/r/ambientmusic
A subreddit for fans of ambient music and all its sub-genres.
Ambient Music Overview
Here is a loosely organized overview of ambient music featuring some notable artists and releases. Huge thanks to this sub's ambient community and the book Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast which were extremely helpful putting this together.
Composers
- Erik Satie - Gnossiennes (1893) - Trois Gymnopédies (1888)
- Claude Debussy - Images Pour Orchestre: II Ibéria b. Les Parfums de la Nuit (1905-8) - Nocturnes I Nuages (1892-9)
- Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor: IV Adagietto (1901-2)
- Maurice Ravel - Pavane pour une infante défunte (1899) - Ma Mère l’oye - Pavane de la belle au bois dormant (1908-10)
- Frederick Delius - On hearing the first cuckoo in Spring (1912) - Irmelin Prelude (1890-2)
- Charles Ives - The Unanswered Question (1908)
- Charles Griffes - The Kairn of Koridwen (1916)
- Albert Ketelbey - Sanctuary of the Heart (1924)
- Fats Waller - Water Boy, The Lonesome Road, from At The Organ (1926-39)
- Olivier Messiaen - Turangalila Symphony: VI Jardin du sommeil d’amour (1946-8)
- John Cage - Dream (1948), In A Landscape (1948), Nocturne, (1947)
- Ravi Shankar - The Sounds of India (1957)
- Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (1959), Bitches Brew (1970), In A Silent Way (1969)
- György Ligeti - 2001 Space Odyssey Soundtrack (selected tracks) (1968)
- Morton Subotnick - Silver Apples of the Moon (1967), The Wild Bull (1968)
- Alice Coltrane - World Galaxy (1972) - Illuminations (1974)
- Wendy Carlos - Clockwork Orange ost (1971), The Shining ost (1980), Tron ost (1982)
- Morton Feldman - Triadic Memories (1981)
- Toru Takemitsu - Rain Spell (1982)
- Kaija Saariaho - Maa I. Journey (1991)
Tape & Recording Manipulation / Musique Concrète / Early Electronic
- Otto Luening & Vladimir Ussachevsky - Low Speed (1952)
- Karlheinz Stockhausen - Studie I (1953), Kontakte (1958-60), Telemusik (1966)
- Raymond Scott - Soothing Sounds for Baby (1962)
- Pierre Schaeffer - Volumes from Musique Experimentale 1 (1962)
- Daphne Oram - Pulse Persephone (1965)
- Pierre Henry - Le Voyage (1968)
- Mort Garson - Plantasia (1976)
Minimalism
- La Monte Young - The Well-Tuned Piano (1964)
- Terry Reilly - In C, Rainbow In Curved Air (1969)
- Steve Reich - Drumming (1971), Music for 18 Musicians (1976)
- Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert (1975)
- Brian Eno - Ambient 1 Music for Airports (1978), Discreet Music (1975),
- Arvo Pärt - Spiegel im Spiegel (1978)
- Jon Hassell - Possible Musics: Fourth World Vol. 1 (1980)
- Philip Glass - Glassworks (1981)
- Harold Budd - The Pearl (1984)
- Pauline Oliveros - Deep Listening (1989)
- John Taverner - The Last Sleep of the Virgin (1991)
- John Adams - Hoodoo Zephyr (1993)
- David Toop - Screen Ceremonies (1995)
New Age
- Iasos - Inter-Dimensional Music (1975)
- KITARO - Silk Road series (1980)
- Laraaji - Ambient 3 Day of Radiance (1980)
- Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries (1984)
- Suzanne Ciani - Velocity of Love (1985)
- William Ackerman - Conferring With The Moon (1986)
- Andreas Vollendender - Down to the Moon (1986)
Rock/Prog/Metal
- David Bowie - Low (1977)
- The Grateful Dead - Dark Star (1969) - The Other One (1971)
- Pink Floyd - Echoes (1971) - On The Run (1973)
- Popol Vuh - In Den Garten Pharaos (1971) - Aguirre (1975) - Nosferatu (1978)
- Neu! - Im Glück (1972)
- Ash Ra Tempel - Schwingungen (1972)
- Tangerine Dream - Zeit (1972) - Phaedra (1974)
- Can - Future Days (1973)
- Robert Fripp - No Pussyfooting (1973) - Evening Star (1975) - Soundscapes Live Series (1994)
- Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells (1973) - Incantations (1978)
- Harmonia - Deluxe (1975)
- Manuel Göttsching - Inventions for Electric Guitar (1975)
- Cluster - Cluster & Eno (1977)
- Steve Hillage - Rainbow Dome Musick (1979)
- Hans Joachim Roedelius - Wie das Wispern des Windes (1986) - Selbstportrait I, II & III (1979-80)
- David Sylvian - Gone To Earth (disc 2) (1986), Approaching Silence (1999)
- Bill Nelson - Chance Encounters In The Garden of Lights (1987)
- Holger Czukay & David Sylvain - Plight & Premonition (1988) - Flux & Mutability (1989)
- Peter Gabriel - Passion (1989)
- Spacemen 3 - Dreamweapon (1990)
- Earth - Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Versions (1993)
- Boris - Flood (2000)
- Sunn o))) - Monoliths & Dimensions (2009)
Synthesizer Music
- Tonto’s Expanding Head Band - Zero Time (1971)
- Klaus Schulze - Timewind (1975) - Mirage (1977) - Dark Side of the Moog series
- Beaver & Krause - In A Wild Sanctuary (1975)
- Kraftwerk - Autobahn (1974) - Radio-Activity (1975)
- Tim Blake - Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy w/ Gong (1973-4) - Crystal Machine (1977) - Magick (1991)
- Jean-Michel Jarre - Oxygène (1976) - Equinoxe (1978) - Waiting For Cousteau (1990)
- Vangelis - Blade Runner Soundtrack (1982) - Soil Festivities (1984)
- Ryuichi Sakamoto - Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983) - Esperanto (1985) - Cendre w/ Fennesz (2007) - Async (2017) -
- Robert Rich - Trances & Drones (1983) - Bestiary (2001) - Somnium (2001) - Filaments (2015)
- Steve Roach - Structures In Silence (1984) - Dreamtime Return (1988) - Soma w/ Robert Rich (1992)
- Haruomi Hosono - Paradise View (1985) - The Endless Talking (1985) - Medicine Compilation (1993)
- Hiroshi Yoshimura - Green (1986)
Electronic
- Art of Noise - The Ambient Collection (1990)
- The KLF - Chill Out (1990)
- The Orb - Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld (1991) - U.F.Orb (1992) - Orbus Terrarum (1995)
- Pete Namlook - Silence (1992) - 2350 Broadway w/ Tetsu Inoue (1993) - Air (1994)
- The Irresistible Force - Flying High (1992) - Dreamfish 1 & 2 w/ Pete Namlook (1993-5) - Global Chillage (1994)
- Thomas Köner - permafrost (1993)
- Global Communication - 76:14 (1994)
- Future Sound of London - Lifeforms (1994)
- Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2 (1994)
- Bill Laswell as Axiom Ambient - Lost In The Translation (1994)
- Woob - 1194 (1994)
- Tetsu Inoue - Ambient Otaku (1994)
- Biosphere - Substrata (1997)
- Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children (1998)
- Susumu Yokota - Sakura (1999)
- William Orbit - Pieces In A Modern Style (2000)
21st Century Indie ambient & Modern favorites
- Sigur Ros - Von (1997) - Ágaetis byrjun (1999) - () (2002) - Takk… (2005)
- Gas - Pop (2000)
- Raison D’Etre - The Empty Hollow Unfolds (2000)
- Fennesz - Endless Summer (2001)
- Keith Fullerton Whitman - Playthroughs (2002)
- William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops I-IV (2002-3)
- Tycho - Past Is Prologue (2004) - Dive (2011) - Awake (2014)
- Carbon Based Lifeforms - World of Sleepers (2006) - Interloper (2010)
- Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline (2007)
- Alio Die - Aura Seminalis (2008)
- Loscil - Endless Falls (2010)
- A Winged Victory for the Sullen - Self Titled (2011)
- Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972 (2011)
- Grouper - A.I.A Alien Observer (2011)
- C418 - Minecraft Volume Alpha (2011)
- Olafur Arnalds - Living Room Songs (2011) - Re:member (2018)
- Hammock - Departure Songs (2012)
- Nils Frahm - Spaces (2013)
- State Azure - So Long Eternity (2013)
- Phobium - Oort Cloud (2013)
- Kassel Jaeger - Toxic Cosmopolitanism (2014)
- Max Richter - Sleep (2015)
- Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Ears (2016)
- Ian William Craig - Centres (2016)
- Huerco S - For Those Who Have Never (And Also Those Who Have) (2016)
- The Caretaker - Everywhere at the End of Time (2016)
- Carmen Villain - Infinite Avenue (2017)
- Sarah Davachi - Let Night Come On Bells End The Day (2018)
- Skee Mask - Compro (2018)
- Anna Roxanne - Because of A Flower (2020)
- Flora Yin-Wong - Holy Palm (2020)
- Mary Lattimore - Silver Ladders (2020)
- Ulla - tumbling Towards A Wall (2020)
- KMRU - Peel (2020)
- Music for Space travel - The Space Cadet (2021)
- Hilyard - Division Cycle (2021)
- Siavash Amini - A Trail of Laughters (2021)
- Nala Sinephro - Space 1.8 (2021)
r/ambientmusic Top 10 ambient albums of 2022
- 36 & zakè - Stasis Sounds for Long Distance Space Travel II
- Sofie Birch - Holotropica
- Blood Incantation - Timewave Zero
- Sarah Davachi - Two Sisters
- Nils Frahm - Music For Animals
- Locrian - New Catastrophism
- Claire Rousay - everything perfect is already here
- Ulla - Foam
- Carmen Villain - Only Love From Now On
- Warmth - The Night
r/ambientmusic Top 10 ambient albums of 2023
- 12 by Ryuchi Sakamoto
- Atlas by Laurel Halo
- Colours of Air by Loscil // Lawrence English
- Crépuscule I & II by Tujiko Noriko
- Forgotten Melodies by The Space Cadet
- Headlands by Fog Net
- Mycelium Music by Matthewdavid
- New Blue Sun by André 3000
- The Notional Pastures of Imaginary - Softwoods by Imaginary Softwoods
- Signs by Purelink
/r/ambientmusic
76,137 Subscribers
What upcoming releases are you excited for?
01:22 UTC
Ambient music with really pretty ethereal vocals
Looking for more ambient music with a pretty singing voice on it, bands like grouper, Ana Roxanne, Julianna barwick for example. All ambient with really really pretty vocals. I don't mind the gazier side of grouper either (like AIA dream loss) so if you have recs with really gorgeous vocals(can be male or female vocals doesn't matter) I'd love to hear it
18:41 UTC
Olson - Overlapping Shadows
14:45 UTC
High volume ambient
The history of ambient music is filled with albums intended to be played at medium volume. Acoustically that's how they sound best and transmit their healing cosmic waves. However, I've been known to blast William Basinski in my car. Some records are incredibly dense and were recorded at high volume (Pauline Oliveiros, Glenn Branca, Sunn 0))) Some records are recorded to be very mellow (Brian Eno, etc), but when you play them at high volume, you see through time.
So what are the soft albums that sound great at high volume? What rocks?
07:27 UTC
Bamboo from The Quiet Garden by Broken Chip
05:10 UTC
X Men 97 OST | Omega Level
02:09 UTC
Can anyone recommend me an album like Celer’s Compositions for Cassette?
The soft piano, the haunting atmosphere, its sparseness that’s so effective at evoking some kind of eerie, alien world. I don’t know. Its gentleness - I cannot find anything quite like it. It’s otherworldly.
Thank you.
23:37 UTC
Vernal Equinox
Meditative
22:25 UTC
The way it was intended
21:46 UTC
Prévisions by Arbee
20:02 UTC
Colony Derelict : Core
19:01 UTC
Recommend me nice ambient
More precisely, dark ambient. Or maybe even pushing the boundaries of industrial or noise.
I’m not at all looking for a standard drone, which is often called ambient, low-pitched electronic hum can be found anywhere in billions of quantities, I need something more interesting, maybe melodic.
Good examples of gold balance in my opinion - Atrium Carceri, and The Haxan Cloak.
Can also take as an example Coil, Cyclobe, Pharmakon, Bad Sector, Couronne de Merde, Zoviet France, ambient works by Trent Reznor, Einstürzende Neubauten.
17:46 UTC
The Pool Hotel : Rainbow Guest
17:22 UTC
You are going to a deserted island. You can bringe 3 ambient albums with you but they all have to be of diffrent sub genres. What do you bring?
Classical, drone, glitch, dark, synth, space etc.
16:42 UTC
Thoughts and Afterthoughts about Ambient Music
Ambient music, in its various forms (dark, lo-fi, meditation etc.) is both a niche genre and a plethoric musical trend, as evidenced by the mass of albums and tracks on Bandcamp and all the platforms (and I contribute to them, of course).
I wonder if this exponential growth is due to the fact that it's relatively easy to compose and produce ambient music compared with other musical genres (jazz, rock, classical, etc.). Most ambient music is produced by solo musicians (although there are a few bands). All you need a minima is a midi keyboard, a computer, a few plug-ins and a DAW - no need for renting a rehearsal and professional recording studio. Ambient music is a genre for “home musicians”, with set-ups that can be very small. It is also characterized by a certain number of formal features - drones, stretched pads, long reverb, arpeggios - which, most of the time, do not require great instrumental dexterity, or even advanced harmonic knowledge, unlike jazz or classical music, for example...
Is ambient the musical genre par excellence for non-musicians? There's nothing pejorative about that: Brian Eno has said it over and over again...
Doesn't one reason for this exponential production also lie in the “utilitarian” nature of ambient music today, listened to as a backdrop for meditation, relaxation, yoga or even falling asleep? Could it be that ambient music reveals a tired, anxious, insomniac society, or one dreaming of spiritual escapism and “mindfulness”?
And finally, while this quantitative explosion of ambient music is of course positive, with more and more people practicing and enjoying it, doesn't it also have perverse effects, making creative breakthroughs and innovations more difficult, both because of the difficulty for them to gain visibility and because of the inertia and habituation effect of a predominantly standardized production?
Just a few questions I ask myself as I reflect on my own musical practice....
14:06 UTC
Ales Lace - Verda Obscura
06:23 UTC
Cobwebs (Extended), by Lisa Lerkenfeldt (Jordan De La Sierra vibes)
21:41 UTC
"I am a firm believer in that comfort only breeds mediocrity. Scarce resources and limitations on the other hand, they are truly the mother of inventions." --Rafael Anton Irisarri
A great quote from this new interview https://joachimspieth.de/2024/04/23/focus-rafael-anton-irisarri/
20:43 UTC
Arbee - Capillaire
15:43 UTC
Nice 25+ min track: Leon Huene - Evening in Japan
12:56 UTC
La Ola Interior (Spanish Ambient & Acid Exoticism 1983 - 1990)
I discovered this compilation when it was released three years ago by Bongo Joe Records. And, for me, it's my go-to summer ambient soundtrack (I only listen to ambient on autumn/winter otherwise). It has this liminal/oneiric feeling of a fever dream; it reminds me of some Canary Islands aesthetic (such as nature and raw places in La Palma or Lanzarote), probably because I listened to this compilation there a couple of times since it released (also, Malagueñas 2, my fav track there, was made by Javier Segura, from Tenerife).
08:01 UTC
Music for Relaxation, Sleep, and Meditation on a long haul flight
Hello friends
I could write a big long story about what's coming up, but the short of it is:
- 25+ hours of flying coming up (Aus to EU)
- Often get sick after plane trips, I have no doubt stress contributes to this
- Looking for some incredible ambient albums to put on for me to zone out for the whole time and make it as comfortable and stress free as possible
Current go-tos are more neo-classical piano dominant (Hania Rani, Nils Frahm, Olafur Arnaulds, Joep Beving) but I'm open to anything and everything :)
PS. Outside of Music for Psychedelic Therapy, I find Jon Hopkins a bit too intrusive for what I am looking for if that helps at all
Thanks everyone.
Be well
02:12 UTC
The Caretaker's An Empty Bliss Beyond This World
Not amb, but enjoyable af
22:21 UTC
In the Shadow of a Weeping Willow by Milieu
21:25 UTC
Mary Lattimore - And Then He Wrapped His Wings Around Me
19:12 UTC
music more than sound
so this guy says future music may come with expansions for other senses with "tastes, colors" and "frequencies currently not available" so we can even "amplify and extend our hearing range"
any existing experimental works come to mind?
16:45 UTC
2003 Toyota Corolla by 2003 Toyota Corolla
11:34 UTC
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