Top Five Ambient: Your Choices?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by tvstrategies, Aug 23, 2015.

  1. Bruno Republic

    Bruno Republic Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Steve Hillage: Rainbow Dome Musick
    Baked Beans: s/t
    Steve Roach: -- several possible choices, but right now I'd go with the 3-disc reissue of Structures From Silence
    Wendy Carlos: Sonic Seasonings
    Brian Eno: The Shutov Assembly
     
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  2. SEV

    SEV Forum Resident

    Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol 2
     
  3. petem1966

    petem1966 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Katy TX
    Discreet Music is an absolute work of genius regardless of genre.
     
  4. oh1

    oh1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    exeter
    For the more commercial of ear
    Goldfrapp - Felt Mountain ( And the track Clowns from their album Seventh Tree)
    Eno - Before And After Science (side two) Another Green World.
    David Sylvian - Brilliant Trees ( Title track, Nostalgia. )
     
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  5. kendo

    kendo Forum Resident

  6. Splungeworthy

    Splungeworthy Forum Rezidentura

    It's hard to top "Music For Airports" as the ultimate ambient album. Eno's "Apollo" album is another good one.
     
  7. Mike Ga

    Mike Ga Formerly meredrums and MikeG

    Location:
    Wylie, Tx.
    Lot's of good choices here, and I'll add this to the list. I think this is one of the best records Harold Budd has done.
    If you like "The Pearl", you'll like this. Really beautiful stuff. On a side note, I've been listening to Harold Budd for
    years and recently read something to the effect that all of his music is improvised.
    http://www.amazon.com/Translucence-...0346514&sr=1-2&keywords=harold+budd+john+foxx
     
  8. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Punk

    Location:
    England
    5 great and contrasting ones, lots more good ones though!

    Popol Vuh: Affenstunde (1970)
    Brian Eno: On Land (1982)
    Harold Budd: Lovely Thunder (1984)
    Brian Eno: Thursday Afternoon (1985)
    Leo Abrahams: Scene Memory (2006)
     
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  9. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Punk

    Location:
    England
    I know what you mean, but for me his "ultimate" is Thursday Afternoon, with probably the longest fade-in in music history.

    It's 61 minutes long and the first ever 1-track CD. Popol Vuh were arguably the "inventors" of ambient music with tracks like Aguirre recorded in 1969, but Eno was arguably the ultimate, and took it to its "peak" with Thursday Afternoon IMO.
     
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  10. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    Luc Ferrari - Presque Rien and others

     
  11. DJ LX

    DJ LX Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madison WI
    John Foxx - Cathedral Oceans - http://www.allmusic.com/album/cathedral-oceans-mw0000347971
    Bill Nelson - Gleaming without Lights, if you like your ambient with a bit of electric guitar worked in
    Jon Hassell - Last Night the Moon Came Dropping its Clothes in the Street, my favorite album of the 21st century bar none.
     
  12. Daddy Dom

    Daddy Dom Lodger

    Location:
    New Zealand
    KLF - Chill Out (an ambient masterpiece, timed to perfection)
    Arvo Part - Alina (piano and cello, what else do you need?)
    Eno - Apollo

    I only had 3 cents, sorry!
    DD
     
  13. BurgerKing

    BurgerKing Forum Resident

    I don't know enough about ambient to have a top five, but I do like Boards of Canada a lot
     
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  14. brew ziggins

    brew ziggins Forum Prisoner

    Location:
    The Village
    I was once in Tower Records Boston, and overheard someone pointing this out as the 'finest record Eno ever made'. I had it, of course, but never thought much of it. More attentive listening confirmed Hybrid as a top notch entry in both artists' catalogs. It continues to grow on me thirty years later. Never more than a few feet from the player.

    I was just about to post that I wasn't seeing enough Michael Brook in this thread.
    Certainly Cobalt Blue and Live At the Aquarium need mentioning.

    In this vein, keep an eye out for The Leaving Time, by Michael Shrieve and Steve Roach, with ravishing David Torn guitar atmospherics. Way OOP but when I see it, it's often cheap.

    Glad to see my favorite artist bar none catching some ink here. I second and third every Jon Hassell recommendation. Please don't forget Power Spot on ECM.
     
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2015
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  15. mkolesa

    mkolesa Forum Resident

    Couldn't agree more! The purity and sustained intention of 'Thursday Afternoon' is very special, although I consider 'Discreet Music' a close second...
     
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  16. Defrance

    Defrance A Northern Soul

    Location:
    Calgary, AB
    Felt Mountain is downtempo. Ambient is generally beatless and lyricless.
     
  17. tvstrategies

    tvstrategies Turtles, all the way down. Thread Starter

    The Paul McCartney? Well that's unexpected. Have to listen to the sample when I get home...

    Thanks for the recomms so far! So all four of Eno's Ambient series. Anyone know any others like On Land with animals and giant dragonflys lurking on the shadows?
     
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  18. scompton

    scompton Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arlington, VA
    If minimalism can be considered ambient, a favorite is Jerone van Veen's 5 disc box of Simone Ten Holt's solo piano music

     
  19. tvstrategies

    tvstrategies Turtles, all the way down. Thread Starter

    Ambient is such a difficult thing to describe to someone that doesn't know what it is. More times than not, once you play something for the uninitiated, they like it and end up like me, looking for more suggestions...:D This is the kind of homework i like!
     
  20. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Punk

    Location:
    England
    There's nothing like On Land. It's unique and awesome. Put it on repeat all day instead :)

    When I first got into Eno heavily when I was 14 around 1986, I used to walk around the hills and places for hours with On Land on my Walkman on both sides of a TDK D120 cassette. I'd flip the tape as soon as it ended, and start again. Bliss..
     
  21. Davey

    Davey NP: Hania Rani/Dobrawa Czocher ~ Inner Symphonies

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    I really love most of the Eno ambient series and collaborations, especially those with Harold Budd and Jon Hassell, but overall my favorite is probably ...
    Harold Budd & Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois - The Pearl

    Truth be told, I could be happy with any of these too: On Land, Thursday Afternoon, Fourth World, Apollo, The Plateaux Of Mirror, ...

    So many more, love the space ambient stuff, and the whole series with Namlook & Inoue produced some great ones ...
    Pete Namlook & Tetsu Inoue - 2350 Broadway

    And in more modern times, Robert Rich has a bunch of really nice records of his own, but for dark ambient it is hard to beat ...
    Robert Rich & Brian Lustmord - Stalker
     
  22. slayerhatesusall

    slayerhatesusall Well-Known Member

    Top five would be hard to pick, but some favorites include:
    Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol 2
    Gas- Pop
    Deepchord- 20 Electrostatic Soundfields
    Carbon Based Lifeforms- Hydroponic Garden
    Cluster- s/t

     
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  23. frozen-beach

    frozen-beach Forum Resident

    Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol 2
    David Sylvian - Gone To Earth (Second Disc)
    David Sylvian and Holger Czukay - Flux + Mutability
    Burzum - Hliðskjálf
    David Lynch - The Air Is On Fire
     
  24. Synthfreek

    Synthfreek I’m a ray of sunshine & bastion of positivity

    I am a HUGE fan of the genre. Please check out this seamless Dark Ambient mixed I constructed within Logic Pro when you have some spare time. I went deep and dark and on the sinister side with this one.

    https://soundcloud.com/synthfreek/dark-ambient-mix-1984-2011

    Nocturnal Emissions - Bestiae Clamor (1989) 0:01
    Bill Laswell & M.J. Harris - Distal Sonority (1994) 3:45
    Deep Listening Band - Balloon Payment (1991) 4:34
    Deep Listening Band - Metalorgy (1991) 5:20
    Lull - Slow Fall Inward (1995) 6:20
    Pessary - Decompose (1992) 8:10
    Nurse With Wound - Beetle Crawls Across My Back (1993) 13:25
    Total - Six (1994) 18:45
    Painkiller - Parish Of Tama (1994) 20:30
    Bass Communion - Loss (Part 1) (2005) 23:52
    [Main] - XX (1998) 34:25
    Thomas Köner - Kanon (Part 1: Brohuk) (1994) 35:45
    Demdike Stare - Quiet Sky (2011) 37:40
    Non - Cruenta Voluptas (1986) 40:26
    Lustmord & Robert Rich - Undulating Terrain (1995) 41:30
    Hafler Trio - A Thirsty Fish/The Dirty Fire (1987) 45:00
    Shinjuku Thief - A Midnight Mass (1993) 47:55
    Pete Namlook - Subharmonic Invocation Of The Dark Spirits (1996) 48:40
    Sunn O))) - Sin Nanna (2005) 50:48
    X Ray - Annul (1995) 52:30
    Andrew Liles - The Dying Submariner Part 4 (2007) 55:08
    Jeff Greinke - Humid (1998) 57:43
    KK Null & James Plotkin - Drowning In Aurora (1995) 1:01:00
    :Zoviet*France: - Daisy Gun (1994) 1:02:00
    Coil - How To Destroy Angels (1984) 1:04:15
     
  25. Synthfreek

    Synthfreek I’m a ray of sunshine & bastion of positivity

    My 5 picks that I thnnk fit the bill?

    Robert Rich & Lustmord - Stalker
    Steve Roach - The Magnificent Void
    Biosphere - Substrata
    Michael Stearns - Encounter
    Pete Namlook - Air I & II
     
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