this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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Looking for recommendations in the ambient genre.

My favorites are (in no particular order):

  • Brian Eno - Mixing Colours
  • C418 - Minecraft Volume Alpha
  • Jon Hopkins - Music for Psychedelic Therapy
  • The KLF - Chill Out
  • Experialist - Excessive Refinement
  • Biosphere - Substrata

What are your favorite ambient albums?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon

Laraaji & Brian Eno - Ambient 3: Days of Radiance

Tim Hecker - Haunt Me, Haunt Me, Do It Again

Blood Incantation - Timewave Zero

Christian Fennesz and Jim O'Rourke - It's Hard For Me To Say I'm Sorry

PBK and Jim O'Rourke - Unidentified Again

Oreb Ambarchi - Grapes Of The Estate

Golden Retriever - Light Cones

Kassel Jaeger - Swamps/Things

Growing - Color Wheel

Most of these are probably considered more "experimental" than ambient, but whatever, genres are weird

Edit: formatting

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I listened to an album by Blood Incantation this year, great metal stuff and was ready to react, then I went and checked that out and Holy shit its straight up Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze type shit. Have to give this a listen

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
  • Tangerine Dream - Phaedra, Zeit, Alpha Centauri

  • Loscil - Plume

  • Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2

  • M. J. Harris & Martyn Bates - Murder Ballads

  • Mirror - I paint for the love of color, Nightwalkers, A Pilgrim's Solace... Any of them pretty really I love Mirror

  • Andrew Chalk - Time of Hayfield, same goes here, Chalk is half of Mirror)

  • Thomas Köner - Nuuk

  • Michael Bross - Subway Meditations

  • Akira Yamaoka - Silent Hill 1, 2 and 3: The Complete Soundtracks to all three

  • Jorge Reyes - Mort Aux Vaches, The Flayed God and if that's up your alley be sure to check out Antonio Zepeda as well!

  • William Basinski - Melancholia, The Disintegration Loops

  • Oöphoi - The Rustling of Leaves, The Spirals of Time and so many others

And some borderline ambient, but might scratch the itch:

  • Gavin Bryars - Jesus blood never failed me yet

  • Jon Hassell - Vernal Equinox, The Surgeon of the Nightsky Restores Dead Things by the Power of Sound, others from his earlier half

  • Rapoon - Vernal Crossing

  • Tuu - All Our Ancestors

  • The Body Lovers/The Body Haters

  • Scott Walker - The Drift, Tilt

  • Dead Can Dance - The Serpent's Egg, Into the Labyrinth, Toward the Within, Within the Realm of a Dying Sun

edit: There's too many! I didn't get to Robert Rich, Gas, Jan Jelinek, Muslimgauze, Biosphere and so many others

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Anything Boards of Canada is good, but I find their A Few Old Tunes have a particularly good ambient feel.
A Few Old Tunes Vol. 1

A Few Old Tunes Vol. 2

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Iirc these might not actually be authentic. The real cassettes were only given to friends and family and there is a long history of fakes being spread online. I hope we will someday get the real deal like with the obscure first GYBE tape.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I didn't realize that! I'll keep listening because they're nice mixes, but darn.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I really like After the Night Falls by Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
  • Roly Porter - Third Law
  • Tim Hecker - Love Streams
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Haven't heard those, I'll give them a try. I liked Ravedeath and No Highs by Tim Hecker a lot.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can't go wrong with Tim Hecker. That album in particular just stuck with me.

The Roly Porter one is super interesting. Especially the song "Mass". It's like "POV you're inside of a basketball"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, "Mass" stuck out for me, too. Overall a good album, a bit too harsh and noisy for listening while working, though. But that also applies to a lot of Heckers output.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
  • 1 2 3 - Pole
  • And Their Refinement of the Decline - Stars of the Lid
  • Plume - Loscil
  • The Sound of Lights When Dim - Slow Dancing Society
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Have been listening to Chihei Hatakeyama's albums a lot while working and studying. Coastal Railroads in Memories is my favorite

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Hiemal by Hiemal, they’ve got a bunch of other similar dark ambient albums too

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Patrick O’Hearn!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Erland Cooper - Sule Skerry

To be honest, this album is closer to folk, but his more recent stuff is more ambient. I love this record though. The title track is a stunning piece.