Ambient Recommendations

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

Friend released these lovely, extremely lengthy homemade tape loops of meditative synth music. Really good, would probably like even if he wasn't a friend, but yeah, nice stuff.

https://butera.bandcamp.com/album/memorandum-cassettes-vol-1

i don't listen to much dark ambient but this album is very cool

https://civilistjavel.bandcamp.com/album/j-rnn-tter

Apologies for the self-promo, but on Thursday I did the first episode of what I'm planning as a weekly live show on Mixcloud. Not solely ambient (a bit of techno/IDM/jazz in there too) but a lot of deep moods that you may appreciate!
Archive is up here: https://www.mixcloud.com/wildambitions/wild-ambitions-episode-1-20-july-2022/

nice dude! sounds great.

Thoroughly enjoyed this, bamboohouses. Nice one.

Aah thanks so much for listening! Glad you enjoyed it.

yeah i definitely listened to the whole thing, real relaxing.

Bandcamp link for July's enticing ambient scents here:

https://buymusic.club/list/noplace_drone-npld-ddr-jul-130722-open-your-third-nostril

Friend gifted me the new David Cordero, _And Stillness Came_: https://polarseasrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/and-stillness-came I hadn't heard of him before. Lovely ebb & flow washes, which led me to his catalog. Found 2012's _Emma_ and 2011's _0_ equally calming/meditative/pacific, so will be doing some additional purchases.

At least with a few recent finds, the artist and their label(sO can get intermingled, so not all the artist's releases are seen under their individual Bandcamp "music" tab. Makes for some good additional listening discoveries.

label(s)

Inoyama Land - Commissions 1977-2000

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7crn4lVhwM

some of the most beautiful ambient stuff I've ever heard. at least for those of us who used to play Game Boy under the covers. they have an album called Danzindan-Pojidon which is fairly popular but I like this more.

yeah, i picked that one up on a whim i while back and have thoroughly enjoyed it. i haven't listened to Danzindan-Pojidon, I gotta check that out!

the clear vinyl makes it an absolutely gorgeous object. I don't wanna come off pretentious about this but I feel like clear vinyl should be reserved for albums which have a purity of soul to them. I love that Computer World is on clear (at least the version I have) but really don't like when rock bands do it for some reason. anyway it's perfect for this.

The B side of medi-music (sleep relaxation) is pure bliss.

https://www.discogs.com/release/12648761-Inoyama-Land-Medi-Music-Series-Self-Control-Music-%E4%B8%8D%E7%9C%A0-Sleep-Relaxation

I assume everyone is aware of Alanis Morissette's ambient record? In conjunction with the same meditation app company that did the Moby stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqPXqTQhfm4

<i>during the the last while within the pandemic i felt very inspired to
write and remain connected (didn’t always work. and when it didn’t, it felt like a unique torture).

all i knew was that i wanted to write a record that would offer something. and throughout the process of creating it with dave harrington, —beautifully and mercifully—it became its own multi-layered life raft during a time where i felt like i might disappear and float away.

this album is filled with what i hope might be a safe invitation to and compatriot in your/our dropping in ….

i offer this first song and the entire record to match and be available for any junctures on your personal journey ❤️

whether it be relaxation or resting or releasing or emboldening or sweaty wildness or embodying or empowering or clarifying. may it serve as a catalyst, a soothing, a glimpse of awakening. an honoring. an objectivity. a wordless partner in healing. a place to land. inquire. breathe. notice. one in which you are held. in your lying down and jumping up.
your movement, your numbness or your feelings… any of them… anger or clearing… sadness, grief, joy … fear, all. are. welcome.

may this music serve as a friend in the thawing.
a permission to feel and
explore while feeling connected. and
supported.</i>

And thus ends the golden decade of ambient music.

interesting, Dave Harrington is great

that specific track seems a bit busy though

Oh, it's mostly awful ethnic new age like a million things before it. If she'd kept the percussion out of it, it would have passed for milquetoast ambient.

interesting haha

fwiw i like the ambient record that Devendra and another guy did last year— nothing groundbreaking but pleasant enough

Our August show is now up here: https://www.mixcloud.com/DublinDigitalRadio/ddr-show-100822-jagged-little-sleeping-pill/

With links to buy most of the music featured here: https://buymusic.club/list/noplace_drone-npld-drr-100822-jagged-little-sleeping-pill

that T.R. Jordan Dwell Time album is excellent

Contender for album of the year.

Shit, this T.R. Jordan album is wonderful.

This is a wonderful bit of '95 ambience. From the excellent Instinct Ambient label which I think Taylor Dupree was involved with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA9eoAWuT-w

This is lovely, cheers. I've been listening to Shaikh's Drift a lot recently, an album he did with Tim Floyd in 1996.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enHD4L4qZng

It's also on Spotify if that's your thing.

https://open.spotify.com/album/1ZP8ZRPWDYfj6aGWtJua11?si=H4Ec9oDfRYOUbhYEU9UZWg

It's on Bandcamp as name your price, actually. Big recommend.

https://sonicturtle.bandcamp.com/album/drift

Nice, thank you.

We've been delving deeper into 90s US ambient. I have a bunch of stuff on this label but never investigated it fully. There's some heavy releases in there.

https://www.discogs.com/label/1022-Hypnos

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

Journey to the Sun was "the second release from interchill's global ambient spectrum series. originally released by instinct records in 1996"

I'm not super familiar with what happened after about '01 but Interchill in the mid-late 90s was like a playful burbling stream in a forest of magical ambient and downtempo

sorry

We did an all 80s/90s show this month.

https://www.mixcloud.com/DublinDigitalRadio/no-place-like-drone-070922-a-folio-of-sacred-tones/

Bandcamp links here.

https://buymusic.club/list/noplace_drone-nlpd-ddr-070922-a-folio-of-sacred-tones

https://linkco.re/pr1Zyx7B?lang=en

lying by a swimming pool on holiday right now and this record is going down very easy indeed. eleven quite short and simple pieces of very light, twinkly ambience, nice splashes of piano

Very nice, quite Buddesque. He's consistently good that guy

This is lovely. Only £3 for the full album as well

<url>https://neotantra.bandcamp.com/album/figments-of-wonder<;/url>

Gah, sorry, my fingers default to HTML.

https://neotantra.bandcamp.com/album/figments-of-wonder

how is the new sarah davachi

Pretty and baroque.

Never quite sure the best place to drop random ambient recommendations but keep meaning to so...

Peter Wright - An Angel Fell Where the Kestrels Hover. Kiwi guitar player, relocated to London. This album is a career highlight for me, especially this track: https://peterwright.bandcamp.com/track/london-is-drowning

don’t mind all the different ambient threads, like visiting different islands that get rained on different times of the year

Nice on on the Peter Wright. I really loved lights out, but never really delved into him.

https://peterwright.bandcamp.com/album/lights-out

Very excited to learn that the Kasper Bjørke Quartet have a new album coming out later this month. The Fifty Eleven Project was one of my favourites of 2018

https://foxydigitalis.zone/2022/10/10/track-premiere-kasper-bjorke-quartet-abiogenesis-feat-philipschneider/

Sofie Birch has a new project:

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/sofie-birch-antonina-nowacka-languoria/

The album represents a meeting of the minds. As a solo musician, Birch has spent the past few years developing a unique style of lush, welcoming ambient music steeped in new-age tones. Nowacka’s work has ranged from abstract vocalizations alongside stark electronics—imagine Joan La Barbara fronting Wolf Eyes—to solo improvisations in Oaxacan churches and Javan caves, probing the outer limits of natural reverb. If Birch’s music is a brightly colored expanse of coral, or a sashaying field of kelp, Nowacka’s voice is a lone organism carving a languid path through it—perhaps a translucent jellyfish, lithe yet severe in the exactitude of its movements.

Birch pares back her playing to make way for the slim contours of Nowacka’s instrument. Rather than unleashing her usual billowing plumes of synthesizer, she for the most part restrains herself to just a few sounds and the merest melodic shapes, while faint field recordings—birdsong, the rustle of footsteps—root the music in the lived world.