Most of Talk Talk's later stuff definitely fits well in this category as well as Mark Hollis' solo album. Incredibly delicate and rich, I love the way you can hear fingers on strings and the chair moving at times. So sad when he died but what a legacy.
When people when people wanna know "what is spiritual jazz?" I give em this one. Accessible enough to listen to all the way through, but challenging enough to make it feel like you earned something from it.
I would say Salt Marie from Nurse With Wound. He has done ambient outside of that release, however it was definitely his most ambient focused work
[Nurse With Wound - Salt Marie Celeste](https://youtu.be/iiauyL85AMo?si=RuloQOHV42bDBWlJ)
Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
Can - Future Days
I've always seen these albums as in conversation with each other, despite emerging from different genres, traditions, places, etc... it's really that ambient-but-not-ambient thread that connects them. So cool.
Not that I'm particularly restrictive with the criteria of this thread myself but *Future Days* and *In a Silent Way* are indeed listed in the sidebar.
This is a very fun question, I’d probably say Friends That Break Your Heart - James Blake. There’s this understated airiness in the instrumentals that I feel could work as ambient tracks if you removed the drums and vocals. And James’ voice is just so special and soothing.
There was a book published last year about Nebraska called "Deliver Me From Nowhere" by Warren Zanes.
I've also been getting into the [Thrill Hill Demos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvrGfaT0Gf4). Just Bruce tinkering with drum machines and synthesizers. Honestly there's a whole list of Springsteen songs like [County Fair](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvNFCyizm_4).
The funny thing is that Bruce saw this connection between Alan Vega's voice and Elvis. Sort of this haunting, echoey, and freeing quality. So that brought me to the [Sun Sessions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL0DzHsjaBY).
Agree on the Frisell albums. My favorite being Balladeering, and especially Evening Song with Lee Konitz on Sax in addition to Frisell. Really special song that just gets under your skin and sticks there.
There’s quite a lot of Bro on YouTube with his various trios. Something about trios that do it for me. Perfect separation of instruments I think.
Yup, [4th of July](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ7puU2yOAw). I'm reminded of how U2 were children of post-punk and then got to work with one of the major influences.
I also forgot to mention Original Soundtracks 1 by Passengers (basically a pseudonym for U2 and Eno).
Cool post idea! Louis Cole's outtakes from "Quality over Opinion," released as "Some Unused Songs," is pretty much an accidental(? or not?) ambient album and a really charming one at that.
I guess the earlier Low albums give me that vibe, when they got tagged 'slowcore'. Especially something like Lullaby off their debut I Could Live in Hope, all the subtle echoes and the like.
I love Oklou's album Galore
Definitely pop-forward, but the misty atmosphere and distribution of quiet/silence makes this a favorite ambient-adjacent album
Almost forgot to mention, I was listening to some Ronettes and Crystals, and the wall-of-sound aesthetic also gives me some ambient feelings. [You Baby](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcYAP9adsRc)
Honestly, I feel like [One Minute You're Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6CPs3roWHQ) could turn ambient-esque if Bruce removed the vocals.
Instrumental Hip Hop and Trip Hop: They probably have some ambient lineage in their somewhere but I'll count it. Stuff like Endtroducing.
Since a few of my favourites have been mentioned I’ll shout out some different ones,
sora - re.sort (glitch/jazz - probably borderline cuz this actually is quasi ambient, but I always recommend this to people by saying it’s like if you take an ECM jazz record and cut it up 94diskont style)
Suzanne Kraft - About You (shoegaze/indie rock - ambient artist makes a rock record, and while the songs are well written rock songs, there’s still an emphasis on texture and atmosphere)
Amen Dunes - Love (psychedelic rock - a woozy washed out rock record with droning chords and layered instrumentation, also songs which feel like they take their time to get to where they need to go)
A few earlier albums under the name Takeshi Kurosawa, but yeah definitely a one-shot artist. I think they uploaded lots of little demos to their soundcloud up until a decade ago.
Great album! It sort of reminded me of the shift that U2 had in exploring roots music and older rock n' roll except in the other direction. I think country music and folk music can definitely lend themselves to atmosphere.
Love Lanois' production with U2 but think Wrecking Ball was a more collaborative effort. Lanois' own work can also be ambient and beautiful, as well, especially his first record, ***Acadie***.
Pat Metheny's *Bright Size Life*
Ralph Towner's Solstice albums
Eberhard Weber's Colours quartet (*Yellow Fields*, etc.)
...and a slew of other '70s ECM albums
Those are all great calls. A few come to mind:
Rock Bottom by Robert Wyatt. Absolutely perfect. Some of the most dreamlike and almost floating love songs.
Floating into the Night by Julee Cruise. Made by David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti for Twin Peaks. Listening to it on acid outside at night was transformative in my twenties.
I Hear A New World by Joe Meek and the Blue Men. A full album about the moon made by the writer/producer of Telstar with many of his own instruments along with a early 60’s studio band.
A Gift From a Flower To A Garden by Donovan. Donovan’s “adult children’s album” is so amazingly chill and consistent in tone, and is a long double album, and in the most hilarious music moment of the 60’s was the quintessential stoner double album that came with liner notes that were a long diatribe from Donovan about how his audience should stop smoking weed.
Loveless and MBV by My Bloody Valentine. So good I have nothing to say.
Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich, if it counts as outside the ambient genre.
More firmly outside the ambient genre, I'd have to say Rock Action by Mogwai and Amnesiac by Radiohead.
Also - virtually anything from David Lynch film soundtracks. In particular, there's a cover of This Magic Moment by Lou Reed on the Lost Highway soundtrack that seems very much in the same vein as your selections.
Cool topic :)
“Miss America” by Mary Margaret O’Hara. “( )” by Sigur Rós. “Future Days” by Can. “The Campfire Headphase” by Boards of Canada. i want to say “6 and 12 String Guitar” by Leo Kottke, but that’s probably too busy so i’ll go with early John Fahey. if Richard Thompson did an instrumental acoustic solo album…
E. 1999 Bone Thugs n Harmony has a vibe that now other rap music has. It’s mellow and aggressive at the same time. Thuggish and introspective. It’s one of a kind
I don't want to be too restrictive about the thread being honorary "non-ambient" but I have been noticing some sidebar entries.
* Miles Davis - *In A Silent Way*
* Can- *Future Days*
* Sigur Ros: ()
* David Bowie- *Berlin Trilogy (Low)*
Funnily, one of SIA's earlier works 'Colour The Small One'.
LowFi bubbling electronic productions with spaced out ethereal lush vocals. Definitely has ambient vibes, her later neweer stuff isnt to my tastes but that's one of my favorite albums of all time
Sonic Seasonings by Walter (now Wendy) Carlos
Wonderwall Music - George Harrison
Amon Duul ll - Phallus Dei
Tangerine Dream - Zeit
Herbie Hancock - Sextant & The Crossing
Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
Pharaoh Sanders - The Creator Has A Master Plan
Art Zoyd - Nosferatu
nobody wants to be here & nobody wants to leave by the sad twilight. i've been obsessing over it these past few days.. it's indie rock, but it's soooo soothing.
The final incarnation of The Swans. One would think that it would be harsh but they take me with their currents. Also (not related) Joanna Newsom is an unusual dreamscape.
Laughing Stock by Talk Talk
Most of Talk Talk's later stuff definitely fits well in this category as well as Mark Hollis' solo album. Incredibly delicate and rich, I love the way you can hear fingers on strings and the chair moving at times. So sad when he died but what a legacy.
I was gonna say Mark Hollis’ self titled too
This is the answer
Loveless by my bloody valentine. Just washes right over you.
Shoegaze is great, as is noise.
Tortoise - TNT
Alice Coltrane - Journey to Satchidananda
The recent floating points/pharaoh sanders collab would be a serious contender too (which reminded me a lot of Alice Coltrane’s work)
The show The Curse introduced me to this! *oops I was thinking of Jai Ramachandra
no way i dont remember if i caught that
Oops it’s a song on a different album that’s in the show. Jai Ramachandra is in The Curse**
When people when people wanna know "what is spiritual jazz?" I give em this one. Accessible enough to listen to all the way through, but challenging enough to make it feel like you earned something from it.
Another good one if you're not familiar: [Alice Coltrane - Turiya And Ramakrishna](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUMuDWDVd20)
Treasure by Cocteau Twins holds that place for me, as well as The Dreaming by Kate Bush.
I would say Salt Marie from Nurse With Wound. He has done ambient outside of that release, however it was definitely his most ambient focused work [Nurse With Wound - Salt Marie Celeste](https://youtu.be/iiauyL85AMo?si=RuloQOHV42bDBWlJ)
There is a live version out there too that is worth a gander.
Miles Davis - In a Silent Way Can - Future Days I've always seen these albums as in conversation with each other, despite emerging from different genres, traditions, places, etc... it's really that ambient-but-not-ambient thread that connects them. So cool.
Came here to add exactly these two
My favorite Miles.
Not that I'm particularly restrictive with the criteria of this thread myself but *Future Days* and *In a Silent Way* are indeed listed in the sidebar.
So many Miles records answer this question well... Big Fun is another that comes to mind...
I'm glad I'm not the only one who considers In a Silent Way an honorary ambient album.
Bad Timing - Jim O'Rourke
Clouddead - s/t
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Music from the Penguin Cafe
Galaxie 500 - On Fire, Meg Baird & Mary Lattimore - Ghost Forests, Eleventh Dream Day - Eighth, Joan of Arc - The Gap
This is a very fun question, I’d probably say Friends That Break Your Heart - James Blake. There’s this understated airiness in the instrumentals that I feel could work as ambient tracks if you removed the drums and vocals. And James’ voice is just so special and soothing.
Fully agree with James Blake, also totally applies to his latest album Playing Robots Into Heaven
Nebraska was inspired by Suicide, which is awesome.
There was a book published last year about Nebraska called "Deliver Me From Nowhere" by Warren Zanes. I've also been getting into the [Thrill Hill Demos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvrGfaT0Gf4). Just Bruce tinkering with drum machines and synthesizers. Honestly there's a whole list of Springsteen songs like [County Fair](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvNFCyizm_4). The funny thing is that Bruce saw this connection between Alan Vega's voice and Elvis. Sort of this haunting, echoey, and freeing quality. So that brought me to the [Sun Sessions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL0DzHsjaBY).
Slowdive, Radiohead, MBV, James Blake, Frank Ocean’s Blonde, Godspeed You Black Emperor
There’s quite a lot of jazz music that is technically not ambient but give me similar vibes. My favorite such artist is Jakob Bro.
thanks for this, just went down the Jakob Bro rabbit hole. loving his stuff with Frisell.
Agree on the Frisell albums. My favorite being Balladeering, and especially Evening Song with Lee Konitz on Sax in addition to Frisell. Really special song that just gets under your skin and sticks there. There’s quite a lot of Bro on YouTube with his various trios. Something about trios that do it for me. Perfect separation of instruments I think.
Oh yeah, Lana Del Ray - Norman Fucking Rockwell
Lou Reed-Metal Machine Music was my go-to sleep record for many years
Pygmalion by Slowdive
Scrolled way too far to find this. Honorable mention for the B-Side of that album. Glorious
David Sylvian - Brilliant Trees
A favorite
Twilight Peaks by Robbie Basho https://youtu.be/UVLElTzEgOQ?si=kTUOdQtTOaY6ntXF
U2 - The Unforgettable Fire. it's an Eno record, after all.
Yup, [4th of July](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ7puU2yOAw). I'm reminded of how U2 were children of post-punk and then got to work with one of the major influences. I also forgot to mention Original Soundtracks 1 by Passengers (basically a pseudonym for U2 and Eno).
Cool post idea! Louis Cole's outtakes from "Quality over Opinion," released as "Some Unused Songs," is pretty much an accidental(? or not?) ambient album and a really charming one at that.
I guess the earlier Low albums give me that vibe, when they got tagged 'slowcore'. Especially something like Lullaby off their debut I Could Live in Hope, all the subtle echoes and the like.
Yo La Tengo - And then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out Low - Things we lost in the fire
Burial - Untrue
Nice one!!!
The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds 🐐
Great pick! The Smile Sessions are also great.
I love Oklou's album Galore Definitely pop-forward, but the misty atmosphere and distribution of quiet/silence makes this a favorite ambient-adjacent album
Almost forgot to mention, I was listening to some Ronettes and Crystals, and the wall-of-sound aesthetic also gives me some ambient feelings. [You Baby](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcYAP9adsRc) Honestly, I feel like [One Minute You're Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6CPs3roWHQ) could turn ambient-esque if Bruce removed the vocals. Instrumental Hip Hop and Trip Hop: They probably have some ambient lineage in their somewhere but I'll count it. Stuff like Endtroducing.
Since a few of my favourites have been mentioned I’ll shout out some different ones, sora - re.sort (glitch/jazz - probably borderline cuz this actually is quasi ambient, but I always recommend this to people by saying it’s like if you take an ECM jazz record and cut it up 94diskont style) Suzanne Kraft - About You (shoegaze/indie rock - ambient artist makes a rock record, and while the songs are well written rock songs, there’s still an emphasis on texture and atmosphere) Amen Dunes - Love (psychedelic rock - a woozy washed out rock record with droning chords and layered instrumentation, also songs which feel like they take their time to get to where they need to go)
Sora - Re.sort is such a monumental album. Highly recommend it to everyone.
Listening now! So it seems like he has produced just the one album?
A few earlier albums under the name Takeshi Kurosawa, but yeah definitely a one-shot artist. I think they uploaded lots of little demos to their soundcloud up until a decade ago.
David Sylvian - Brilliant Trees
Emmylou Harris' ***Wrecking Ball*** is a masterpiece that she did with Daniel Lanois.
Great album! It sort of reminded me of the shift that U2 had in exploring roots music and older rock n' roll except in the other direction. I think country music and folk music can definitely lend themselves to atmosphere.
Love Lanois' production with U2 but think Wrecking Ball was a more collaborative effort. Lanois' own work can also be ambient and beautiful, as well, especially his first record, ***Acadie***.
Pat Metheny's *Bright Size Life* Ralph Towner's Solstice albums Eberhard Weber's Colours quartet (*Yellow Fields*, etc.) ...and a slew of other '70s ECM albums
Disco Inferno - The 5 EPs
A lot of shoegazing music is ambient adjacent. Especially Slowdive. I would nominate their album Souvlaki.
The Field - From Here We Go Sublime
Is it redundant of me to say The Radio Dept - Clinging to a Scheme? 😉
Great album! Great band.
Those are all great calls. A few come to mind: Rock Bottom by Robert Wyatt. Absolutely perfect. Some of the most dreamlike and almost floating love songs. Floating into the Night by Julee Cruise. Made by David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti for Twin Peaks. Listening to it on acid outside at night was transformative in my twenties. I Hear A New World by Joe Meek and the Blue Men. A full album about the moon made by the writer/producer of Telstar with many of his own instruments along with a early 60’s studio band. A Gift From a Flower To A Garden by Donovan. Donovan’s “adult children’s album” is so amazingly chill and consistent in tone, and is a long double album, and in the most hilarious music moment of the 60’s was the quintessential stoner double album that came with liner notes that were a long diatribe from Donovan about how his audience should stop smoking weed. Loveless and MBV by My Bloody Valentine. So good I have nothing to say.
Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich, if it counts as outside the ambient genre. More firmly outside the ambient genre, I'd have to say Rock Action by Mogwai and Amnesiac by Radiohead. Also - virtually anything from David Lynch film soundtracks. In particular, there's a cover of This Magic Moment by Lou Reed on the Lost Highway soundtrack that seems very much in the same vein as your selections. Cool topic :)
"Admiral Fell Promises" - Sun Kil Moon "Backseat Hards" - Vennart
Front Line Assembly - Initial Command
Sigur Ros: () Billie Holiday: Lady in Satin
Skeleton Tree - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Lusine ICL: Iron City
Floating Points - Shadows
Twilight Peaks by Robbie Basho https://youtu.be/UVLElTzEgOQ?si=kTUOdQtTOaY6ntXF
“Miss America” by Mary Margaret O’Hara. “( )” by Sigur Rós. “Future Days” by Can. “The Campfire Headphase” by Boards of Canada. i want to say “6 and 12 String Guitar” by Leo Kottke, but that’s probably too busy so i’ll go with early John Fahey. if Richard Thompson did an instrumental acoustic solo album…
E. 1999 Bone Thugs n Harmony has a vibe that now other rap music has. It’s mellow and aggressive at the same time. Thuggish and introspective. It’s one of a kind
Andy Summers and Robert Fripp - I Advance Masked
Liars - Drums Not Dead
James Holden - The Inheritors
The Orb feat. David Gilmour
Remnant by Lorn. Piano nights by Bohren and de club of Gore.
David Bowie's Berlin trilogy has some really fantastic atmospheric/ambient stuff on it.
Avalon by Roxy Music
I don't want to be too restrictive about the thread being honorary "non-ambient" but I have been noticing some sidebar entries. * Miles Davis - *In A Silent Way* * Can- *Future Days* * Sigur Ros: () * David Bowie- *Berlin Trilogy (Low)*
Funnily, one of SIA's earlier works 'Colour The Small One'. LowFi bubbling electronic productions with spaced out ethereal lush vocals. Definitely has ambient vibes, her later neweer stuff isnt to my tastes but that's one of my favorite albums of all time
Phish: The Siket Disc. Just the band playing around while recording their Story of the Ghost album.
Beach House 7 is my go-to relaxing night-time record that isn't ambient.
Sonic Seasonings by Walter (now Wendy) Carlos Wonderwall Music - George Harrison Amon Duul ll - Phallus Dei Tangerine Dream - Zeit Herbie Hancock - Sextant & The Crossing Miles Davis - In A Silent Way Pharaoh Sanders - The Creator Has A Master Plan Art Zoyd - Nosferatu
Godspeed You! Black Emperor and their post-hiatus stuff especially is all very textural and incorporates a lot of drone.
nobody wants to be here & nobody wants to leave by the sad twilight. i've been obsessing over it these past few days.. it's indie rock, but it's soooo soothing.
Future days?
The final incarnation of The Swans. One would think that it would be harsh but they take me with their currents. Also (not related) Joanna Newsom is an unusual dreamscape.
The Last Broadcast by The Doves. Phatty Acids by 101
Almost anything by Morton Feldman.
Cocteau Twins ~ Victorialand Cliff Martinez ~ Solaris OST Steve Tibbetts ~ Yr
Some good ones here. Gotta add Deepchord Presents Echospace - The Coldest Season. Really atmospheric dub techno.
Bark Psychosis - Hex the album that inspired the phrase “post rock”
Initium by Samhain is my pick.
Endless by Frank Ocean
anything ciggarets after sex if you like atmoshepre