finally heard the Environments record I posted the Head Heritage link to upthread. It's unbelievable, just hundreds of human voices singing one note. 1976, so predates Prima Materia, David Hykes & the Harmonic Choir, Michael Vetter's Overtone Choir, etc.
all the Environments records need a complete CD reissue
275. Environments 7 - Intonation / Summer Cornfield
http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/review/527 http://nonmusic.discogs.com/release/892588
― Milton Parker, Thursday, 26 July 2007 01:24 (sixteen years ago) link
that is so cool, I have 4 or 5 of those but have never even seen that one.
― sleeve, Thursday, 26 July 2007 01:31 (sixteen years ago) link
276. Aloof Proof - Piano Text (just reissued on CD and pretty great) 277. Wind Harp - Songs From The Hill 278. Lou Reed - Hudson River Wind Meditations 279. Michael Stearns - Planetary Unfolding
― Milton Parker, Friday, 14 December 2007 09:30 (sixteen years ago) link
280. Earth - Pentastar 281. Bohren and Der Club Der Gore - Midnight Earth 282. Tangerine Dream - Phaedra 283. Tones on Tail - Pop
― Nate Carson, Friday, 14 December 2007 11:42 (sixteen years ago) link
284. Oren Ambarchi - Grapes from the estate 285. Phil Niblock - G2 44 +/X 2 286. Rafael Toral - Sound Mind Sound Body
― boring, Friday, 14 December 2007 14:02 (sixteen years ago) link
287. Waki - Music for Lazy People
― winston, Sunday, 16 December 2007 00:48 (sixteen years ago) link
This is a great list but can anyone recommnend something from 2008?
― Ned Trifle II, Monday, 22 September 2008 20:43 (fifteen years ago) link
wyld wyzrdz - mzg wvz
free download herehttp://www.magicgoatmusic.com/digitalmagic.html
― 6335, Monday, 22 September 2008 20:52 (fifteen years ago) link
289. Mark Wastell - Come Crimson Rays
every night for the last three weeks
― Milton Parker, Monday, 22 September 2008 21:16 (fifteen years ago) link
290 & 291
Lawrence English's last two albums (both from 08) Kiri No Oto and Studies for Stradbroke are both really awesome. SFS is mostly field recordings.
― fREETIME (wilter), Monday, 22 September 2008 21:18 (fifteen years ago) link
..from Stradbroke Island.
http://www.residentadvisor.net/images/reviews/2008/pop-ambient-2008.jpeg
― ;y=ー( ゚д゚)・∵. (am0n), Monday, 22 September 2008 21:21 (fifteen years ago) link
I agree that the Pop Ambient comps are still a consistent source of decent tunes, but the recent ones seem more formulaic. The 2006 version was the most outstanding to me.
Not necessarily from 2008, but some more recent finds:
I'm amazed that the Astralwerks Excursions in Ambience Vol. 3 comp got some love on here...a definite classic, but one I'd assumed was lost to obscurity. I'd be interested in seeing a similar list with a more limited scope. The extent of this one is a little overwhelming.
― viborg, Monday, 22 September 2008 21:56 (fifteen years ago) link
Check out The Caretaker's Persistent Repetition of Phrases for your hauntology ambient hunger.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Monday, 22 September 2008 22:19 (fifteen years ago) link
no fleischmann?
― Jarlrmai, Monday, 22 September 2008 22:22 (fifteen years ago) link
XXPOST Ambarchi's 7 inch on Touch from this year is fantastic as well. Lots of organ.
― fREETIME (wilter), Monday, 22 September 2008 22:27 (fifteen years ago) link
― Ned Trifle II, Monday, September 22, 2008 8:43 PM (5 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
297. Karma Moffett - Golden Bowls Of Compassion
― Milton Parker, Thursday, 26 February 2009 22:15 (fifteen years ago) link
The Beatless Collection with Tokyo Black Star, Deadmau5, Joris Voorn, Gui Boratto, Hiroshi Watanabe etc is fantastic.
― brotherlovesdub, Thursday, 26 February 2009 22:19 (fifteen years ago) link
can anyone recommnend something from 2008?
Stretching the definition of "ambient," but...
298. Carlos Giffoni - Adult Life299. Tim Hecker and Aidan Baker - Fantasma Parastasie300. Patti Smith and Kevin Shields - The Coral Sea
― ilxor, Thursday, 26 February 2009 22:20 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.trackitdown.net/genre/electronica/track/545575.html
that's the Beatless Collection I mentioned above. highly recommended.
― brotherlovesdub, Thursday, 26 February 2009 22:30 (fifteen years ago) link
now that's a lot of ambient
how do we get the incense stores to buy these and play these instead of Enigma's "The Sadnads Part 1"
― System Jr. (Mackro Mackro), Thursday, 26 February 2009 22:49 (fifteen years ago) link
from 2008, machinefabriek - dauw is essential. also recently got lawrence english - kiri no oto, beautiful drones
― rio (r1o natsume), Thursday, 26 February 2009 23:26 (fifteen years ago) link
just discovered Oneohtrix Point Never, totally awesome hangover soothing analog tone washes, let's go for 400
301 - Oneohtrix Point Never - "A Pact Between Strangers"
"Ruined Lives" is terrific too but it's < 20 minutes so won't count as an album
― guammls (QE II), Thursday, 11 June 2009 22:10 (fourteen years ago) link
that beatless comp looks fun
― guammls (QE II), Thursday, 11 June 2009 22:11 (fourteen years ago) link
"Lawrence English's last two albums (both from 08) Kiri No Oto and Studies for Stradbroke are both really awesome."
just got a disc in the mail by lawrence english and francisco lopez called hb that is really cool. on baskaru. lotsa mutated environmental field recordings.
― scott seward, Thursday, 11 June 2009 22:24 (fourteen years ago) link
been passing out nightly to a couple of robin guthrie and harold budd collaborations
― gangsta hug (omar little), Thursday, 11 June 2009 22:25 (fourteen years ago) link
you gotta play those back to back, skipping the final tracks from both of them, for the real bliss out.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Thursday, 11 June 2009 22:47 (fourteen years ago) link
302. http://soundcloud.com/shamantis/j-biebz-u-smile-800-slower
― Milton Parker, Tuesday, 17 August 2010 19:39 (thirteen years ago) link
I just saw that on someone's Facebook! I haven't listened yet, though.
― Chanté Ackerman (Stevie D), Tuesday, 17 August 2010 19:51 (thirteen years ago) link
WHOA, this is really, really awesome! What was done to it to make it not sound choppy/fragmented?
― Chanté Ackerman (Stevie D), Tuesday, 17 August 2010 19:53 (thirteen years ago) link
its this paulstretch programme
― plax (ico), Tuesday, 17 August 2010 19:55 (thirteen years ago) link
sounds like Belong
― smart, sexy, sassy and full of beans (crüt), Tuesday, 17 August 2010 20:01 (thirteen years ago) link
http://sourceforge.net/projects/hypermammut/files/
it's open source - i'm tripping out to ambient 'Tik Tok' right now
― Aqua Buddha (herb albert), Tuesday, 17 August 2010 20:03 (thirteen years ago) link
http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/
Please note that this is suitable only for extreme time stretching (e.g. if have a melody of 3 minutes and you want to listen it in 3 hours).
ha, someone's already updated the wikipedia page for '9 Beet Stretch': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_Beet_Stretch
the real landmark timestretching ambient piece is Carl Stone's 'Shing Kee' from 1986, which expands 4 seconds of Schubert to 16 minutes from the album 'Mom's'. it's got some uptempo things on it that kept me from posting it to this list earlier, but I used to program tracks 1-4-5 to sleep to, so...
303. Carl Stone - Mom's
― Milton Parker, Tuesday, 17 August 2010 20:05 (thirteen years ago) link
love the new album by bacteria earth.
http://middlesearecords.wordpress.com/
― scott seward, Tuesday, 17 August 2010 20:40 (thirteen years ago) link
Hey Milton, I never did thank you for that recommendation in feb '09 - which is still on my late night listening playlist, so thanks!
― Duncan Donuts (Ned Trifle II), Wednesday, 18 August 2010 20:09 (thirteen years ago) link
How the fuck is DJ Shadow - Endtroducing ambient? By that reasoning, any DJ set with a minute long beatless break is ambient too.
― brotherlovesdub, Wednesday, 18 August 2010 20:49 (thirteen years ago) link
just ran across this today. very good and actually ambient.
http://www.archive.org/details/JOAT006
― brotherlovesdub, Wednesday, 18 August 2010 20:50 (thirteen years ago) link
xxx-post: OK the paulstretcb utility is really awesome, but why the fuck can't you save it as an .mp3?? you really do have to save it to .wav? anybody know how to convert these things? i tried converting it to an mp3 using vlc media player and it failed miserably. harumph!
― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 19 August 2010 00:09 (thirteen years ago) link
you can do it w/ itunes
― plax (ico), Thursday, 19 August 2010 00:12 (thirteen years ago) link
180. Brian Eno - Thursday Fucking Afternoon
Haven't heard this one -- is it rare??
― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Wednesday, 29 September 2010 15:06 (thirteen years ago) link
Ok so this is the place where I am supposed to talk about the Environments series? I bought 5 today for $4 and this is the description
Environments 5 (1974)
Side One: Ultimate Heartbeat (20:00)
A stethoscope heartbeat recording which can be used to calm infants, aid meditation or enhance lovemaking.
Side Two: Wind in the Trees (34:00)
The soft rush of wind rustling the leaves of a grove in late autumn.
The girl behind the counter fell just short of high fiving me once she read the description on the back. What part of the series was included on the Voyager album?!
― this customer is a jerk (La Lechera), Wednesday, 23 January 2013 05:53 (eleven years ago) link
I don't know, but when I die I hope I wake up on the Psychologically Ultimate Seashore.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Wednesday, 23 January 2013 05:58 (eleven years ago) link
The front cover states that the human heartbeat side can be played at 33 or 45. I can report that switching back and forth is pretty fun.
― this customer is a jerk (La Lechera), Wednesday, 23 January 2013 06:05 (eleven years ago) link
Also look at the cover imagehttp://farm9.staticflickr.com/8491/8407641043_afd705b639_z.jpg
The trees sound kinda like soft washes of static with birds.
― this customer is a jerk (La Lechera), Wednesday, 23 January 2013 14:58 (eleven years ago) link
I've been listening a lot to Blamstrain's "Disfold" album from 2006 on Sending Orbs... it's sort of a city version of an Environments album. Field recordings from train stations and city streets mixed into a narrative about a relationship. I love it.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Wednesday, 23 January 2013 15:45 (eleven years ago) link
Pitchfork just posted their 50 best ambient albums of all time:
“As ignorable as it is interesting.” That’s the classic definition of ambient music, stated by Brian Eno in 1978 on the sleeve notes to his album Ambient 1: Music for Airports. And he should know, since he basically invented the genre three years earlier with his album Discreet Music. But while Eno’s definition of ambient has been cited continuously in the decades since, the sphere of music he first defined has broadened, especially if you judge by how that word is used by listeners. “Ambient” is now used to describe all kinds of music, from tracks you can dance to all the way to harsh noise. For our exploration of the greatest ambient albums, we polled critics for their favorites, with the suggestion that “ambient” meant, in part, music that creates an environment, something like a cloud of sound, be it soothing, sad, haunting, or ominous. We also suggested that our take on ambient music shies away from heavy rhythms and tends more toward “drifting” than “driving,” which meant de-emphasizing ambient house. And we considered the fact that not all albums in a given artist’s catalogue qualify as ambient. Taking into account our writers’ interpretation of those loose guidelines, here’s our list of the 50 best ambient albums.
01. Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports02. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Volume II03. William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops I-IV04. Terry Riley - A Rainbow in Curved Air05. The KLF - Chill Out06. Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid07. Oval - 94diskont08. Pauline Oliveros/Stuart Dempster/Panaiotis - Deep Listening09. Tim Hecker - Harmony in Ultraviolet10. Fripp & Eno - Evening Star
11. Gas - Pop12. Laurie Spiegel - The Expanding Universe13. Brian Eno - Apollo14. The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This World15. Robert Ashley - Automatic Writing16. Terry Riley - Persian Surgery Dervishes17. Alice Coltrane - Turiya Sings18. Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline19. The Orb - Orbus Terrarum20. Oneohtrix Point Never - Replica
21. Grouper - A I A : Alien Observer22. Fennesz - Endless Summer23. Keith Fullerton Whitman - Playthroughs24. Brian Eno - Ambient 4: On Land25. Folke Rabe - What??26. Iasos - Inter-Dimensional Music27. Oneohtrix Point Never - Rifts28. Pauline Oliveros - Accordion and Voice29. David Behrman - On the Other Ocean30. Julianna Barwick - The Magic Place
31. Ashra - New Age Of Earth32. La Monte YoungMarian Zazeela - The Tamburas Of Pandit Pran Nath (An Homage)33. Steve Roach - Structures from Silence34. Charlemagne Palestine - Four Manifestations On Six Elements35. Laraaji - Ambient 3: Day of Radiance36. Windy & Carl - Depths37. Tim Hecker - Virgins38. Biosphere - Substrata39. Suzanne Ciani - Buchla Concerts 197540. Max Richter - Sleep
41. Brian Eno/Harold Budd - The Pearl42. Ekkehard Ehlers - Plays43. Eluvium - Talk Amongst the Trees44. Microstoria - snd45. Huerco S. - For Those Of You Who Have Never (And Also Those Who Have)46. Edgar Froese - Epsilon in Malaysian Pale47. Jon Hassell - Vernal Equinox48. Ernest Hood - Neighborhoods49. Bing & Ruth - Tomorrow Was the Golden Age50. Deathprod - Morals and Dogma
― willem, Monday, 26 September 2016 06:39 (seven years ago) link
Psyched that Alien Observer is on there.
― flappy bird, Monday, 26 September 2016 08:56 (seven years ago) link
pfork is garbage but this is a decent list. Personally I could give a fuck about Stars of the Lid and Grouper and some others but overall, not much to complain about
― Wimmels, Monday, 26 September 2016 09:10 (seven years ago) link
This is a pretty good list but are Oneohtrix Point Never and Tim Hecker really worthy to be included with two albums? Lots of canonical classics missing I guess but that might be refreshing, I mean Global Communication and Bohren have a high enough profile already.
― Siegbran, Monday, 26 September 2016 13:18 (seven years ago) link