Recommendations for expanding my ambient collection

Unmastered means what you have is what the mix engineer created before the mix was sent to the mastering engineer. It wouldn't make sense to "remaster" an album that has never been released before .

 

I wasn't referring to remastering, just wondering why an "unmastered" recording would be used. I thought a recording had to be mastered for release in any medium. If this promo was used to demo the release, wouldn't it be mastered, as I assume the actual release was?

 

In the world of digital recording anyone can burn a CD that is a digital copy of the master mix. It might very well be that a copy of the CD you have is what was sent to whoever mastered the album for its original release. A mastering engineer, when given a mix like that, would frequently apply EQ and compression and adjust the volume of the different tracks on the album. He might also assemble all sorts of meta-data that gets encoded on the commercial CD along with the audio. The word "master" gets used in a lot of confusingly dissimilar ways in audio engineering terminology. I don't think I've ever seen the word "unremastered" used anywhere but on this forum, though.

 

This is a great sampler of lovely stuff: Night Music – Best of AD Music volume 5.
Ambient, but perhaps in a little easier form than most of it.
I believe this company has done many other compilations as well.

 

This is a great thread. I am woefully out of touch with ambient - I have a good bit of Brian Eno, and bought Aphex Twin's volumes 1 and 2 as well as other titles here and there, but I have been anxious to learn more about this music, as well as looping, in the hopes of getting involved myself.

One artist I have enjoyed that I first heard on the "Echoes" radio show with John Diliberto ( http://www.echoes.org ) is Magic Sound Fabric. I especially enjoy the album Freedom Star. Here's a link with samples: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/msf3 These track do have beats, but I find the music very involving...

synthfreek and the others who've gone to the trouble of making samples available - thank you for this overview

 

I noticed I could create an Ambient "station" in Pandora just by typing Ambient and saving it as a genre station. Pretty cool

 

Future Sound of London - Kiss 100 FM Transmissions from 1993 are amazing and can be downloaded from their offial site http://www.yage.co.uk/digitalpodroom.html

£3 or $5 for 3 hours you won't regret (can pay by paypal and actual download speed is about 1000Kbps so doesn't take forever)

 

Here are two KILLER compilations of tracks from Pete Namlook and his amazing Fax label. Two 2CD sets for a little over $20. These usually go for more...they set their Buy It Now price a bit low.

Fax Compilation 1
Fax Compilation 2

 

Here are some tracks from the new wave of Basic Channel inspired ambient/dub-techno producers and a few Basic Channel related tracks. Basic Channel proved that ambient sounds & ideas can mix with four to the floor rhythms. I can zone out to Remake or Q-Loop just as easily as Eno.

Bvdub - "Nothing From No One" - The Art Of Dying Alone
Bvdub - "The Art Of Dying Alone" - The Art Of Dying Alone
Bvdub - "To Live Part 1" - To Live EP
Bvdub - "To Live Part 2" - To Live EP
Brock Van Wey - "White Clouds Drift On And On" - White Clouds Drift On And On
Echospace - "Liumin Reduced Untitled #1" - Liumin
Echospace - "First Point Of Aries" - The Coldest Season
GAS - "Untitled #5" - Pop
Basic Channel - "Radiance I" - Radiance EP
Basic Channel - "Q Loop" - BCD
Basic Channel - "Mutism" - BCD
Cyrus - "Presence" - Inversion EP
Basic Channel - "Q1.2" - BCD

 

HERE is a track I just finished if anyone wants to take a listen. Get comfortable...it's almost 13 minutes long.

 

I agree with Frank. I'm excited about this thread, as I am a big fan of this music.

You may want to check out Brad Miller and Mystic Moods Orchestra. Brad Miller pioneered the field of ambient music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVVabA954Hc

 

May I introduce you all to Alex of www.ambient-nights.org

I discovered Alex circa 1997, just when he really started mixing and releasing online. In 2001, just at the height of Napster, he was releasing his mixes and folks were eating them up. His site still goes on and the VIP section provides quite a bit benefits just as direct downloads, high rez art etc. I've been a member since the very beginning.

All of his releases are completely free and he properly references all artists etc.

Just about every album listed in this thread has tracks or parts of tracks in one or another of Alex's mixes. For true pure ambient, stick with his solar system series. For something with a bit more drum and bass, check out his Ambient Nights series. His Ethnic series relates a story of a single character and it mixes wonderful Boards of Canadaesque tunes with a hint of Middle Eastern flair a la Dead Can Dance. Then for those that want to dance it up on a Saturday night rather than absorb waves and waves of music, his Club series will have the house shaking in no time.

 

Marconi Union's Distance has already been mentioned, and now that I've listened to MU's latest, A Lost Connection, I can definitely recommend that one. I may like it better than Distance, it's very musical, and I can see it getting a lot of play.

 

Best song of the last 16 years.

 

Great thread. I've been enjoying many of the recommendations for many years.

Here's some of my favorites of the genre:

Woob - Woob 1194
Very hard to find...on the Instinct label. I remember reading Option magazine in the early to mid 90's and reading reviews for great ambient releases. Instinct put out quite a few.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiqMG3ED5A0

Cabaret Voltaire - The Conversation
Not industrial, purely ambient. Another great Instinct release.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smBMKcdfxwc

Pablo's Eye - You Love Chinese Food
1995 Extreme label release. Lighter ambient without the spookiness found in some of the genre.

Tor Lundvall - Ice
Hard to find in the single disc version. But a box set was recently released of four of his cds including Ice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKvAWGpuUaM&feature=related

I have a lot more in my collection. I know what I'll be doing tonight...

 

Another vote for Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol.2 -- it's a very mimimal album, but quite epic at the same time... probably my favourite ambient record ever.

Music Has the Right to Children by the Boards of Canada is a close second.

 

i am surprised : nobody mentioned Richard Burmer or i did read wrongly...

http://www.richardburmer.com/RSBmusic.html

i have mosaic, bakhti point and "on the 3rd extreme...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhhWh1-7wEE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wtI5DoRbFM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdmgdbnbLis

he is also part of the cd titled "western spaces" at least for the original.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Spaces

 

Al Gromer Khan Mahogany nights in the label "hearts of space" already mentioned before

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpUs8_TZYc4

all Al Gromer Khan stuff is wonderful IMHO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpuM...st=MLGxdCwVVULXdXYdPAPeIOuf0YLp6C5mHP&index=4

 

Do u consider Narada Lotus label as ambient ?

i would then add ppl like Tingstad Rumbel or David Lanz

 

This has been fun, checking out new recommendations and trashing my budget. I've picked up several mentioned here---The Caretaker (wish I could find Stairway To The Stars), Black Swan, Global Communication, Variant, Ulrich Schnauss, Subsurfing, Brock Van Wey/Bvdub, Djen Ajakan Shean---and I appreciate the quality of these recommendations. I received a CD today from Italy that no one's mentioned here. I'm really impressed with Three Organic Experiences by Aglaia so far. One listen and it's already among my favorites of the genre. Has anyone else heard this album?

Woob 1194 is something I'd like to get...any sonic differences between the original em:t release and the Instinct re-issue?

 

The group Carbon Based Lifeforms for electronic ambient... particularly "Hydroponic Garden".

 

Woob 1194 is something I'd like to get...any sonic differences between the original em:t release and the Instinct re-issue?




I only know the Instinct reissue.

 

How difficult to find are Basinski's Disintegration Loops CDs? They're not listed at all on Amazon....

 

Volumes ll, lll and lV available here (I can recommend the seller playing.by.ear):

http://www.discogs.com/sell/list?q=basinski+disintegration+loops&currency=USD

 

G'day,

Try looking at Forced Exposure: http://www.forcedexposure.com/artists/basinski.william.html ... all four are listed @ $13 each. In fact I may just have to order 'em myself.

--Geoff