6 ms·

The Ambient Year

24 points by tintinnabula 6y ago

mitjak 6y ago
i've been listening to ambient for years now. i don't find it boring; if anything I find anything with vocals and a beat distracting. there's a lot of forgettable ambient, as expected, but there's also numerous albums that i find moving and emotionally stirring. some record labels: Touch, Room40, Miasmah, Geographic North, Music from Memory playlists: * https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6WPzVhcFhtUo9qKLz7cTcJ?si=0eTUYh4VQfOJRjO1Ju1V_A https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6WPzVhcFhtUo9qKLz7cTcJ?si=... * https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0HIfTbD7gaDP0rVPqSPNhX?si=Pqe5M1OnTFaEH7jvhGD3jg https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0HIfTbD7gaDP0rVPqSPNhX?si=... * https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2dAsXvXqCrCKqzHAqgjgTD?si=Z2sG-_dcT26rHS_xk4_6fg https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2dAsXvXqCrCKqzHAqgjgTD?si=...
- Kuzutsukake 6y ago
  Along a similar line, the soundtrack for game Long Dark is excellent. This has been my background music for most of the day: https://youtu.be/S3XiDDlLRXM https://youtu.be/S3XiDDlLRXM
compscistd 6y ago
> In the early days of despair, I looked at Spotify and decided that everything sounded bad. All songs were boring, and I was sick of everything. What that really meant was I was sick of myself. Wow, what a concise way to articulate an experience I've felt this year. Overall, this piece is dripping in a kind of self-flagellation specific to our year 2020.
- saalaa 6y ago
  > self-flagellation specific to our year 2020 Lucky you. You might not even realize.
LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
Depeche Mode - World In My Eyes (Ambient remix), 7m35s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKQR9zPqoUY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKQR9zPqoUY UNSAFE VISUALS!!!
- VladimirGolovin 6y ago
  BTW, does anyone know why there are so many good Depeche Mode / Dave Gahan remixes? Does the band specifically encourage remixing by providing samples, voice records etc.?
martyvis 6y ago
I'm pretty eclectic in my tastes, but my wife is classically trained, but now even learning some jazz theory. After a few minutes of the album by KMRU, I got comments like, "What is that noise", "didn't they get in the piano lesson past hitting C" - as she sung C for about 15 seconds, and "it's the sort of music you play at end of a marriage", "imagine being the lift driver in that elevator". While I argued that you can vary things like timbre and rhythm and not just pitch, I will have to revert back to my headphones or car for such aural excursions.
seaghost 6y ago
I can highly recommend The American Dollar band. https://open.spotify.com/artist/5r4OqYJL7JrtZlffx7FJlb?si=aEZfYpe3RPmPzgMEmoYRvA https://open.spotify.com/artist/5r4OqYJL7JrtZlffx7FJlb?si=aE...
- briefcomment 6y ago
  I really enjoyed this song, but is this ambient? I feel like there's too much of a discernible melody for it to be ambient. The example in the article has no melody.
Dowwie 6y ago
Cryochamber releases a lot of dark ambient [1], which can be a little too dark and depressing, but occasionally they release albums that transports a listener into snowstorms, space, or dystopian urban futures [2]. Many of the artists are on Youtube and there are also 24 hour streams [3]. [1] https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/ https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/ [2] https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/memory-417 https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/memory-417 ---- https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/exo https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/exo [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmF37mEMEDc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmF37mEMEDc
sparcpile 6y ago
A good location for ambient music is the Hearts of Space service. https://v4.hos.com/home https://v4.hos.com/home https://v4.hos.com/about/a-brief-profile-of-space-and-ambient-music https://v4.hos.com/about/a-brief-profile-of-space-and-ambien...
et-al 6y ago
RIP Harold Budd, one of Eno's contemporaries. https://www.npr.org/2020/12/10/944962303/harold-budds-music-was-heaven-on-earth https://www.npr.org/2020/12/10/944962303/harold-budds-music-...
- camillomiller 6y ago
  To anyone who’d like to start discovering Ambient Music I always suggest to listen to “The Pearl”, by Eno & Budd. Masterpiece.
saalaa 6y ago
Strangely enough, everybody seems to have forgotten of SEB (https://www.sleepbot.com/ambience/broadcast/ https://www.sleepbot.com/ambience/broadcast/).
yepthatsreality 6y ago
Something a little less paralyzing (in the ambient music category) from Starfucker this year called Ambient 1: https://starfucker.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-1 https://starfucker.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-1
cyberbanjo 6y ago
Just wanted to plug some of my favorite ambient albums: Ambient for Airports (1 is my favorite, there are four I think.) and The Haxans Cloaks Execution. I don't listen to a lot of ambient, but theyre quite good.

24 points by tintinnabula 6y ago

i've been listening to ambient for years now. i don't find it boring; if anything I find anything with vocals and a beat distracting. there's a lot of forgettable ambient, as expected, but there's also numerous albums that i find moving and emotionally stirring. some record labels: Touch, Room40, Miasmah, Geographic North, Music from Memory playlists: * https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6WPzVhcFhtUo9qKLz7cTcJ?si=0eTUYh4VQfOJRjO1Ju1V_A https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6WPzVhcFhtUo9qKLz7cTcJ?si=... * https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0HIfTbD7gaDP0rVPqSPNhX?si=Pqe5M1OnTFaEH7jvhGD3jg https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0HIfTbD7gaDP0rVPqSPNhX?si=... * https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2dAsXvXqCrCKqzHAqgjgTD?si=Z2sG-_dcT26rHS_xk4_6fg https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2dAsXvXqCrCKqzHAqgjgTD?si=...

Kuzutsukake 6y ago
Along a similar line, the soundtrack for game Long Dark is excellent. This has been my background music for most of the day: https://youtu.be/S3XiDDlLRXM https://youtu.be/S3XiDDlLRXM

compscistd 6y ago

> In the early days of despair, I looked at Spotify and decided that everything sounded bad. All songs were boring, and I was sick of everything. What that really meant was I was sick of myself. Wow, what a concise way to articulate an experience I've felt this year. Overall, this piece is dripping in a kind of self-flagellation specific to our year 2020.

saalaa 6y ago
> self-flagellation specific to our year 2020 Lucky you. You might not even realize.

LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago

Depeche Mode - World In My Eyes (Ambient remix), 7m35s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKQR9zPqoUY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKQR9zPqoUY UNSAFE VISUALS!!!

VladimirGolovin 6y ago
BTW, does anyone know why there are so many good Depeche Mode / Dave Gahan remixes? Does the band specifically encourage remixing by providing samples, voice records etc.?

martyvis 6y ago

I'm pretty eclectic in my tastes, but my wife is classically trained, but now even learning some jazz theory. After a few minutes of the album by KMRU, I got comments like, "What is that noise", "didn't they get in the piano lesson past hitting C" - as she sung C for about 15 seconds, and "it's the sort of music you play at end of a marriage", "imagine being the lift driver in that elevator". While I argued that you can vary things like timbre and rhythm and not just pitch, I will have to revert back to my headphones or car for such aural excursions.

seaghost 6y ago

I can highly recommend The American Dollar band. https://open.spotify.com/artist/5r4OqYJL7JrtZlffx7FJlb?si=aEZfYpe3RPmPzgMEmoYRvA https://open.spotify.com/artist/5r4OqYJL7JrtZlffx7FJlb?si=aE...

briefcomment 6y ago
I really enjoyed this song, but is this ambient? I feel like there's too much of a discernible melody for it to be ambient. The example in the article has no melody.

Dowwie 6y ago

Cryochamber releases a lot of dark ambient [1], which can be a little too dark and depressing, but occasionally they release albums that transports a listener into snowstorms, space, or dystopian urban futures [2]. Many of the artists are on Youtube and there are also 24 hour streams [3]. [1] https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/ https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/ [2] https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/memory-417 https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/memory-417 ---- https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/exo https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/album/exo [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmF37mEMEDc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmF37mEMEDc

sparcpile 6y ago

A good location for ambient music is the Hearts of Space service. https://v4.hos.com/home https://v4.hos.com/home https://v4.hos.com/about/a-brief-profile-of-space-and-ambient-music https://v4.hos.com/about/a-brief-profile-of-space-and-ambien...

et-al 6y ago

RIP Harold Budd, one of Eno's contemporaries. https://www.npr.org/2020/12/10/944962303/harold-budds-music-was-heaven-on-earth https://www.npr.org/2020/12/10/944962303/harold-budds-music-...

camillomiller 6y ago
To anyone who’d like to start discovering Ambient Music I always suggest to listen to “The Pearl”, by Eno & Budd. Masterpiece.

saalaa 6y ago

Strangely enough, everybody seems to have forgotten of SEB (https://www.sleepbot.com/ambience/broadcast/ https://www.sleepbot.com/ambience/broadcast/).

yepthatsreality 6y ago

Something a little less paralyzing (in the ambient music category) from Starfucker this year called Ambient 1: https://starfucker.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-1 https://starfucker.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-1

cyberbanjo 6y ago

Just wanted to plug some of my favorite ambient albums: Ambient for Airports (1 is my favorite, there are four I think.) and The Haxans Cloaks Execution. I don't listen to a lot of ambient, but theyre quite good.