but the cavernous, nocturnal and melancholy side of it definitely does.

Enjoying this Kagami Smile recommendation brimstead

I did that thing with Kagami Smile where I look (usually on RYM) at a band's discography, tut audibly at the sheer, daft size of it, and decide not to listen because overwhelmed.

Dark ambient is hard to make without being too cheesy. I do love some of it! I think my absolute "you have to hear this" from the past few years has been this David Terry record called Sorrow on Opal Tapes. He's in cult stoner weirdo group Bong, but this doesn't sound much like anything Bong has done.

I love this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_vSPsWJnEg&t=1188s

Apologies!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_vSPsWJnEg

But I also love New Risen Throne, Kammarheit, Gravetemple, and some other dark ambient stuff...The first two are particularly amazing when they're on.

ambient is about 90% of my listening this year

Same, since lockdown started anyway

Dark ambient def feels underrepresented in these threads.

― pomenitul, Monday, September 14, 2020 2:55 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I would suspect that the brighter, calming, new age adjacent vibe is the kind of escape most people are attracted to these days.

I've loved revisiting old ambient favourites and exploring the intersection between ambient/new age/Gigi Masin-adjacent/minimalism (holy and otherwise)/ECM & electroacoustic. Incredibly fertile ground.

hmmm my favorite stuff seems to have elements of both, like Biosphere's Cirque seems dark ambient adjacent. ambient that isn't goth or metal but is kinda subterranean.

I've been really into the "arctic" side of dark ambient these days. My drift-off-to-sleep soundtrack for the past week has been Thomas Köner's Aubrite and Kaamos back-to-back. Aubrite in particular feels special to me. There's nothing creepy about it--just pure, deep, all-enveloping darkness.
https://staalplaat.bandcamp.com/album/aubrite

Koner is all time but I don't reach for him much at the moment. As mentioned above, the brighter, calming stuff is where I'm at right now. I don't know that particular album though - will give it a listen.

idk if it's considered "all the way" ambient music, but william tyler's latest definitely reaches into areas of floating melancholy, if not quite full on "DARK AMBIENT."

Lots of stuff to check out. Thanks, all.

hmmm my favorite stuff seems to have elements of both, like Biosphere's Cirque seems dark ambient adjacent. ambient that isn't goth or metal but is kinda subterranean.

― lukas, Tuesday, September 15, 2020 12:26 PM (thirty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah totally i'm way into this liminal vibe

Struck me that I ought to recommend this as it's been a top favorite for well over a year at least, maybe approaching two?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faFyG4uFA74

ambient is about 90% of my listening this every year.

Same tbqh

all this dark ambient talk makes me wish i still had zeit on lp

feel like i need to save that deepchord track for a special run

ooh I'm gonna put that on right now, I have a super sweet Ohr OG /braggin

I've always got time for Zeit.

icwydt

I listen to dark ambient at work all day because it doesn't carry outside my office, but now I'm at home I listen to it even more because my giant speakers can do the nice rumbly bass... can't go wrong with Lustmord's "The Place Where the Black Stars Hang" or Raison d'Être's "In Sadness, Silence, and Solitude"

been listening to this guy all day lately while I wfh

https://rhucle.bandcamp.com/music

Not sure if it's been said on this thread before, but just about everything on the Clay Pipe label provides a rewarding listen and could be considered 'ambient'.

Nice sleeve, Rhucle is a good listen. Haven't checked in in a while as he is so prolific, but I have enjoyed a few Rhucle releases over the years. Thanks for the reminder.

man I'm kind of worried about the dude, no new releases since March

he's OK, he just released a new album called Middle!

cool thanks! I'm sure I'll listen tomorrow.

Thought I had seen one recently, glad I am not completely outside of time/reality!

yeah, I must have missed that before, released Sept. 4th

Never heard of Rhucle before. Thank you ilx user sleeve for this great rec!

My fave dark ambient listen is Kevin Martin's Isolationism compilation, which still feels definitive 26 years after it was released.

One of my go-to dark ambient records is David Lynch's 'The Air Is On Fire'. You don't see it mentioned a lot, not even in the Lynch-o-sphere (as far as I can tell anyway), but it's pitch black, unsettling but without any obvious 'I'm David Lynch!' in your face. It's dark and bare, I love it.

xp yeah all those "Ism" comps are still holding up

Sounds cool. I really liked his 'duet' with Marek Zebrowski, Polish Night Music, parts of which ended up in Inland Empire.

(xp)

new Richard Skelton sounding good as well, I think I learned abt him in this thread?

https://phantomlimblabel.bandcamp.com/album/these-charms-may-be-sung-over-a-wound

He's the best. I've been singing his praises for years, mentioned him in the poll last year.

Skelton is an ambient/neo-pastoral pagan god, no doubt about it.