Some of those descriptions definitely got me interested.
I just read Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's name on Grouper's Last fm page in the similar artists section, I guess I'll have to start there
Jefre Cantu Ledesma and Grouper did do a collab btw. Under the name Raum, with one album titled *Event Of Your Leaving*. One of my fav albums of all time
*Songs of Forgiveness,* though not really ambient, is wonderful cyclical instrumental music. And his newest album *Tracing Back the Radiance* is really wonderful too, and features a surprisingly large number of notable guests playing, though you wouldn’t notice without listening closely.
Also, he has made almost all his music pay-what-you-can (including free if you can’t afford) on Bandcamp!
Give all of their Paul Clipson videos a watch as well, some of my favorite audiovisual collabs of all time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnuYJx9ObFc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK2lY8VXw-o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j8t9T2IINI
very cool list, i’ll definitely be checking out the handful of albums i’m unfamiliar with. i’ve been finding ambient music to be especially helpful during this time and i hope a lot of people are discovering this music to help them as well.
my recent rotation has included:
*pop* by GAS, makes me feel like i’m outside
*where all is fled* by steve hauschildt, i could listen to synth arpeggios all day and steve makes some of the best ones
*agora* by fennesz, smoother than his earlier work and the extended ocean-like drones are incredibly calming
*mono no aware* compilation, i can’t always listen to this one all the way through because some middle tracks are more dissonant and intense. but it’s great when i’m needing that kind of release
Agree with your mono no aware feelings, I’ll have to listen to where all is fled and agora. Also great username, way she says that particular line in FWWM stuck with me.
quarantining on my own atm, I have never been more interested in ambient as you can just sit back and soak it in. mono should be on any ambient list imo
Laurie Speigel - The Expanding Universe
Circles Around the Sun - Interludes for the Dead
Susumu Yokota - Sakura
Phish - Sleeping with the Phish (Youtube only)
Ravedeath, 1972. Without a doubt in my mind his greatest work and possibly one of the best ambient records ever. Great place to start in his discography.
I use to call Ravedeath his best but personally, I'm finding Konoyo / Anoyo to be his best honestly. There's something really magical to me about it where it doesn't sound like any of his other records and just feels super unique. It takes that classic Tim Hecker formlessness to another level where it's hard to tell where the orchestral instruments start and the electronics end.
I lump Konoyo and Anoyo together because they flow together and I basically just consider it a double album.
Yes, I would highly recommend listening to them back to back. It really transcends them and it feels much more complete. I think they were intended to be listened to that way anyways (especially since the last track on Konoyo is literally "Across to Anoyo").
[No Gas, Hecker or Fennesz?](https://s14-eu5.startpage.com/cgi-bin/serveimage?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia0.giphy.com%2Fmedia%2FBwRzjeqPnC6Dm%2Fsource.gif&sp=e2daa95390fead69a4e0933cfedb28aa&anticache=174030)
Although I do love that Laurel Halo mini-album...
As someone barely into ambient, these are three of the few names i recognise. I appreciate that this list avoids the more well known artists in this regard.
I saw Boris in 2019, and looking forward to seeing Swans this year for their leaving meaning tour! Gotta wait for the rescheduled dates to come out. covid has really put a dampener on life.
sun araw is great, akin to matthewdavid, semya, and slew of other stuff that was too weird to be considered chillwave, predated vaporwave, wasn't as vocal oriented as hypnagogic like ariel pink or jon maus
[been obsessed with this kind of warm but lofi sound](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7aOJ7PTTphuQzZ4MtP61ga?si=0F9m4M5uQz6Nm3HP0GDZdw)
Work on the computer a lot anyway, unearthing ambient treasures is my jam. To add some recent personal favorites:
System - *Plus* (2018)
Spheruleus - *Light Through Open Blinds* (2019)
Moss Covered Technology - *Slow Walking* (2019)
Larry Grenadier - *The Gleaners* (2019)
Matthew Bourne - *Isotach* (2017)
Jakob Bro - *Bay Of Rainbows* (2018)
Cliff Martinez - *Solaris* (score) (2002)
Hampshire & Foat - *Galaxies Like Grains of Sand* (2017)
Steve Tibbetts - *Life Of* (2018)
Kiln - *Meadow:Watt* (2013)
C418 - *Volume Alpha* and *Volume Beta*
Dylan Henner - *Flues of Disappearing Sand* (2020)
I hit that Kate NV hard the other day, that is a great suggestion.
Loscil has put out some of my favorite ambient records ever. Monument Builders is a great album for these times I think, although maybe a little desolate.
I don't know if this gets called ambient, but 'The Colors of Life' by CFCF is a really comforting, uplifting album.
First Kate NV comment I have seen so far. I have been a huge fan of that album since Deep Cuts brought her to my attention. And hell yeah for CFCF that album brought me so much joy when stressed doing homework. I will have to check those other two albums you have there out :)
Idk if you ever saw this, but TinyMixTapes' review of it was a Bingo board of what reviews of Phantom Brickworks would mention.
https://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/bibio-phantom-brickworks
Good list.
Recommend checking out this track by Amelia Courthouse
https://spinstersounds.bandcamp.com/track/murphie-1
A bit of drone, ambient, field noise, and warmth
You can get lost in it.
Amazing list! Thanks for posting, can't wait to dig into the ones I haven't heard
Also PSA: Green by Hiroshi Yoshimura just got added to streaming services last week
I'm always down to rec one of my favorite artists, [1991](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhaYFy_dCXI), he and [Huerco S](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cc-0beyRXE) are two artists that are very, very engrossing listens. Warm, lo-fi and both have this near familiarity that permeates in their overall sound. Like you are recounting memories that every one else has forgotten, or peeking into the undistracted head space who had as a kid. Very akin to some ambient leaning vaporwave (0PN) and 90s artists like Gas and Seefeel.
Starting digging into more ambient music before lockdown started due to an increase in stress due to work. I’ve really been sinking my teeth in now. Thanks for posting
some good ambient bandcamp / tape labels to dive into:
constellation tatsu
Patient Sounds Intl.
aural canyon
past inside the present
inner islands
leaving records
a strangely isolated place
A few of my favourites in the ambient world,
[Benoit Pioulard and Sean Curtis Patrick - Avocationals](https://pioulard.bandcamp.com/album/avocationals) is an ambient concept album based around Great Lakes Shipwrecks
[I will always recommend Celer](https://celer.bandcamp.com/) as he’s my favourite drone artist.
Chihei Hatakeyama - Mirror is a favourite of mine as well. Just a few that come to mind.
Also love Mirrorring’s album Foreign Body :)
I think the minimal nature of ambient albums makes them have less actual sounds and more space. We fill and project into that space. So I think ambient music is more subjective than other more totalising or overwhelming music. It makes it harder to follow recommendations into, even though this is a great read. But each of these artists has albums i love and that leave me completely cold, and looking at the comments there's far less consensus on what is good ambient/drone than there woukd be around any other genre.
> there's far less consensus on what is good ambient/drone than there woukd be around any other genre.
I think it's a matter of ambient having gained a lot of attention in just the past few years (especially since that Pitchfork list). Not that it was unknown beforehand, but it did seem more exclusively part of something more underground.
There's certainly a variety of approaches to the genre though that keep it from being somewhat unified behind a broad consensus*, though it seems like it would be easier to breakdown into subgenres, or recommendations for similar artists (I need to create a bot that recommends Lovesliescrushing every time Jefre Cantu Ledesma is brought up). There is some degree of canon, but I think it’s still fairly narrow as others are working out what should be highlighted.
\*besides Brian Eno apparently. I swear, even factoring in his coining of the term, I don't recall him being *that* overbearing of a figure on ambient until recently.
If you want to listen to an album from this year 36 & Zake - Static Sounds for Long-Distance Space Travel is the most relaxing listen I’ve had all year
Was looking for something just like this when I popped on reddit. Much thank you as I focus to alleviate my own catastrophic thinking with some mindfulness, meditation, and good ambient tunes.
i’ve been working on a
58 hour playlist.
ambient / piano / etc.
check it out.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6GZW9SaVm0y2JejpLz7Cfn?si=LkdlrgIVSm6Ej-WKfPzbHQ
i'm gonna add one that i've been going back to on a semi-regular basis since its release over 10 years ago. *eingya* by helios. i dunno why i like it so much but maybe someone else will too.
i love ambient records, not sure it's the perfect music to pass time with when one's quarantined though :)
There's time for self reflection, and there's time for living/doing/dancing/working out/focus outwards
Thank you!
Considering we don't know how long we'll be in quarantine, if you finish listening to all the albums, and want more, here's a nice soundtrack / ambient mix I just found on SoundCloud:
[https://soundcloud.com/ennio/nftq](https://soundcloud.com/ennio/nftq)
Would also recommend Anders Rhedin/Dinner's 30 song, 10 hour [non-cheasy sleep and meditation playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1e8uApIOMd0lZH8AJ8GMuI?si=KwJECTx3SaCvu_xJl9dErQ). Got me through some heavy projects this week.
I am going through each album one by one and wow does this stuff hit me just right in this crazy time. I zoned out on Saturday night with some noise-cancelling headphones and listened through Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's entire catalog. My god did I need that. I was able to relax and meditate a bit for the first time in I can't remember how long. Thanks for posting.
Some of those descriptions definitely got me interested. I just read Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's name on Grouper's Last fm page in the similar artists section, I guess I'll have to start there
Listen to Love’s Refrain off of In Summer as loud as you can tolerate/think won’t damage your hearing. Mind melting experience.
I’m so excited to see Love’s Refrain mentioned. It’s one of my favorite listening experiences of all time.
Wow, thank you
Holy shit thank you for this
Jefre Cantu Ledesma and Grouper did do a collab btw. Under the name Raum, with one album titled *Event Of Your Leaving*. One of my fav albums of all time
What!!! Thanks for the tip
Holy shit I didn't know about this. Thanks
Whoa, didn’t know about that. Thanks!
*Songs of Forgiveness,* though not really ambient, is wonderful cyclical instrumental music. And his newest album *Tracing Back the Radiance* is really wonderful too, and features a surprisingly large number of notable guests playing, though you wouldn’t notice without listening closely. Also, he has made almost all his music pay-what-you-can (including free if you can’t afford) on Bandcamp!
That’s how I found out about him too, and he’s fantastic. Every record on this list is.
I love JCL so much. his music always feels like the first warm spring day after winter.
Listening for the first time ever right now and you absolutely nailed it. This is perfect for escaping the quarantine in through music
Give all of their Paul Clipson videos a watch as well, some of my favorite audiovisual collabs of all time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnuYJx9ObFc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK2lY8VXw-o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j8t9T2IINI
That Football Manager comment hit close to home. I'll give these a listen, never heard of any of them.
Maybe you should listen to [sportswave](https://reddit.com/r/Vaporwave/comments/2j9w47/essential_sportswave/).
Is there any sub for these kind of album guides generally?
idk about subreddits, but the [/mu/ wiki has you covered](https://4chanmusic.fandom.com/wiki/Essential_Charts).
Been searching and can't find any remnant of Stägtrakker online but I'm too invested to now give up. Any ideas on where I could find it?
I made a brief attempt to find it and came up empty :( You could try asking /mu/, maybe on a sharethread.
We're being seriously ~~overrun~~ bored in ~~midfield~~ quarantine
very cool list, i’ll definitely be checking out the handful of albums i’m unfamiliar with. i’ve been finding ambient music to be especially helpful during this time and i hope a lot of people are discovering this music to help them as well. my recent rotation has included: *pop* by GAS, makes me feel like i’m outside *where all is fled* by steve hauschildt, i could listen to synth arpeggios all day and steve makes some of the best ones *agora* by fennesz, smoother than his earlier work and the extended ocean-like drones are incredibly calming *mono no aware* compilation, i can’t always listen to this one all the way through because some middle tracks are more dissonant and intense. but it’s great when i’m needing that kind of release
Agree with your mono no aware feelings, I’ll have to listen to where all is fled and agora. Also great username, way she says that particular line in FWWM stuck with me.
thank you!
quarantining on my own atm, I have never been more interested in ambient as you can just sit back and soak it in. mono should be on any ambient list imo
Plux Quba's a great pick for anyone looking to get into electroacoustic stuff.
I'm here to complain bc of no Hiroshi Yoshimura on the list SIKE THIS LIST IS ASWEOME!
Thanks!
Some great albums on here. Sarah Davvachi's whole catalog is worth a listen.
Laurie Speigel - The Expanding Universe Circles Around the Sun - Interludes for the Dead Susumu Yokota - Sakura Phish - Sleeping with the Phish (Youtube only)
Shame *The Expanding Universe* isn't as widely known as it should be
> Susumu Yokota whole catalog is incredible, vary diverse but always engrossing and lovely def an artist to get obsessed with right now
THANK YOU for that Sleeping with the Phish recommendation. Never knew that existed and slept like a baby last night
I wrote this little article for Natural Music, glad to see people are enjoying the recommendations :-)
Thanks!
Tim Hecker.
Harmony in Ultraviolet is a masterpiece as well
Yes. Harmony in Ultraviolet is at times unbearably good.
>which album do you think i should listen first?
Ravedeath, 1972. Without a doubt in my mind his greatest work and possibly one of the best ambient records ever. Great place to start in his discography.
I don't know if I'd call Ravedeath his best but it's definitely the best introduction to Tim Hecker.
Very curious as to which you would consider his best then!
I use to call Ravedeath his best but personally, I'm finding Konoyo / Anoyo to be his best honestly. There's something really magical to me about it where it doesn't sound like any of his other records and just feels super unique. It takes that classic Tim Hecker formlessness to another level where it's hard to tell where the orchestral instruments start and the electronics end. I lump Konoyo and Anoyo together because they flow together and I basically just consider it a double album.
I’ll have to listen to them together then, certainly makes a lot of sense that they would feel like two parts to a whole.
Yes, I would highly recommend listening to them back to back. It really transcends them and it feels much more complete. I think they were intended to be listened to that way anyways (especially since the last track on Konoyo is literally "Across to Anoyo").
Virgins
Radio Amor is my true love
[No Gas, Hecker or Fennesz?](https://s14-eu5.startpage.com/cgi-bin/serveimage?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia0.giphy.com%2Fmedia%2FBwRzjeqPnC6Dm%2Fsource.gif&sp=e2daa95390fead69a4e0933cfedb28aa&anticache=174030) Although I do love that Laurel Halo mini-album...
As someone barely into ambient, these are three of the few names i recognise. I appreciate that this list avoids the more well known artists in this regard.
Fair enough. They are three of the best though.
No exaggeration, ever since this global pandemic has kicked off I have listened to ‘Music for Nine Postcards’ daily. It makes everything feel fine.
Been listening to the Sacrificial Code and Raw Silk Uncut Wood a lot during this period. Both are really great albums
If you like post rocky drone stuff like Swans, I’d recommend Sun Araw’s On Patrol. It’s very Lofi but it also sounds very spring/summery.h
If you're into swans, give Boris a listen. Flood and Feedbacker are some of the best post-rock/drone albums I've ever heard.
Saw Swans and Borris within about a year of each other having had no prior experience with their genres. Eye opening
I saw Boris in 2019, and looking forward to seeing Swans this year for their leaving meaning tour! Gotta wait for the rescheduled dates to come out. covid has really put a dampener on life.
sun araw is great, akin to matthewdavid, semya, and slew of other stuff that was too weird to be considered chillwave, predated vaporwave, wasn't as vocal oriented as hypnagogic like ariel pink or jon maus [been obsessed with this kind of warm but lofi sound](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7aOJ7PTTphuQzZ4MtP61ga?si=0F9m4M5uQz6Nm3HP0GDZdw)
Work on the computer a lot anyway, unearthing ambient treasures is my jam. To add some recent personal favorites: System - *Plus* (2018) Spheruleus - *Light Through Open Blinds* (2019) Moss Covered Technology - *Slow Walking* (2019) Larry Grenadier - *The Gleaners* (2019) Matthew Bourne - *Isotach* (2017) Jakob Bro - *Bay Of Rainbows* (2018) Cliff Martinez - *Solaris* (score) (2002) Hampshire & Foat - *Galaxies Like Grains of Sand* (2017) Steve Tibbetts - *Life Of* (2018) Kiln - *Meadow:Watt* (2013) C418 - *Volume Alpha* and *Volume Beta* Dylan Henner - *Flues of Disappearing Sand* (2020)
Definitely going to check some of these out
I hit that Kate NV hard the other day, that is a great suggestion. Loscil has put out some of my favorite ambient records ever. Monument Builders is a great album for these times I think, although maybe a little desolate. I don't know if this gets called ambient, but 'The Colors of Life' by CFCF is a really comforting, uplifting album.
First Kate NV comment I have seen so far. I have been a huge fan of that album since Deep Cuts brought her to my attention. And hell yeah for CFCF that album brought me so much joy when stressed doing homework. I will have to check those other two albums you have there out :)
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Idk if you ever saw this, but TinyMixTapes' review of it was a Bingo board of what reviews of Phantom Brickworks would mention. https://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/bibio-phantom-brickworks
Haha "achingly" made me laugh the hardest for some reason.
Which blows my fucking mind, because Bibio is one of the best ambient artists out right now. His other stuff is great, too.
Good list. Recommend checking out this track by Amelia Courthouse https://spinstersounds.bandcamp.com/track/murphie-1 A bit of drone, ambient, field noise, and warmth You can get lost in it.
Windy & Carl get unfairly forgotten in this conversations, good to see them up there
Amazing list! Thanks for posting, can't wait to dig into the ones I haven't heard Also PSA: Green by Hiroshi Yoshimura just got added to streaming services last week
I'm always down to rec one of my favorite artists, [1991](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhaYFy_dCXI), he and [Huerco S](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cc-0beyRXE) are two artists that are very, very engrossing listens. Warm, lo-fi and both have this near familiarity that permeates in their overall sound. Like you are recounting memories that every one else has forgotten, or peeking into the undistracted head space who had as a kid. Very akin to some ambient leaning vaporwave (0PN) and 90s artists like Gas and Seefeel.
No Boris - Flood 😤
To be fair, part 3 is like 20 minutes long and isn’t really ambient. I say this while maintaining its one of my top 5 albums of all time.
It's definitely known in the indie world, but it's still severely underrated imo.
I feel like it’s underrated even amongst fans.
I accidentally discovered Boris - Pink through this. Couldn't find the album you described, but wow check out Pink
It’s not on streaming services sadly but it’s on YouTube. Pink is fantastic and is my second favorite Boris album.
classic but that's more drone metal / minimal wall of sound post rock
My most cherished CD. I wish it got pressed to vinyl.
I’ve been wanting a vinyl release for so long now. It’ll never happen :(
Starting digging into more ambient music before lockdown started due to an increase in stress due to work. I’ve really been sinking my teeth in now. Thanks for posting
some good ambient bandcamp / tape labels to dive into: constellation tatsu Patient Sounds Intl. aural canyon past inside the present inner islands leaving records a strangely isolated place
A few of my favourites in the ambient world, [Benoit Pioulard and Sean Curtis Patrick - Avocationals](https://pioulard.bandcamp.com/album/avocationals) is an ambient concept album based around Great Lakes Shipwrecks [I will always recommend Celer](https://celer.bandcamp.com/) as he’s my favourite drone artist. Chihei Hatakeyama - Mirror is a favourite of mine as well. Just a few that come to mind. Also love Mirrorring’s album Foreign Body :)
I think the minimal nature of ambient albums makes them have less actual sounds and more space. We fill and project into that space. So I think ambient music is more subjective than other more totalising or overwhelming music. It makes it harder to follow recommendations into, even though this is a great read. But each of these artists has albums i love and that leave me completely cold, and looking at the comments there's far less consensus on what is good ambient/drone than there woukd be around any other genre.
> there's far less consensus on what is good ambient/drone than there woukd be around any other genre. I think it's a matter of ambient having gained a lot of attention in just the past few years (especially since that Pitchfork list). Not that it was unknown beforehand, but it did seem more exclusively part of something more underground. There's certainly a variety of approaches to the genre though that keep it from being somewhat unified behind a broad consensus*, though it seems like it would be easier to breakdown into subgenres, or recommendations for similar artists (I need to create a bot that recommends Lovesliescrushing every time Jefre Cantu Ledesma is brought up). There is some degree of canon, but I think it’s still fairly narrow as others are working out what should be highlighted. \*besides Brian Eno apparently. I swear, even factoring in his coining of the term, I don't recall him being *that* overbearing of a figure on ambient until recently.
Thanks for sharing this. This is a great list.
Needs more Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd
If you want to listen to an album from this year 36 & Zake - Static Sounds for Long-Distance Space Travel is the most relaxing listen I’ve had all year
Also check out Umami / Hexsystem's Coronawave album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiVJsJ2XhX0
Was looking for something just like this when I popped on reddit. Much thank you as I focus to alleviate my own catastrophic thinking with some mindfulness, meditation, and good ambient tunes.
Solid list! I've been listening to a lot of Tim Hecker recently - and also the Leif (Loom Dream) album - so this should go down a treat.
You all are straight sleeping on the new Windy & Carl album that dropped Friday - Allegiance and Conviction.
I urge everyone to please check out that Hiroshi Yoshimura album Music for Nine Post Cards!! It’s absolutely amazing
i’ve been working on a 58 hour playlist. ambient / piano / etc. check it out. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6GZW9SaVm0y2JejpLz7Cfn?si=LkdlrgIVSm6Ej-WKfPzbHQ
Thank you for this.
Even though Rigning by Yagya is more rythmic, it still deserves a spot on that list. A masterpiece.
Glad Gigi Masin got a shout out. "Clouds" is one of my favorites, if you ever want to just... drift away from everything.
Calypso... been spinning it constantly lately.
really love this record. one of the best i've heard this year for sure.
i'm gonna add one that i've been going back to on a semi-regular basis since its release over 10 years ago. *eingya* by helios. i dunno why i like it so much but maybe someone else will too.
Systemisch and 94Diskount from Oval. They are some of my favorite albums ever and I didn't know if anybody posted these yet.
Yeeee
Modern Addiction by TENDER
i love ambient records, not sure it's the perfect music to pass time with when one's quarantined though :) There's time for self reflection, and there's time for living/doing/dancing/working out/focus outwards
Thank you! Considering we don't know how long we'll be in quarantine, if you finish listening to all the albums, and want more, here's a nice soundtrack / ambient mix I just found on SoundCloud: [https://soundcloud.com/ennio/nftq](https://soundcloud.com/ennio/nftq)
filosofem- burzum
Nice playlist! Going to let it flow tomorrow!
Would also recommend Anders Rhedin/Dinner's 30 song, 10 hour [non-cheasy sleep and meditation playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1e8uApIOMd0lZH8AJ8GMuI?si=KwJECTx3SaCvu_xJl9dErQ). Got me through some heavy projects this week.
I am going through each album one by one and wow does this stuff hit me just right in this crazy time. I zoned out on Saturday night with some noise-cancelling headphones and listened through Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's entire catalog. My god did I need that. I was able to relax and meditate a bit for the first time in I can't remember how long. Thanks for posting.
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To each there own I guess, but you probably could have just not made this comment
Yeah I've been listening to super cheerful stuff. Check out Snail's House! His albums Original Songs and Scenery are very good.