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

I would argue that FAX records carried on with that inclusive early-nineties spirit of ambient right until Pete Namlook's death and the label's folding in 2012. Though sadly the audience for their releases gradually dwindled, even though they kept on releasing quality music throughout the years; some of the albums from FAX's final years are just as good as their '90s classics.

Plays was a new one for me from the nominations thread, really impressed on first listen and I'm sure it'll grow on me.

I love Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith but haven't heard that particular album.

94. Meg Bowles: The Shimmering Land (2013)
201 points, 3 votes, 1 first place vote.

https://www.megbowlesmusic.com/img/Shimmer1000px.jpeg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctOuviFsVf4&list=PL7CHOwWwIsi9pbsRPYwvgJYKdD68_1FQE

Meg Bowles is one of my favourite ambient artists, it's always nice when people discover her music. I've said it before here, but IMO she would be more acclaimed if her albums weren't self-published and labelled (by herself, admittedly) "new age". The sort of hippie elements a lot of new age artists have are completely missing from her music, mostly it's just pure cosmic synth drones. (Personally I love corny hippie new age too, but I do understand why those elements alienate people.) If her records were published by an established ambient label, they'd probably be considered classics of the genre.

― Tuomas, Saturday, February 2, 2019 12:49 PM

Liking the Meg Bowles album. I think 'new age' would have seemed like a pejorative up until a couple of years ago but that sound is unexpectedly coming into vogue it seems.

― mirostones, Saturday, February 2, 2019 2:31 PM

Shimmering Land is the arena where tone poems meld into a galactic National Geographic of the spaceways before coming back to meditate in Earthly deserts. Everything, however, has a very very slow underlying pulse, and the listener is set within strange lands in order to contemplate what lies on the other side of so-called civilization and progress, places where Nature reigns supreme in all her brooding mystery…and not all that impressed with human beings while inviting consciousness to shed its limits and bask in primal oneness.

David N. Pyles, FAME

(Sorry about the self-quote there, but ILX doesn't have too many posts about Meg Bowles.)

Hmm, looks like that Youtube link didn't work, here's another one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctOuviFsVf4

This was my number 1 vote. Ambient music serves many uses in my life, but probably the most important one is that it helps me relieve stress and calm down. And ever since that album came out 6 years ago, it's been my top choice when I'm feeling anxious or stressed and need some music to take off the edge. There's no gimmicks or "wow!" moments, just some beautiful, serene soundscapes. So I couldn't anything else but put it on the top of my list for what it's done for me.

Oops, sorry, there was a typo with The Shimmering Land, it got 202 points, not 201.

Interesting. I'll be sure to check it out.

xp

Tuomas I really appreciate doing a top 100 here instead of 77 or 50

I've never even heard of this, I'm intrigued.

Will check it out too. Also reminds me that I bought a Lucette Bourdin album on Bandcamp after your recommendation and then forgot to include it when I voted, despite really enjoying it :(

i woke up on Sunday morning and my first thought was: "I forgot to include one of my favorite albums on my ballot."

So, everyone, please please please spend time with David Behrman's On the Other Ocean.

Also, this Meg Bowles record is gorgeous, thank you Tuomas

93. 2814: 新しい日の誕生 (2015)
202 points, 4 votes.

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4099353330_10.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9L4q-0Pi4E

I’ll be satisfied when 2814 is a brand and I can buy a faded T-shirt with the cover of 新しい日の誕生 on it at target

― calstars, Saturday, March 3, 2018 12:17 AM

2814 isn’t vaporwave. More like ambient phaser slush

― calstars, Thursday, May 10, 2018 5:54 AM

新しい日の誕生 sets itself apart with a vivid, picturesque scope and wide ambient landscapes. The dominant theme here is drift. Sometimes the duo deal in drone—like on "テレパシー" where they luxuriate in a constant tone for over 10 minutes, savouring every miniscule tonal change and decay across the lengthy runtime. And decay is another prominent aspect that separates 新しい日の誕生 from the pack. Where vaporwave is often resolutely digital and clinical, the duo indulge in Basinski-like looping.

Andrew Ryce, Resident Advisor

Table is Table, don't worry, your favourite album might show up anyway. :)

Too low. :(

Might not be trve enough anyway.

Will check it out Table!

xp Aw yeah, 2814!

Btw Calstars, did you get to vote in this?

evocation of place, which is a foundational aspect of the best ambient works for me

Yes!

I'm very happy with the title of this thread. And the last-place album receiving three votes seems pretty decent to me.

Agree about landscape being a fundamental part of ambient - it informs a fair chunk of my ballot.

And, table, I voted for Behrman!

Oh god, thank you all for redeeming my absentmindedness. I really don't know how I missed the Behrman on my ballot. I think I was the one who nominated it, even!

92. Labradford: Fixed::Context (2010)
204 points, 4 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/SfddtsX.jpg?2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEvSf8PDTwQ

Fixed:content is so... Stately and Elegant.

― nerve_pylon, Thursday, October 14, 2010 7:00 AM

It's slow, contemplative music. There are no pyrotechnics and leather-pants. Perhaps boring for some tastes, but in my book Labradford-- particularly on their last 3 albums-- is among the most interesting and affecting bands I've ever heard.

― Dog/Face/Chain (res), Thursday, October 23, 2008 11:14 PM

The last three are great and would serve perfectly as soundtracks for David Lynch movies.

― Melvin van Osterlow, Jr. (res), Sunday, January 17, 2010 6:19 AM

Labradford are a band I keep coming back to - something in the stately progress, that sense of metallic dust in abandoned rooms... I always listen to them on planes, for some reason.

― Sunn O))) Brother Where Art Thou? (Chinaski), Monday, January 16, 2017 2:46 PM

91. Richard Skelton: Landings (2009)
205 points, 4 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/eujq05U.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b2JekoRxR8

Richard Skelton is one of my very favourite musicians of the last few years. Everything he's done that I have is amazing; particularly notable is the attention to the physical packaging etc (though even without that, the music is amazing).

― toby, Wednesday, January 13, 2010 8:59 PM

Want to echo the Richard Skelton love upthread - Landings is great. Maybe I just don't listen to enough of this sort of thing, but the strings on it sound fantastic, there's a really earthy resonance to them.

― We should have called Suzie and Bobby (NickB), Saturday, February 13, 2010 10:46 PM

Man... just discovered this today and it's jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Fantastic, meditative and ethereal music. Shoots straight to my heart.

― Y Kant Lou Reed (Le Bateau Ivre), Saturday, November 5, 2011 3:54 PM

cool, don't know that Skelton one at all

Huh, I nominated Landings and am pretty sure I forgot it from my ballot.

I love Labradford but fixed::context is one where I have to be in a very precise mood if I don't want to end up feeling enervated (which tends to happen to me when I listen to too much ambient, weirdly enough).

Voted for both of these. Both amazing.

89. (tie) Steve Roach: The Magnificent Void (1996)

https://i.imgur.com/BoKEsU7.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXa-8MUGMxw

& when I say that Roach can be 'wearying' I'm mainly talking about keeping up with the number of releases -- when he hits the real longwave stuff, you don't ever want that sound to stop. the classic own-this-one-if-you-own-any-of-his-discs breakthrough Roach is The Magnificent Void, I'd have been fine with that as a 10 disc set -- that's a dark record, closer to MB or Lustmord than anything happier.

― Milton Parker, Wednesday, May 23, 2007 2:05 AM

steve roach can't be new age because his music sounds like sitting in a black hole for 3 hours

― cutty, Wednesday, May 23, 2007 7:01 AM

then in 96 I was hanging out with Mr. Hate on his KFJC radio show and he segued out of a Zoviet-France track into something astoundingly deep, and my jaw dropped when he said it was Steve Roach -- that's Magnificent Void and it's a breakthrough record crossing over 70's/80's Hearts of Space & synth music with 80's ambient industrial, hugely influential and I keep coming back to it

― Milton Parker, Wednesday, May 23, 2007 11:09 AM

I've had a bit harder of a time digging into The Magnificent Void tho I definitely appreciate it for its...emptiness.

― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, June 2, 2013 7:11 AM

Hadn't heard this album before, it sounds pretty cool, though that extremely mid-nineties cover is rather unfortunate.

Sorry, forgot to include the points for that album:

207 points, 4 votes.

that extremely mid-nineties cover is rather unfortunate.

lol agreed

Voted for fixed::content but had to leave off Skelton at the last minute. Stand by what I said about it in '11 though.

I don't know this Roach either.

89. (tie) Tod Dockstader: Aerial #1 (2005)
207 points, 4 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/9EwvIGt.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vur9nYlyeTE

no quick edits or constant changes or traditional electronic sounds, disc 1 is a long drone piece (different sections crossfaded). source material was manipulated recordings of shortwave radio, reworked and layered many times over -- it's actively shifting & detailed work though, it's not a drooler...

definite reference points in edward artemyev, edward splet, 80's industrial ambient but this absolutely marks its own territory -- it's intuitive, he doesn't sound influenced by any of these things. it's very removed from anything he's done before but it's got his sense of long form pacing, it's like a symphony and just keeps drawing you in deeper.

― milton parker (Jon L), Saturday, April 23, 2005 3:04 AM

i find it extremely listenable, and i was myself reticent at first. it's a somewhat different creature than his old work. yes, more industrial-ambient than say, 8EP, but the craftsmanship of the man is evident throughout.

― Beta (abeta), Tuesday, May 24, 2005 11:09 PM

the subbass on "swell" sounds huge on headphones. if i didn't have neighbors, i'd be kicking this on a loud system

― nervous.gif (eman), Sunday, April 23, 2006 7:24 PM

nice, didn't vote for it but cool record

Yes! Did not expect this to place.

Thread is great so far Tuomas, thanks for the time and effort.

88. Oneohtrix Point Never: Replica (2011)
212 points, 3 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/vkZfNdo.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WejD5fPTBE

I'm really digging Replica. I don't really know his other work all that much, but the weird loops reminds me of old kompakt stuff like Dettinger. And the stuff with piano is achingly beautiful (especially the title track). Weirdly has the same vibe as the new Drake album (sorry).

― jaxon, Thursday, November 17, 2011 3:33 AM

yea it's getting harder to ignore the appeal of parts of replica, ESPECIALLY the first and last tracks. i think i'm still sorta reeling from the initial jarring reaction of dissonant loops mixed in with the granular synth chillage of his other stuff, but it's not that much of a departure really and he's doing it in a way that shows a real admiration for dudes like recchion and reich and all the best avant loopers.

― it's time for the purpculator (psychgawsple), Saturday, November 19, 2011 11:38 AM

i can't stop loving replica. his weird stretched out tape loop stuff was always the best (see "demoral"). kind of reminds me of some of terre thaemlitz' stuff, in terms of using samples to tease emotions out of the listener in a convoluted way. at the same time, it's very "natural" sounding.. in an "office space field recordings" kind of way.

― neutral sequence for flute (blank), Sunday, April 15, 2012 7:01 AM

Replica was one of those rare records that was conceptually interesting and somewhat difficult but was nonetheless capable of connecting on a strange emotional level. Kinda magic. Don't think he's quite recaptured that balance before or after with the same success.

― circa1916, Monday, November 16, 2015 2:25 AM

87. Keith Fullerton Whitman: Playthroughs (2002)
215 points, 4 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/iQIPJKS.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkZzz5sdSf4

These sort of situations are best when it's a big surprise. You pop a record in expecting little & then can't believe your ears. It happened for me about two months ago when I heard the forthcoming Keith Whitman album Playthroughs. From the first listen, I just found myself saying "I can't believe how good this is."

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, October 11, 2002 5:43 PM

i have just really been into all this modern minimal electronic stuff (ekkehard ehlers, stephan mathieu etc) and kfw is in a similar vein. at times you can hear the rhythms of the guitar source and i just like all the overlapping tones and hazed sounds.

― marcg (marcg), Friday, January 10, 2003 10:30 PM

little known fact: if you listen to keith fullerton whitman's playthroughs at the same time as fennesz's field recordings or venice (with both at high volumes) you have extended orgasms.

― Felonious Drunk (Felcher), Tuesday, June 8, 2004 10:52 PM

In line with those posts you quoted, 2003-2004 is probably the last time I listened to this album. I remember liking it a lot.

Absurdly low for Playthroughs!

Think he suffered from vote splitting perhaps?

86. Loscil: Endless Falls (2010)
216 points, 3 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/W24Zi6B.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgUacQ5cx_w

Endless Falls and Plume are both great. Endless Falls in particular gets a Cascadian vibe unlike a lot of other electronic records made in that region.

― hilarious topless cookie chef (the table is the table), Sunday, April 20, 2014 6:53 AM

This new one, 'Endless Falls', is inspired by the hefty rainfall in Loscil's Vancouver hometown, and I think is really evocative, both musically and aesthetically (it has a great cover shot, apparently by his 4 year old daughter), of those long, slightly melancholy days when you're inside listening to and watching the rain blurring the world outside the window, immersing yourself in your house-bound self.

― krakow, Tuesday, March 9, 2010 1:30 PM

loscil - endless falls: mijn soort ambient! af en toe denk je dat robert fripp zo in kan vallen, en dat is een goed ding.

― bas, Friday, March 26, 2010 11:22 AM

FYI KFW has a new album out this year:Late Playthroughs.

xxpost re KFW

Sounds like I need to check this out. Maybe skip playing at same time as Fennesz's Field Recordings to start with.

kudos for digging up the Dutch quote. Great, consistent artist, great record. I chose Plume over this one but it's all good.

I've somehow managed to miss Loscil until this poll, despite enjoying lots of Kranky stuff and it clearly being right in my sweet spot. Listening to Plume lots at the moment.

84. (tie) Justin Bieber: U Smile (800% Slower) (2010)

https://i.imgur.com/y7gxC0d.png

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

I didn't even know it was nominated (was never going to have Bieber in my shortlist), but I had I clocked that I might have voted for it too. Avant-garde!

― emil.y, Tuesday, January 25, 2011 7:24 PM

looool this is probably the most appropriate potential use of 'dream pop' ever

― I've been dancing since 9 and I'm tired and hungry (acoleuthic), Tuesday, January 25, 2011 7:24 PM

Re-listening to this...it is crazy gorgeous.

― Davek (davek_00), Tuesday, January 25, 2011 7:25 PM

this particular slowed down track is mostly good because of the fact that it's justin bieber so people who usually dismiss him on principle could enjoy the irony that his song secretly sounds somewhat listenable and i guess credible (to them)

This was my theory at first but then I found myself listening to it over and over again. It has a strange oceanic beauty.

― Glenroe in 3D (seandalai), Tuesday, January 25, 2011 7:34 PM

Controversial? I completely missed hearing this in 2010 even though I remember it being discussed on ILX, so I'm listening to it now for the first time... It's not half-bad, but among the top 100 ambient recordings of all time, maybe not.

Sorry, the points for that should be:

217 points, 3 votes.

And I just realised it isn't a tie, since the other album with 217 points got more votes. So the actual placing is:

85. Justin Bieber: U Smile (800% Slower) (2010)

It's great to listen to and was a *thing* before the Great Slow Down All The Things era. It being an early-ish highlight of the "genre" will have something to do with it.

I didn't vote for it as I had already picked something else as a gimmicky (but genuine) vote.

Was there ever an 'I Kill Everything I Fuck (800% Slower)'?

On it.

I think so, yes, good point

if you haven't ever heard the albums he did under the F.P And The Doubling Riders name, I love them very much

So it turns out Spittle Records (don't know them) released a six-CD box set of all the Doubling Riders stuff just this year, which I got! So far it sounds pretty great... only listened to Doublings and Silences Vol. 1 so far.

oh that's super cool! I might have to get that for the rarities disc.

My favorite basinski is probably el Camino real

^^ Mine too, but most of his records beside TDL are great imo. 'The Garden of Brokenness' is another great one, just like Melancholia and, indeed, The River.

my copy of the newly reissued Still Way by Satoshi Ashikawa arrived in the mail today!

although it was my #1 in this poll, i must admit that was a bit of a strategic vote (which didn't work).but still, it would have been in my (real) top 15. but that was based on a well-intentioned but scratchy youtube full album stream that i've been relying on for years. played through laptop speakers, or listened to on headphones.

listening to a clean copy of it, playing on my speakers at a moderate volume, with the sounds of the AC coming off and on and airplanes overhead, i must now recognize that it is in fact a top FIVE ambient album..of ALL TIME. it is a contemporary of releases by Hiroshi Yoshimura (who designed this cover) and Midori Takada (who plays vibraphone on this album, albeit "without expression" per ashikawa's request for the instrumental performances in the recordings), but where those albums succeed in part by being transportive, Still Way is more transformative (and that rhymes!). what i'm trying to say is that this 1982 album is minimal and repetitive but takes a completely different path than the celebrated minimalist composers. it's not just the sound palette, which is always lovely, with muted vibes, sustained harp string tones and intertwining flutes. maybe it's the way that extended passages loop for so long that they become distinct objects in themselves, only to slowly morph into a malleable form, almost always with the same instrument playing a variation on the melody, only it's hard to pinpoint when exactly anything changed. in the liner notes, from 1982, Ashikawa mentions being inspired by the sounds of a shaminsen in the neighborhood being gradually overtaken by rain, and then the shaminsen gradually reemerging as the rain dissipated. that's what this album is like. there you go - that's what i mean about this album. Ashikawa's liner notes manage to provide a better description of his music in a simple two-sentence story than all of my ravings.

my goal is to get someone who knows how to explain this better than me to write about it. this album deserves to be the Kind of Blue of ambient music

that sounds awesome

Will check that out. I just heard Soliloquy for Lilith by Nurse With Wound recently and am surprised it didn't feature in this

Bohren And The Club Of Gore are amazing by the way. Another awesome discovery from this thread so thanks to whomever nominated them

I voted for NWW! Also highly recommended: Salt Marie Celeste

i swear this is the poll and topic that just keeps on giving. you guys are amazing.

#153 Steve Roach - Quiet Music: The Original 3-Hour Collection, 2 votes, #1 votes, 141 points

how is this not top 10?????????????????

Do I have to listen to all three hours before I'm considered qualified to answer that question?

No cap but people really sat through many hours of bad music back in the days before electronic media didn't they. No wonder Stravinsky sparked a riot, those audiences were on short fuses!