I’m know of and really like Eno’s Ambient 1-4 works.
I like Global Communicaions.
I like Skylab # 1.
Tangentailly to Eno, I know of Harold Budd, but haven’t heard a lot.
I love letting this kind of music play on loop while I sleep. What else should I know about? Thanks.
I really like Eno’s Apollo, and if your local NPR station carries it, you’ll want to check out Hearts of Space (If they don’t, then you can still check out their playlists.).
Steve Roach is one of the big names in ambient.
NanananananananananananananananananananananananaBoards of Canada.
They’re incredible. They’ve put out two full-lengths and a number of EPs. Pick up Geogaddi sometime.
Steve Roach, absolutely. Also check out James Johnson, Thom Brennan, Stars of the Lid, Jonn Serrie…just for starters…
The longest-running ambient/space music radio show in the world (aside from Hearts of Space) is Star’s End on WXPN 88.5 FM in Philadelphia, every Saturday night/Sunday morning from 1-6 AM. If you’re not in the Philly area, you can hear the webcast at www.starsend.org. The website also features lots of links to artist webpages and sources to buy CDs.
Since it’s nearly impossible to find much of this music in your local Tower or HMV, you should also check out two of the biggest and best labels/sellers of ambient online: Hypnos, at www.hypnos.com, and Space for Music at www.spaceformusic.com.
Finally, you might check out the soundtrack work of Cliff Martinez, whose scores for Traffic, Solaris, Narc, and Wicker Park are quite ambient in tone and quite beautiful.
Oh yeah, you might want to check out iTunes radio with their ambient radio stations, they play pretty good stuff and you can easily found out the names of the artists you like.
We used to listen to Hearts of Space several years back when my wife (then girlfriend) lived in Macon. It’s been several years since I checked, but last time I did, NPR was suprisingly not playing it on the Atlanta channel.
I already own Cliff Martinez / Traffic soundtrack – I do like that. I’ll look for more from him. I’ve read a lot about Boards of Canada, I’ll check that out. The rest of the suggestions are new to me, but I am taking notes.
Thanks, and keep em coming.
Aussie Ken Davis is aprolific producer of ambient music. I’m no great fan but I’ve seen him perform and it is quite something to see one guy playing up to 6 keyboards at a time.
Just for reference, here’s the AllMusic Guide page on ambient music. There are a few names that I haven’t seen mentioned here.
Some other thoughts:
Early stuff by the Anubian Lights
Chris & Cosey
Some of the stuff by Coil
The Brain
Cluster
If you stretch your definition of “ambient”, some artists like Mum
I’ll second Boards of Canada.
I also quite enjoy the Eno/Fripp collaboration Evening Star.
I’m not sure if it counts as ambient or not, but I adore this album by Jon Hassell.
The Necks album Sex is a great one.
You mentioned Eno but didn’t list Thursday Afternoon. Another winner in my book
Well, lots of NPR statins offer streaming webcasts, so you might be able to pick it up that way. You could also trying bugging your local NPR affiliate, be sure to point out that one of the top-rated NPR stations in the country (WPLN in Nashville) carries it.
The Orb. It’s a bit odd, and might be hard to find, but it’s soft and ambient (lots of ethereal tones) with just enough variance to hold the listener’s interest without disrupting their train of thought. I use it as “meditation music” when I’m trying to think abstractly and want some sort of stimulus.
There is a TON of good ambient over at ampcast.com ( http://www.ampcast.com/music/random.php?id=323 - for their ambient listings)
A few artists to check out are NAYH, Dark Muse and Palancar.
Of course, for a self-promo, you can look up Tic Tok Men at ampcast and check out the tracks off “Borderland”.
I had an old roommate who was into them. I remember several experieces with mushrooms where he played The Orb but I havent listened to them in 10 years or more. Thanks for the reminder.
The internet radio stations on WinAmp include several ambient stations.
The best ambient album ever is Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works, Vol 2