Post by russellchap on Dec 10, 2015 0:06:11 GMT
A top ten of ambient albums
25 Aug 2014, 21:50
Stop what you're doing. Now listen. Ignore the foreground and listen to the background sounds. Listen to the constant far drone of the traffic, the muffled sound of the TV from the apartment above, an aeroplane just audible in the distance or the persistent patter of rain. That's the sound of ambient. It's a music of the background, it's the antithesis of the attention grabbing blare of chart pop. As Brian Eno says, "Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting."
Ambient is a flexible music incorporating many sounds, rhythms and textures, and genres - there is even an ambient metal genre - while still being ambient. There are some definable musical aspects of ambient though, these are a sense of space, a droning quality and Brian Eno...
1. Brian Eno - Ambient 4:On Land
This is Brian's best ambient album so it makes sense it's number one. Also he invented the genre so it would be kind of churlish to deny him his top spot. The music herein is quite dark and was inspired by places where he grew up.
2. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92
More like 'ambient techno' than pure ambient, but it's still a bona fide ambient classic. You can actually dance to this. Slowly.
3. Harold Budd - The White Arcades
Beautiful piano and synth that caresses your lugholes like gossamer, almost. Harold has collaborated with Brian Eno unsurprisingly.
4. Paul Schütze - The Surgery Of Touch
Isolationism is a genre of ambient music that isn't like wallpaper or perfume but more like a strange shadow lurking on the periphery of your vision or a barely heard sounds that gives you a cold shiver up your spine. It's the dark side of ambient. cf. Lull, Thomas Köner and Scorn.
5. Brian Eno - Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks
A soundtrack to the Apollo moon missions. This a is beautiful collection of sounds which also presents vivid mental images of the earth as seen from space, vast fields of stars etc.That leaves me almost breathless.
6. Dolphins Into The Future - "A Star Maker, Strange Dreams & Clairvoyance"
Belgium sound artist Lieven Martens isn't a dolphin but his music is aqueous and playful. While being seriously cosmic and beatific.
7. GAS - Pop
"bring the forest to the disco, or vice-versa." Says GAS man Wolfgang Voigt.
8. Haruomi Hosono - Mercuric Dance
Mr. Hosono is a very talented gentleman, a pioneer of electronic and ambient music in Japan, solo and with Yellow Magic Orchestra.
9. Steve Hillage - Rainbow Dome Musick
Ex-Gong (a whimsical hippy band who titled one album 'the flying teapot') guitarist makes an ambient classic during the heyday of punk rock.
10. Virginia Astley - In Gardens Where We Feel Secure
A wonderfully pastoral album which conjures up a lost Eden, a placeless place in Albion where the modern world is dismissed. Very soothing.
As mentioned at number four there's a ambient sub-genre called Isolationism (better known as Dark Ambient) and I've decided to add a top five list here.
1. Paul Schütze - The Surgery Of Touch
2. Lull - Cold Summer
3. Thomas Köner - Permafrost
4. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works II
5. Harold Budd - Abandoned Cities
25 Aug 2014, 21:50
Stop what you're doing. Now listen. Ignore the foreground and listen to the background sounds. Listen to the constant far drone of the traffic, the muffled sound of the TV from the apartment above, an aeroplane just audible in the distance or the persistent patter of rain. That's the sound of ambient. It's a music of the background, it's the antithesis of the attention grabbing blare of chart pop. As Brian Eno says, "Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting."
Ambient is a flexible music incorporating many sounds, rhythms and textures, and genres - there is even an ambient metal genre - while still being ambient. There are some definable musical aspects of ambient though, these are a sense of space, a droning quality and Brian Eno...
1. Brian Eno - Ambient 4:On Land
This is Brian's best ambient album so it makes sense it's number one. Also he invented the genre so it would be kind of churlish to deny him his top spot. The music herein is quite dark and was inspired by places where he grew up.
2. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92
More like 'ambient techno' than pure ambient, but it's still a bona fide ambient classic. You can actually dance to this. Slowly.
3. Harold Budd - The White Arcades
Beautiful piano and synth that caresses your lugholes like gossamer, almost. Harold has collaborated with Brian Eno unsurprisingly.
4. Paul Schütze - The Surgery Of Touch
Isolationism is a genre of ambient music that isn't like wallpaper or perfume but more like a strange shadow lurking on the periphery of your vision or a barely heard sounds that gives you a cold shiver up your spine. It's the dark side of ambient. cf. Lull, Thomas Köner and Scorn.
5. Brian Eno - Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks
A soundtrack to the Apollo moon missions. This a is beautiful collection of sounds which also presents vivid mental images of the earth as seen from space, vast fields of stars etc.That leaves me almost breathless.
6. Dolphins Into The Future - "A Star Maker, Strange Dreams & Clairvoyance"
Belgium sound artist Lieven Martens isn't a dolphin but his music is aqueous and playful. While being seriously cosmic and beatific.
7. GAS - Pop
"bring the forest to the disco, or vice-versa." Says GAS man Wolfgang Voigt.
8. Haruomi Hosono - Mercuric Dance
Mr. Hosono is a very talented gentleman, a pioneer of electronic and ambient music in Japan, solo and with Yellow Magic Orchestra.
9. Steve Hillage - Rainbow Dome Musick
Ex-Gong (a whimsical hippy band who titled one album 'the flying teapot') guitarist makes an ambient classic during the heyday of punk rock.
10. Virginia Astley - In Gardens Where We Feel Secure
A wonderfully pastoral album which conjures up a lost Eden, a placeless place in Albion where the modern world is dismissed. Very soothing.
As mentioned at number four there's a ambient sub-genre called Isolationism (better known as Dark Ambient) and I've decided to add a top five list here.
1. Paul Schütze - The Surgery Of Touch
2. Lull - Cold Summer
3. Thomas Köner - Permafrost
4. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works II
5. Harold Budd - Abandoned Cities
