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

xp

other than the Superior Viaduct 2LP reissue I think that's the most legit of them all! Space Age is the label run by the ex-manager that they don't see money from, right?

also that SFTRI CD has a couple of bonus tracks

74. Raymond Scott: Soothing Sounds for Baby Volume 1 - 1 to 6 Months (1964)
234 points, 4 votes.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k66nGplNRmQ

I'd put them up there with Terry Riley's "In C" and Steve Reich's "Come Out" as pioneering early minimalist works. I think their high-pitched blips might get a tad annoying if played too loud, but as spritely background music (which is what I guess they're supposed to be), they're great.

― dleone (dleone), Tuesday, April 15, 2003 4:42 PM

they're very primitive pieces, but immersive and timeless. and often not very relaxing at all, bizarre minimal squawking NOISE. he was arguably the first person to build himself a sequencer, in this case a huge wall-sized bank of relays turning signal generators on and off. so there he is in the late 50's early 60's letting those 8th notes run into tape echo, going 'wow, these things really start to sound great when you let them run for more than about 5-10 minutes, but how in the world am I going to _market_ this stuff?'

― milton, Tuesday, April 15, 2003 8:53 PM

Yeah, the electronic stuff is so way beyond it's years, we have still not cought up. The mad scientist aspect of Scott is the real meat of him, I believe. He kept stiving for more, for sounds that did not exist, for music that could not be made. The Manhattan Research and Baby Sounds CD's are a must. The think I like best is how he used those crazy contraptions. Everytime I search out an ondioline recording or theremin or glass harmonica, etc...the music is usually really dumb or goofy or just not worth of the sounds that are making it. I think Scott not only pulled amazing sounds from the either, i think he used them for good, not evil. He made records and music WORTHY of existing beyond the vehicles for those instruments. I wish Bruce Haack did the same. Or Enoch Light or even Esquivel. I find myself paining through those recordings to just hear the parts rather than the whole. Not so with Scott.

― Mark, Sunday, April 21, 2002 3:00 AM

I tried out the first volume of 'Soothing Sounds' on my sister's four month-old twin babies and it actually worked! It didn't make 'em cry, scream, shit themselves or throw up, there was the odd distracted smile, a few gurgles and the occasional tapping of feet and hands. And then they went to sleep!

― Andrew L, Wednesday, May 30, 2001 3:00 AM

Shout out to the two other ppl that voted for Charlemagne, keep ducking and dodging the Ambient Police

72. (tie) Deathprod Morals and Dogma (2004)
236 points, 4 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/K9T433e.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFLs_MxhC5U

Morals and Dogma is devastating.

― Barnaby, Hardly, Saturday, July 18, 2009 3:13 PM

When Sten uses an instrument or a found sound, he obscures the source, refusing to take advantage of any associations it brings. Although there are acoustic instruments on the album, he blurs the edges or manipulates the attack, keeping control of every detail of the timbre. For just one example, he uses a sound on "Dead People's Things" that resembles the suction tool you'd use to clean an aquarium. You can try to pick apart the sound of pebbles gurgling against the plastic, or the drone of streaming water, but the outlines blur before you can make out what it really is; and in the end, it may be something as basic as a stretched-out violin sample.

Chris Dahlen, Pitchfork

Barnaby otm, didn't expect it to place.

Strumming Music is another one I really need to check out, looks like the Sub Rosa 3CD version is pretty cheap

never even heard of Deathprod!

Ohh you should check it out, you won't be disappointed.

72. (tie) Terekke: Improvisational Loops (2018)
236 points, 4 votes.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp7LX0w4FXs

omg the Terekke album is so beautiful. very ambient, mostly just soft muted drifty synth pads but it's really excellent.

― brimstead, Tuesday, April 17, 2018 4:57 AM

As is the case with any successful ambient track, “Nuwav2” establishes it’s commanding synth melody from its first moments and allows the shimmering reverberations to ebb and flow like snow through the wind. It’s the type of melody that mimics the feeling of burrowing in a gratuitously sized coat while walking in a roaring blizzard. The chords feel like a house track without the percussion played under a vast ocean, with shimmering chords bouncing off rays of light piercing through the water. At the tail end of the track, flurries of notes begin to accent the proceedings with a vague retrowave flair. These moments also add mild echoes of minimal techno and microhouse, which Gardner explores more directly on tracks like “arrpfaded” and “l8r h8r.” Throughout, he works off everything introduced in “Nuwav2” with shorter bursts, further building on the narrative of steady ripples. What Gardner birthed with the 20-minute epic is distilled down to concentrated portions to allow the album to gracefully fade into a fond, constantly resurfacing memory.

Scott Murphy, Soundtracks for the Blind

That one is probably the most recent album in the top 100.

is that the most recent release to place so far? I did check that out as per brimstead's recommendation

XP!!!

71. (no artist): Symphonies of the Planets 1 - NASA Voyager Recordings (1992)
242 points, 4 votes, 1 first place vote.

https://i.imgur.com/fdcoA4j.jpg

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

This collection of Voyager's electromagnetic recordings of the planets is still one of my fave drone/ambient albums.

― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, February 13, 2010 2:20 AM

http://www.neuroacoustic.com/nasa.html#NASA_more-info

These sounds are recordings of the interaction of the Solar wind and the Ionosphere of each of the outer planets. The resonance of these ions is exactly within the range of human hearing (20-20,000 Hz) - called by NASA "Ion Acoustic Waves". This means that nothing had to be done artificially to the sounds to hear them – They were the REAL "Music of the Spheres". Although there is no air in space, there is vibration. Space does not have the medium of air to carry the vibration to your ear, but the vibration is present. With the specialized recording equipment aboard Voyager, it became possible to record these amazing sounds for the first time and then hear them here on Earth.

Imagine his amazement and that of all of us when we heard these NASA Space Sound recordings that sounded like dolphins, whales, ocean, crickets, choirs, Tibetan bowls and monks chanting! Something in the core of the subconscious awakens and pays close attention to and in the presence of these sounds. These are some of the most powerful tools for healing, inner awakening and self change that Dr. Thompson has researched and produced. His Primordial Sounds™ are found on his Audio Programs, giving even more power to his musical sounds and other techniques used.

These were originally released on a label called 'Brain/Mind Research' with equally New Agey liner notes and marketed as theraputic tools, one CD for each planet. I found those remaindered in the early 90's and have listened to these a lot.

The skeptic is thinking the data's been clearly been processed by someone who grew up on Space Music in the same way that the guys who colorize the Hubble shots were influenced by 70's / 80's Space Art (i.e. I can hear digital reverb applied to certain components of the drone, so my guess is it's been layered somewhat). But this is so much more abstract than most space music I have no problem accepting that he's working with captured data & part of me can imagine that this could be an accurate representation of the way soundless vibrations move & develop in a vacuum.

― Milton Parker, Friday, January 16, 2009 10:46 PM

played this voyager stuff for the tenth graders and they totally tripped out on it ...

― moonship journey to baja, Saturday, January 17, 2009 8:20 AM

Yay the Terreke album!! Really great stuff

Had not heard "Symphonies of the Planets" before this poll, but it sounds pretty awesome, and way moore affecting than I expected.

Multila is an immortal classic

<3 u Milton

70. Popol Vuh: In den Gärten Pharaos (1971)
247 points, 5 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/N1bMJIj.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vhht487PwQ

In den Gärten des Pharaos (1971)
Better than "Affenstunde". The title track has more of Fricke's wayward Moog noodling (Moogling anyone?) but with more (ahem) musical elements added. Finishes with a long section played on a Fender Rhodes that is actually quite jazzy (in an ECM sorta way). The other track, "Vuh", is the first evidence to date of Popol Vuh as THE ultimate Goth band - a looooooooooong drone piece on a mighty swelling church organ overlaid with cacophonous percussion and mewling moogs. Good stuff! 7/10

― Dadaismus, Thursday, March 20, 2003 3:54 PM

ahh, man, i'm floatin in the pharao's garten.

― LOUT of ICHOR (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Sunday, October 26, 2008 10:48 AM

I've only had PV on mp3 or CD and these records definitely sound great. I'm also enjoying the ritual of flipping them over and realizing the genius of the sequencing (which really is not the same on CD/mp3). Surprise hit (cymbal crash) has been Einsjager & Siebenjager, but Pharaos sounds way way way more amazing than I remember it (I don't listen to that one as much). They're all obvs great albums.

― sweat pea (La Lechera), Friday, October 18, 2013 9:55 PM

My favorite Popol Vuh is "In Den Garten Pharaos", which is transcendental without being overly new age and also a bit noisy and challenging on side B (reminds me a bit of Vibracathedral Orchestra!)

― Rombald, Wednesday, December 14, 2005 1:47 AM

Seconded!

Never heard of this before. xp

I voted for Vuh but really need to re-listen to that one, I'm less familiar with it than most of their other albums

Oohh controversy?

Cut this from my ballot last minute, fantastic album obv. "transcendental without being overly new age" nails it for me.

Never heard Popol Vuh before, can't imagine calling this ambient myself, but this is a laissez-faire poll and all.

Next: more proper new age coming up!

Deathprod, hooray! Rarely has staring into a black hole of despair been so enjoyable.

69. Constance Demby: Novus Magnificat - Through the Stargate (1986)
250 points, 4 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/VQw6Tfb.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GzIxlPS1r0

I like Thru the Stargate best, hoky title and everything. It's like a caffeinated Hosianna Mantra.

― simon diamond, Friday, July 22, 2005 11:07 PM

The space-sequencer-Bach that opens side two of Novus Magnificat: Through The Stargate is burned into my mind forever from hearing it in a Berkeley crystal shop in the late eighties; I only found out it was her when I started working through the Hearts of Space catalog again five years ago or so and it was hilarious and wonderful to find it again.

― Milton Parker, Thursday, July 3, 2014 4:15 AM

I was in what weould best be described as a dour mood this morning and decied to listen to this CD for the first time in my car. I live in a city that has the 5th worst traffic in America. Gridlock and its spirit crushing frustration are a way of life here and it shows in the populace. I often try to listen to ambient or classical music to calm my demeanor when driving. While some of the production is dated, specifically some of the swirling arppegiator effects, this is a piece of music that is truly worth the praise. I was aware of the album when it first appeared in the 80's as I began my exploration of electronic/space music but for some reason never purchased it. I'm glad now that I happened to come across it the other day in a CD store and picked it up on a whim. It's a cliche but this music, I think, was ahead of its time. Denby's classical training shows, but beyond that, this music is composed to stir an emotional/spiritual response in the listener. I can say that it succeeded with me this morning. As I neared the office I saw two large flocks of geese flying over the highway just as I was thinking to myself that this music inspires the urge to fly. It was a neat experience. Thank you Constance for composing an inspired piece of music. Even if you could help give one person some solace for a day wouldn't it be worth it? Certainly this is the contribution she has made to others who have discovered this music. I look forward to exploring some of the other works by this artist but for right now I can't wait for the ride home!

Anonymous, Amazon customer review

I remember someone mentioning Constance Demby on ILX 10 or so years ago, and I got interested, as I was just discovering new age music was much more than corny crystal and hippie mood stuff. I soon became a big fan, so thanks for whoever it was who recommended her! I do think that after the '80s her music gets more schmaltzy and closer to the new age stereotype I had in my head, but the seventies and eighties albums are still awe-inspiring, especially Novus Magnificat and Sacred Space Music.

So it's been nice to see how the recent hipster interest in new age has made a whole new crowd discover Demby, she deserves that.

her track on the "I Am The Center" comp is fantastic as well

I don't have that comp, but I think the track is from her first album, Skies Above Skies? That's a dope record too.

I became aware of Demby through that same comp. it’s a standout even among many other excellent tracks on it

I like this Demby record a lot, but it's full-on maximalist neoclassical-on-synths in my ears though.

Agreed with you, Siegbran.

they used to play Demby at my old place of work sometimes. it was glorious.

68. Robert Rich & B. Lustmord: Stalker (1995)
253 points, 4 votes, 1 first place vote.

https://i.imgur.com/7dv2lPd.jpg?1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo6mQiyjqC8

The Rich/Lustmord 'Stalker' album is dark and creepy and great

― FCussen (Burger), Thursday, July 10, 2003 5:54

I'm a sucker for Stalker as well. But she and Lustmord are getting at very different states in their music. Demby's all through-composed symphonic religious light, Lustmord is mostly dark textural isolationist industrial drone.

― Milton Parker, Thursday, July 3, 2014 4:15 AM

'stalker' was the first i heard and it's one of those, 'oh shit this is perfect' albums for me

― The Prices are .......... VERY AFFORDABLE!!! (omar little), Wednesday, March 18, 2009 9:38 PM

66. (tie) Stuart Dempster: Underground Overlays from the Cistern Chapel (1995)
264 points, 4 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/P7PRYuQ.jpg

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

& one last recommendation if you like 'Deep Listening': seek out Stuart Dempster's 'Underground Overlays From The Cistern Chapel', where he returns to the water cistern with 9 other trombone students following his lead, mirroring his notes. From the 'Deep Listening' record you can pretty much imagine what this one sounds like.

― (Jon L), Sunday, June 27, 2004 3:43 AM

wow thanks for reminding me about stuart dempster. i really dig 'underground overlays', and i agree that calling him 'new age' is a stretch.

i saw him talk with ramon sender, morton subotnick, and don buchla (inventor of the buchla box- he even brought it along!), among others, when the book about the san francisco tape music center came out a few months back. i guess dempster played trumpet tones in the broadway tunnel as a part of sender, ken dewey, and anthony martin's "city scale" piece/installation in 1963. i guess the piece required audience members to be shuttled around town to experience things like said tunnel, a woman in a storefront window singing debussy, a 'book returning' ceremony at city lights, light projections on to the side of a wells fargo, and a lot more as depicted in the super abstract score in the book

― all-seeing eye of horus (psychgawsple), Friday, January 9, 2009 9:26 AM

stuart dempster is great for the deep cistern listening

― terry lennox. (gareth), Friday, February 24, 2006 4:41 PM

five star ambient record, ten trombones recorded in two million-gallon underground water reservoir with 45 seconds of natural reverb.

― milton parker (Jon L), Friday, April 15, 2005 9:17 AM

great that Demby and Lustmord ended up next to each other in the poll

TS: Constance Demby vs. Lustmord

66. (tie) Earth: Earth 2 - Special Low Frequency Version (1993)
264 points, 4 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/hsKhlFz.jpg?1

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

It's 2. I mean Hex sounds great on first listen and I sure the other post-hiatus stuff is worthwhile, but 2 is just an incredible listen.

― He was only 21 years old when he 16 (Alex in SF), Friday, July 17, 2009 11:24 PM

I remember hearing Earth 2 when it came out and but I decided against buying it because it didn't sit well with the short-attention span I had at the time.

Just picked up a used copy on a whim and damn, it's pretty awesome. "Like Gold and Faceted" has got to be their ultimate song, I can't imagine that they surpassed this half-hour-long epic drone. Should I bother with any of their other records?

― Joseph Pot (STINKOR™), Monday, August 16, 2004 4:59 AM

i ended up voting for Earth 2 -- even though some of the later stuff is more pleasant to listen to, Earth 2 is so monumental and amazing ... Dunno, it'd be like voting against the Grand Canyon or something.

― tylerw, Wednesday, July 29, 2009 2:13 AM

"Earth 2" comes next. And it's even better (if only 'cuz it's longer). Totally fucking gorgeous, smeary, ecstatic drug drone. Absolutely natural and essential. Like if you gave a pineal gland a guitar, this is the record that gland would make. If, you know, it had hands or something... Yeah, sure, you could accurately describe it as the grunge version of some miserable new-age "cosmic tones" bullshit, but it transcends any labels you stick on it. The sound of the universe breathing. My favorite record of '93, and a top-ten contender ever since.

― fuckfuckingfuckedfucker (fuckfuckingfuckedfucker), Thursday, June 29, 2006 3:25 PM

great that Demby and Lustmord ended up next to each other in the poll

TS: Constance Demby vs. Lustmord

― Milton Parker, Tuesday, June 25, 2019 10:20 PM

Yes, and I got to quote the same post by you from that thread with both albums. :)

Stalker way, way, way too low.

I listened to 10 minutes of "Earth 2" while searching for the image and quotes, and, er, is the whole album just 73 minutes of heavy metal guitar riffing? Can't say this is my thing at all.

Pretty much, yeah. I enjoy drone metal but I don't really get Earth.

Anyway, that was the last entry for today, I'll continue the countdown tomorrow.

thank you Tuomas!

some of the better later records also recorded in the Port Townsend Deep Listening cistern

https://www.discogs.com/Doublends-Vert-Cistern/master/359070
https://www.amazon.com/Harmonic-Voice-Seattle-Voices/dp/B001PZ46EA
https://www.discogs.com/Open-Graves-Somewhere-Beyond-or-Behind/release/13072661

https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/cistern-chapel/

^^ cool this article also mentions the Tank in Colorado, want to visit that place sometime

Thanks for posting that article, it was interesting read... That cistern sounds like an awesome place.

hopefully another album recorded in that cistern is gonna appear later...

65. Gigi Masin: Talk to the Sea (2014)
264 points, 6 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/RFWun9a.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAHjMWEb9y8

listened to most of these while driving around tuscany last week, confirming that nu-balearic is the greatest driving music.

gigi masin's vocal stuff scratches a wonderful david sylvian itch

― max, 2. kesäkuuta 2014 0:15

I'm tight with the Juno Plus list of best reissues. Also agreeing with their comment re Gigi Masin's Talk To The Sea

wasn’t just the best reissue project of the year – it was better than most albums of new music released in 2014

― doug watson, 3. joulukuuta 2014 18:17

Huh, I skimmed this Gigi Masin album earlier in the year, but I'm only just now discovering there are some vocals. Makes it better imo.

― Johnny Fever, 27. tammikuuta 2015 20:51

talk to the sea is a retrospective compilation and mr. masin has been working since the 80s (including a collab with charles hayward [this heat] which my bf pointed out as a huge charles hayward fan). as someone who listens to a lot of ambient-ish music i thought this was pretty special and a cut above, with more varied instrumentation including like the best-sounding digital synthesis ever and great cale-esque vox on some tracks. the vibes are kind of perfect for 2014 era balearic. i'm sort of over stars of the lid and certain guitar treatments, personally.

― languagelessness (mattresslessness), 27. tammikuuta 2015 20:57

64. David Sylvian / Holger Czukay: Flux + Mutability (1989)
265 points, 5 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/4rS3fB3.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_E-lg2M5gQ

the second one, 'flux and mutability', made more sense on vinyl, two seperate pieces, one a mellow saunter, the other a sound wall made of sylvian's fripp-cribbed "I am sad now" guitar tones, is good.

― (Jon L), 23. toukokuuta 2004 0:33

Flux + Mutability is my favorite of the Sylvian ambient albums, if only for the second track. I don't think it would sound out of place on Eno's Apollo, and imo it bests a lot of the material on that album.

― I like tv random anything (corey), 30. heinäkuuta 2010 7:45

Today, Grönland Records are proud to announce the reissue of one of ambient music's hidden gems, by two unique musicians whose paths originally crossed in the early-eighties while working on Sylvian’s debut solo album, 'Brilliant Trees'. In 1986, David Sylvian - of British Art-Pop band Japan - and Holger Czukay - founding member and bassist in legendary German Kosmiche band Can - were ostensibly reconvening for Sylvian to record a vocal for Czukay's forthcoming album 'Rome Remains Rome’. But on arriving at Czukay's studio - a former cinema in Köln - Sylvian began playing freeform, improvising on readily available instruments located in the studio itself. No sooner had Sylvian, on whatever instrument he’d been applying himself, start to structurally define/refine the performance than Czukay would stop the recording he’d surreptitiously been making. Czukay had attempted to capture the process of creation without a musician's inclination for refinement. This process, drawn out over two nights, gave birth to the duo's first, full-fledged, collaboration, 'Plight and Premonition'.

Having been out of print for some time, the parallels between the original release 30 years ago and now are quite stark; at the time of recording the Cold War was lifting - but still very real - after a bitter winter. The names "Plight & Premonition" and "Flux & Mutability" themselves hint at an instability. In Sylvian's words, the sessions seemed to touch on something: “A form of music that seemed to have been created while we were absent by instruments abandoned to the earth and the woods, sounded by the coarse winter elements.”

(text by the man, Sylvian, himself, via fb)

― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), 25. huhtikuuta 2018 21:27

gigi masin can do no wrong. nice one-two there

63. Boris: Flood (2000)
267 points, 4 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/z8Szs1k.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZDstZ1-EAI

It's a shame you guys didn't get Boris doing a 40 min of Flood like we got in Glasgow last year. That was mindblowing.

― Herman G. Neuname, Wednesday, July 2, 2008 2:54 AM

Flood is monumental...a lot to digest (hence the Boringus tag) but the patience is definitely rewarded.

― demons a. real (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, August 12, 2010 5:13

In spite of all the hype, Boris seems like the real obvious answer here - esp on the dreamy, epic stuff like Flood.

― Bob Standard, Saturday, September 8, 2007 1:36 AM

Yes, from what I have read they were an Earth tribute band but quickly evolved into sth... uh... original.

Oh yeah? I always figured their name was a ref. to the Melvins track.

Feedbacker is indeed awesome. Have you heard Flood? Similar strcture but with less harshness.

― original bgm, Friday, February 11, 2005 4:53 PM

Probably the only album to place both in this poll and the ILX all-time metal albums poll?

Love Flux + Mutability, I didn't know they'd re-released it on CD with Plight and Premonition added! That is a must-buy.

62. Loscil: Plume (2006)
268 points, 3 votes.

https://i.imgur.com/3NqG7Xl.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxIlV2iOCyc

i only have Plume and i love it, i have no idea why i haven't gotten hold of more. it reminds me of other acts but he nails the sound just right.

― footballer of the future (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, October 16, 2013 1:50

Plume was my entry point and always my favorite. Listened to some Loscil this morning and read a few old Pitchfork reviews. I guess Plume isn't generally thought of as a high point, but whatever.

― beard papa, Wednesday, June 12, 2019 8:07 PM

Adding variation to loscil's loop-based work is the inclusion of real-time instruments alongside layers of computer generated pulse. By adding vibes, Ebow guitar and Rhodes piano to his pieces, loscil augments his mechanically intricate rhythmic cycles with an interesting spontaneity. Interleaving patterns comprised of odd clicks and bumps each spin at different ratios synchronized to a master clock. The virtual wheels and gears of loscil's motif engine crank out a heady-gentle machine music.

[/url=https://www.starsend.org/Plume.html]Chuck van Syl, Star's End[/url]

Another perhaps controversial album coming up next...