# Can anyone recommend any ambient music?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 19, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789 "2006-12-19T16:15:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 19\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chance_the_Gardener)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/1 "2006-12-19T16:15:07Z")

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I’m not terribly familiar with the Wyndham-Hill catalogue or ambient music in general, but I do dig _Hearts of Space_ on NPR, though I have yet to take down the name of a composer I hear on that program.

At this point, I wish I had. The issue is that my fiancée is a light sleeper and is looking for some kind of ambient music to get her to drop off, or at least to calm her down when she’s wound up. Me, I can sleep even if I have freight trains running through the bedroom (though that hasn’t happened yet,) so this is more for her. More so that I’m thinking of getting her a couple of ambient CDs for Christmas, but I have no idea where to start. I remember Vangelis’s _Albedo 0.39_ from my youth, but that’s about all I know. Anyone have any suggestions? She’s already got this CD with New Age music calibrated to work with the brain waves that she often plays when going to sleep, and I guess it works. (Heck, you could play Ted Nugent and I still could get to sleep! But this isn’t about me, even though I think Ted Nugent sounds better when I’m asleep, and preferably when I have the speakers unplugged from the stereo.)

Anyway, space travelers, I’d be glad to hear some suggestions. Christmas is coming! Thanks.

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**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/2 "2006-12-19T16:24:56Z")

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**Music for Airports, Another Green World & Here Come the Warm Jets** - Brian Eno  
**No Pussyfooting** - Eno & Fripp

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**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/3 "2006-12-19T16:31:05Z")

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_Fascionoma_, by Jon Hassell.

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**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/4 "2006-12-19T17:33:43Z")

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[QUOTE=Wee Bairn]  
**Music for Airports, Another Green World & Here Come the Warm Jets** - Brian Eno  
[/QUOTE]

The first album listed is one of the all-time classics of ambient music, but only parts of _Another Green World_ are in an ambient vein, and _Here Come the Warm Jets_ isn’t remotely ambient–it’s crazed, avant-garde glam-rock.

I highly recommend:  
\*[Evensong\*](http://www.dgmlive.com/archive.htm?artist=14&show=1115) by Robert Fripp (available as a download only) - extremely tranquil and soothing  
_Tibetan Bells_ by Henry Wolff & Nancy Hennings - all sounds produced by ritual bells, but the overtones often sound like voices, strings, or gentle electronics  
_Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks_ by Eno - spacy and mesmerizing  
_On Land_ by Eno - blends in well with any environment  
_Hosianna Mantra_ by Popol Vuh - female vocals, a soft, peaceful, semi-classical sound with eastern touches, and a devotional atmosphere  
_Zeit_ by Tangerine Dream - long, spacy, eerie, droning sounds

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**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/5 "2006-12-19T17:43:29Z")

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Baroque music.

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**Author:** ![TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/51bf81/32.png) [@TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/6 "2006-12-19T18:19:19Z")

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Tangerine Dream - “Zeit,” “Phaedra,” “Rubycon” - classic cascading synth arpeggios and weird drones

Steve Roach - “Dreamtime Return” - the father of modern ambient/new age stuff with substance rather than lame “wolfs howling over shitty synths and rainstorm sounds”

Harold Budd - “Avalon Sutra” - more on the neo-classical or “moden composition” tip, but he’s collaborated with the Cocteau Twins so you know where it’s coming from

Popol Vuh - I say “In den garten pharaos” and “affenstunde” - they really got into embarrassing “world music” later on, but these early ones are moog experimentation and creative tape manipulations

Stars of the lid - “music for nitrous oxide” and “the tired sounds of…” - probably the best modern ambient band. Really killer stuff. Also check out The Dead Texan, their side project with a visual artist.

Aphex Twin - “selected ambient works vol. II” - another classic of the mid-nineties ambient boom. Totally killer album for sleeping and dreaming.

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**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/7 "2006-12-19T18:58:10Z")

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**Biffy** - thanks. I got carried away with listing Eno’s best I ignored the OP 🙂

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**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2006, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/8 "2006-12-19T19:44:48Z")

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[QUOTE=VCO3]

Aphex Twin - “selected ambient works vol. II” - another classic of the mid-nineties ambient boom. Totally killer album for sleeping and dreaming.  
[/QUOTE]

I came in here to mention this one.

Also BT’s latest: _This Binary Universe_ (especially the 5.1 version).

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**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/9 "2006-12-20T02:47:43Z")

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Check out a band called Antimatter on The End Records. Very chill, yet cool, ambient music. They can get a little dark at times, though.

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**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/10 "2006-12-20T02:59:05Z")

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What VCO3 said. Good going, man.

Vidna Obmana

David Sylvian & Holger Czukay (by themselves are more hit-or-miss): Flux & Mutability, Plight & Premonition

O Yuki Conjugate

Brian Eno, Robert Fripp and Harold Budd (in any of their combinations): The Pearl, The Room, The Plateaux of Mirror

David Hykes (with or without the Harmonic Choir, kinda eery): Hearing Solar Winds (their best), Harmonic Meetings, Harmonic Meditations

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**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/11 "2006-12-20T03:17:35Z")

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You also might want to check out [77 Million Paintings by Brian Eno](http://www.amazon.com/77-Million-Paintings-Brian-Eno/dp/B000EMSU2O) which is a constantly changing painting that goes along with the music. Sort of like an on-the-fly visualizer.

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**Author:** ![HoboStew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f17d59/32.png) [@HoboStew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoboStew)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/12 "2006-12-20T06:34:53Z")

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Wow, I’ve been totally meaning to start a thread like this. I LOVE ambient music, but it’s hard to find for obvious reasons, and I have never met anyone who actively liked it. I’ve heard about half the stuff mentioned in the thread so far and have been nodding my head along (as well as taking notes on material to get =D) Might as well give the complete rundown from my POV:

First off, its generally a good idea to distinguish which type of Ambient you mean - most people \< 30 yrs old AFAIK consider Ambient-House to be “Ambient”, which is pretty different.

I got into the genre via **Nine Inch Nails** ’ _A Warm Place_, off of The Downward Spiral which to this day is still one of my favorite Ambient songs. **Brian Eno** ’s _Deep Blue Day_ had me get Apollo which was mentioned, that is an excellent starter album. From there it was slow going, but I came across the previously mentioned Aphex Twin albums, which I thought were decent but not great (parallel stripes is excellent). Finally after many years I have a good library of the genre. I like:

**Brian Eno** - one of the godfathers of the genre. _Apollo_ is one of the best out there. As mentioned, his other albums go all over the place. Another Green World is not Ambient, but the last track, _Spider & I_, is one of my favorites of the genre. I also like _Discreet Music_, although its slightly different from Apollo I’d still call it Ambient.

While most **Mogwai** stuff rocks a little too hard for this genre, they have a track called _Boring Machines Disturbs Sleep_ which is an excellent droning sleepy song. So is _When Leon Sphinx Moved into Town_ by **Califone**. The song _Santa Cruz_ by **Fatboy Slim** has a killer ambient interlude sandwiched in between his big beat starts and finishes. If you can stand the repetetive guitar, the payoff is well worth it.

**Red Stickman** - A DJ, not an artist AFAIK, but he mixes a lot of stuff listed on this thread. I have several of his mixes that are over an hour long each, and I recognize maybe 1/10 of the songs. They are excellent for when you don’t want to bother throwing a long playlist together.

And finally, my biggest find for the genre, a couple months ago on college radio I heard a group called **Windy & Carl**. They totally nailed the sound I was looking for and I really had no reason to expect anyone to do so. Its so minimal and droney and perfect, i love them. _The Dreamhouse EP_ is fantastic - 2 songs over 45 minutes. They have like 5 albums, and the only one I didn’t really like was the 3 cd set called _Instrospection_. I love them - wish I knew more about them but haven’t bothered to research yet.

Anyways theres more but I gotta check my library. Thanks for starting this thread! I love this board!  
awwwwwwwwwwww

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**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/13 "2006-12-20T06:47:54Z")

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\*The Moon & The Melodies \*- **Harold Budd & Cocteau Twins**  
_Victorialand_, by **Cocteau Twins** , also does it for me as far as sleepytime goes. Other CT is fairly poppy, but not this.

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**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/14 "2006-12-20T06:53:35Z")

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A few others:

Mum  
Coil has a couple of com albums called “Musick to play in the dark” vols. 1 and 2. You might also want to check out their live albums.  
Chris & Cosey (aka CTI)  
Anubian Lights - The Jackal & 9 EP  
The Brain - Access and Amplify  
Spiral Realms  
Kawabata Makoto - Father Moo and the Black Sheep  
Drazen - Visions of Anarcadia  
Atom Infant Incubator - Copula  
Alio Die Ora - The Door of Possibilities  
Black Sun Productions - Im Gegenteil  
Acid Mothers Temple - Disc #4 of The Penultimate Galactic Bordello Also The World You Made (AMT and Kawabata Makoto have plenty of other stuff that could be considered ambient, but their output is really varied and I don’t have time to check on a disc-by-disc basis)

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**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/15 "2006-12-20T07:00:48Z")

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[QUOTE=Hunter Hawk]  
Black Sun Productions - Im Gegenteil  
[/QUOTE]

Whoops, scratch that one–I was thinking of something else. Good album, just not ambient.

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**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/16 "2006-12-20T09:43:49Z")

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My friend runs an Internet ambient radio thingy.

> **[Still Stream - Ambient Internet Radio](https://stillstream.com/)**
>
> This is a non-commercial ambient radio station, on the air 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

All indie artists, 70% great.

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**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/17 "2006-12-20T10:05:26Z")

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Enya’s [self titled](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enya_%28album%29) album works a treat for this, IMO. [Watermark](http://www.amazon.com/Watermark-Enya/dp/B000002LRR/sr=1-4/qid=1166608578/ref=sr_1_4/105-0100561-3287628?ie=UTF8&s=music) isn’t bad, or [Paint the Sky with Stars](http://www.amazon.com/Paint-Sky-Stars-Best-Enya/dp/B000002NJH/sr=1-2/qid=1166608619/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/105-0100561-3287628?ie=UTF8&s=music) and [Shepard Moons](http://www.amazon.com/Shepherd-Moons-Enya/dp/B000005K4J/sr=1-89/qid=1166609033/ref=sr_1_89/105-0100561-3287628?ie=UTF8&s=music). Maybe some [Clannad](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_pg_1/105-0100561-3287628?ie=UTF8&keywords=Clannad&rh=n%3A301668%2Ck%3AClannad&page=1) too?

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**Author:** ![McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McDeath_the_Mad)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/18 "2006-12-20T16:00:10Z")

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The band “Delerium” may fit your bill.

Try the abulms “Semantic Spaces” or “Poem”.

MtM

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**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\
**Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-recommend-any-ambient-music/384789/19 "2006-12-21T01:52:25Z")

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FWIW, after reviewing my collection, I am getting to the conclusion that these guys (Budd, Fripp, Eno, Roach, Obmana, Sylvian, Czukay) are much better when they do collaborative albums than on their own (where they can be a bit too monotone). Luckily, they are a very promiscuous bunch and have done just about every possible combination.