Ambient Recommendations

Enjoying Grandbrothers' 2021 _All the Unknown_ right now. Missed it last year, checking it out now due to a Mogwai "Organism" remix. Propulsive piano/beats instrumentals.

Went back and listened to Sawako's 'Hum' again recently and really enjoyed it.

https://sawako.bandcamp.com/album/hum

Also enjoying re.sort. This SND album is also class. Didn't realise it was Mark Fell.

the other two .snd albums on Mille plateaux are fantastic as well.. I love makesnd cassette best. They have a lot of misc 12”s and stuff I haven’t heard.

big SND fan here as well

I've been listening to two ambient podcasts for years. They both offer consistently good, and consistently varied, playlists.

Ultima Thule

Hypnagogue

SND are super classic

I'd add aoki takamasa's simply funk and maybe toshimaru nakamura's first no-input mixing board record? (different scene but the end result sounds adjacent to me)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWzc1lY3Z9o

Enjoying this divergence into glitch. Listened to Sora, SND's Stdio and the Aoki Takamasa mentioned above and loved them all.

That early 00s glitch sound is one I've always enjoyed - still pretty hazy on how it's actually made though. People say Max/MSP and I'm none the wiser. I have a copy of Reaktor I've not used for years - maybe I should bust it out and try and make some of this stuff.

Please don't.

(Sorry, I have a personal distaste for this sub-genre, I find it incredibly annoying)

yeah I think kid606 used reaktor a lot

While we’re on this kick (well, not you table) I wanna point out the brilliance of Sketch Show’s Loophole album. It’s probably more glitch pop than ambient but I think it falls into the same category. Here are my two favorites on the album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFGV2bYcgys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbV6NnHdZZo

And yes, the band is 2/3rds of YMO, in case it sounds a bit familiar

this one falls in between glitch and ambient I guess, has a very sons of jelinek vibe

https://andrewpekler.bandcamp.com/album/palimpsests

sora is stunning thank you

I really love the Andrew Pekler album that was on Kranky a few years back. Very Harmonia-esque

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npZu883f6Qs

New collaboration between Mary Lattimore & Paul Sukeena. First 2 tunes great. https://threelobed.bandcamp.com/album/west-kensington

question about bandcamp - how do you guys play through non-pc speakers? I don't know why this is so mystifying to me as someone who isn't bad with tech - dumb that SONOS doesn't just function a a bluetooth speaker? am I missing something?

What are you playing from?

your computer can cast audio via bluetooth, or you can run a cable from the line out on your computer to an amp/receiver, specifics depend on what outputs your computer has and what inputs your amp/receiver has.

oh yeah forgot i have my mini amp.
xp could use either my phone or laptop to play - will go the phone route next time and keep bluetooth top of mind.

thanks and sincerely,
the 100 year old man who has taken over my body

if you have a Mac I have a cool, overly complicated way you could do it

i'm here for it (i do)

Some bandcamp link for (mostly) recent stuff Ive enjoyed.

https://buymusic.club/list/noplace_drone-npld-ddr-apr-220422-ambient-insurrections

i'm here for it (i do)

okay it does cost money

buy airfoil for $35 https://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/mac/

use a second browser (say, if your main browser is Chrome, use Safari) just for bandcamp / soundcloud / whatever audio

have Airfoil send audio from that browser to Sonos, bluetooth, whatever you want

what's nice about this is just that you don't have to worry about other sounds from your browser getting sent to your stereo

Self-promotion mode activated, apologies in advance, my new rekkid came out today.

https://soundinsilencerecords.bandcamp.com/album/that-is-not-an-acceptable-lullaby

A few perennial favorites for me:

Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana, Spirit Dome

Oophoi, The Spirals of Time

Scott Lawlor and Rebekkah Hilgraves, Recollecting the Snow

Altus, Rapid Eye Movements

Cello & Laptop, Transient Accidents

Christoph Berg, Paraphrases

Rachel Grimes, The Clearing

The Seaman and the Tattered Sail, Light Folds

Streaming your album now, Maresn3st. Nice work, a bit reminiscent in places to the Berg album I mentioned (which is one of my favorites). I'll add it to my collection.

I was a young teen when Mount St Helens erupted. I lived out west, but not close enough to be affected by it directly. It was kind of surreal.

Thanks so much, Jimbeaux, I'll check out the Christoph Berg!

"buy airfoil for $35 https://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/mac/

use a second browser (say, if your main browser is Chrome, use Safari) just for bandcamp / soundcloud / whatever audio

have Airfoil send audio from that browser to Sonos, bluetooth, whatever you want

what's nice about this is just that you don't have to worry about other sounds from your browser getting sent to your stereo

― brisk money (lukas), Thursday, May 19, 2022 7:18 PM (four weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink"

wait this is great. I'm going to look into it. thank you!

Another month's worth of ambient Bandcamp links here: https://buymusic.club/list/noplace_drone-npld-ddr-jun-150622-ambient-influencers

new Pontiac Streator via West Mineral --> https://westmineral.bandcamp.com/album/sone-glo-ouest088

It's good, but it's got a lot of beats. There seems to be a mini idm thing going on ATM.

like with the last huerco s., the idm beats are what keep me coming back. both have a bit of an early autechre feel.

it's funny, that's my least favorite type of ambient. i have a friend who worships Autechre and I have to bite my tongue around him constantly

Two of my favourite sources of ambient music are Low Light Mixes, a podcast that has been going for years:
http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/

Of late this mix in particular stands out:
http://lowlightmixes.blogspot.com/2022/05/a-faint-resemblance-tapes-topographies.html

And Sleepbot, an internet radio station that has also been going for years, and has a big collection of old Fax Records records:
http://www.sleepbot.com/ambience/broadcast/

In glorious 22khz or something like that, but it's not a huge problem if you play it real quiet. I think the latter drew me to check out the Pop Ambient albums, of which this one stood out because it has two great tracks, one good track, no bad tracks:
https://www.discogs.com/master/123013-Various-Pop-Ambient-2003

In particular Markus Guenter's "Express Yourself", which is one of those "Bolero"-like tunes that builds and builds, but also Lendro Fresco's "Buenos Amigos", which goes nowhere for eight minutes but sounds fantastic as it does so:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgnDC6MPRPI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXZvlFKGS-Q

yeah, Low Light did that great “Resonant Spaces” mix a while ago that I truly loved, should check in there more often

the first three pop ambient comps are totally flawless

from this (+last?) year I’m enjoying these:

https://oscarson.bandcamp.com/album/blanket-swimming-in-flower-made-masses

https://homenormal.bandcamp.com/album/woven-songs

https://zakedrone.bandcamp.com/album/remembrance

https://pitp.bandcamp.com/album/dwell-time

yeah, Low Light did that great “Resonant Spaces” mix a while ago that I truly loved, should check in there more often

― broccoli rabe thomas (the table is the table)

lol, he even stole our title!

https://www.mixcloud.com/DublinDigitalRadio/no-place-like-drone-061217/

Seems like a fight I'm not interested in having, though thanks for bringing it to our attention!

Re lowlight mixes: I Fell Asleep at my Desk Making This Mix, Drowsy and Slow & Sleepy are some of my goto mixes for nighttime listening

Seems like a fight I'm not interested in having, though thanks for bringing it to our attention!

No fight here, just the first time Ive seen this and am somewhat surprised by the similarities.

_Seems like a fight I'm not interested in having, though thanks for bringing it to our attention!_

No fight here, just the first time Ive seen this and am somewhat surprised by the similarities.

We follow each other on twitter and have had some minor interactions. Im sure, at worst it was an unconscious error.

One thing I remember is that they did a Krautrock mix a while back, but iTunes wasn't happy with the name:
https://i.imgur.com/CTZypvY.jpg

Off the top of my head the favourite mix of all is "Mental Medication", for the opening track, which is a subtle piano piece that - like the two examples above - chunters on for ages, going nowhere, but it's mesmerising:
https://sonmi451.bandcamp.com/album/angel-ep

The podcast also introduced me to Grouper, who I had completely missed. The song was "She Loves Me That Way":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_shjVPzb6eY

Between the two of them they also rekindled my CD collection, because there's a clutch of ambient records from the 1990s that were only released on CD and aren't available on streaming platforms, besides which I wanted physical copies. Albeit that they're mostly compilations that I could assemble otherwise. A Storm of Drones, some stuff by Andrew Chalk, The Planet Sleeps, Lights in a Fat City - terrible name, unappealing concept (ambient didgeridoo, yuck), but the results are great - and Tom Heasley, who played ambient tuba and was part of Pauline Oliveros' Deep Listening project.

Actual physical CDs. I finally picked up a copy of Paul Schutze's Apart, years after seeing it in used record bins. It was part of Virgin's "Brief History of Ambient" series, which was also only released on CD, because it was the 1990s.

On a tangent there's a video game called NaissanceE that uses a lot of ambient music in the soundtrack, including some from Oliveros, and also Patricia Dallio, one of the members of a band called Art Zoyd, who I had never heard of. She has a Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52ack20OaO0

It's one of the few games that has a smell - dusty, processed, air conditioned air.

A Storm of Drones, some stuff by Andrew Chalk, The Planet Sleeps, Lights in a Fat City - terrible name, unappealing concept (ambient didgeridoo, yuck), but the results are great - and Tom Heasley, who played ambient tuba and was part of Pauline Oliveros' Deep Listening project.

yo shoutouts to all of these!

like with the last huerco s., the idm beats are what keep me coming back. both have a bit of an early autechre feel.

More of a seefeel type buzz with this lovely specimen.

https://billowobservatory.bandcamp.com/album/stareside

yeh this record rules

yeah that’s the ticket