ILX AMBIENT ALBUMS POLL: the voting thread. Voting ends on Sunday, June 23rd.

i dunno, that's very subjective, and a lot of musicians resist having their work being categorized as any genre. for example, just last night i was reading the liner notes for a. coltrane's A Monastic Trio, and it has an interview with her where she's talking about john coltrane preferring that his music not be thought of as "jazz"

Fair enough. Speaking only for my own subjective self, I do find the idea of describing Pärt's post-1975 output as 'ambient' mildly offensive due to the music's explicitly religious and often narrative heft.

ILX CHILLOUT FOR EGGHEADS POLL

can't wait for the "not actually ambient" debates in the results thread

Is this why stuff like stuff like Pygmalion and Excursions Into Ambience got nominated but not Selected Ambient Works 85-92? Quite a bit of inconsistency in the list WRT what constitutes ambient? FWIW SAW 85-92 doesn't meet my personal criteria, but I can understand why it is listed.

I'm still bummed the most purely ambient Hammock album wasn't nom'd but three very arguably NOT ambient albums by them were ... argh.

I played F. Hazel's rec, Alio Die's 'Aura Seminalis' tonight. Blissful. So good. (reminded me of Polish neo-classical/ambient dude Jacaszek, check him out).

I'm fully in Pomenitul's camp: I'll vote for what I know, because I've barely time to catch up on the million great recs on the nominations list. Alio Die's was just one tonight, which doesn't bode well if I'd scour through the whole list. Blessing and a curse, this.

not Selected Ambient Works 85-92?

my favorite thing about this poll

If other people wanted to nominate Hammock albums they had plenty of time

Bump!

Is Baked Beans out of print? I found a couple of tracks on YouTube and enjoyed them but I can’t find it for sale anywhere other than buying a second hand cd

I know I missed the nominations thread but there’s seriously only two Orb records you can choose from?

(and not the one I’d vote for!)

Is Baked Beans out of print? I found a couple of tracks on YouTube and enjoyed them but I can’t find it for sale anywhere other than buying a second handřd cd

The second Baked Beans album is also great, but less ambient, so I didn't nominate that one.

Hmm I would appreciate this ...help as well if at all possible

Just hit me with an email.

Done!

Bump.

i'll be getting mine in tonight. i will continue to listen to the noms, though, because i'm getting some great material for an all-ambient iPod.

I'll rep for some Raison d'Etre, 1997's "In Sadness, Silence, and Solitude" is great if you like dark ambient, evoking haunted monasteries, abandoned industrial parks, etc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8hbYiicsXk

I should be turning mine in tomorrow, I just gotta order it

raison d’etre is top 5 for me yes, I’m most partial to The Empty Hollow Unfolds but it’s all good.

The top 10 is starting to look pretty fixed, but there's still time to change that by voting!

I'll vote on the very last day, like god and Brian Eno intended

i'll also be submitting a last-minute ballot. like some recent posters, i'm afraid mine is going to be pretty boring because it's just going reflect my current pretty boring taste in ambient. i didn't spend nearly as much time as i wanted exploring the excellent suggestions in the nominations

Just trimmed down the noms to a longlist of 100. Haven't decided yet if I'm voting weighted or, er, weightless.

The nomination list is so overwhelming there was never going to be enough time to thoroughly check stuff out I don't know yet. Which is kind of a comforting thought :)

If I do a mixed vote, is it ok to only have say 30 or 40 albums on there? Can make up to 50 if it's easier

Nah, it can have less than 50 albums if you want, just follow the rules I mentioned upthread:

mark it clearly where the weighted part ends and the unweighted starts. And remember that the maximum number of points you can allot is 2550, so the sum of the weighted and unweighted parts can't be more than that.

I sent mine in, did a mixed ballot of "ranked" and "unranked" instead of "weighted" and "unweighted," though I think I made it clear where each part begins and ends. thanks again for your hard work here, Tuomas.

Voted. That was tough.

While voting, I thought of about 10 lps I forgot to nominate!

my ballot sucks

not just because it probably won't reach 50 votes, and not just because the selections are relatively unadventurous and generic ambient collection, but because after all the discussion and thinking about it, i still have no idea of how to translate the many meanings of 'ambient' to sound characteristics. there are more cases than i can count of albums i cut from my ballot because of genre ambiguity, while then later including some other album that was ambiguous in a similar way. why is OPN's Rifts acceptable for me but Roedelius' Selbstportrait vol II seems too melodic and song-based, for example? that kind of thing x 50. i feel defeated. i feel empty inside. i will try to submit later this evening.

IS disintegration loops ambient?

i am frustrated that after all this, it seems likely that is either the most ambient, or not ambient at all actually

I'm listening to Andrew Chalk & Christoph Heeman's "The Mirror Of The Sea" and it is every bit as great as I remember

i am pumped for these results, though. scanning through the nominations list, there are so many names that i've been meaning to check out for forever, so the rollout will help me hone in on a few

Voted

about to vote

also i am a total idiot for not nominating dennis johnson's November and then annoying the hell out of everyone by demanding that they try to listen to it over the course of the afternoon. i admit that i have never made it through all 10 hours consecutively but it is nothing like an endurance test.

k i voted

time to finish up my ballot I suppose

voted!

Just voted. Like many have mentioned; I'll mostly end up voting for the stuff I nominated (or would have if someone hadn't beaten me to it). I only came up with, I think, 36 votes. My main thing is that ambient music tends to be a "singles" thing for me, so I ended up sort of halfheartedly voting for albums that I really only love one or two songs off of. Regardless of how this poll turns out; what a treasure trove of music to check out. It's sad how hard it is to find some of this music.

Voted! thanks to whoever nominated ABoneCroneDrone and Seconds In Formaldehyde. The former I had forgotten all about and the latter is a great new discovery!

every album on my list is a stone cold classic

will vote tonight!

I agonised over my ballot for a good while and then thought 'fuck it, it's everyone else's I'm interested in' and made my peace.

Voted (feebly and inadequately).

Sending my ballot tonight

I'm down to 50 finally, just thinking abt placement

Today is the last day to vote... I won't close the poll until I wake up tomorrow morning, which should be aroung 6AM GMT, so you still have 13 hours to vote.

Also, when you send your ballot, remember to mention in the message whether it's weighted or unweighted. I've answered all emails with ballots I've received so far, so if you've sent one but haven't gotten an answer from me, let me know in this thread.