today's AMBIENT selection

Five years later, I rescue this thread. :D

Harold Budd
The Serpent (in Quicksilver)

Les Disques du Crepuscule (Belgium), 1982
45rpm lp

Very minimal music comprising treated piano sounds, and not much else, but it's successful at capturing your attention and creating a "mood." Apparently a somewhat rare recording, perhaps too bare-bones for some.

Let's see if we can keep this going. If not, I've got way more than enough music in this category to do it myself. :)
 
it appears i am the starter of this thread, 5 years ago, but i have NO recollection of starting it. if this thread picks up steam, we will see many varying interpretations of the genre known as Ambient. many will, i suspect, try to throw various New Age titles on the pile, but that won't work. to be truly Ambient, music must not propose a specific emotion, but rather a mood, something entirely other than emotion. and again, there can't be anything specific, but rather a suggestion in the direction of mood, rather than the mood itself.

the recordings suggested by Mr Lin are good examples of this, perhaps among the best. there are many film soundtracks that fulfill this, and i'm gonna go deep here and propose 'The Whisperers' by John Barry, from 1967. Worth the search, it is a spare chamber type composition primarily for strings, with odd, suggestive silences and indications of eerie things going on just past the edge of perception. one of my favorites...
 
it appears i am the starter of this thread, 5 years ago, but i have NO recollection of starting it. if this thread picks up steam, we will see many varying interpretations of the genre known as Ambient. many will, i suspect, try to throw various New Age titles on the pile, but that won't work. to be truly Ambient, music must not propose a specific emotion, but rather a mood, something entirely other than emotion. and again, there can't be anything specific, but rather a suggestion in the direction of mood, rather than the mood itself.

the recordings suggested by Mr Lin are good examples of this, perhaps among the best. there are many film soundtracks that fulfill this, and i'm gonna go deep here and propose 'The Whisperers' by John Barry, from 1967. Worth the search, it is a spare chamber type composition primarily for strings, with odd, suggestive silences and indications of eerie things going on just past the edge of perception. one of my favorites...

I was hoping you'd see this, I actually got pretty excited when I found it during a search as I have a massive collection of ambient and minimal "music," and I'd love to share it here. Just need to get some batteries for my camera so I can take pictures of some of these...

You're spot on about the nature of ambient music. The lines blur in a lot of cases, so if anyone's unsure, don't be afraid to post and see what others think about it.

The John Barry piece you refer to is not something I'm familiar with, but your description brings to mind one that I adore: Anton Webern's Six Bagatelles For String Quartet Op.9, which is highly minimal (those words almost seem to contradict one another :) ), and makes brilliant use of silence, as shrinkboy mentioned - a cornerstone of the ambient/minimal genre.

I will definitely be looking into the John Barry thing you mentioned, sounds right up my alley. That's one of the nice things about these types of threads, discovering new artists and music.

And there are many artists who at a time delved into minimal and ambient music, but the rest of their catalog doesn't fit that description. I think the most well-known is probably Brian Eno - we all know the wonderful pop/rock albums he made early in his career, and then the seminal four part Ambient series (which I'll get into further at a later date), proceeded by countless ambient releases, many not really officially released (Kite Stories anyone? I'll be impressed if anyone knows of that piece due to its obscurity).

Another such case, which has been recently discussed here in a thread I started, is Tangerine Dream. For example, their early album titled Zeit is a masterpiece (IMO) of minimal ambient. However, as I type this I'm listening to the lp of their 1980 album Tangram, which IMO does not fit into the category of ambient whatsoever, as it's too involved and, as shrinkboy pointed out, aims at invoking emotion over immersing one in atmosphere.

I don't think we can say that ambient by definition will not evoke emotion, but I feel that depends more upon the listener than the artist, who creates the atmosphere, the mood.

Regardless, I hope no one will be scared away from posting something on their play list that they unsure of. There's no penalty, you won't be banned from AK. :D I have a feeling certain AK members (*cough* pmsummer) have substantial collections as well.

So, commence.


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Uh huh...

Well I figured this would get off to a slow start, but like I said, I can keep it going myself if need be. Just so happens I've been in quite the mood for ambient and minimal music lately, and tonight, I took a bunch of pictures.

Come on now, I know a lot of you have and sometimes listen to ambient music, I can't be the only one at the moment.

So let's get the ball rolling...
 
Harold Budd
The Serpent (in Quicksilver)

Belgium 45rpm lp

Listed this last night, but I'm about to play it again. It's one of those lps I bought a while back at PRE, never listened to, occasionally wondered if it had been a waste of $7.99, and then the other night I finally sat down and really listened to it. As I described above, The Serpent (in Quicksilver) is some older work by popular keyboard ambient/minimalist artist Harold Budd, and what you hear is little more than treated piano (I think it's synthesized), but it's highly successful at drawing you into a particular atmosphere and thus mood, which is a quiet, contemplative, and slowed down one. An unusual recording, more so because it's a regular lp release that plays at 45rpms:


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Here's a picture of the lp I listened to and listed here last night:

Brian Eno and Robert Fripp
Evening Star


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Brian Eno
Ambient 1: Music For Airports

Original vinyl lp

Here's a classic, well-known by pretty much all fans of Eno and the ambient genre, because this is where Eno really began to introduce the concept of ambient music beyond crappy Muzak elevator music, and his fans "got it." I don't think the airport part of the title really makes sense, this isn't something I'd imagine being played at an airport, not at all. Basically it's very minimal piano movements, followed by a piece utilizing synthesized voices, and eventually combining the two. Not the strongest in the four part Ambient series, IMO, but quite pleasant, and pulls off what Eno was aiming for:


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Cool thread; glad to see it revived. I listen to a bit of contemporary ambient/drone/noise, such as Stars of the Lid, Tim Hecker, Growing, Fennesz, Birchville Cat Motel, to name a few. Does this fit the theme you had in mind for this thread? If so, I will be glad to post about them, but I want to make sure I'm thinking in the right line for what this thread's intended for.
 
I'm a huge fan of ambient music, especially Harold Budd. I discovered ambient about the same time as CDs emerged on the market. CDs seem made for ambient music given their lack of surface noise.:music:

A great side of ambient music is on David Sylvian's "Gone To Earth", side two on vinyl. The boxed set (Weather Box) of Sylvian's first five albums has additional ambient tracks that were not included on the vinyl or first CD versions of "Gone to Earth."
 
Does this fit the theme you had in mind for this thread? If so, I will be glad to post about them, but I want to make sure I'm thinking in the right line for what this thread's intended for.

Absolutely yes.

CDs seem made for ambient music given their lack of surface noise.:music:

This is true, and it's a thought I've had before as well, but lately I've been listening to some of the many ambient lps I've collected over the years, and unless the surface noise is really bad, it doesn't detract from the experience nearly as much as I would have thought. Plus you get the benefits of good vinyl playback, such as a very present and realistic sound, which goes well with this genre. That said, at some point I'm going to set up one of my CD players and break out the vast ambient/minimal CD collection. Then you guys will begin to understand what a problem I have. ;)

More lp pictures and descriptions to come later tonight, I'm currently putting together what I'm going to listen to. :music:
 
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Brian Eno
Ambient 4: On Land

vinyl lp

Continuing with the ambient series, this last one is my favorite. It branches out from piano and voice to "found" sounds, and more organic sounds, giving it an earthy, at times creepy atmosphere. A benchmark in minimalism IMO:


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Yes, I have a lot more than just Eno in my collection, more on that momentarily. :)

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Hans-Joachim Roedelius
Selbstportrait [Self Portrait]

vinyl lp

Roedelius was a member of the German electronic/ambient group Cluster. In this solo album he explores plodding melodies and dynamic possibilities through the use of keyboards and other sounds.


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Brian Eno
Ambient 4: On Land

vinyl lp

Continuing with the ambient series, this last one is my favorite. It branches out from piano and voice to "found" sounds, and more organic sounds, giving it an earthy, at times creepy atmosphere. A benchmark in minimalism IMO:

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It's funny - 25+ years ago, this album disappointed and bored me. (That was after an obsessive go-round with 'Airports' and 'Discreet.') Going back to it over the last year, I hear it differently, and like it much more.

s.
 
It's funny - 25+ years ago, this album disappointed and bored me. (That was after an obsessive go-round with 'Airports' and 'Discreet.') Going back to it over the last year, I hear it differently, and like it much more.

s.

I think it's held up well. Also, IME there's a period of adjustment when one first begins listening to this sort of music, as we're often unused to such linear events, strange sounds, and silence as an instrument of sorts itself.

You know, for all the Eno albums I have, I've yet to hear Discreet Music. :scratch2:
 
Minimal bliss...

Tangerine Dream
Zeit

2lp w/gatefold sleeve (see second picture)

This has become my favorite TD album, and I think it's an excellent example of well constructed and effective minimal music - and I do mean minimal, it's sparse, few instruments are used, there are periods of silence, etc. It actually ends on a very anti-climactic note, just fading away into the darkness. I just sat through both lps of this album, and loved every second of it:

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It's funny - 25+ years ago, this album disappointed and bored me.

As a huge Eno fan I never really got the ambient phase even though the initial ambient series releases were somewhat interesting. After purchasing some of his later ambient stuff in the 90s I basically listened to it once and forgot about it. When I loaded all my CDs onto my music server I almost didn't bother with them but I did it anyway and now I'm glad I did. Finding music to play late at night is a challenge since I don't want to wake the wife or kids so now I'm listening to that genre more than ever.

Here's the latest one that I completely dismissed but have now found some interest in.

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The Drop is a collection of stuff Eno rounded up from his archives. He is supposed to have 100s of hours of stuff recorded and ready for release. Wire magazine just recently trashed 'Small Boat on a Milk Sea'; Uncut gave it high praise.

I have been listening to premium box set vinyl of 'Small Boat...' just the last couple days and I find it to be a return to the ambient Eno of old. it makes me think a bit of Nerve Net from the early 90s, but also a somewhat later release called The Shutov Assembly.

I have many Eno favorites, but one that comes to mind as perhaps the supreme AMBIENT recording is Neroli (Music for Thinking). anyone have that one?
 
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