Damn, how did I forget that one? It definitely belongs on my list of ambient favourites. The box set is one of the jewels of my entire collection.
This one of his is a tough find but good stuff. I don't know of many binaural ambient albums. http://www.discogs.com/Roderick-Julian-Modell-The-Autonomous-Music-Project/release/294662
I checked this out on Spotify-I'm a big fan of Philip Glass so this is right up my alley. Thanks for posting!
Thanks for all! More Fripp... Gates of Paradise Blessing of Tears The Bringe Between Never had heard of any of these. Opinions?
William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops I-IV The Caretaker - Persistent Repetition of Phrases Popol Vuh - In den Gärten Pharaos David Lynch & Alan R. Splet - Eraserhead Harold Budd - Abandoned Cities
I've really been enjoying this 7hr epic. Perfect for an ambient sleep soundtrack. I don't think I've heard every bit of it but its interesting to wake up in the middle of the night and hear what's been going on!
Here also are lire notes and very interesting listening tips for this album http://robertrich.com/discography/liner-notes-from-somnium/
Travis & Fripp is the duet project of RF and Theo Travis, a reeds player. he plays saxes and flute with a delay/looper, and Fripp plays his guitar with his frippertronics rig. the music is part-improvised, both in the studio as well as live. I would start with their first record, thread (2008), which has a cut on it called 'the silence beneath' that blows me away every single time I hear it. I'm not sure I'd call Travis & Fripp 'ambient,' but that would be true for a lot of music mentioned in this thread. the other RF records you've mentioned are some of the 'soundscapes,' or mostly live recordings of fairly-to-very ambient improvisations using the second generation frippertronics setup. (the first generation was more or less just an analogue looper made of tape decks. he started using a much more complex digital rig in the mid-90s.) blessing of tears is an exceptional work, dedicated to the memory of his then recently-deceased mother and accordingly somber and ecstatic. if that sounds a little heavy, another good place to start with the soundscapes is that which passes, which is from the same time period (1995) and is more varied in feeling and texture.
I agree that Blessing of Tears is comprehensively beautiful and peaceful. His other soundscapes of this period are more varied, and he reaches some dark places.
I forgot to mention that wine of silence is pretty recent (2012) and consists of orchestral arrangements of selected soundscapes, performed by the dutch metropole-orkest. I haven't heard it because I don't really care much for the trend of orchestrating electronic music, but a lot of people seem to like it. I'll probably get to it at some point but can't comment. if you'd like to hear RF at his very most spacious, check out glass and breath from 2007, which is mostly abstract clusters of bell-like tones with a great deal of silence surrounding them. I love it, but it's sufficiently unlike his other work that it carries a disclaimer (!) on the DGM website.
Lots of really good stuff mentioned ... Ambiant Otaku, A Blessing Of Tears, etc ... unfortunately a lot may be out of print. But here's a freebie: Enfold 01, a compilation of stuff from the Ultimae label: http://ultimae.com/product/va-enfold-01-ultimae-download-16bit/ There's even a 24-bit version if you can play the higher-res audio. You're welcome. --Geoff
I've got A Blessing Of Tears ... lubberly, lubberly stuff ... but from memory Gates Of Paradise was dark and discordant ... I assume that I sold it. --Geoff
So what is my top 5 ambient, restricting myself to what's currently in print, or available for cheep, and hasn't been mentioned a zillion times already? A Small Good Thing - Slim Westerns -- imagine Substrata in the style of Ennio Morricone. Bill Laswell - Rasa: Serene Timeless Joy -- a 60 minute drone, broken up with some Gamelan sounds in the middle. Vidna Obmana - The River Of Appearance -- a bit sappy, but has a nice shimmering gauze over the top. Marconi Union - Distance -- the lovechild of Eno and Labradford. The Necks - Sex -- a 56 min piano/bass/drums piece ... hypnotic. Arguably Aether and Open are more minimal, but most people want to have Sex. --Geoff
Has anyone listened to Lorenzo Montana? I took a flyer on a new release called Trilogy from Psychonavigation records, but haven't listened to it yet!
Miles Davis - He Loved Him Madly Eno - Pachelbel's Canon Variations from Discreet Music Eno - Thursday Afternoon U2 - 4th Of July
A lot of fantastic recommendations here, but I wanted to take a moment to note how frustrating it is that so much great ambient is out of print and hard to obtain. These days, you've got a better chance of finding amateurish garage rock recorded in Mexico in 1965 than classics of the ambient genre recorded in the 80's and 90's! Someone needs to do an Ambient Nuggets series to rescue this stuff from oblivion.
I am a huge fan of Cluster and Eno but for something a bit different in ambient music why not try Virginia Astley's sublime "From Gardens Where We Feel Secure" album from 1983. The album is the perfect ambient evocation of sitting in a garden in the English countryside in Summer - here is a taster :-
Tell me about it! A large portion of my "to buy" list is all really obscure and/or rare ambient albums, so it's not very often that I come across them anywhere. It's frustrating, for sure, but it does make it even more exciting when you finally track down a copy.
Yes...he produced several great collaborations with Pete Namlook...I think there are 5 albums in their Labyrinth series.
