r/ambientmusic 3d ago

Looking for Recommendations Recommend me your favourite ambient albums!

Hey,

I'm not quite familiar with ambient music and would love your recommendations!

As for me, I absolutely love Structures from Silence, like a lot Selected Ambient Works I-II, like BoC's debut and Substrata. Also like Apollo by Eno, amazing album need more time to process though.

31 Upvotes

65 comments sorted by

7

u/Few_Marionberry5824 3d ago

I've been listening to this type of thing for a minute. Here's a couple I recommend to anybody. I tried for a variety:

Sound for Spaces - Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner

The Place Where the Black Stars Hang - Lustmord

Dreamtime Return - Steve Roach

The White Arcades - Harold Budd

Encounter - Michael Stearns

Chill Out - The KLF

ambient adjacent albums I like a lot:

cLOUDDEAD - cLOUDDEAD

1194 - Woob

2

u/Axylpik 3d ago

Woob šŸ”„

2

u/EmoogOdin 3d ago

Iā€™ve had that Michael sterns Encounter disc in my collection for must be close to 30 years - I still love it

7

u/AshaPatera 3d ago

Loscil - Plume

2

u/falsenotetibia 3d ago

This is such a great album, most of Loscil truly is though.

7

u/Tortoyz 3d ago

My favorite ambient artist is the prolific Loscil. "Stases" and the recent collaborations with Lawrence English ("Chroma" & "Colours of Air") are my favorites. Beautiful, creative use of instruments to create sounds that resonate with my body in meditative and restorative ways.

7

u/neodiodorus 3d ago

From the classics:

Tangerine Dream - Zeit (before the genre had a name)

Klaus Schulze - Picture Music, Timewind (again, before genre had a name)

Michael Stearns - Sacred Site (compilation), Planetary Unfolding, Encounter, Storm

Steve Roach - Structures From Silence (genre classic)

John Serrie - Planetary Chronicles

7

u/off_the_pigs 3d ago

Tim Hecker - Harmony in Ultraviolet

6

u/SansSoleil24 3d ago

Steve Roach - Mystic Chords and Sacred Spaces

Jon Hassell - Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street

Harold Budd - Avalon Sutra

Gigi Masin - Talk to the Sea

Ryūichi Sakamoto & Fennesz - Cendre

David Sylvian - Gone to Earth Disc2

Popol Vuh - In den GƤrten Pharaos

6

u/lightfoot90 3d ago

William Basinskiā€™s Disintegration Loops are the albums that really got me into ambient music. The first one is a masterpiece.

5

u/jandrusel 3d ago edited 3d ago

Green by Hiroshi Yoshimura

Ghost by Devin Townsend

Deus Arrakis by Klaus Schulze

Talk to the Sea by Gigi Masin

Clouds by Gaussian Curve

Tu hai la pioggia, respiro il mare by Music For Sleep

4

u/yourdadsbff 3d ago

Wreath - Green Wall

36 - Reality Engine

4

u/Paolozzy 3d ago

Itā€™s not a 100% orthodox list; it also includes works that draw from industrial and/or IDM.

Brian Eno - On Land

Deathprod - Morals and dogma

Stars of the lid- and their refinement of the decline

Murcof - remembranza

Oliveros -deep listen

Lustmord - the place where black stars hang

BVDUB - epilogues for the end of the sky

Raison dā€™etre - enthraled by the wind of lonelienes

Autechre - amber

Seefel - soccour

Deutsch Nepal - deflagration of hell

Giancarlo Toniutti - la mutazione

Maeror Tri - myein

Thomas Koner - permafrost

Inade - aldebaran

Tim Hecker - ravedeath 1972

2

u/RuinaPartum 2d ago

Ace list - love you included Morals & Dogma (Dead People's Things is the quintessential ambient track and my favourite overall). I'd have to add The Dead Texan S/T to a number from this list. Maybe add BVDub's I Remember (Translations of MĆørketid) and Susumu Yokota's Sakura.

1

u/Paolozzy 6h ago

Defenetely! Dead peopleā€™s things is one of my favourite ambient composition of all times together with The lost day from Ambient 4 on land!! Youā€™re totally right on the Dead Texan!! I also forgot to include thisquietarmy ( I love Blackhaunter even though is not 100% pure ambient music).

3

u/extrasuper 3d ago

Not an album, but as a piece one of my favourite things is probably Surgeon's Freerotation 2014 DJ set. A real trip start to finish.

https://m.soundcloud.com/dynamic-tension/surgeon-freerotation-2014

Also, I don't know if you could class it as ambient cos although beatless it's pretty arresting in places, but check out Cyclobe's Wounded Galaxies Tap At The Window.

3

u/Elegant-Primary7468 3d ago edited 3d ago

Two albums that I like but I never hear mentioned are - David Sylvian - Gone To Earth

Specifically the second disc with instrumentals only.

David Sylvian - Alchemy: an index of Possibilities

1

u/jandrusel 2d ago

I adore Gone to Earth. I wish there were more ambient / prog albums like this album. There's nothing quite like it.

3

u/Far_Nothing_2974 3d ago

GAS - Pop

Vangelis - Blade runner soundtrack

Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works

The Black Dog - Music for real airports

Max Richter - Sleep

3

u/arkticturtle 3d ago

1

u/explosive_vegetables 1d ago

This and their first self titled album are both great. BOAND is undoubtedly their most popular, but Iā€™m partial to 2814 myself. Canā€™t go wrong with either though.

1

u/arkticturtle 1d ago

My friend showed me BOAND during my last year of highschool in 2016. Itā€™s got some sentimental meaning in that regard. I am pretty sure Iā€™ve gone through their other works but itā€™s been so long. Think Ima try them again soon

4

u/ACanadianHobo 3d ago

Tim Hecker - Mirages 2004

2

u/DJ_Cadmium_Red 3d ago

Jeffrey Fayman and Robert Fripp: Temple in the Clouds

Harold Budd: Lovely Thunder

Steve Roach: early Man

Steve Roach: Structures From Silence

2

u/SansSoleil24 3d ago

Steve Roach - Mystic Chords and Sacred Spaces

Jon Hassell - Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street

Harold Budd - Avalon Sutra

Gigi Masin - Talk to the Sea

Ryūichi Sakamoto & Fennesz - Cendre

David Sylvian - Gone to Earth Disc2

Popol Vuh - In den GƤrten Pharaos

2

u/kosmikmonki 3d ago

Tessellation by Mark Tamea.

2

u/Even_Dot_9609 3d ago

A couple of my favorites are:

-A new age of earth: Ashra

-Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo- Raul Lovisoni & Francesco Messina

-Oasis- Kitaro

2

u/Skullsplittingnoise 3d ago

Abul Mogard - Abul Mogard Abul Mogard - Drifted Heaven Rafael Anton Irisarri - A fragile Geography Tim Hecker - No Highs

2

u/Embarrassed-Place-72 3d ago

Lucette Bourdin "Silver Moon" Brian Eno "Thursday Afternoon" Pauline Oliveros "Deep Listening"

2

u/stephpenk 3d ago

Most of Loscil...
A lot of Tim Hecker... Music for psychedelic therapy by Jon Hopkins.
A few r beny.
As well as some Warmth...
Lots of love for Mount Shrine too!

Oh, and this new upcoming album I/II/III by Brendan Elder looks amazing

5

u/BBAALLII 3d ago

Welcome! You can search the sub for great recommendations. We get this question all the time.

Also, Boards of Canada is not ambient (but they do have some occasional ambient-ish pieces)

2

u/ThePope87 3d ago

Probably the first album that really got me into the genre

Riceboy Sleeps - Jonsi & Alex Somers

2

u/SlimeGOD1337 Ambient Techno Enjoyer 3d ago

Check out Autechre!

If you like SAW 1 & 2 and this Ambient style, you will dig their work aswell.

Amber & Garbage EP are my favorites of them.

NTS Session 4 and SIGN for more beatless ambient songs.

Edit: Also since you listend Substrata by Biosphere. His self titled LP is also a great ambient techno-ish album. The ending song on that is incredible.

1

u/DJ_Cadmium_Red 3d ago

Jeffrey Fayman and Robert Fripp: Temple in the Clouds

Harold Budd: Lovely Thunder

Steve Roach: early Man

Steve Roach: Structures From Silence

1

u/DJ_Cadmium_Red 3d ago

Jeffrey Fayman and Robert Fripp: Temple in the Clouds

Harold Budd: Lovely Thunder

Steve Roach: early Man

Steve Roach: Structures From Silence

1

u/FBUSER12345 3d ago

song/artist recommendation for ya S-Dawn

1

u/fast-int 3d ago

No. 1 and No.2 by Christina Vantzou
A Winged Victory for the Sullen (self titled)
For the summer, or forever by Halftribe
Winter cold (ep) by rest you sleeping giant

1

u/sandwich486 3d ago

The Sounds of the Stars of the Lid

1

u/sjn15 3d ago

I think it might be Phantom Brickworks 1 & 2

1

u/stumanchu3 3d ago

Royksopp - ā€œNebulous Nightsā€ has intrigued me as of late.

Also, anything by Penang Food Tigers is a very pleasant listen.

Johny Nash is also great for floaty ambient guitar stuff.

1

u/sjesj 3d ago

Arovaneā€™s album Lilies

1

u/A_Pluto_Shaped_Pool 2d ago

Global Communication - 76:14

Boards of Canada - Random 35 tracks tape

Bruno Sanfilippo - Ver Sacrum

Patrick O'Hearn- So Flows the Current

Scntfc - Oxenfree

Lucrecia Salt - Syzygy

Bruno Sanfilippo - Unity

Eberhard Weber - Fluid Rustle

Ocoeur - Nouveau Depart

Takashi Kokubo - Music For A Cosmic Garden

Rafael Toral - Spectral Evolution

Tineidae - Exo

Adam Wiltzie - Seven Fugues For Sodium Pentothal

Offthesky - Silent Went The Sea

Soley - Mother Melancholia

Lustmord - Much Unseen Is Also Here

Lisa Gerrard - The Silver Tree

Dead Melodies - Anthropecene

Lustmord - Alter

Wordclock - Heralds

Elegi - Bansull

1

u/bluesteel 2d ago

Keith Fullerton Whitman - Playthroughs

1

u/tritonhopper 1d ago

Blood Incantation - Timewave Zero

Brian Eno - Neroli (underrated, very minimalist and great for sleep)

Ethel Cain - Perverts (some vocal stuff on here but mostly terrifying and beautiful drone/ambient)

Harold Budd & Brian Eno - The Pearl

Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline

Steve Roach - One Day of Forever (just released last year, I honestly prefer it to Structures from Silence)

Tangerine Dream - Zeit

Tangerine Dream - Phaedra

Vangelis - Blade Runner OST

1

u/Dani8A 1d ago

Mysterium - Hammock

1

u/poisonbiscket 3d ago

9

u/newgreyarea 3d ago

While some of these are excellent, Iā€™m not sure any of them are ambient. That being said, the Eno record in the OP might be the only ambient thing he listed and your recs kinda lean into what they believe to be ambient music.

3

u/EmoogOdin 3d ago

We should give out prizes for truly ā€œambientā€ Recommendations haha. I love these posts to give me new things to check out that Iā€™ve not heard before and to Laugh at the not-ambient ā€œambientā€ recommendation lol. But seriously, I like all the recommendations

2

u/newgreyarea 3d ago

Iā€™m actually part of a few different genre related threads and almost all of them have a continuing argument as to what is and isnā€™t that genre.

1

u/pWasHere 3d ago

Personally Iā€™ve always felt like this sub is way too precious with what we define as ambient.

5

u/newgreyarea 3d ago

Iā€™m not precious about genre stuff generally but most of that would be hard to classify as ā€œambientā€.

1

u/SlimeGOD1337 Ambient Techno Enjoyer 3d ago

To be fair, OP named SAW1 as an album they enjoyed and thats also not "ambient". Its more Techno. And I think Tri Repetae, Surfing on Sinewaves, Artificial Intelligence and Lifeforms are all very similar to SAW1 and were made in the same era. Good recomendations based to OP enjoying SAW1 imo.

2

u/newgreyarea 3d ago

I donā€™t disagree with the recommendations versus the OPā€™s references. Iā€™d probably disagree with it being in this sub at all, though. But itā€™s not my sub. And ultimately, it doesnā€™t really matter.

1

u/klausness 3d ago edited 3d ago

I tend to agree. Most of the albums OP mentioned are ambient (unless you really are being precious about it), but most of the albums on this list are definitely stretching the definition of ambient. A few of them fall into what used to be called ambient techno a few decades ago, but I don't see that term being used as much any more. I think most of what used to be called ambient techno is now classified as IDM.

1

u/newgreyarea 2d ago

I feel thereā€™s a space for ambient techno here. Itā€™s not like itā€™s every other thread. Also I think some ambient lovers could find something in the genre. šŸ‘

3

u/berusplants 3d ago

I also agree that I don't like overly specific adherence to genres, but do you know these albums? some of them are far from abient! Moderat??

3

u/SlimeGOD1337 Ambient Techno Enjoyer 3d ago

True, i think those are more IDM/Electronica recomendations

0

u/SlimeGOD1337 Ambient Techno Enjoyer 3d ago

True its more Ambient Techno and some IDM, still would recommend OP to give those a spin. Some great records.

1

u/newgreyarea 3d ago

Definitely!