I want to let the world know how much I love ambient music. I like all kinds of it from Minimalist to Ambient house, to Industrial Ambient. My favorite groups are:
FSOL
The Orb
Brian Eno
Tangerine Dream
Amorphious Androgenous
the KLF
Art of Noise
and many many more
if you have any groups that you think I sould listen to please list them below.
Ben
Well, I am a composer who mostly writes solo piano works with a light orchestral background. I guess it’s considered a cross between New Age/ambient/classical. I just released a CD; let me know if you’d be interested in hearing a sample, I’d be more than happy to email you one. 
i’m sorry…but since when are KLF ambient?!..maybe it’s just me…and i only bought their tehcno/trance cds and forgot all about the ambient side of their catalouge…
Talkin about ambient though…check out Lustmord or Robert Rich for really freaky dark ambient. Drones, heavy atmospheres, icky found sound samples.
Lustmord rules! I’ve recently been turned on to Muslimgauze. The guy who was Muslimgauze passed away last year(i believe), and he’s got a HUGE catalogue of material. Some of it i don’t care for, but there is some that are just beautiful, like “Beyond the Blue Mosque” and “Mullah Said”.
Didn’t Tangerine Dream do the sound track for Blade Runner?
Kruder and Dorfmeister, not exactly ambient, but close enough. especially if you like the orb. who aren’t ambient at all really
System 7 did a pair of fantastic ambient albums in 1994, with The Orb’s help – The Water Album and The Fire Album. The rest of their stuff isn’t worth checking out so much, mind.
Have you tried the lighter end of drum & bass at all? You might find LTJ Bukem’s Logical Progression album/compilation suits your tastes.
I believe Vangelis did the ST for Bladerunner. I -think- Tangerine Dream did a sound track, but not the only sound track, for Ridley Scott’s movie, Legend. I seem to recall there being some controversy over sound tracks being included on the DVD release. I don’t remember whose went into the which release where or when, and whatnot.
Speaking of Vangelis, he did the ST for “1492: Conquest of Paradise”, which is some keen music in itself. One of my first “real” 12 inch records was Vangelis’ “Heaven and Hell”. It was a gift, and when i first heard it (i was about 12 or 13 at the time) it freaked the hell out of me. I pulled it out a couple years ago, gave it a listen… and it still freaks me out 15 years later.
Tangerine Dream made a very good soundtrack for the superb horror film The Keep (the one about German soldiers holed up in a Romanian castle during World War II and being picked off by a malignant presence). Very atmospheric music.
I’ll second Crusoe’s recommendation. Logical Progression is a great, great album.
I was also a big fan of the movie “The Keep”, I taped a lot of the music using my at-the-time-very-sophisticated method of holding a microphone up to the TV (heck, I was twelve). Excellent!
While it’s barely ambient, I would highly recomend the newest album by Sigour Ros. Simlar to slower Cocteau Twins meets Pink Floyd.
Pink Floyd’s Obscured By Clouds (soundtrack to French[?] movie The Valley)
Anything by Jean Michel Jarre
Ricki Lee Jones The Magazine (Not quite ambient, but close)
You’ve already mentioned most of my favorite modern ambient artists… except one pair of Japanese women, but for the life of me I can’t recall either the name of their group or the title of the album I own… it’s at home of course. I’ll look it up when I get there.
Also, there’s a new Crystal Method album due out soon (if it’s not out already). They’re more trance/house than ambient, but if it’s anything like their first, Vegas, then most of the tracks should be quite suitable for just chillin’ if you don’t crank it too loud.
Global Communication and Skylab (although that first review of Skylab is way off the mark)
Could it be Sugar Plant? I forgot to mention them but their “Trance Mellow” album is pretty good as well.
I must care about this (for some odd reason) since it made me register, but…
The KLF is credited with “inventing” ambient house (with significant help from Alex Patterson - AKA the only guy in the Orb who matters) with the Chill Out album. The White Room came out after that, so obviously they didn’t dwell on their creation, but Mr. (or is Dr.?) Patterson pretty much knew what he had on his hands.
And as for suggestions, I’d say go with Rapoon if you can get it. His (one man band, typical of the genre) early stuff got quite good reviews, but I prefer his more recent stuff, especially Tin of Drum and The Alien Question.
D’oh! No, I was thinking of New Rock by Buffalo Daughter.
And now that I listen to it again, that’s not quite ambient either. I don’t know quite how to classify it, other than experimental electronica of some type. But if you like Laurie Anderson you’ll appreciate Buffalo Daughter. Mate Laurie with The Orb and in a few tries you might get an offspring that somewhat resembles them. (Especially if you use the Conan O’Brian “If They Mated” method.)
But back to the OP… don’t ignore Jarre! He did some groundbreaking stuff in the 1980’s.
oh oh…we can’t forget about Can. Creepiest band to come out of the 70’s…or at least one of several.
Well, I love ambient too. I have this 3 disc set (2 CD’s, 1 DVD) called “The Chillout Session”. It rules.
Anyway, my I reccomend Amon Tobin, one of the many fine artists on Ninja Tune records.
The holy grail of ambient, for me at least is:
Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works II
I think one reviewer said it best when he declared “If the monolith from 2001 could talk, this is what it would sound like.” I adore this album. I dream to this album, trip to it, and just plain listen to it. I really love it. I have to insist that you pick it up.
Lucky Charms
Gridlock
Converter
Axiome
Xingu Hill
Malada Fronta
Pal
Or you could build a gerbil cage on top of a sythesizer and have ambient 24 hours a day.