You Gots To Chill. The ILM Ambient Listening Club >>> UPDATED EVERY MONDAY

So as a lurker I'm somewhat nervous about making my first ever post a "Listening Club" thread, but insomnia demands I do something rather than continue as I have for the last 2 hours lying in bed listening to the house creak, my girlfriend's breathing, while outside droplets of today's rain now periodically fall from trees onto parked cars and the clearing up of a cold has left my nasal cavity largely free of mucus but with enough of a blockage to emit a strange mouse like squeak as the bedside clock tick tocks and I'm left thinking of how Eno came to compose his glut of ambient albums after a shawty nursing him to recovery post bike crash was thoughtful enough to put on some classical chillwave at a volume too low for use and the arm of the record player too far to reach by the crippled Brian.

Also, I'm a big fan of music that drifts around my day to day largely sedentary activities and lowers my heart rate, and actually may lull me to sleep. So, I'm looking forward to chill-pill recommendations be it Basinksi, Kompakt strain ambient, FSOL, Vangelis Blade Runner, or obscure ambient works by artists that normally work in other genres. No strict rules, and if we have to do ambient-dub, then so be it.

ENOugh is ENOugh accusations may well be valid with yet another listening club thread, but enraged cynics are encouraged to partake in some of this thread's listening in order to lower their blood pressure.

I expect some snarky comment soon, but take it in my stride and quote Erick and Parrish:

http://www.dustygroove.com/images/products/e/epmd~~~~~~~_yougotsto_101b.jpg

Week One:

Brian Eno: Thursday Afternoon

http://open.spotify.com/album/6AKF0REZoFiXMorWDpSiZt

http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/1639/cover_25491082009.jpg

With songs like "Thursday Afternoon," he was experimenting with what he called a "holographic" style, composed according to mathematical principles, in a series of repeated loops in which each component represents the whole. >> http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/magazine/04funny_humor.html?_r=1

I enjoyed Wendy McClure's True-Life Tale (June 4) that chronicled the less-than-enthusiastic reception Brian Eno's ''Thursday Afternoon'' received in Rossi's, ''an amiable dive bar.'' I am concerned, however, that readers unfamiliar with Eno's work might accept the reaction of the bar's patrons as informed and legitimate criticism. In that setting, Bach's ''Goldberg'' Variations would have evoked a similar response.

'' Thursday Afternoon'' is an organically complex work best experienced through a quality sound-reproduction system, in an environment without intrusive noise that would obscure the myriad intricate details suspended through the recording's dynamic range. McClure's ''Ting . . . ting. . .ting . . .'' characterization of the piece, while not inappropriate in context, is analogous to reducing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony to ''da-da-da-DUM''; there's really quite a lot lost in the process. >> http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE6DC1331F93BA25755C0A9609C8B63

Erik Satie: Gymnopédie No.1, No. 2, No,. 3 (piano) and versions

[Removed Illegal Image]

Pitchfork hated it, so you know its actually quite good really >> http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/4618-e-luxo-so/

Not on Spotfy for Europeans or other proxy deviants, but maybe your library has it ?*

This time, tomorrow?

Newbie nerves + lack of sleep. Try again:

Erik Satie: Gymnopédie No.1, No. 2, No,. 3 (piano) and versions

http://minimaljames.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/eriksatie2.jpg

http://open.spotify.com/album/41cNy2eZeJ3tP16bMcQopg

http://open.spotify.com/album/2Qfs0zjdWYg5MIxmQZUtyH

The Gymnopédies, published in Paris starting in 1888, are three piano compositions written by French composer and pianist Erik Satie. These short, atmospheric pieces are written in 3/4 time, with each sharing a common theme and structure. Collectively, the Gymnopédies are regarded as the precursors to modern ambient music - gentle yet somewhat eccentric pieces which, when composed, defied the classical tradition. For instance, the first few bars of Gymnopédie No. 1 consist of an alternating progression of two major seventh chords, the first on the subdominant, G, and the second on the tonic, D. This kind of harmony was almost entirely unknown at this time. The melodies of the pieces use deliberate, but mild, dissonances against the harmony, producing a piquant, melancholy effect that matches the performance instructions, which are to play each piece "slowly", "dolorously" or "gravely". From the second half of the 20th century on, the Gymnopédies were often erroneously described as part of Satie's body of furniture music, perhaps due to John Cage's interpretation of them. >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnop%C3%A9dies_(Satie)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBiPQKK1upk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-9DTISjujQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNdDoL3s8aA&feature=related

Satie's "Nocturne" and "Gnossiennes" are also worth exploring.

Here are modern electronic act Isan's quite good versioning of Gymnopodies: http://open.spotify.com/album/3iJgUmRkjc1Yf4hejFbLhw

Labradford - E Luxo So

http://www.recordstore.co.uk/images/covers/mute/BFFP157-300.jpg

Pitchfork hated it, so you know its actually quite good really >> http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/4618-e-luxo-so/

Not on Spotfy for Europeans or other proxy deviants, but maybe your library has it ?*

This time, tomorrow?

Thurday Afternoon was originally released as a soundtrack to a set of 7 video paintings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdiMxlcdq64

"Thursday Afternoon" is one of the few Eno works I've never heard. Now might be the time.

Unhappy Hour, what happens when someone plays Thursday Afternoon on a bar jukebox.

TS: Thursday Afternoon vs Neroli

Ohh count me in for a week on this sometime

Me too.

Nice to see this thread being welcomed! Any thoughts on frequency of updates? Twice a week for hardcore insomniacs? Once a week? How many selections?

I'm reluctant to impose any set criteria other than perhaps your choices shouldn't total more than say, 4 hours playing time.

Selections can certainly be individual tracks rather than albums, especially if anyone wants to dive into early 90s UK chillout where most electronica artists threw in a couple of quieter pieces t round off EPs or albums.

Thoughts please!

I'd like to choose a week of this.

Weekly and two selections sounds good like a good idea to me.

Go Andrew O'H. Gymnopédie No.1 is my jam.

Can I have a week as well please?

dude that Labradford album is so fucking great

Let's see how a four day turn-around works out, and feel free to comment on any recording at any point even after the thread as moved on to other "suggested listens" - if no big conversation occurs, and we just share some great music that in itself is good enough.

Thursday Afternoon >> 6 May >> Herman G. Neuname
Sunday Morning >> 9 May >> Sundar
Wednesday Morning, 3AM >> 12 May >> Nom Nom Nom Chomsky (WmC)
The Ghosts of Saturday Night (After Hours at Napoleone's Pizza House)>> 15 May >> Tannenbaum Schmidt

Looking forward to your choices!

Suits me! I have 3 varying albums lined up.

cool, I may ask for a week in a bit. I listen to a lot of this stuff.

I'll take a week, thanks!

I'd like to have a week too sometime, thanks.

Thursday Afternoon >> 6 May >> Herman G. Neuname
Sunday Morning >> 9 May >> Sundar
Wednesday Morning, 3AM >> 12 May >> Nom Nom Nom Chomsky (WmC)
The Ghosts of Saturday Night (After Hours at Napoleone's Pizza House)>> 15 May >> Tannenbaum Schmidt

I've run out of cute days in the week song references, but here you go:

Tuesday 18 May >> bug holocaust (sleeve)
Friday 21 May >> I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor)
Monday 24 May >> Heavy Potato Encounter (MaresNest)

Go Andrew O'H. Gymnopédie No.1 is my jam.

― nuttin doin (herb albert), Monday, 3 May 2010 14:39 (Yesterday) Bookmark

hearing that loud and clear.

Labradford helping me remain calm while my workstation starts to freeze up on everything I try and do.

oh, I wasn't expecting that jarring door being slammed mid-way through track 3 on the Labradford! Wonder why they felt they needed to insert something so "disruptive" smack in the middle of it.

idk but i love it!

Last track on Labradford making me suddenly feel very sad and melancholy = this is amazing! really beautiful album.

Are we ok with links like the "library ;-)" one above? I thought ILM's attitude was "hey, its cool, but not on our patch"?

> Here are modern electronic act Isan's quite good versioning of Gymnopodies

yeah. gary numan does a version too.

Are we ok with links like the "library ;-)" one above? I thought ILM's attitude was "hey, its cool, but not on our patch"?

― tomofthenest, Tuesday, 4 May 2010 11:13 (34 minutes ago) Bookmark

I saw a similar *cough* on the Funk listening thread, and thought this was acceptable on occasion... by all means, please let me know. In any case, once the next in line choices are up, I intend to "clear up my cough"

Is this an issue, as the "DJ Post Your Mixes For D/L" is chock full of direct links (albeit to mixes an not single artist works)

- - - - - -

dude that Labradford album is so fucking great

― DUM DUM DUM DUMMMMM! (HI DERE), Monday, 3 May 2010 15:55 (Yesterday) Bookmark

Anyone who has copped and enjoyed the Labradford album should (obviously purchase it) also look in Pan Amercian, and offshoot by Mark Nelson.

see the cough didnt link to a direct link, it went to a blog for everyone to read, and, should a menu elsewhere be on a blog, we cant be held responsible ..

and I recommend Pan American, I was going to post one of their albums but decided on another album.

i love me some gymnopedies, but i'm all about his gnossiennes. there's a certain sense of despair to those pieces that really appeals to me

i strongly recommend akira rabelais' album eisoptrophobia for a digital update on satie's piano pieces

whats up with the three day intervals, all other clubs roll full week andrew

Samosa, it's because I have a heart condition that requires a fairly constant need to be relaxed otherwise my blood boils/heart explodes - like the opposite of Crank - and ambient music is the cure to my fever. Seriously.

I kid you not.

- - - -

see the cough didnt link to a direct link, it went to a blog for everyone to read, and, should a menu elsewhere be on a blog, we cant be held responsible ..

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 4 May 2010 15:33 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

and I recommend Pan American, I was going to post one of their albums but decided on another album.

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 4 May 2010 15:34 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

If it would have been something other than "360 Business", I would have been keen to listening to it....

hey thanks for the week! I'll do my best to surprise and relax y'all.

only thing I have to add right now about Thursday Afternoon is that it came out right before the CD boom took off, when home taping was still big. That is why Eno made it 61 minutes long, so that no matter what kind of tape you used you wouldn't be able to record the entire uninterrupted piece. My friends at the time were annoyed but kind of impressed.

Many years later I burned a CD copy from a friend, it is still the one I am least familiar with up until the flood of self-released stuff.

Samosa, in seriousness, I figured a 3 or 4 day gap between each poster would be fine with this "genre" but then I'm in not really listening too many of the other listening club choices (instead limiting myself to anything that I already had on my radar, had read something about at some point and made a mental "must check that out" note.

While, by no means diminishing the impact or quality of essentials in this "genre" I find you can certainly absorb it while "doing other stuff" - more so than other music - so imagined active participants would churn the choices a bit more speedily. Additionally, I wouldn't expect too much discussion about the music directly as this really is a genre that would pretty much elicit the same mood / graceful calmness / serenity no matter who the artist.

But if people want to talk about production / concepts / artist intentions / etc that would be great too!

If there's a consensus that it should be a weekly change over then please comment and I can amend.

yeah I might suggest a week just for consistency, so I know in my head that on e.g. Mondays there will be a new set of ambient listening suggestions.

maybe people could leo stuff that isn't on spotify?

I would prefer a week. I'm already way behind in the few listening-club threads I'm interested in.

i think a week would be better. it's nice to listen to this stuff slowly

and discussion should totally be encouraged. there's already two perfectly good ambient recommendation threads on noise board

I commit to listening to Thursday Afternoon on repeat on Thursday, May 6th, from 12:01 PM to 5:59 PM CST. I'll report if its functional "furniture-music" for day-job, commuting, yard work, and web-surfing. I suspect it will be inappropriate as background for screaming at my broker, but we'll see how that goes.

xxpost: there's already two perfectly good ambient recommendation threads on noise board

Thought 1: I want to go to there
Thought 2: why the fuck did I not know about this before
Thought 3: who are all these people?
Thought 4: gonna listen to that Matthew Hawtin mix now.

Im happy if its twice a week but If others arent its fine. I'm up next so just let me know when I can post my 3 picks.

i love this thread already

My vote is for once a week as well.

Once a week, please.

So am I still to post my albums at midnight or to wait til sunday/monday?

Sorry, Herman I've only just had a chance to check here today. The people's choice seems to be Monday, so if you don't mind waiting till then.

10 May >> Herman G. Neuname
17 May >> Sundar
24 May >> Nom Nom Nom Chomsky (WmC)
31 May >> Tannenbaum Schmidt
7 June >> bug holocaust (sleeve)
14 June >> I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor)
21 June >> Heavy Potato Encounter (MaresNest)

Any others?

yeah no worries

just hope we get some chat on these albums then if we're waiting.

Broken Social Scene's "Feel Good Lost" is an ironed on Balearic classic.
From Newfoundland.

So who listened to Eno "Thursday Afternoon" today?

Eric Tamm has this to say about Thursday Afternoon in his book Brian Eno - His Music & The Vertical Colour Of SOund

In 1984 Sony Japan commissioned Eno to create a video and accompanying soundtrack that would be written and recorded specifically for compact disc, to be released only in that medium. Eno made seven video paintings of a nude female model and combined these with a cyclic musical compo-sition. The finished result, called Thursday Afternoon, has been shown internationally and took first prize for best non-narrative video at the Video Culture Canada exposition in Toronto in October, 1984. The video itself, and a CD of the same title, containing sixty-one minutes of uninterrupted music, were commercially released in 1986.

For Eno, the attraction of writing a piece for compact disc was two-fold: it could be much longer than the thirty or so minutes available on one side of a conventional LP, and there would be the possibility of having none of the background hiss associated with analog mastering techniques. How-ever, although Thursday Afternoon was digitally mastered, the music was originally recorded on a con-ventional twenty-four-track analog machine, Eno explained that he needed the capability of changing tape speeds more than the fifteen percent or so currently offered by digital technology. Slowing down recorded sounds by fifty percent or more “does something to the timbre of sound that I like, by bring-ing upper harmonics into hearing range.”

In the music of Thursday Afternoon, very small events take on large psychological proportions in the quiet sonic expanse Eno sets up. A low drone remains nearly constant until close to the end, when it drops out to highlight the other almost ubiquitous element, a high, shimmering major chord on synthesizer. These shimmering timbres seem constant, fixed, and yet, when not much else is happening in the music, one realizes, as with the drone at the beginning of “The Heavenly Music Corporation,” that the sound never stays the same at all, but has an inner richness and vitality in its own right.

Over these background sounds occur a number of distinct kinds of sound-events in periodic clusters, that is, appearing for a certain stretch of time, then vanishing: very high, bright, bell-like tones with rich harmonics, a melodic-harmonic motive using the overlapping pitches C, B, and F, and tim-brally using rapid amplitude modulation, “bird sounds” and “cricket sounds” – high-frequency twitter-ings, a sound like an echoed water drop, which is approximately on the pitch A, long single synthesizer tones with very soft attack and decay, a strange, low-frequency, variably pitched, almost human “sigh-ing” sound with a downward slide and fairly quick attack and decay, and – what the listener is bound to focus on whenever it appears, due to its timbre being the most evocative of traditional, known music – an essentially Mixolydian set of pitches played in seemingly random rhythm and order on treated pi-ano. (See Example 12.) All of these sound-events have occurred at least once within the piece’s first 15 minutes.

Piano Pitch Collection in “Thursday Afternoon”

d’’
c’’
b’

g’
f’
d’
b
g

Except for very occasional short sections when the background shimmering changes to a C-major from a G-major chord, the harmony of Thursday Afternoon is essentially static throughout, though with a tendency to throw in and out of relief the rich overtones partials of the equal-tempered tritone, B-F. Thursday Afternoon follows no developmental logic, it is a non-temporal painting in sound.

Any others?

I'll do one

Oh and thanks, Andrew, look forward to it!

I hadn't actually heard Thursday Afternoon before. It's perfect as capital-A Ambient music in the sense of atmospheric background music (as opposed to slow or beatless electronica in a general sense). It worked remarkably well as accompaniment to muscle relaxation exercises. The synthesizer resonance effects are simple and subtle but still somehow engrossing to me when I do pay attention.

I'm not completely sure what to make of the Labradford. I don't dislike it, certainly not as much as I disliked nearly all post-rock about 10 years ago. Still, I wonder what people who really love this music are seeing in it. Much of it seems to consist of repeatedly cycling through very simple standard chord progressions with predictable dynamic changes but not the kind of timbral or textural depth that would cause me to see a clear purpose to this, unless it is just too subtle for me to have noticed on the first couple of listens. (Eno's use of a drone with changes in resonance is far more radical.) The 'slammed door' disruption in track 3 could be a very effective device but since it is never reflected or commented on anywhere else in the piece, it just seems a bit random to me.

The Satie pieces are great, obviously, though I haven't relistened for this. Chilled and pretty.

Herman pfunk, you're due up at midnight. Ready?

aye, but I gotta do sams funk club picks too because he's at work @ midnight and he couldn't be arsed doing it beforehand so he emailed me his choices.

but I'll do this one first

Cool! Looking forward to some further chillin'

#1 Tangerine Dream - Phaedra
http://image1.altnet.com/images/51/077778606451/Tangerine_Dream/Phaedra/Tangerine_Dream-Phaedra_3.jpg

AMG Review:

Phaedra is one of the most important, artistic, and exciting works in the history of electronic music, a brilliant and compelling summation of Tangerine Dream's
early avant-space direction balanced with the synthesizer/sequencer technology just beginning to gain a foothold in nonacademic circles. The result is best heard
on the 15-minute title track, unparalleled before or since for its depth of sound and vision. Given focus by the arpeggiated trance that drifts in and out of the mix,
the track progresses through several passages including a few surprisingly melodic keyboard lines and an assortment of eerie Moog and Mellotron effects,
gaseous explosions, and windy sirens. Despite the impending chaos, the track sounds more like a carefully composed classical work than an unrestrained piece of noise.
While the title track takes the cake, there are three other excellent tracks on Phaedra.
"Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares" is a solo Edgar Froese song that uses some surprisingly emotive and affecting synthesizer washes,
and "Movements of a Visionary" is a more experimental piece, using treated voices and whispers to drive its hypnotic arpeggios.
Perhaps even more powerful as a musical landmark now than when it was first recorded, Phaedra has proven the test of time.

Spotify Link

#2 Global Communication - 76:14
http://img.noiset.com/images/album/global-communication-76-14-album-cover-7173.jpeg

AMG Review:

Tempering the industrial tilt of their previous Reload material with slower, more graceful rhythms and an ear for melody unmatched by
any in the downtempo crowd, Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton produced the single best work in the ambient house canon.
The tick-tock beats and tidal flair of "14:31" are proof of the duo's superb balance of beauty with a haunting quality more in line with Vangelis
than Larry Heard (though both producers were heavy influences on the album). On several tracks the darkside appears to take over
-- the pinging ambience of "9:39" -- but for most of 76:14 the melodies and slow-moving rhythms chart a course toward the upbeat and positive.

Spotify Link

#3 The Future Sound of London - Lifeforms
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZI1WXfi8bc8/R_4DQpJhVMI/AAAAAAAAADY/Ap93pc2FeM0/s320/Lifeforms.jpg

AMG Review: By Ned Raggett

Having indulged in more explicitly ambient realms with the Amorphous Androgynous side project, FSOL returned to full action with Lifeforms,
a double-disc effort that ranks as one of the best experimental techno releases of the '90s. If not as immediately memorable on a song per song basis as,
say, Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works collections, as an overall piece, Lifeforms makes for an inventive, fascinating aural experience, as rich and detailed
as the Orb's best work. Where FSOL differs from that band in particular is the comparative lack of overt humor and less immediate desire to make people groove --
this is something to listen to rather than necessarily dance to. In comparison to Accelerator, this is an extremely subtle listen, with rhythms generally buried
in the mix, serving the melodies rather than vice versa. In comparison to the upfront breaks and steady house beats just two years previous, here they're stuttered,
echoed, often approaching dub in pace and impact. Meanwhile, the space-alien bubbles and noises and haunting tones take to the fore, making for a disorienting,
evocative experience, a mix of natural sounds and artificial elements much like the band's own artwork. Even the singles, "Cascade" and "Lifeforms,"
play down the beat. The one for "Cascade" is barely there, swooping samples and soft synth hooks to the fore, while "Lifeforms,"
for its comparatively more direct impact, relies as much on its keyboard swell and chiming melody as much as the complex overlay of rhythms.
There are a few guest appearances here and there, but they're mostly notable for how the band incorporate them instead of letting them stand out --
Robert Fripp's guitar on "Flak," Talvin Singh's tablas on "Life Form Ends," and Toni Halliday from Curve doing a "vocal texture" on "Cerebral."

Spotify Link

Need thread title change if a mod is reading.

Anyway I was going to go with an earlier Tangerine Dream but thought fuck it, this one might work better. I'm sure a lot of you will know it but even if you do, its so great you should enjoy listening to again.

The other 2 picks, I expect you all know them to, but if the point of the clubs are to introduce classics to the unfamiliar, then this is where to start. Please enjoy the classics and I look forward to the feedback.

nope, never heard of Global Communication! investigating now.

I don't think you will be disappointed, it's wonderful.

phaedra was indeed ground-breaking but it does seem a little tame and muted now for some reason.

Nice choices. I know the GC and FSOL well; been a while since I've heard "Lifeforms" - hope its not too cyberhippy sounding with the passage of time. The GC is excellent - some parts are quite moving. Never heard the TD "Phaedra" before.

This is the first time I've heard Lifeforms, despite being a big IDM/ambient stan back in the day, and it sounds dated to me, too much to really enjoy, but perhaps if you knew it at the time it would still sound good.

The brief 'Canon in D' interlude in 'Domain' was unexpected and interestin.

(I wouldn't say it's embarrassingly dated, just pretty strongly of its time, and how you react to that might differ. Myself i don't feel inclined to spend much effort getting back into it)

My two favourite Global Comm ambient things be:

Warp 69 - Natural High (Global Communications remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA_fhlhZAkU

The Grid - Rollercoaster (Global Communications Yellow Submarine remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAO1Q8SlWRo

FSOL "Cascade" is nice - the full 40min single of "Cascade" is way better than "Lifeforms" LP imo.

i love that grid remix.
even now i keep the cd single within reaching distance for when the urge kicks in.
excellent track.

Global Communication is great! I had completely forgotten about them until Shadow Dancer linked a bunch of their Chapterhouse remixes (shut UP they were actually really amazingly good) on another forum and I dug them out again.

Listening to that FSOL album first, though. I've been exploring a lot of this stuff thanks to TASM/BTWS but between FSOL and AA there's so much it's hard to know where to start, really.

Phaedra obviously is great but I've listened to it so much in the past year I'm looking for newer (to my ears) sounds.

The GC Chapterhouse remixes are on the Remotion album and they're both pretty dope, 'Epsilon Phase' in particular nearly gives that Grid one above a run for its money.

TASM/BTWS

?? huh?

AA = amphorous androgynous?

Remotion only has Delta and Epsilon Phases, completely misses out Alpha, Beta and Gamma.

Sorry, psych dude 4 Letter Acronym Hell.

TASM = Time And Space Machine, BTWS = Beyond The Wizards Sleeve which are both Richard Norris' (The Grid) current projects.

Remotion only has Delta and Epsilon Phases, completely misses out Alpha, Beta and Gamma.

ooh, exciting, will check them out.

Strange "fact": the alternate title for 14:31 is 'Ob-Selon-Mi-Nos' - which backwards is 'Son, I'm no lesbo'.

Makes ya think huh.

Slight de-railing of thread, but were there any other indie minors get entire album remixed by cooler electronica types?

There's the Chapterhouse/GC "Pentamerous Metamorphosis" mentioned above, and also mu-ziq vs The Auteurs (also pretty good). More???

I haven't listened to Phaedra since maybe 1992, but I liked it a tthe time, so I'm going to go for that one first. IIRC there's a spaceship taking off intro to one o fthe track sthat used to give me the fear for some reason.

This is the first time I've heard Lifeforms, despite being a big IDM/ambient stan back in the day, and it sounds dated to me, too much to really enjoy, but perhaps if you knew it at the time it would still sound good.

hmmm, i dont find it dated at all. Anyone else?

i was going to post this before ledge did, maybe because it wasn't a favourite at the time, even. should listen to it again though.

Great thread, I guess I need to finally start using Spotify. I'll be happy to take a week too.

"76:14" is insanely classic but "Epsilon Phase" might be better than any track on that album.

I thought FSOL would be the one everyone knew and loved.

I have to say, on first listen and having never really heard anything from early FSOL - apart from PNG naturally - I'm finding it quite dated and because of this pretty hard going, but I'm persisting. Of course the Tangs record is dated too. *insert well thought out exposition on the evolution of synth technology vs trends in listening here*

not digging this Global Communication at all. too much dinky rhythms, too much piano preset. I like my ambient music beatless.

this is like what I would hear in some upscale South American coffeehouse.

I assume that's a diss

well, not quite. it just has this certain vibe that I associate with those places.

I enjoyed the second half a lot more once it chilled out.

FSOL not as horribly dated as i remember it being. might just be the cover...

oh, wait, title track is worst offender. familiarity?

(kate, are the two psych compilations that AA compiled worth listening to?)

Can't rightly recall offhand.

My memory was that they were more of the wibbly wubbly hippie wippie variety than the kind of psychedelic freakbeat I tend to prefer. But it has been a while.

Didn't like his A to Z at all, it was quite obvious - but that might have been the Beeb's fault rather than his.

FSOL do sound a bit dated, but it's dated to a time and place musically that I happen to be really very fond of so I'm not going to complain.

> Didn't like his A to Z at all

the Rob Da Bank one? i heard that at the time. was more impressed by the choices than i was by him. was enthusiastic and knowledgeable enough, but it was such hippy bollocks.

Yeah, hippie bollocks is kind of the quintessence here.

Listening to GC at work, I'm such a sucker for radio voices, so digging that incidental track. Unfortunately I think I have to agree with Sleeve wrt the kind of beats and pulses involved in this album.

I'd say the GC has stood the test of time better than Lifeforms, but both are too busy (GC with beats, FSOL with its "organic-sonics", squiggles and general meandering through various tempos/paces for me qualify them as ambient anymore.

I would have 10+ years ago, when in contrast to whatever was going on in the BIG ROOM this was a suitably lush antidote. But having discovered Eno properly, Harold Budd and post-Fennesz both GC and FSOL are just too specific of their time and context. As "downtempo" music its fine and GC > FSOL today.

I didn't enjoy TD either. Funny thing is, I like Maiden Voyage (Tack 7) on the GC album best, and that's very TD sounding.

I enjoyed the second half a lot more once it chilled out.

― bug holocaust (sleeve), Monday, 10 May 2010 23:13 (Yesterday) Bookmark

^this. 2nd half of GC is great.

Yep, it did get a lot more enjoyable toward the end.

GC is more rhythmic than Eno, but it's hardly beat heavy, there's only really two tracks on the first half that have beats as such.

fuck dated i wanna hear MIA over something like FSOL's 'Among Myselves', beat on that is fire

Warp 69 - Natural High (Global Communications remix)

love this but also ripped the vinyl at 45rpm for a swingin' jazz version

17 May >> Sundar
24 May >> Nom Nom Nom Chomsky (WmC)
31 May >> Tannenbaum Schmidt
7 June >> bug holocaust (sleeve)
14 June >> I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor)
21 June >> Heavy Potato Encounter (MaresNest)
28 June >> Tom D.
5 July >> NoTimeBeforeTime

In 1994 it seemed like every ambient record was stealing from the same sources (e.g. either stuff like "Phaedra", or the FX on Kraftwerk's "Hall of Mirrors) whereas "76:14" felt more lush and enveloping. It's a fairly sad and lonely album too -- perfect when you're in the mood for hearing that sort of cheerless music.

As isolationist music, I actually think it captures the mood better than "Selected Ambient Works II".

76:14 is so much better...

anyway, just thought i'd post this, because i can...

76:14 £12.49 Virgin, Megastore London 30/03/1994 (the big velcro and morse code edition)
LifeForms £9.99 Our Price, Hemel Hempstead 17/11/1994
Phaedra £2.76 Amazon 29/08/2009 (mp3s)

(never did bother working out what all the morse code on the sleeve said)

It's a fairly sad and lonely album too -- perfect when you're in the mood for hearing that sort of cheerless music.

Huh. Does anyone else feel this way about 76:14?

As isolationist music, I actually think it captures the mood better than "Selected Ambient Works II".

― NoTimeBeforeTime, Tuesday, 11 May 2010 15:38 (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

76:14 is so much better...
― koogs, Tuesday, 11 May 2010 17:46 (5 hours ago) Bookmark

rong. SAW actually makes me feel scared sometimes, and when its not doing that burrows itself into my head for days.

76:14 barely does anything 'cept sometimes think "ah, that's highly pretty" or "gonna wait till this massive ambient synth pad/wash is over before I get up". Not saying its bad, its great, but u know.

xxpost : both are pretty cheerless. Eno "Appollo" is the stuff of makes you feel alive / soul stirring proper ambient symphony - imho

Interesting. I haven't found 76:14 really compelling for years, but I've always felt that it was aiming at this miles-high floating joy, especially on say the last track. Maybe I'd enjoy it again if I stopped assuming it was trying to make me feel a certain way.

Agree with you about last track - that one is pretty special; second half of 76:14 is where the real chillin' is at

Pentamerous Metamorphosis is better, imo.

I was floored (and a little bit disappointed) to hear how much "5 23" sounds like Tangerine Dream's "Love on a Real Train" (thanks YouTube). I think I also like Pentamerous Metamorphosis a little more, though the second half of that is much better than the first.

I listened to all three today. Lifeforms is ridiculously good. I only ever had Dead Cities, which I liked OK but which didn't inspire me to search further. Clearly, I was missing out. Global Communication is nice but didn't strike as SAWII-level. I'll listen more though.

I once created an internet art from the Gymnopédie No. 3 and it looks like this.

>> 76:14 is so much better...
>> koogs, Tuesday, 11 May 2010 17:46 (5 hours ago) Bookmark

> rong. SAW actually makes me feel scared sometimes,

i wasn't comparing 76:14 with SAWII but with the FSOL i was talking about earlier...

One problem with SAWII is that it works best as a concept -- it sounds fantastic and scary and all that, but I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've listened to it all the way through (OK, it's two hours long, but still). 76:14 isn't "scary" like SAWII but it's "lonely" -- for example, "14:31" isn't frightening, but there's a lot of paranoia on that track.

Xxpost - ah, I see koogs.
And agree (think I said already upthread) that 76:15 > Lifeforms.

Listened to Lifeforms today and couldn't make it past half-way - just too much meandering for my tastes. Not a diss, 'cos I think FSOL acheived with great sucess what they set out to do.

76:14 by being more gentle and "floaty" is strangely more engaging for me because of these qualities.

I'm reconsidering my stance on SAW II vs GC 76:14 after reall enjoying the latter today - just in the right frame of mind for it today I guess

There was never enough going on in SAW II to really hold my attention, especially for ~160 minutes. 76:14 on the other hand is one of the most gorgeous things I've ever heard. It's always sort of reminded me of discovering and exploring a really magical, wonderful ice kingdom. Not necessarily joyous but definitely optimistic/happy; it always puts a smile on my face.

I once created an internet art from the Gymnopédie No. 3 and it looks like this.

― Bobbi Peru, Wednesday, May 12, 2010 12:21 AM (12 hours ago)

this was quite weird. thanks!

SAWII strikes me as more motionless and natural than GC 76:14, which feels more technological and glassy and flowing. the range of emotions that i find in SAWII is incredible, i never understand people who just find it creepy or boring. GC 76:14 taps into a soft spot that i've had since i was a kid, which i associate with TD and the soundtrack to Risky Business. SAWII just sounds like SAWII.

and yeah, 5:23 is basically a cover of Love on a Real Train

Karl OTM on last two xposts

mmmm Thursday Afternoon, very nice.

FSOL Was really nice on the pure beatless stuff (mostly shorter trax?), lost a bit with the squiggly beats but more my style than the first few tracks of the GC.

Uh, hi, I don't know how these music clubs work, but this one has me interested?

Also Lifeforms EP is better than the 2CD.

3xp my pcp recommended me TD's "Love On A Real Train" once.

> Uh, hi, I don't know how these music clubs work, but this one has me interested?

there's not much to it. someone picks 3 records and people listen to them.

Herman pfunk what do you make of all this Taking Sides GC vs FSOL vs SAWII ?

Not much being said about Tangerine Dream Phaedra itt. I couldn't get past half the album tbh, but will persevere.

Everyone has their opinions. I can see why people say SAWII is overlong and a lot to take in, same with FSOL, but the GC is just perfect length to me. But I bought all 3 when they came out and still love them. I very nearly picked Biosphere but just felt the GC deserved to be picked.

Tangerine Dream are just brilliant. I was gonna go for one of the spacier early albums but figured this would fit more. My fave TD is Force Majeure but it just wouldnt fit on this thread.

"Movements of a Visionary" is my favourite TDream track, I think

17 May >> Sundar
24 May >> Nom Nom Nom Chomsky (WmC)
31 May >> Tannenbaum Schmidt

I'd like a crack at this, at least provisionally.

Oh and I guess I need a Spotify !nv!te?

you're in america, you cant get an invite

;_;

artist name + album album + mediafiXe/rapidshaXe always help in times of need

(X=r)

WEEK 3:

1) Robert Fripp & Brian Eno - Evening Star:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_iDs5ucVMWsg/SXsuJ8yAquI/AAAAAAAAApo/KNV_1EEZRps/s400/Robert+Fripp+&+Brian+Eno_evening_star_1975_retail_cd-front.jpg

Sometimes I think this might be my all-time favourite album.

AMG review (by Ted Mills):
Robert Fripp's second team up with Brian Eno was a less harsh, more varied affair, closer to Eno's then-developing idea of ambient music than what had come before in No Pussyfooting. The method used, once again, was the endless decaying tape loop system of Frippertronics but refined with pieces such as "Wind on Water" fading up into an already complex bed of layered synths and treated guitar over which Fripp plays long, languid solos. "Evening Star" is meditative and calm with gentle scales rocking to and fro while Fripp solos on top. "Wind on Wind" is Eno solo, an excerpt from the soon to be released Discreet Music album. The nearly 30-minute ending piece, "An Index of Metals," keeps Evening Star from being a purely background listen as the loops this time contain a series of guitar distortions layered to the nth degree, Frippertronics as pure dissonance. As a culmination of Fripp and Eno's experiments, Evening Star shows how far they could go.

2) Oren Ambarchi - Suspension:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_X94hEuCVfOc/SgUp1dnp8vI/AAAAAAAAAhs/_lcxv65j6sg/s400/cover.jpg

An album that totally expanded my concept of what could be done with the electric guitar. Also bizarrely enveloping and warm in its stark bareness.

AMG review (by Francois Couture):

Once more Oren Ambarchi managed to record a striking album of lowercase electronics. Less stripped-down than his collaboration with Martin Ng (Reconnaissance, on Staubgold), Suspension still belongs to the field of minimal(ist) music. Using guitar and electronics (and the line between one and the other is very thin), the composer has created slow, delicate pieces. The title describes the music appropriately: Everything seems to float in midair, including the listener. This position is not necessarily all that comfortable, but then again, Suspension is not an album for Zen meditation or exercises in Tibetan spirituality. It exists for ears to explore, providing an artistic experience in the most profound sense of the word. Turn up the volume in order to be moved by the occasional sub-bass tones, direct all of your attention to the music, and let yourself be hypnotized. "Wednesday" and "Vogler" are made of half-remembered melodies dissected and reassembled in a way similar to Fennesz' CD Endless Summer (minus the glitches and crackles). These are the busiest pieces. "Suspension" features the sound of a Wurlitzer electric piano with digital treatments. Its fragments of melodies bring to mind some of Andrew Poppy's works. The last piece, "As Far As the Eye Can See," evacuates any allusion to music as we usually conceive it to concentrate on a slow-evolving drone. Suspension confirms Ambarchi's talent and the strength of his musical vision. This music has personality and heart. It moves and stirs. Recommended.

3) Keith Fullerton Whitman - Lisbon

http://www.brainwashed.com/common/images/covers/krank092.jpg

I'm not sure if this is pushing the definition of "ambient" or not since it can certainly demand attention and gets progressively noisier and more intense (although not to extreme levels). Now, this might contradict the AMG review but I was always under the impression that this album was made entirely with an electric guitar processed via Max/MSP. (Or is the reviewer just saying that these synth sounds and samples are being triggered by the guitar via Max?) Mark Richardson's Pitchfork review seems to suggest this. (TBH, I thought Suspension was all guitar too. Perhaps I was wrong there.) I thought it was rather masterful as such. Even otherwise, the drones are very pleasant and the straightforward structure works powerfully.

AMG review (by Rob Theakston):

With all of his recent explorations into vintage analog equipment, drones, collaborations, and everything else under the sun as Hrvatski, it's amazing that Keith Fullerton Whitman has time to eat a good meal, let alone release albums and tour with such breakneck speed. But this particular recording is something special when placed in contrast to the rest of Whitman's work. This is a raw, nearly untouched recording of a performance in Lisbon on October 2005 where he picks up on some of the ideas left in 2002's excellent Playthroughs and blends them with elements of every single release he's had since, quirky synth signals, frantic digital chirps, field recordings, and other assorted sounds all harvested and filtered through his custom computer programs and processes. At times the performances are somber and gentle, progressing along with a slow grace and subtle nuances, and there are other moments when Whitman destroys that vibe with tension and dissonance. But it's this tension that leads to progress throughout the performance, and when it comes to experimental music, few do it better than Whitman. This is the embodiment of everything he's presented under his own name thus far, and the results couldn't be any more enjoyable.

Nice picks, all.

"an index of metals" sounds like cluster 79/ii

uh, cluster 71 i mean

Haven't heard any of these. Psyched.

great choices - 2 of my favs here in lisbon and evening star.

I really like all of these artists, but haven't heard any of these albums! Really looking forward to this ...

My (bad) tendency with ambient music is to put it on at low volume on external speakers, where it fades out of my attention almost instantly. This afternoon, I put on Evening Star on headphones at pretty high volume, and there is a LOT going on in there -- little rough bits that find their way into the loops and add a lot of texture. Not to mention some nice warm analog tape hiss.

yeah, those early frippertronic things are all really hissy and full of clicks and pops. i like how this is a really 2 sided LP with the stately melodic things on side 1 and the most abstract thing they ever did on side 2.

I am excited by Sundar's choices. Know the Eno/Fripp and never heard the others.

Oren Ambarchi is great, i suppose he is best known for playing on Sunn 0))) albums + live gigs

Ha, that may be true but it seems funny to me that that is what he's best-known for.

don't have access to Lisbon but have been listening to other KFW and it's great, especially Multiples.

and these tracks, if they are anything like the ones i've heard, must be bargains at 79p for 20+ minutes each. gotta love amazon's warped pricing policy*

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001EIF20U/ref=dm_sp_adp

* although their 30 seconds previews are useless in such situations.

wow. i have always loved 'lisbon' and 'evening star' but i welcome any reason to pull them out again.

oh ya and HI. i have been lurking/playing along for a week or two. thanks, pfunkboy, for introducing me to the future sound of london and global communication albums! i really like that type of early 90s/chillout tent-style ambient music apparently (the klf's 'chill out' and 'saw ii' are other alltime faves).

also looking forward to this oren ambarchi. i recognize the name, knew he was another dude who released on touch, but never checked it out for whatever reason

evening star has a lot of "i'm gonna set up some loops for you to solo over ... ok go" which does sound dated but works really well here. and as pointed out, those loops aren't static.

yeah but fripp does an excellent job of *listening* to the loops and interacting with them accordingly -- there's a really strong understanding between two musicians expressed on both morning star and no pussyfooting

yeah absolutely

listened to Evening Star earlier, the side with 4 tracks had some better stuff than I remembered.

Oren Ambarchi is on now, this is not my favorite of his (that would be his track from the Good Night: Music To Sleep By comp) but it is OK, a little too pure-tone for me, the sound is really clean and I don't get much texture from it. Which is odd, because it is very close to things I love like La Monte Young's "Drift Study", but I just dunno about this.

hmmm were these remixes on the orig CD? never heard them, liking the Pimmon

listened to lisbon again on the train home last night. it's still a lively listen. not really ambient, although it has quiet moments that lend themselves to zoning out. i have the ambarchi but haven't tried it again.

The Fripp & Eno is a little too pretty for me, tbh, and I guess I was preoccupied when I listened to it, but I can hardly remember what it sounds like -- it's a lot more Eno than Fripp, on my initial impression.

Just started on Oren Ambarchi (having only heard Triste previously), and this is much more my thing -- gurgling, droney.

oren ambarchi spotify http://open.spotify.com/album/5qiXJNxBdiBOBzQqUJhHGO

Lisbon is on now, liking the beginning.

yeahhh understated guitar howl around 25 minutes in, I can see some kinship to Evening Star here.

24 May >> Nom Nom Nom Chomsky (WmC)
31 May >> Tannenbaum Schmidt

I enjoyed all of Sundar's choices. Eno & Fripp's first 4 tracks undeniably pretty and I prefer my ambience to often have a touch of melody.

It took three listens for the Oren Ambarchi to work for me - sounds great on headphones at a volume just high enough to still allow the outside sounds to interfere with the music.

Hrvatski Lisbon my least favourite - mainly due to some to the high frequency tones and glitchyness = interference. I imagine in the right frame of mind, and heard as live performance, it would be great.

Nom Nom Chomsky, you're next!

re Fripp/Eno, all the tracks on side 1 seem a bit throwaway, except for the title track, which is a keeper. And side 2 is a bit too menacing for a comfortable ambient listening experience.

I have my picks in mind; will post them before the end of the day.

14 June >> I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor)

Apologies, but I'm gonna back out of this for now. Too much on my plate at the moment. Thanks.

love all three of sundar's picks. the ambarchi is a long-time fave and though it is a "pure tone" kinda record - what a tone!

was also familiar with the KFW. it's excellent.

I like pretty much everything the guy does but I think I prefer the studio kranky albums to this one. the super-varied electronic music history lesson of multiples in particular.

the 3 cd-r set of collaborative shows with greg davis is also quite good, btw. possibly my favorite KFW live document but unfortunately, impossible to find these days outside of slsk or whatever.

had never listened to the fripp/eno before. not a huge fan of no pussyfooting but I'm pretty into this one after two listens. very pretty. dug the discreet music quote. also, fripp's soloing and guitar tone on the title track reminded me quite a bit of michio kurihara (ghost)!

> the 3 cd-r set of collaborative shows with greg davis is also quite good, btw. possibly my favorite KFW
> live document but unfortunately, impossible to find these days outside of slsk or whatever.

is on amazon (uk at least) - i linked to it above - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001EIF20U/ref=dm_sp_adp

oh, awesome. missed that.

I've been traveling this week and am behind on my listening, so I've only heard the Fripp + Eno thus far. But it's great! I thought that Fripp's soloing on the title track was a bit superfluous, but I think I need to listen to it some more.

14 June >> I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor)
Apologies, but I'm gonna back out of this for now. Too much on my plate at the moment. Thanks.

― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Monday, 24 May 2010 14:40 (43 minutes ago) Bookmark

rejigged:

24 May >> Nom Nom Nom Chomsky (WmC)
31 May >> Tannenbaum Schmidt
7 June >> bug holocaust (sleeve)
14 June >> Heavy Potato Encounter (MaresNest)
21 June >> Tom D.
28 June >> NoTimeBeforeTime
5 July >> Andrew O'H

re Fripp/Eno, all the tracks on side 1 seem a bit throwaway, except for the title track, which is a keeper. And side 2 is a bit too menacing for a comfortable ambient listening experience.

― I don't want to go into my newt details (ledge), Monday, 24 May 2010 13:37 (2 hours ago) Bookmark

I feel the complete opposite about Fripp/Eno. With a lot of Eno's ambient stuff, whilst obviously not something you could hum or whistle, I can quite quickly "visualise" the music in my head when reading/discussing it (if you get what I mean by "visualise") - and Fripp/Eno for me was more resonant emotionally than the KFW or Ambarchi.

Can understand the undertow of menace in "An Index Of Metals" but its never unsettling for me, and the track remains interesting and languid in the right dimensions.

I think I'm going to just have two picks today instead of three.

that's cool

About the updated schedule ... the week of June 29 isn't good for me, I'll be traveling that week. I'd prefer to keep the July 5 slot that I had before. I can also go on June 14 or 21, if anybody wants to switch.

thats fine, I'll just take the 14th June slot, and give you back the original one of July 5

24 May >> Nom Nom Nom Chomsky (WmC)
31 May >> Tannenbaum Schmidt
7 June >> bug holocaust (sleeve)
14 June >> Andrew O'H
21 June >> Heavy Potato Encounter (MaresNest)
29 June >> Tom D.
5 July >> NoTimeBeforeTime

WEEK 4:

1) Lee Ranaldo - Ambient Loop for Vancouver (2006; 53:43)

LEE RANALDO: "Road Movies"/"Ambient Loop for Vancouver" Book/CD

This mailorder exclusive is limited to 500. This is the only way that the CD is available. Each book is signed by Lee Ranaldo & Leah Singer.
This single track full length CD comes packaged inside of Lee Ranaldo & Leah Singer's book Road Movies. Road Movies is a collection of Lee's writing paired with Leah's photographs published by Soft Skull Press. Photos and writing done on the road across the globe.
The CD contains brand new guitar work from Lee. It's quasi-religious drone, a sacred work that is as sedating as it is chaotic. Totally brilliant modern improvised guitar work.

I've had this audio for years via slsk and was hesitant to make it a selection for this listening club since its only legit release is with a limited-edition book. But it's been a constant companion for late-night listening and one of my favorite ambient pieces EVER. My wife and daughter are out of the house today running errands so I had the opportunity to give it another runthrough at really high volume; while it was playing, I decided "shame on me, this music has given me too much pleasure to be all stingy," and finally ordered a copy of the book/CD from Opposite Records. (Are they a good mailorder outfit? I have no idea about them.)

If you manage to find* a copy of this and like what you hear, please buy it -- I saw a couple of other places that seemed to have copies available for about $20 a pop.

2) John Zorn - Redbird (1995)

One of the first extended ambient pieces I'd heard outside of Eno's work, and another favorite.

Tzadik catalog blurb: "A kinder and gentler Zorn, exploring a sound world not unlike those pioneered by composers Giacinto Scelsi, Morton Feldman and Olivier Messiaen. Acoustic, minimal/ambient music of unusual subtlety and beauty, inspired by, and dedicated to the work of artist Agnes Martin. "Redbird," a hypnotic work for harp, violin, cello and percussion mirrors the detailed and complex painting for which it is named, as a series of chords are ordered and reordered, creating a play of memory and surprise that will leave the listener in a sensual reverie. It's difficult to believe that "Dark River" for four bass drums is actually acoustic music; the interplay of sonorities reminds one more of tape manipulation or the electronic beating of underwater sonar."

Allmusic Review by Stacia Proefrock

Proving once again that some of his most beautiful pieces come when he is paying tribute to someone, Redbird, a tribute to the artist Agnes Martin, is a work of ambient and minimalist grace. The album consists of two pieces: a shorter percussive piece called "Dark River," and a 41-minute work for harp, viola, cello and percussion called "Redbird." Each conveys a hypnotic quality that does justice to its subject. Martin is an incredibly spiritual artist, whose minimal gestures on canvas and paper exude auras of calm. Redbird captures that sense in music and, in its continuity, becomes one of Zorn's most effective tributes. As always, Zorn has managed to collect a group of extremely talented musicians, and their execution of this album makes it even more perfect.

excited about both of these, never heard either. I'm gonna hit you up on PM if I can't find them through normal means.

"Normal means" play a starring role in WmC's description of the Ranaldo...

:-)

It took me a while to figure out what you meant by that.

I don't have any speakers, headphones or earbuds that will do "Dark River" justice. Frustrating. Oh well, "Redbird" is the important piece on that disc for the purposes of this thread.

Funny, I've had that album for years but haven't listened to it much. I look forward to exploring it.

Thanks for the John Zorn pick, WmC. Zorn's someone I always keep meaning to hear more of, but never seem to get to. Only heard his, frankly, brutal, Kristallnacht album before.

:tap tap:

is this thing on?

I'm traveling, so that's my excuse. I really want to listen to your picks but haven't had the chance this week.

I'm still catching up on last week ... I'm not sure that Oren Ambarchi does anything particularly notable on "Suspension" that he hasn't already done on his other albums. It's still a good album though.

I'm starting to feel bad about being hard to please, but Redbird's dissonant piano stabs left me really cold. I'm trying it again this afternoon since I think it would work better NOT to try and fall asleep to.

I listened to both albums once and disliked both, sorry. I will try them some more, though, after my girlfriend goes back home.

(Suspension came earlier than many of Ambarchi's other similar albums, I believe. It was the first I heard so maybe that's why I'm particularly attached to it.)

tried listening to the latest selections whilst commuting on the train and they didn't stick at all - too much outside noise.

liking this Ranaldo piece, it REALLY reminds me of some of Rafael Toral's records, specifically "Lullabies" and some of "Violence Of Geography". I guess that's no surprise since they've worked together, but I wonder who influenced who here.

Quite a few of the elements in the Ranaldo piece appear in small snippets in his Music for Stage and Screen, but "Vancouver" weaves them all together and then some.

BTW, my copy of the Road Movies book with the "Vancouver" CD arrived from Opposite Records today. They never sent me an email or anything saying we've received your order, or that it had shipped, or thanks for ordering or kiss my butt, but they had to have turned it around next day for it to arrive so quickly. So, a conditional A+++++ for Opposite Records.

I want to sign up to do this!!

31 May >> Tannenbaum Schmidt
7 June >> bug holocaust (sleeve)
14 June >> Andrew O'H
21 June >> Heavy Potato Encounter (MaresNest)
29 June >> Tom D.
5 July >> NoTimeBeforeTime
12 July >> Stevie D

T. Schmidt, time to relax our bodies!

I'm doing them now!

I want to sign up too dangit!

Vangelis - Blade Runner (1994)

I maybe stretching the definition of ambient by choosing this, but fuck it; I chill to this big time. Beautiful inspite of its slight cheesiness.

Spotify

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc800/c854/c854309ea93.jpg

AMG: Arriving 12 years after the release of the film, Vangelis' soundtrack to the 1982 futuristic noir detective thriller Blade Runner is as bleak and electronically chilling as the film itself. By subtly interspersing clips of dialogue and sounds from the film, Vangelis creates haunting soundscapes with whispered subtexts and sweeping revelations, drawing inspiration from Middle Eastern textures and evoking neo-classical structures. Often cold and forlorn, the listener can almost hear the indifferent winds blowing through the neon and metal cityscapes of Los Angeles in 2019. The sultry, saxophone-driven "Love Theme" has since gone on as one of the composer's most recognized pieces and stands alone as one of the few warm refuges on an otherwise darkly cold (but beautiful) score. An unfortunate inclusion of the 1930s-inspired ballad "One More Kiss, Dear" interrupts the futuristic synthesized flow of the album with a muted trumpet and Rudy Vallée-style croon. However well done (and appropriate in the movie), a forlorn love song that sounds as if it is playing on a distant Philco radio in The Waltons' living room jarringly breaks the mood of the album momentarily (although with CD technology, this distraction is easily bypassed).

Autechre - Perlence Subrange 6-36 (track from "Quaristice.Quadrange.Ep.Ae" release) (2008)

Not on Spotify

Some guy wrote this about it: Quaristice comes either as a stand-alone release, or a 2CD set with the alternate takes of Quaristice (Versions) attached. The download only Quaristice.Quadrange.Ep.Ae holds further related material, closing with the hour long Perlence Subrange 6-36. A monolithic and exceedingly minimal piece, Perlence Subrange 6-36 is a series of microtonal shifts in distant echoes and drones, reverberating in infinite space. Listened to in a darkened room it makes for an immersive and dislocating experience. It brings to mind the “holographic” ambience of Eno’s equally lengthy Thursday Afternoon, where any small section contains the essence of the greater work’s slow evolution and repetition.

Sean Booth has commented that, "It seems to really, genuinely satisfy the sort of mission statement for ambient music without being what people would consider ambient at all."

If Eno’s Apollo album evoked the astronaut’s literal and the spectator’s emotional weightlessness amidst the fanfare of the first lunar landings, with these ambient tracks Autechre have taken us much further outward to witness isolation in the distant and starkly cold reaches of (inner) space.

Infinite Body – Carve Out The Face Of My God (2010)

Not on Spotify

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/2635018.jpg

Pitchfork: Here, Parker has managed to synthesize a lot of familiar sounds into a broadly appealing statement: Burning Star Core's contoured interference, MBV's ear-piercing chords, and Rhys Chatham's invincible distortion. Parker's own thumbprint manifests in the clear, meticulous interplay of these elements. "Dive" operates on three distinct levels: a warm, soupy base drone, a high modulating one, and a graceful synth melody that slowly rocks back and forth. The timbre of the melody bloats as the drones fade out, so that it seems to be soaking up the distortion. Transparency is the album's watchword: All transactions between noise and beauty are fully disclosed.

A good deal of variety fits within these generous parameters. "A Fool Persists" is merely a single string figure that rises and gently crumbles, over and over. It doesn't sound like much on paper, but slight modulations in the tempo and phrasing give the stack of notes a slightly different character with each repetition. It's actually one of the most magical tracks here-- black and white spilling into Technicolor on a quiet loop. "On Our Own to Fall Off" is shot through with glassy, chattering lines, like a distorted Field track with the drums stripped off. And "Sunshine", the most involved composition, exemplifies Parker's artfully mechanical approach-- gradually turning itself inside out, its staccato pulse giving way to a mass of drones. Parker's diligence pays off big. Carve Out the Face of My God is overwhelming, but not disorienting, thanks to core melodies that work like signposts pointing our way through the distortion. It's a rare meeting of raw force and listener-friendly order.

Hmmm.... about the Vangelis, but intrigued by the Autechre. Like Infinite Body already. I'll try and track down the Autechre track

7 June >> bug holocaust (sleeve)
14 June >> Andrew O'H
21 June >> Heavy Potato Encounter (MaresNest)
29 June >> Tom D.
5 July >> NoTimeBeforeTime
12 July >> Stevie D
19 July >> Leeee

cool, I just got the Blade Runner OST, still haven't heard. I've listened to Quaristice a few times and have never heard of Infinite Body.

Surprised how much I'm enjoying the Autechre, since I haven't enjoyed much post-2000 Ae on such an easy, visceral level.

Infinite Body = wow. Some of the melodies remind of me of Eluvium, but with an extra, explicit layer of shoegaze.

anyone else apart from Leee listened to these yet? glad you're enjoying them Leee!!

Know/love the Vangelis, haven't heard the new Ae stuff but I love their older albums, so I'll give it a listen. The Infinite Body sounds right up my alley (huge shoegaze fan, pretty much an essential part of my musical vocabulary).

I'd like to do a week in the future.

Quick note about the Autechre selection: it's not the entire Quaristice album itself or Quaristice (Versions) or even Quaristice.Quadrange.Ep.Ae in its entirety.

Just the track Perlence Subrange 6-36, which is the last track from Quaristice.Quadrange.Ep.Ae (this was a download only release). This track itself is c. 60min long.

ohhhh I get it now, thanks

i have Quadrange but had to delete that track from the walkman - i could get to work and back again and it'd still be playing...

the vangelis i listened to recently for the first time. keep meaning to go back to it.

don't know the third.

(last week's krautrock listening group threw up some nice ambient stuff, especially the bank holiday bonus, probably more ambient than the choices here)

Espers boot of Blade Runner > official Vangelis score

been meaning to check out the whole Quadrange ep, now's the time

yep espers edition is incredible

Argh this is why I don't do listening clubs because I get way behind on them and they move so fast that I'm 2 or 3 weeks out of alignment.

Thanks, though, for the link to the Espers edition.

Though no way in hell am I ever exposing my poor eardrums to Autechre ever again in my life, no way.

This is not crazy beats and weird noises AE, it's really exceedingly mellow. Rather too uneventful for my liking in fact, although I daresay to do it justice I should give it a go on proper speakers instead of tinny headphones.

I think I hate mellow stoner chilled Autechre even more than the "falling down a flight of stairs" stuff. Because it keeps seeming *almost* like it might turn into something I might actually really like, and then never delivers.

it's really reminding me of some other piece of ambience but i can't put my finger on it.

probably something basinski.

I think I hate mellow stoner chilled Autechre even more than the "falling down a flight of stairs" stuff. Because it keeps seeming *almost* like it might turn into something I might actually really like, and then never delivers.

― Using an Aural Exciter in an Orgone Accumulator (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, 2 June 2010 13:24 (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

I listened to Perlence Subrange 6-36 in its entirety - you'll know within 10 minutes if you want to carry on for another 50. The changes (if there are any going; I suspect there are) are real slooooooowwwww. I found pretty mesmerising and powerful!

Like Leee said : "Infinity Body = wow"

Hey Andrew, could I have the week of 7/19?

Miles, I can give you the week after (forgot to line-up Leee from his request to have a go upthread) - unless you and Leee want to agree a swap.

31 May >> Tannenbaum Schmidt
7 June >> bug holocaust (sleeve)
14 June >> Andrew O'H
21 June >> Heavy Potato Encounter (MaresNest)
29 June >> Tom D.
5 July >> NoTimeBeforeTime
12 July >> Stevie D
19 July >> Leee
26 July >> Miles "Tails" Davis (Daruton)

From the descriptions, I don't see how I can possibly not love Infinite Body. Next week when I return home I need to catch up!

As an aside, I listened to "Oversteps" on the airplane on Monday (it was in Air Canada's on-flight "New Releases" section -- for realz!!!) and loved it. I don't know what I was thinking when I heard the pre-release stream and was unimpressed, but I think I'm due to revisit/reevaluate everything post-"Ganz Graf".

(I love Oversteps too.)

I just listened to a few tracks from Oversteps. I'm thinking this will make me an Autechre convert finally (have always "liked" them quite a bit, Amber is a perennial fave, but they haven't yet gone into "love" territory).

it's really reminding me of some other piece of ambience but i can't put my finger on it.

― sent from my neural lace (ledge)

probably something basinski.

― sent from my neural lace (ledge)

I've only listened to Disintegration Loops (once), but that was a lot more textural and lo-fi fuzzy, production-wise, while the Autechre track has very precise digital resolution (no duh) and is all about spatial depth. Structurally, though, I can see what you mean.

happy Monday...

#1

La Monte Young - Dream House 78'17" LP

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_4jLRlvPoPnE/SmUDUNOc5sI/AAAAAAAAB58/TzUccQms6ZA/s400/LMY.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_House_78%27_17%22

The first composition, "Drift Study 14 VII 73 9:27:27-10:06:41 PM NYC" is a part of "Map of 49's Dream The Two Systems of Eleven Sets of Galactic Intervals Ornamental Lightyears Tracery", itself a section of an even longer work called "The Tortoise, His Dreams and Journeys". In it, three sine waves and the members of The Theatre of Eternal Music play together. According to Young, the lack of harmonic content of the sine waves makes accompanying them with regular instruments and human players extremely difficult.

The second composition, "Drift Study 14 VII 73 9:27:27-10:06:41 PM NYC (39" 14")", is played entirely by sine wave generators. Frequencies and voltages of the sine waves generators were determined and tuned by La Monte Young using oscillators custom-designed by sound engineer Robert Adler to generate specific frequencies and voltages of great stability. The sine waves produced are such that they interfere with each other, creating changes of volume both in time and space that can be experienced either walking within the room or staying put. If one chooses to walk, he will change the sound experience of other people in the room by moving the molecules of air.

#2

David Jackman - Sol Mara CD

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Z4dtYKlYuKs/Rd9W041RXsI/AAAAAAAAANY/R3rigcMKksA/s320/solmara.jpg

This is a CD consisting of a solo piece originally released as a 1-sided LP along with Organum's Ikon EP. Later Jackman reissued the track on CD with three extra remixes/treatments. Probably my favorite of the Organum releases even though it's not technically Organum.

#3

In Be Tween Noise (Steve Roden) - Humming Endlessly In The Hush CD

http://www.discogs.com/image/R-150-638095-1183475844.jpeg

http://www.inbetweennoise.com/indexold.html

I'm gonna scan the liner notes to that Roden CD because they are (somewhat frustratingly) not on his website and they are pretty key to the whole thing.

If anyone needs help with these let me know.

the 2nd side of dream house was a constant companion in my late teens. i'd play it on my crummy little record player constantly. sometimes i'd walk around and hear the frequencies change - you could make your own music out of the basic tones. other times i'd put the small speakers next to my ears, lie on my bed and zone out completely. it's a fascinating piece, as good, if not better than other sonic explorations like "sitting in a room" et al.

Finally listening to Vancouver and it's better than I'd hoped. Quiet glow with all sorts of neat squiqqles spiraling off everywhere.

Will say more later but really enjoyed all of Tannenbaum's picks.

The second composition, "Drift Study 14 VII 73 9:27:27-10:06:41 PM NYC (39" 14")", is played entirely by sine wave generators. Frequencies and voltages of the sine waves generators were determined and tuned by La Monte Young using oscillators custom-designed by sound engineer Robert Adler to generate specific frequencies and voltages of great stability. The sine waves produced are such that they interfere with each other, creating changes of volume both in time and space that can be experienced either walking within the room or staying put. If one chooses to walk, he will change the sound experience of other people in the room by moving the molecules of air.

I was in Paris a few years ago and there was a sound art exhibition at the Pompidou, where they recreated the Dream House. I was not at all familiar with the work or with Young. You had to take your shoes off to enter the room, where the two large speakers were set up in two corners. There was a good crowd of people in the room, and most of them sat down on the floor to space out to the tones. I started walking around and noticed that the tone and frequency changed as I moved, and that the more I moved the more I could "compose" the track. It might have been the highlight of the exhibition for me, and it stuck with me all the more because I felt like I was experiencing it differently from everyone else. So, reading this description right now, I'm really pleased to know I was experiencing it the way it was intended!

I've got that Steve Roden disc around here somewhere too, among others by him. I haven't put that particular one on in a long time though.

not heard of any of these; excited! but I imagine Dream House is better experienced as an installation.

this popped up as one of boomkat's favoured releases today:

http://boomkat.com/vinyl/311595-keith-fullerton-whitman-variations-for-oud-synthesizer

lol

here are the liner notes for the In Be Tween Noise CD in jpg form...

http://www.mediafire.com/?moyzogywdnu

14 June >> Andrew O'H
21 June >> Heavy Potato Encounter (MaresNest)
29 June >> Tom D.
5 July >> NoTimeBeforeTime
12 July >> Stevie D
19 July >> Leee
26 July >> Miles "Tails" Davis (Daruton)

It's my turn again, and I'll post them later this afternoon. Let's get some thoughts on last week's choices.

I only managed to get hold of the La Monte Young and Steve Roden and listened to each twice. Found them both disorientating. Will try and write some more later.

I'm a couple of weeks behind ... listened to the Infinite Body album, it's great. I was a bit disappointed when it mellowed out in the second half, instead of being more aggressive and shoegaze-y all the way through (more like Horseback).

Also, the opening track, "Dive" is easily the best thing on the album. It's always a bit of a bummer when it's all downhill after the first five minutes of the album.

On second listen, and today I listened to both whilst I was busy working, I found both the Steve Roden and La Monte Young much more enjoyable than when I previously. Last week, I first listened to them whilst in bed, intending to fall asleep to them.

Waking up half way through the night to the drone/hum of Drift Study 14 Vii 73 9:27:27 - 10:06:41 Pm Nyc was really unpleasant. Its also the piece I have the least patience with - almost felt the need to turn it off half way through - but the hum is kinda addictive.

The In Be Tween Noise record - to me - is much more rewarding, and in it's own way the tracks are each quite varied. It also managed to convince me that The Ecstasy Of St. Theresa choice I'm putting up this week is suitable, as I think their sensibilities overlap.

Only two this week to allow people to catch-up.

The Ecstasy of St. Theresa: "Free-D" (1994)

Available via this blog / Not on spotify

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/36/74398749_42f7b20f15.jpg

Review: As the world of shoegaze was closing in on extinction ambient pop, sampling, and cleaner-delayed guitars became more widely used. One of the more interesting acts to bridge the gap between ambient-dub and dream pop was The Ecstasy of St. Theresa, who hail from Prague and are still making records today. The band originally rose to fame with a big nod from DJ and all-around taste maker John Peel around 1993. Their original single Fluidtrance Centauri was awesome, basically a 3-song set of amazing Peel Sessions that explored space-age rock anthems climbing into the sky.

Free-D on the other hand was a shift forward. The disc is still dreamy and serene yet there is an obvious theme throughout the record based on synths and samples, think Seefeel, Talk Talk, and the Orb. When I was 19 and playing in my first band I couldn't stop listening to this album and continued to bring into the studio every weekend in hopes that I could influence what we were doing. It ended up having a profound and mostly regrettable affect on the overall mix. I should have left it at home.

Cluster & Eno - Cluster & Eno (1977)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jPvESuidV2Y/SUSEkPAkCpI/AAAAAAAAAL0/U_1xuoZ1Sec/s320/cluster+eno.jpg

Amazon review:The first collaboration between the prolific avant-garde German duo and the synthesist and future U2 producer bore tasty musical fruit. Meshing Cluster's affinity for loops and repetition and Eno's penchant for processing sounds, the trio proves that ambient music does not merely consist of drawn-out drones and insipid keyboard tapestries. Certainly many of these nine tracks play off of sustained sounds and atmospheres, but their shorter running times make them more digestible, as does their variety of moods and textures. Highlights include the angelic atmosphere of "Für Luise," the classically inspired piano interlude "Mit Samaen," and the Indian-influenced "One," a trippy progenitor of ethnoambient music, ripe with sitar drones, guitar noises, and exotic percussion that features contributions from Okko Becker and Asmus Tietchens. The group also usurps their spaced-out predilections with the off-kilter "Selange" - a cyclical piece for keyboards and drum machine with a tricky rhythm change to discombobulate its otherwise smooth flow - and the upbeat Western gallop of "Die Bunge." Cluster & Eno is a worthy model for the eclectic possibilities of electronic music. - Bryan Reesman

Cluster & Eno is on Spotify but my connection keeps dropping off; if anyone wants to find it and post the link that would be great.

cool!

for anyone who's still interested I threw the David Jackman CD up on my blog, shardsofbeauty dot blogspot dot com.

Anyone else having weird problems playing "Free-D"? Seems like the ID3 tags won't remember any changes (at least in iTunes), and playback stops suddenly.

Woah! Two excellent choices Andrew!

Love both those records. Pleased that someone else out there has heard of Ecstasy of St. Theresa. I remember buying the CD based on a great NME review, having completely avoided much "shoegaze" until that point. And I reckon its subtle mix of komische-cosmic-psych-shoegaze-ambient sets it distinctly apart from most guitar+fx based shoegaze.

I'm most of the way through "Free-D" ... really nice stuff. The Seefeel comparisons are apt, EoStT are heavier on dreampop side of things whereas Seefeel are much dubbier (I'm talking "Quique"-era Seefeel), but otherwise they have a lot in common (were these bands aware of each other in the early 90's?)

I'm less into the parts where they channel Robert Fripp (e.g. "Her Eyes Have It")

T.Smidt, yeah, I guess they remain fairly "underground" but I think that they're still recording and performing. I've not heard anything else by them except some remixes of Free-D's album tracks which were a bit disappointing. Love the album proper though!

Here's a better review of TheE.ofSt.T from the itunes store:

a lost piece of ambient music history

by assume nothing
i first bought this album when it was first released in 1995 based on a recommendation that robert smith of the cure of all people made in an interview. when i first listened to it all the way through i sat in silence for a long time when it was through. it is extremely evocative and the songs filled the space in my room with frequencies and textures i had never experienced before. i was deep into my 4ad phase and it hit home right in the gut of what i loved about that music. it's a sad album, mostly electronic and heavily nuanced with field recordings and a blend of strings and analog noodlings. The first two tracks lay the ground work for the rest of the album, breathtaking in scope and transporting the listener to a psychedlic world not unlike the world that early pink floyd created. the album is a true underground classic of ambient music, up there with aphex twin ambient works, brian eno, and tangerine dream. the album was also partly engineered by guy fixsen who was involved with his ''laika" project at the time and had just garnished some noteriety for his engineering work with my bloody valentine on the 'loveless'album. the album title says 'free-d orginal soundtrack'and I have no idea if this is an actual film but it does have a heavy soundtrack feel to it, similar to what popol vuh created with werner herzog films. if you are a fan of ethereal ambient/4ad/dreampop music or bands like seefeel and scala then this album is an important piece of 1990's sonic experimentation to own. Highly recommended.

Also, Leee i've pm'd you a Free-D message. If anyone else needs assist with Free-D, please pm me.

AND here's the Spotify link to Cluster & Eno: http://open.spotify.com/album/43JNeMbiovsiCNkuX1Z9wm

Can I get another week please, Andrew?

Those who like TheEofStT should also check out Project Skyward, another band that I heard about through the sho3gaz3r 4liv3 blog.

I've not heard anything else by them except some remixes of Free-D's album tracks which were a bit disappointing.

One of those remixes is, however, done by Disco Inferno. ILX will surely be interested.

14 June >> Andrew O'H
21 June >> Heavy Potato Encounter (MaresNest)
29 June >> Tom D.
5 July >> NoTimeBeforeTime
12 July >> Stevie D
19 July >> Leee
26 July >> Miles "Tails" Davis (Daruton)
2 August >> Tannenabaum Schmidt

Anyone else, new or to go again.

if any of my picks are left by 7 aug i could have a stab...

xxpost - decided to look at AstralaVista EP properly again, having never bothered to find out who the remixers were:

Tracklist: http://www.discogs.com/Ecstasy-Of-Saint-Theresa-AstralaVista-EP/release/117992
1. Sooper Kosmos (Love Stepping In Mix) 4:48 Remix - Disco Inferno
2. Surfing On Steam (Chet Desmond Melde Dich Mix)8:12 Remix - Simon Dine , Twin Freaks (2) , Wubble-U
3. Vacuum Blow (Mirror FX Mix) 4:54 Remix - EcsOfSt.T*
4. Surfing On Steam (Band Du Lunar Mix) 7:17 Remix - Bandulu

okay, gonna listen to this again

14 June >> Andrew O'H
21 June >> Heavy Potato Encounter (MaresNest)
29 June >> Tom D.
5 July >> NoTimeBeforeTime
12 July >> Stevie D
19 July >> Leee
26 July >> Miles "Tails" Davis (Daruton)
2 August >> Tannenabaum Schmidt
7 August >> Ledge

Andrew, could I have a week? I might just post one album if that's ok.

Also, I just visited the hip-hop listening thread and they, like, argue about stuff. We should make them chai and give them shoulder rubs.

when have the hip-hop threads been anything else?

when have the hip-hop ILM threads been anything else?

There.

Especially once you show up! ;)

Andrew, got your PM.

Kerr, get stuffed. ;)

14 June >> Andrew O'H
21 June >> Heavy Potato Encounter (MaresNest)
29 June >> Tom D.
5 July >> NoTimeBeforeTime
12 July >> Stevie D
19 July >> Leee
26 July >> Miles "Tails" Davis (Daruton)
2 August >> Tannenbaum Schmidt
7 August >> Ledge
14 August >> Lukas

Love LOVE the David Jackman. Totally zoned out to it on the train to work this morning.

Trying to catch up on all the goodness.

Struggling with the vocals on Free-D. Sooper Kosmos still a great track, what with all these loops, each with their own period.

I mean it seems like they're trying to make the vocals really muted and tasteful and unobtrusive, and that's exactly the problem.

Loving this thread - how did I miss it up to now? I am a fool. As someone who has been listening to a Medwyn Goodall recording of rain and thunder on a loop in an attempt to lull me to sleep I was really looking for some other stuff. So far the Autechre and the Infinite Body tracks have pleased me the most.

Going back upthread a long way.

Slight de-railing of thread, but were there any other indie minors get entire album remixed by cooler electronica types?

There's the Chapterhouse/GC "Pentamerous Metamorphosis" mentioned above, and also mu-ziq vs The Auteurs (also pretty good). More???

― De que estas hablando? (Tannenbaum Schmidt), Monday, 10 May 2010 12:08 (1 month ago) Bookmark

I suppose James weren't a 'minor indie' but I've always preferred the Sabres remix/reworking/dismantling of them...
http://www.discogs.com/James-vs-Sabres-Of-Paradise-JAM-J/release/214661
...to their other output.

and the slowdive in-mind remixes ep (reload, bandulu), thought smaller in scale, was something of an eye-opener for me. (the eost posted above always reminds me of souvlaki-era slowdive rather than, er, the other band that was mentioned, oh, seefeel)

(and if we're counting covers then the morr compilation of slowdive covers is worth a mention too)

the eost posted above always reminds me of souvlaki-era slowdive rather than, er, the other band that was mentioned, oh, seefeel)

Unless "In Mind" counts as "Souvlaki"-era Slowdive, I don't really see where you're coming from (in the vocals, maybe?).

I'm still really into the the David Jackman disc, but it's tough to listen to it all in one sitting. I think I hit my limit with that type of droning music after about 20-25 minutes. This reminded me of the final track on Ekkehard Ehlers' "Politik Braucht Keinen Feind". I liked a lot of Ehlers' other work so I really tried to give his electroacoustic stuff a chance but I just couldn't get into it. That one track is spectacular though (and not at all representative of the rest of the album, so be warned), a lot like "Sol Mara" but more elegiac, with richer harmonics and a bit more variation.

Love LOVE the David Jackman.

Good call. First listen = awesome.

Listening to Cluster + Eno -- "Steinsame"!!!!!

This is what BOC should be imo.

Yeah I appreciate the mixture of new stuff + classics people are picking here, had never gotten around to the Cluster + Eno before.

Cluster & Eno is about 85% Cluster and 15% Eno, which is a perfect division of sound. I love the synths on this, particularly on "Die Bunge".

I'm not feeling the hour long Autechre track from a few weeks ago, it's airy and spacey and does a good job of regularly jolting you awake with that thudding bass, but after twenty minutes I'd had more than enough.

Hi all, will be in with the choices later today.

OK, I'm really really really far behind but I'm only just getting around to listening to The Ecstacy Of Saint Theresa and although I've heard the name bandied about tons, they sound nothing like I was expecting.

I was expecting them to be really guitary and so far they have been lovely synth/wub based soundscape in the same vein as some of Jessamine's prettier moments.

So yeah, this has my name aaalll over it. Thanks!

Love LOVE the David Jackman. Totally zoned out to it on the train to work this morning.

― NoTimeBeforeTime, Wednesday, 16 June 2010 17:49 (5 days ago) Bookmark

I'm not feeling the hour long Autechre track from a few weeks ago, it's airy and spacey and does a good job of regularly jolting you awake with that thudding bass, but after twenty minutes I'd had more than enough.

― NoTimeBeforeTime, Sunday, 20 June 2010 22:05 (Yesterday) Bookmark

Similarly, I didn't enjoy the David Jackman that much - didn't tug at my heartstrings much; comes to down to a plethora of sensibilities that for some reason make me completely zone out to the Autechre track while sustain interest but no desire to revisit with the David Jackman.

Nevertheless, ILM ambient club rules and so do all involved/contributing!

Have sorted out my choices, just asking for another half day for me to upload the files to an ftp for those without Spotify capabilities. Hope that's cool Andrew.

xpost: yeah that's totally cool.

Pleased to see the EofSt.T and Cluster/Eno are being (largely) being enjoyed!

hey ambient dudes has anybody heard wild safari? too much rhythm for me to really think of it as proper ambient but it's very nicely chilled

Heya, thanks for your patience. Two Kranky-centric choices and one of my favourite bands of all time this week.

Bark Psychosis – Scum

http://img125.imagevenue.com/loc1034/th_05769_151847_122_1034lo.jpg

Not a full album but a twenty minute, one track EP released in ’92. This was an extended piece recorded in a church in East London, which was later taken to a studio to be edited down and overdubbed.

A lot of distance-miking techniques were employed, you hear a lot of the sound of the church reverberating, muffled traffic noise, a slightly ghostly ambience pervades. Graham Sutton has said in interviews that when they got the tapes into the studio there were certain sounds that couldn’t be explained or their sources properly identified.

I think this is where BP started to properly show the influence of late period Talk Talk too, the structure and layering is like a more (sub)urban, slightly disconcerting version of Spirit Of Eden. I could blab on about how awesome this band are and how they made such a big impression on me as a 20 year old, but I wont :)

Growing – The Sky’s Run Into The Sea

http://static.boomkat.com/images/72913/333.jpg

I will buy pretty much anything that comes out on Kranky purely on spec, their hit-rate is pretty high too. I was attracted to this record in a typical magpie-like fashion because the artwork is really beautiful. I don’t know much about these guys other than they are a two-piece band from Olympia. They use mainly treated guitar and bass, this is a record from 2003.

Buzzy, droney, guitar-based goodness

The Dead Texan – S/T

http://www.newartillery.com/images/thedeadtexan.jpg

I know even less about the origins of this record, other than it is a side-project from Adam Wiltzie of Stars Of The Lid. Again I got this on a Kranky splurge. It has more of a classically ambient sound than the bulk of SOTL’s dronelike material, it’s very beautiful and restive, a little like Eno or Budd in places. Actually it’s probably a lot more like how Stars sound nowadays.

I've uploaded MP3s of all three here:

ftp://94.143.254.73/

User - ilx
Pass - ilm

(case sensitive)

Enjoy

Great choices! I remember being totally wowed by NME's description of "Scum" when it came out ... when I eventually heard it I wasn't too impressed. I haven't heard it in years though, so I'm looking forward to revisiting it.

Similarly, I didn't enjoy the David Jackman that much - didn't tug at my heartstrings much; comes to down to a plethora of sensibilities that for some reason make me completely zone out to the Autechre track while sustain interest but no desire to revisit with the David Jackman.

I've been trying to put my finger on what I heard in Lee Ranaldo's "Ambient Loop for Vancouver" (listened to it yesterday, I'm still playing catch-up) that sustained my interest that wasn't present in the Autechre track. Their sounds and timbres are nothing alike, but they are both one-hour pieces that are built on the repetition (with very few breaks) of very basic loops/melodies over "ambient" backgrounds. Maybe it's that Lee Ranaldo's piece is "fuller", i.e. the Autechre is mostly silence that is punctuated by brief pulses of sound, whereas the guitar in Ranaldo's piece never really goes away at any point, and that more constant buzz of sound is what helps to hold my interest for the entire hour.

Cool! - two acts I've never heard anything by and one (Dead Texan) that I'd never heard of before.

Listening to Bark Psychosis' "Blue" EP(1994) off Spotify right now and liking what I hear, while waiting for Scum to dl. Thank for the ftp facility for these.

hehe that Growing is so different to what they make now. Ambient Metal is probably what Growing were called back in the day when they were mentioned in the same breath as Sunn 0)))

I strongly recommend the live cd on Archive Recordings too.

am enjoying the growing. am tempted to buy The Soul Of The Rainbow... because of the cover. (although the samples suggest it's an entirely different fish)

i have a few recommendations if there's a slot going...

Blimey, it's me next week

I remember being totally wowed by NME's description of "Scum" when it came out ... when I eventually heard it I wasn't too impressed.

Right, so this is about as middling-to-good as I remember it. As much as I want to like them (their ideas always sound great on paper, their album reviews always make me want to run out and buy their stuff), Bark Psychosis leave me cold except for the noisier bits. This is more or less how I felt about their post-reunion album too.

Wow, "The Sky’s Run Into The Sea" is amazing, it totally kills "All The Way" and I'm wondering why I never got around to hearing this earlier. All albums should be one-half Kranky-type ambient, one-half sludgy drones!

thepandamystery 5:03 am
I shit in a fucking) ambient listening club >>> Updated every monday" Thread, Except it keeps showing up as "you gots to chill. The ilm (take me home in a fucking) ambient listening club". Obviously, I don't want to have stopped taking depression medication.

xpost: erm, yeah, whatevs.

Tom D. your turn please!

29 June >> Tom D.
5 July >> NoTimeBeforeTime
12 July >> Stevie D
19 July >> Leee
26 July >> Miles "Tails" Davis (Daruton)
2 August >> Tannenbaum Schmidt
7 August >> Ledge
14 August >> Lukas

1. FOLKE RABE - What?? (1967)

http://home.swipnet.se/sonoloco11/rabe/was1op.jpg

Titles:
1. What??
2. What?? (half-speed)

From sleevenotes by Rabe:
"About 85% of the material is made up of electronically generated tones, which however are never present in their static, original form. Each partial has been specifically treated in itself, which can at times yield a very rich result. What?? was created in the late summer of 1967, and was realized by me in the electronic studio of the Swedish Radio...the second What?? is the same as the first, but at half-speed, i.e. one octave lower. This may seem a lousy way to fill up a CD, but in fact through the years I have been using both versions in performances. With the kind of sound material used in What??, it does not simply sound half-speed. In a way it becomes another piece of music - mellower, and the single events of course easier to distinguish."

Non Spotify link

2. LUC FERRARI - Presque Rien (1967-98)

http://skyactivity.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Luc-Ferrari.jpg

Titles:
1. Presque rien n°1 ou le lever du jour au bord de la mer (1967-70)
2. Presque rien n°2 ou ainsi continue la nuit dans ma tête multiple (1977)
3. Presque rien avec filles (1989)
4. Presque rien n°4: la remontée du village (1990-98)

From brainwashed.com:
"Presque Rien was started in 1967 and finished in 1998. It begins from almost nothing; the first part is shocking in its lack of electronic manipulation. Most of the four parts are sparsely arranged: a gentle murmur of life interspersed with subtle electronics mimicking the natural sounds (lightning and cicadas being particularly exciting listening). With Presque Rien he moves his focus onto people and their ecology rather than the abstractions and machinations of the rest of the concrète school. His documentation of human culture merges journalism with voyeurism, especially on "Presque Rien avec Filles" ("Almost Nothing with Girls") where Ferrari records young women having a picnic and tries to get inside the female mind, yet another recurring theme in his work (As he puts it: "A composer campaigning for women's liberation.")

Non Spotify link

3. STEVE HILLAGE - Rainbow Dome Musick (1979)

http://991.com/newGallery/Steve-Hillage-Rainbow-Dome-Musi-175174.jpg

Titles:
1. Garden of Paradise
2. Rainbow Four Ever

Stunning insights from wiki:
"Rainbow Dome Musick is an album of ambient music released in 1979 by Steve Hillage, with collaborations of his long-time partner Miquette Giraudy."

Thought I'd better include a rock'n' roll guy... and yes, I know, LOL Gong/woolly hats/pixies etc, this is a great album however.

Spotify link
Non Spotify link

i always thought that ambient-guitar-shredding-music-of-the-future in bill and ted's excellent adventure was the guitary-part of rainbow dome music, but recently i checked the credits at the end of the film, and apparently it's not. anyway when i first heard the elaborate guitar solo enter the rainbow dome soundscape, my first thought was "oh no, it's ruining the lush synthy vibez, turn it off!" but now i couldn't imagine the album without it, and think it's what gives RDM it's final dose of over-the-top excellentness that makes it such a classic.

Still a week behind - but really enjoyed the Dead Texan album and largely quite into the Bark Psychosis track (wish it didnt have that "racket" smack in the middle of the track, though).

No opinions formed on Growing or this week's choices, but can see myself using Folk Rabe "What?? (half speed)" while working - I'm all for lenghty stuff like that.

Apologies for lack of description, especially regarding Dead Texan, but y'know got other shit to do.

gonna give the hillage a go right now

finally listened to the dead texan album - very simple 2 chord progressions with lovely deep bass floating in and out and understated melodies on top. definitely a keeper for me (so thanks ambient listening crew).

i've had the hillage for quite a while but it's always underwhelmed me (i still prefer his pothead pixie stuff, really) but it was a pleasant listen as i browsed some shops last week.

rabe and ferrari: well, i love these things but would hardly count them as ambient per se. sound experiments surely? the rabe especially is particularly lab-coated (whereas the la monte young a while back is steeped in mysticism).

the half speed of what? is great. half speed is so good for some of these things. i have the remastered "no pussyfooting" which has half speed and reverse versions of the original 2 tracks - luffly.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised about the similarities between Hillage's "Garden of Paradise" and some early Orb tracks, particularly "Back Side of the Moon". Pretty good track, especially after the first five minutes (I know that the running was supposed to sound like a gently flowing stream or whatever, to me it sounded like an endless five minute urination).

Can't get into the Luc Ferrari album so far, but I've never really been into that type of music.

to me it sounded like an endless five minute urination

Indeed, sounds more like a leaky cistern than a babbling brook to me.

Love the Hillage.

Love the Folke Rabe, and "What??" (half speed) >> "What??" (full speed)

It's my turn this week, I'll probably post just two things, to give people some time to catch up (because of World Cup/TdF/vacations).

both the hillage and the folke rabe are longtime favorites of mine, and though i never really forget about the awesomeness of 'rainbow dome musick' it was nice to revisit "what (half speed)". i can see why the description makes it sound uninteresting/kind of like a lab experiment, but in practice none of that stuff matters and i just zone out and appreciate the amazing textures therein

The Folke Rabe is my kind of all right -- surprised by how a la mode it is for something done in the '60s! -- but the Hillage is the gloopy '70s ambient/space rock prettiness that isn't my style. Haven't tried the Ferrari yet, though.

And just my luck, the non-spotify link is down.

Really enjoying this thread - thanks to the curators!

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post this week's selections yet -- I'll do it tomorrow. I made my picks and will post them tomorrow along with comments and some non Spotify links.

Two "ambient" albums from a couple of "techno" guys ...

Donnacha Costello, "Together is the New Alone"

Discogs info

This album was the best thing released by Mille Plateaux, post-2000. You might balk at the fairly dated "clicks n cuts" style that Mille Plateaux was pushing at the time, but compared to most other albums that borrowed from that style, I hardly notice the gimmicky clicks and pops when I listen to this. That's because Costello writes really gorgeous melodies and doesn't need to rely on the gimmicks. AMG hits the nail on the head in their review

"Donnacha Costello doesn't try anything overly complex or ambitious on Together Is the New Alone, his first album for Mille Plateaux. Rather, he keeps his music simple and sparse, emphasizing lingering ambience. What lingers isn't so much the ten ambient pieces themselves though, but more so their respective, slowly modulating glistening melodies."

non-Spotify link

Although he's basically just making techno these days, he put together a more ambient podcast for Bodytonic this past March, so check it out if you like this album. The podcast features a couple of tracks from "Together is the New Alone".

Ekkehard Ehlers, "Politik Braucht Keinen Feind"

I mentioned this album upthread in relation to David Jackman's "Sol Mara". I was originally just going to select the final track, "Woolf Phase" but eventually decided it'd be worthwhile to revisit the entire album. The first two pieces ("Mander I-III" and "Blind I-IV") contain a lot of interesting sounds, I'm just not sure they succeed as actual compositions. "Woolf Phase" is to die for though, IMO.

non-Spotify link

The first review that appears on a Google search is from the BBC, oddly enough. Writing about "Woolf Phase":

"Where the source material actually comes from I don't know; Ehlers loops a scratchily recorded string ensemble into 21 minutes of minimalist heaven, adding subtle, gradual colourations through filtering and EQ. It's kind of blissful, but there's a vague sense of unease at work. "

Album covers:

TITNA:

http://www.starsend.org/graphics/togetheris.jpg

I love this, it looks like an album by some corny folk singer-songwriter.

PBKF:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/images/reviews/222x222/dd25.jpg

(the cover might lead you to think that Ehlers was trying to make some grand political statement with the cover and album title, but AFAIK, he wasn't. The album was released in 2003, BTW, and Costello's album was released in 2001)

Doing some catching up here. Yay Dead Texan, nay/meh Bark Psychosis, Growing, Hillage, Costello, Ehlers. Cheated with the last two a bit, listened to their only available albums on Spotify. Switched off Scum as soon as the singing started. Was totally psyched for and digging the intro to Growing, but then the cymbal washes came in at 10x the volume and it was all donwhill after that.

Still to check out Folk Rabe and Ferrari.

"Woolf Phase" RULEZ

I am behind on this thread but am trying to catch up.

Re: Folke Rabe ... if "What??" had been posted as-is and "What?? (half speed)" had been posted under a different title then I probably would have never guessed that they were the same track. The full speed version sounds like a analog electronics experiment from the 60's, but the half speed version could have been recorded this year, say, by Thomas Koener.

Yes, they are toad'ly two different pieces of music. Grabbin' the two albums from this week.

"Woolf Phase" RULEZ

Or, in actual words: it's nearly but not quite utterly overwhelming. It feels like it sits somewhere between music and an extended orchestra tune-up (and I love the sound of an orchestra tuning).

It's one of the best "one track albums" I have. It only has one track that's really worth hearing, but it's a FUCKING AMAZING track, just by itself it elevates the album from "meh" to "very good".

It makes a bit more sense when you listen to the album start to finish, it starts with the piece for bass clarinet (lots of weird squawking), to the cello piece (droning, noisy strings, big step up in quality from the first piece), to full-on strings-drone assault ("Woolf Phase").

Woolf Phase is yeah. It does something to your sense of time and expectation, the same thing a lot of ambient does I guess, where you simultaneously experience the sensation of a musical phrase beginning, ending, and continuing.

Finally getting around to listening to "Woolf Phrase," and yeah, everybody otm.

wow long wait for this club! but maybe count me in for august 21?

like the thread, it's like Top 100 Ambient Albums but with discussion

Whoa, I totally neglected this thread. Lots of catch up to do!

haha welcome 2 of ILM's most likely suspects for this thread

do a week Sundar!

I would love the week of Sept. 4th if possible.

been wanting to check out more mille plateaux in gen and donnacha costello in partic. so thanking u for this selection

always a part is shockingly good

am i allowed to add a mix? hope so

http://witchhaus.blogspot.com/

whoops. though that blog is good...

http://www.mediafire.com/?2z14z50mdun

Mixes ok I think, but tell us something about it.

ummm given that that's your 2nd ILX post and that the 1st was promoting the same mix on the Witch House thread, I think we have a right to be suspicious.

xp

da sh1t da7 mat73rs.

I'm sure this is totally the wrong place to bring this up, but is all witch house utter crap? The little bit I've heard sure is. I had no idea it took it to this level of goth stans/emo cutters frontin like they're hard though.

On to matters at hand...that Donnacha Costello podcast looks promising:

Burial - Night Bus
Aphex Twin - Rhubarb

Sorry I can't post a more relevant comment to this thread. I'd really like to try to keep up, but two new albums a week is way more than my overloaded new music queue can handle at this point. I seem to find a lot of time to listen to mediocre podcasts though...

OK Sorry everyone, I had an insanely busy weekend/Monday but I will upload my selections within the next hour or so.

1. SPACEMEN 3 - Dreamweapon (1990)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Z6p8BYnYL._SS500_.jpg

01. An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music (44:20)
02. Ecstasy Live Intro Theme (8:15)
03. Ecstasy In Slow Motion (9.:6)
04. Spacemen Jam (15:42}

AMG says:

Taking off from the ideals which form the core of La Monte Young's concept of "dream music," the heart of Dreamweapon is "An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music," a transfixing 40-plus-minute document of a landmark Spacemen 3 performance recorded at Waterman's Art Centre in Hammersmith on August 19, 1988. Perhaps the purest expression of the Spacemen aesthetic, the piece is an unbroken tapestry of hypnotic drones, throbbing tones, and repetitive phrases, dappled here and there by evaporating fragments of the melodies which later resurfaced on Playing With Fire. The cumulative effect is one of utter disorientation -- all notions of time and space quickly give way to complete conscious immersion in the music's narcotic tug. A pair of epic rarities, Sonic Boom's feedback sculpture "Ecstasy in Slow Motion" and "Spacemen Jam," round out the package.

Technically this may not be "ambient" in the strictest sense, but it certainly has the same effect (at least to me). It's a very engrossing record, and the two versions of "Ecstasy Symphony" are both sublime. This is one of my favorites!

Non-Spotify link

02. VARIOUS ARTISTS - Excursions in Ambience: The Third Dimension (1994)

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/8a/63/7cb9b340dca00619470b5010.L.jpg

01. Spacetime Continuum - "Floatilla" (7:02)
02. Grain - "Birth .Son" (7:10)
03. Seefeel - "Charlotte's Mouth (Avant Garde Mix)" (7:21)
04. Spectrum - "Pulse Drone (Neon Sigh)" (6:46)
05. Air - "Trip #2" (6:00)
06. Divination - "Ancient Evenings (Najm-Al-Din)" (9:05)
07. Future Sound of London - "Deep Into Your Subconscious I Slide" (3:53)
08. Steve Fisk - "Express God" (6:10)
09. Mike Kandel - "Slow Boat To China" (8:02)
10. Aphex Twin - "#19 [stone in focus]" (10:09)

The cover art is awful; roll you eyes and move on. I originally bought this Astralwerks compilation during my high-school days of obssessive Aphex Twin fandom (this was the only CD release of the vinyl-only Selected Ambient Works Vol. II track, #19 [stone in focus]), but it's probably the least exciting part of the album. This compilation single-handedly made me like ambient music, which I'd more or less hated before. Spectrum's "Pulse Drone (Neon Sigh)" is the closest thing to a spiritual/out-of-body experience I've ever heard in a piece of music, and pretty much everything else here is top-notch as well (and most of it, Aphex Twin and Spectrum tracks included, is exclusive to this release). I know a part of my love for this stems from nostalgia, but that aside it's a really solid work and a very, very excellent snapshot of early-90's electronic ambient music.

Non-Spotify link

03. AUTECHRE/SEEFEEL - Autechre Remix Of Spangle By Seefeel (2003)

http://www.discogs.com/image/R-168959-1252210308.jpeg

01. Autechre Remix Of Spangle By Seefeel (12:15)

This is much more an Autechre work than it is a Seefeel one (and is thusly ID3-tagged as such). It strips away all the warm, rich texture of the original Seefeel track and replaces it with an icy sparseness, focusing on a tiny looped fragment. It builds beautifully over the course of 12 minutes, and I hate using the e-word but it really is grandoise and journeylike and etc. I listened to this most during my senior year of college when I had to stay up all night writing papers in a sleep-deprived haze; obviously, it was the perfect soundtrack.

Non-Spotify link

I've had these picked out for like a month and am very excited to hear everyone's feedback!

holy crap.... I'm still running two weeks behind on this! Thanks for keeping the Monday picks on tracks while I haven't been checking in.

Also, I messed up the dates on the last scheduled curators list, so here's the revised. Any takers for the gaps on 23 Aug and 30 Aug?

19 July >> Leee
26 July >> Miles "Tails" Davis (Daruton)
2 August >> Tannenbaum Schmidt
9 August >> Ledge
16 August >> Lukas
23 August >>
30 August >>
6 Sept >> bug holocaust (Sleeve)

The original "Spangle," it should be said, is really fantastic.

I know. I'm actually really tempted to throw up Seefeel's "Starethrough EP" too but I've only heard it a few times and can't wholeheartedly recommend it yet. But yes, for reference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ELDxwd5pVg

Also, I'd be down for another crack August 23! No one's recommended some of my favorites yet.

Excursions in Ambience III and IV are two of my favourite ever compilations (EiA IV is slightly better)

#19 >>>>> anything on the CD version of SAW II

Dreamweapon is also great, there was a time when I fell asleep at night to that album probably twice a week for about two years.

"Spangle" is on Warp's AI vol. 2, right?

Original version, I mean, not the remix.

Yessir!

Listening to the remix now, it is almost as nice as the original!

Got my picks lined up. Both ambient for cracked-out ravers.

Ha ha, that "Excursions in Ambience" cover is no worse than a Darkside album cover, really. Ah, early 90s computer generated art - get out your Kais Power Tools and groooooove, man.

The Spacemen record is one of my all time faves. D/Ling the comp now, though I'm familiar with most of what's on it already. (And love it so much I want to hear the bits I don't know.) Seefeel mixed by Autechre though, is a bit... well, I think it's supposed to be "you got chocolate in my peanut butter! you got peanut butter in my chocolate!" but it's more like "ew, marmite in my chocolate, no, that's just gross."

(Sorry - I love Seefeel. I hate Autechre with an odd passion.)

I <<<<<<3 the autechre mix and the original (which i heard long after the remix) pales by comparison.

haters gotta hate...

there's an isan remix of seefeel's when face was face which is possibly my favourite thing ever.

I think you put that Isan remix on a mixtape for me ages ago, Koogs.

That one's fine, I just really really hate Autechre.

I mean, if we gonna talk ambient remixes of Seefeel... why hello pointy noised ginger ambience...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDry5Lrtbco

(whereas that's something i never really liked...)

I also never really got into those Aphex Twin remixes ... by far the best Seefeel remix is the Sine Bubble dub of "Plainsong". I still listen to it regularly.

Wooh, I'm next! Got mine lined up, just need to prep them.

I should add: the Air on the ambient comp way beats the French Air.

I'm enjoying Barry's picks but still getting into them. I don't have nearly as much time to listen to music right now (unless I'm practising playing it) so I've been totally slacking on all the listening clubs. I do look forward to catching up on the weeks that I missed though.

That Spectrum track is "Quicksilver Glide Divine" from the "Soul Kiss (Glide Divine)" LP with the left and right channels swapped. Anyway, I remember listening to this comp in my second apartment and reading Neuromancer and... being really happy.

lol early 90's

just wanna echo this sentiment:

Dreamweapon is also great, there was a time when I fell asleep at night to that album probably twice a week for about two years.

― NoTimeBeforeTime, Wednesday, 14 July 2010 01:29 (4 days ago)

Lousy nostalgist hippies, you lot...

Having listened to the whole of the Excursions comp now, I think the first half (minus the Spacetime Continuum) is excellent, but the second half mostly feels dated, the FSOL in particular. AFX, though, is very good, not quite "Rhubarb" but then what is.

> Any takers for the gaps on 23 Aug and 30 Aug?

<cough>
i have a few recommendations if there's a slot going...
― koogs, Friday, 25 June 2010 10:04 (3 weeks ago)
</cough>

At the risk of being a n00b, are there actual sitars in the first track of the S3?

"Full Length Version. Recorded at Waterman's Art Centre Hammersmith, 19th August 1988. Sonic Boom: Vox Starstreamer; Jason: guitar; Will Caruthers: bass vibrations; Steve Evans: guitar; Pat Fish: joint rolling."

not listened to it for a while.

wait, my copy only has 3 tracks... plus track 1 is listed as 43:30. STFRI 211

Wiki sez you have the first reissue.

yeah, i knew 8)

that page did clear up something though - it's waterman's brentford, not hammersmith. we had our works christmas party there the one year...

page doesn't mention that there was a much shorter version out on a flexi on che (possibly cheree) before the lp. oh, here: http://rateyourmusic.com/release/ep/various_artists_f2/cheree_presents__cheree_f5/

Time to break-up the sausagefest...

Colleen - The Golden Morning Breaks (2005)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51eTZcp-DmL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
Strictly speaking, not really ambient, more like spacious, minimalist chamber music, though I think we've been pretty flexible so far as genres go. I couldn't be happier that she left the laptop on the first album and went with live instruments, looped and looped on top of each other.

Pitchfork sez.
Random blogger sez.
not-spotify link

Kinski - Don't Climb On and Take the Holy Water (2004)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61-Bfv2M8OL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
A lot more interesting than their post-rock/biker-psych rock, imo, and performed (live!) under their Herzog (hyuk hyuk) guise. Sometimes, this sort of spacey guitar noodling can seem too abstract and arid, but whatever it is that Kinski have going here, they sound sumptuous.

Dusted sez:

As a live recording, it’s severely impressive, and sounds far more like an obsessively premeditated studio creation than anything on Kinski’s last official album, Airs Above Your Station, with its mixing board-enhanced blasts of white-hot flight, fight, and firepower. But speed and (anti-) gravity come with a comedown, clearly, and Don’t Climb On shows Kinski can thrive in the afterglow, mapping the midnight drift of orbiting crafts and melancholic meteoroids. Or, in the simplest terms, this record captures a somewhat unedited glimpse into Kinksi’s core, illuminating them as a band still in love with messy jamming, and the visceral thrill of making cool noises with good friends.

Windy & Carl - The Eternal Struggle (2005)
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XuUaBHJRL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
Actually, this is disc 1 of the The Eternal Struggle/Dedications to Flea double CD, but TES is a lot sparer and more direct and thus is so far and away more powerful and affecting that I rarely listen to the second disc.

AMG sez:

The drones and delays from E-bowed guitars are ever-present, but there's more of an organic feeling this time around; it's the sort of music expected to resonate from the halls of majestic chapels and sacred grounds. But for every moment that seems to hang around too long or stagnate just a little too much, there's another soft nuance slowly emerging from the background. "I Have Been Waiting to Hear Your Voice" returns to many of the elements found in classic Windy & Carl moments: beautiful melodies dancing about a bed of drones.

Dusted sez:

While its booklet packs Windy’s words on the dual moments of mourning, each piece of music floats outside language as pure, silence-absorbing nothingness. Epic elegies dissolved in a bath of warm FX, they channel ache out through e-bow radiance and slow drone sooth.

“The Eternal Struggle” opens The Dream House with a tender bloom of trembling organ tones. Melting bands of delay tangle and offer an amorphous rhythm of refracted guitars before twinkling chimes bring the room back from a world of echo to four cold walls. Glistening guitar lines glide through “I Have Been Waiting to Hear Your Voice,” while soft clusters of electricity hum and shift underneath. Absence in The Dream House is almost made literal, it is felt.

The hell? Links are borked.

Colleen
Kinski
Windy & Carl

they'll work, it takes Megaupload a little bit to make the files available and it shows "temporarily unavailable" until then.

Actually, it was ILX's html-to-pseudo-bbcode script encoding some of the characters that messed up the URLs. Fixed, anyway.

I am about to say something I have never said before and am unlikely to EVER say again:

I actually quite liked that Autechre remix of Seefeel

Now I feel terribly unclean and need to go and have a wash.

you might like their cover of wiessensee too.

xp notify the press; hell hath frozen over!!

((whatever you do, don't tell watmm!!))

bahahaha I haven't been on there in ages. Yr secret is safe with ILX.

((neither have I, TBH. I find watmm kinda icky, actually.))

Good selections Leee!
Allready know and love the Coleen and the Windy and Carl. Looking forward to checking out the Kinski.

that windy & carl record is a great one.

What Ehlers albums are more techno-ish? The only other one I have is Ballads.

26 July >> Miles "Tails" Davis (Daruton)
2 August >> Tannenbaum Schmidt
9 August >> Ledge
16 August >> Lukas
23 August >> Koogs
30 August >> ??????
6 Sept >> bug holocaust (Sleeve)

*bump / curator schedule reminder / anyone for 30th Aug / anyone want to take over running this - my life if way too busy at the moment to check in much?

I say put Milton in for the 30th

oh shit I forgot about this. I'll post mine tomorrow. (me = Daruton btw)

Hi folks. Here're my picks for this week.

Terre Thaemlitz - Soil (1995)

http://i42.tinypic.com/332qj9e.jpg

link

David Sylvian and Holger Czukay - Flux + Mutability

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Q7VE6QCKL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

link

I picked these two albums because I discovered both of them around the same time and have certain associations with them. I was living in Boston and would often walk around at 3 AM with my headphones and never encountering anyone.

The Thaemlitz seems to have dated very little since its release. I love the mix of oddly-affecting washes of synths and distorted samples. Not much ambient still sounds this strange and alien to me. Favorite track is "Aging Core, Aging Periphery". My favorite ambient album that is not Selected Ambient Works Volume Two.

Flux + Mutability is my favorite of the Sylvian ambient albums, if only for the second track. I don't think it would sound out of place on Eno's Apollo, and imo it bests a lot of the material on that album.

so excited for the thaemlitz! i had no idea that was an ambient album, but i love the dj sprinkles record and everything else i've heard from him. and of course saw2

i've been looking for that thaemlitz album thanx!

Thaemlitz album is great, thx for sharing!

Quite enjoying the Sylvian.

I've fallen behind again (traveling) but have dl'ed everything and will hopefully start catching up this week.

I used to be really into a lot of stuff on Instinct Ambient, but never heard that Terre Thaemlitz album.

Hey all, sorry I'm late with my turn (was due 2nd Aug), but here you go:

TU M' - "Monochromes Vol. 1"(2009)
http://www.12k.com/line/graphics/03_releases/03_a_040.jpg

Spotify | Non-Spotify (use the "try" link)

"'Monochrome 01' immediately provokes comparisons to William Basinski with its looped, heavily enshrouded loops and ghostly piano gestures, but there's a more digital, less gritty feel to this album that sets it apart from that oft-copied sound. Next comes 'Monochrome 02' (unsurprisingly enough), which is far less concerned with constructing any explicit melodic presence, instead content to cast sonic shadows for twelve minutes or so - it's all characterised by a disconcerting intangibility, vaporous and strangely... absent in tone. More overtly musical is the shortest entry here, 'Monochrome 03', which unfurls chords that gently swell and fall away like a distant orchestra, only for the final piece to present a more solid block of sound, casting a veil of digital smudges over your ears for a hypnotic half-hour. Abstract and immersive listening from the reassuringly challenging Line stable." Boomkat

I discovered this recently and having been swooning to this on the regular.

The Remote Viewer - "Here I Go Again On My Own" (2002)
http://www.plong.com/MusicCatalog%5CR%5CRemote%20Viewer,%20The%20-%20Here%20I%20Go%20Again%20On%20My%20Own%5CRemote%20Viewer,%20The%20-%20Here%20I%20Go%20Again%20On%20My%20Own.jpg

Spotify | [url=http://www.mediafire.com/?vzzizyzkygr]Non-Spotfy[/url
: first one on google search

Always admired these guys from a distance, but this is their only album I own, and absolutely worth for just tracks 2 (Spend More Time With Me) and 7 (I Waited But Nothing Happened).

"Haslingden’s Remote Viewer at long last deliver their massively anticipated second full-length album, this time for the City Centre Offices label. Having served time as members of Hood’s original line-up, Andrew and Craig have been fine-tuning their equal-parts fat and melancholy lullabies for some time now. A ghostly neon beauty permeates the sublime stretches of the opening ‘I climbed a Mountain’ - clicky beats and detuned piano lines, all crunched-up and squashed to devestating imperfection. Their love of jiggy hip-hop and downbeat accoustica makes sense across these unique sounding moments of bliss – check the lazy, simmering endlessly deep bassline shuffle of ‘Spend More Time With Me’ that loses itself into a groove that for one fleeting moment brings in a vocal that disappears before it’s even started. Magic. ‘Snow it Falls On’, however, takes a leave of absence from all things squashed and instead unfolds a gently mesmerising combination of Banjo, bass and handcrafted electronic tinkles that sliver around Andrew’s and Nicola’s (Empress) delicate vocal weave. Perhaps the finest moment on the label to date, ‘Here I Go Again...’ is more than just your average Whitesnake tribute album...it’s one of the finest accoustronix albums we’ve ever heard. Utterly essential." - Boomkat

enjoy!

Also diggig the Thaemlitz, from which I'd only previously heard "Yer Ass Is Grass"

Lovely, lovely, lovely X 2, Tannenbaum. Enjoyed both.

9 August >> Ledge
16 August >> Lukas
23 August >> Koogs
30 August >> ??????
6 Sept >> bug holocaust (Sleeve)

I'll take the 30th (& I think Sundar's request got lost in the shuffle upthread as well)

9 August >> Ledge
16 August >> Lukas
23 August >> Koogs
30 August >> Milton Parker
6 Sept >> bug holocaust (Sleeve)
13 Sept >> Sundar

Don't think that The Remote Viewer's post-SAW I plinky-plinking is really my bag, but Tu M' is lovely.

This weeks picks:

The KLF - Chill Out

http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/t/the-klf/album-chill-out.jpg

And now a lesson in sucking eggs. Yeah you probably all know this but if I manage to introduce just one person to it then "my work here is done" (doffs cap, walks off into sunset)

'One of the initial works in the ambient house canon, Chill Out is the practically beatless soundtrack to a late-night journey along the Gulf Coast, and the track titles tell much of the story: "Six Hours to Louisiana, Black Coffee Going Cold," "3AM Somewhere Out of Beaumont," "Elvis on the Radio, Steel Guitar in My Soul." Recorded live by Drummond and Cauty (with much unintended help from sample victims Elvis Presley, Fleetwood Mac, and the throat singers of Tüva), Chill Out consists largely of fragmented, heavily reverbed steel guitar, environmental sounds (birds, trains), occasional synth, and an angelic vocal chorus repeating the KLF's own "Justified and Ancient" theme. Throughout, Drummond and Cauty display an instinctive talent for wallpaper music that's truly diverting, making Chill Out one of the essential ambient albums.' (Allmusic)

Non-spotify

Eluvium - Talk amongst the Trees

http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/41BEX8WKQZL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

'After taking a break and immersing himself in a 30-minute, one-take piano piece that resulted in 2004's An Accidental Memory in Case of Death, Matthew Cooper (aka Eluvium) returns to forms and ideas he started to flesh out with Lambent Material and brings them to a more fully realized state throughout Talk Amongst the Trees. The album is longer than Lambent and employs the same types of instrumentation, but takes it in a more focused and emotionally charged direction. It's experimental music in the vein of Eno, Kevin Shields and Max Richter to be sure -- but like these aforementioned composers, it's not the process or concept that is the main concern, but the effect the music has on Cooper, and in turn, on his audience. "New Animals From the Air," the album's ten-minute opener, picks up where "I Am So Much More Me" (Lambent Material's closing composition) left off; warm swirling guitar swells flying around slow and melodic passages that seem to creep from out of nowhere. This is where Cooper does almost instinctively what it takes others to master over the course of a few releases: his sense of timing. He knows when to start and let ideas fold around themselves, and most importantly knows when to let them fade away into the creative from which they came. "Area 41," although brief, provides a haunting interlude which would not feel out of place on the sublime Pop Ambient series that German label Kompakt issues annually; while "Everything to Come" and "Calm of the Cast-Light Cloud" are so warm and serene that even the hardest of chin-stroking post-rock fans would acknowledge their simplistic beauty. The 16-minute work out of "Taken" sounds eerily like Pachelbel's canon, which makes it all the more endearing and a natural climax setting up the somber finale "One." This is not just a release for post-rock, experimental, ambient or electronic fans. This is a release for everyone who simply likes honest, well-crafted music.' (Allmusic)

Spotify
Non-spotify

Various Artists - 8, 8.5, 9 Remixes (mostly just for 8.)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre900/e996/e99600ccfkw.jpg

Various Artists is the wilfully obscure alias of Thorsten Profrock, and most of his releases under that moniker are minimal techno, but for this he dropped the beats and produced one of my favourite pieces of pure minimalism. I'm uploading the whole EP because I can, but really this is just about the first track, 8. It's based around a simple loop which structurally speaking mostly doesn't change, but over its 18 minute runtime the instrumentation used to construct the loop slowly shifts, warps, evolves, barely noticeably as you're listening but fairly profoundly over the whole track. Towards the end the sounds start to fracture, and in doing so destabilise the loop itself. As for the other tracks, 8.5 is just an interlude, 9 is an ok loop but does not evolve in the same way, and the remixes are all good examples of the respective artists' skills but only the Pole and Monolake ones approach any kind of ambience.

Non-spotify

* * * <-tumbleweeds

have not heard any of these. have seen the bottom one around places. won't get to hear them until later in the week though.

way behind, but I listened to the Windy & Carl this morning and enjoyed it. I like the static wash thing they do.

i'd like a week, please

sleeve, glad you enjoyed W&C.

Chill Out one of the few albums I'm familiar with on here. I'm hesitant to say that it's an old favorite, but every time I think about selling it, I listen to it and suffice it to say, it remains in my collection.

If Vahid hasn't gone yet, he can go before me. I've already done a week some time ago.

finally someone posted 'chill out'! such a goofy ambient album but i think this is why i love it so

Great picks this week, KLF is of course unfuckwithable, the Eluvium album isn't my favourite from him but it's the album where he made the leap from good to great (although one could argue that it happened on "An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death"), and its been eons since I heard that Various Artists albums, I'd completely forgotten about it!

Loving this thread.
I'd like a week too. I might get the hang of making a working link by the end of september.

this thread has def. lowered my heart rate.

You know what? Fuck it, I'll take a week too.

Catching up ... at the time, I didn't like Colleen's "Everyone Alive Wants Answers", so I wasn't too jazzed about hearing "The Golden Morning Breaks". But it turned out to be awesome! I hear a lot of Animal Collective's "Sung Tongs" in this one, the difference being that "Sung Tongs" is a boring, weeded-out mess, whereas TGMB actually gets it right.

Kinski's "Don't Climb On and Take the Holy Water" is just so-so -- pleasant, but not something I'd really get into. It's TOTALLY a Leeeeee album though, I can see why you love it (that's not meant to be an insult BTW).

9 August >> Ledge
16 August >> Lukas
23 August >> Koogs
30 August >> Milton Parker
6 Sept >> bug holocaust (Sleeve)
13 Sept >> Sundar
20 Sept >> Moonship journey to baja
27 Sept >> Ned Trifle II
4 Oct >> admrl

seriously, someone please volunteer to look after the schedule 'cos I'm so hit and miss with time to check in at the moment and will be even less so from October.

Lovin' the chance to hear KLF Chillout again. Thoroghly into Windy & Carl - been on repeat all week.

Thanks to corey for posting "Soil", I love it. I would volunteer but the next few months are about to get crazy for me. =/

new "rule" - if you want a week, just slot yourself in, copy + pasting a current schedule with your date/name at the bottom. That'll serve as a reminder to those coming up ahead of you. Self-governance type ish.

It's the Big Society in action.

This Colleen album is very great! Thanks

Lukas, need my ambient fix, man.

Tonight

Just wanted to say I finally got around to opening this thread on Sunday when I was feeling really ill - going through it I've already found some amazing stuff I've never heard before (namely the KLF, FSOL and Pole albums) and have cued up a load more to listen to. Great work everyone, ambient/chillout music is exactly what I need right now.

awesome!

Three today with an emphasis on acoustic samples / field recordings. One a personal favorite, one I think I under-rated at the time, one I haven't decided about, years later.

Biosphere - Substrata
http://www.profelectro.info/fm/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/biosphere_substrata.jpg
"...the sound you’d expect, hearing the words “arctic ambient”, is probably a lot like what’s here, even if you’ve never listened to anything along these lines before. That said, it’s hard to deny the flawless flow and listenability of this record, especially in the first 7 tracks.
And indeed, the latter is a lot of what Biosphere has had going for him all along - listenability, memorable tracks and melodies. These are not slow moving, formless or lengthy soundscapes… indeed, they are almost “songs”. Average track length is about 5 minutes. They have obvious melodies, created by guitar and shimmering synth. Sure, muffled, peaceful drones are a constant in the background, and everything’s been given a thick coat of reverb, but really, nothing here feels alien, huge, deep or truly mysterious in that way only space ambient can. It’s as ‘pop’ as ambient gets. It’s as if Jenssen simply wants to remind of us of a specific environment, rather than take us there and completely immerse us in it...
Biosphere’s music seems incredibly calculated. The thematic consistency is sometimes forced rather than natural. It never allows itself to simply drift or hang in space, with the exception of some of the more adventurous final tracks, such as “Sphere of No-Form”. It’s here that the feel of the album is allowed to become a little more ambiguous, no longer so obviously comforting."
non-spotify link

Tetsu Inoue - World Receiver
http://www.kompaktkiste.de/cd/_label/instinct/amb6002.jpg
"...it is the modern version (although recorded in 1996) of Brian Eno's 'On Land'. In the middle of 1996, Inoue put together a recording combining atmospheric ambient and soundscapes evoking distant lands, faraway places. Nothing though particularly new to the followers of Inoue's work or in the field of ambient at that time. What separated "World Receiver" from Inoue's history and from the rest of the pack, was the seamless blending of environmental recordings literally from all over the world. The resulting collage was extremely detailed and precise without suffering from the weight of hundreds of hours of work and editing. It is a subtle texture from Inoue acting as a filter to what is intended to be receptions of signals from across the globe through one 'world receiver' radio. So, this is the audio document of the memory of paths travelled, sights observed, voices heard -- arbitrarily collected and purposefully assembled to a magnificent end."
non-spotify link

Marsen Jules - Yara
http://norbirnr.uw.hu/cover/2009/yara.jpg
"whereas on his first release (see vital weekly 393), jules is playing around with classical music, in the best tradition of gas or ekkehard ehlers' 'betrieb', this time he fiddles around with some live recordings by a band named 'trio yara'. these recordings were made in a smoke filled bar, with quite some distance between band and audience, and the microphone being set half way through. so we hear some vaguely piano's, distant mumbling voices, glasses at the bar but to enhance the moody atmopshere, jules adds a fine dose of delay and reverb to it. somehow this sounds very much along the lines of his 'lazy sunday funerals', even when the input is so totally different. an piece of ambient music throughout."
non-spotify link

o man excited to hear Tetsu Inoue, I have always wanted to get that Field Tracker record he did with Andrew Deutsch but I keep putting it off.

substrata is my favorite ambient record !

i will investigate the other two

Catching up ... at the time, I didn't like Colleen's "Everyone Alive Wants Answers", so I wasn't too jazzed about hearing "The Golden Morning Breaks". But it turned out to be awesome!

Glad you liked it! Yeah, her first album really isn't much aside from the first one or two tracks -- she gets a lot more interesting when she starts moving towards acoustic instruments/music boxes.

Kinski's "Don't Climb On and Take the Holy Water" is just so-so -- pleasant, but not something I'd really get into. It's TOTALLY a Leeeeee album though, I can see why you love it (that's not meant to be an insult BTW).

But... it doesn't sound remotely like Bardo Pond!

Yeah, but it's got this fuzzy, zonked-out, improvisational feel that BP also do so well (mainly on the Volume comps).

I love the TU M album ... I knew I would, when Basinski's name was dropped in the description then I knew I'd be hooked.

Looking forward to revisiting the Tetsu Inoue, it's been a while. I just bought Marsen Jules' "Herbstlaub" and listened to it for the first time only yesterday! So I'm definitely in the mood to hear more from him.

If anyone really likes "Yara" and wants to hear his excellent previous, "Lazy Sunday Funerals", let me know. It was a legal free download for years so I don't feel that bad about sharing it.

Substrata was the one I'm not decided on. Does anyone else find it sort of contrived? Tracks show up, do their things and then it's on to the next. They don't have an independent existence, they don't breathe. (can't totally shake Hyperborea + Kobresia tho.)

man, Chukhung has to be high on my list of favorite songs. has haunted me since the first time I heard it. It's one of those tracks that makes me wish I was a movie director.

but I've listened to Dropsonde more than I ever did Substrata. I'll probably put that one up if I ever take a week on this thing.

This Colleen album is very great! Thanks

OTM. Can't believe I never heard of it before.

Hello World.

given that lukas didn't post until thursday i'm going to spread these out, one a day, if that's ok.

One: Isan live at King's Place (10th Feb 2010)

http://soundcloud.com/isan/isan-live-at-kings-place-london-250210

once upon a time, a long time ago, peel played a record. and i wrote the name down. the next time i was in Rough Trade i realised that i didn't have the bit of paper and i'd forgotten the name of it. but luckily the bloke behind the counter knew the lyrics i quoted to him (in fact, it was one of their store picks at the time). that was Damil 85 and i've been a fan ever since. took about 9 years to get around to seeing them play live (they don't do it much and i'd always find out about it the week after) and then caught them about 6 times in as many months. and then life intervened (antony moved to denmark) and they stopped playing for a bit. the above was the first time they'd played in or around london for a couple of years. was part of the Bubbly Blue And Green series of gigs at King's Place, a venue more known for its modern classical gigs (and comedy, the night i was there)

first and last songs are (extended versions of) things from the recent lp (Glow In The Dark Safari Set), the others are old favourites, a couple of them with water-themed samples replacing the usual ones in honour of the occasion. the first couple also feature robin's non-patented Dripsophone which is a big bag of water dripping onto various percussion instruments producing effectively notes that are woven into things. lots of tape loops towards the end as well, done using cassettes and charity shop recorders.

http://www.isan.co.uk/isan/

given that lukas didn't post until thursday

i'll never stand between ambient heads and their music again, trust me. bunch of addicts.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511LvPNIcEL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

Two: Flying Saucer Attack & Tele:funken - Distant Station (Part 2)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Distant-Station/dp/B002X1NLIC (englishers)
http://www.amazon.com/Distant-Station/dp/B000YH8UQU (americans)

controversial Amazon link. it's only 69p you cheapskates. other links may be available <cough>holyfuckingshit40000</cough>

Thought for a while what the 'ambient' thing means. and it's pretty wide. and i figured this wouldn't be out of place on Ambient 4: Isolationism so... FSA are a part of my indiepop past, a natural progression from the Mary Chain etc, tunes overlaid with noise. and now with added Tele:Funken, making it a bit bleepier than usual. it gets a bit loud and scary towards the end, but i've always liked that, like the end titles of UFO or the aforementioned Ambient 4.

(and part 2 only because part 1 suffers from (i think) bad digital clipping, even on the cd, and i hate that)

I used to see that CD used all the time, never heard it!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/B000005EKO/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=229816&s=music

Three: Windy & Carl - Antartica

now, this was going to be Tomorrowland's Stereoscopic Soundwaves but i couldn't find that anywhere and this was easy. i wanted to pick one of the Darla Bliss-Out series, of which this is my favourite, i was just avoiding it because we've not long had some W&C.

so, first thing i did with internet access was to join some mailing lists - specifically 4ad-l and indie✧✧✧@esk✧✧✧.c✧✧. and that was around the time these cds started being put out so there was a lot of talk around them. i have the first 7, W&C is the 2nd, Tomorrowland is the 6th (fuxa, flowchart, mizra, amp etc being the others). looking at discogs i see there were about 20 altogether.

this woke me up for about 5 years, but not very well. often i'd just lie there listening until track 2 started, 20 odd minutes later.

The Piano Magic Bliss-Out (no. 13) is really nice . . .

(indiepop @ eskimo . com)

yeah, i had a look at some of the others but the one i had samples for didn't really feel like it belonged to the bliss-out albums of yore. it had vocals for a start. i relistened to the 7 i had and the flowchart and fuxa stood out but were a bit sonic. the amp was too long. the tomorrowland was more ambient.

The Biosphere and Terre Thaemlitz albums were pretty much what I expected. Biosphere's tracks always sound blissful, but a bit too pleasant. For the most part, Thaemlitz's album didn't make me sit up and take notice, but in the second half I was feeling good and spooked out, so I guess in the end it was working for me. Might be a grower, that one.

just got around to checking out that sylvian/czukay album and it is kind of amazing. very late-80s, kinda balearic, i think karoli and liebezeit are on it too? for some reason this is reminding me of certain jon hassell pieces, which is a very good thing

that's interesting, I've always thought of a lot of the stuff on Substrata, and later Biosphere albums, as kind of epic and full of mystique

The second song that starts around 14 minutes into the Isan pick -- I guess that's "Slow Bulb Slippage"? -- is damn fine.

that's an old (2004) live favourite given the watery samples treatment.

I like some tracks on Substrata. The opener (actually the second track, as the first is just a field recording, I think?) and the one with the voiceover (in Russian?) are my favourites, probably because of the semi-orchestral "cinematic" quality they have—muted strings and such, I respond to that kind of thing in a near-Pavlovian way. The rest of the album is mostly good but not great, and its lows ("Times when I know you'll be sa-ad / times when I know you'll be sa-ad / times when I know you'll be sa-ad...") are truly low. Maybe I should give it another listen, but I think I might like it even less after that. Kryoniks by Henrik B kind of ruined Biosphere for me.

The track with the (Russian?) voiceover is my favourite too ("Hyperborea"). Everything before that is fairly typical 90's ambient -- a sort of multicultural stew of "found sound" and field recordings, fluffy bunny ambient where the clouds part and you hear the gentle strum of an acoustic guitar*, etc. The second half of the album is a lot better.

* I guess we can thank/blame The KLF's "Chill Out" for this?

would totally stan for more steel/slide guitar ambience in the vein of Chill Out/zoviet:france's Something Spooked the Horses, if I could find any. Tenative forays have so far only uncovered new-age bullshit.

running about a week behind with the picks here btw.

Does Fennesz ever use steel guitar? You should check out Polmo Polpo if you like steel guitar + ambient (also with noise and some beats -- it may not fit your definition of ambient)

will do, ta. damn spotify sucks for electronics musics.

The Marsen Jules album is tremendous.

ok

Karma Moffett - Golden Bowls of Compassion

http://rootstrata.com/rootblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/gc_l.jpg

Image hosted by Root Strata, the blog that tipped me to this album to begin with. Since early 2009 I think I've somehow spent more nights listening to this than any other ambient record since high school, including those Eno's, or Erosphere, or anything. In some ways this recording is just going to the bank with an ancient musical tradition, praising this too much risks sounding like someone talking about how great a glass of branded water is, but there are a lot of recordings of Tibetan Bowls out there and then there's this CD. Karma is an SF local and so I've braved the yoga workshops (if not the Sausalito houseboats) he sometimes plays -- seeing him at Grace Cathedral clued me in to the exact performance method. He's spent years running the Tibet Shop in the Castro, cultivating his collection of huge resonant Tibetan Bowls. He usually buys two of each, and then lays them out symmetrically before him. He'll pace out the melodies, usually hitting one bowl and letting it ring for a while before hitting the twin. On this close mic'd stereo recording, when the second bowl is hit, it sounds a near-identical pitch -- but as no bowl is completely identical, you get beating and difference tones that basically send your mind straight through the top of your head, there really is almost nothing like it.

I'm a big fan of the Henry Wolff & Nancy Hennings 'Tibetan Bells' CDs, but they go for a wider range of sounds that's more geared for alert, focused meditation -- those records are special, but I can't sleep to them so they get saved for special occasions. And I love all varieties of percussive & bowed metal records, from Robert Ruttman to Aidan McIntyre to Harry Bertoia to Rhys Chatham to Warren & Samolis' 'Bowed Metal Music' but this one just seems to suit any level of attention you give it -- quiet it sounds utterly calming, moderate it sounds like a constantly shifting series of chords, and loud it just sounds like leaving orbit in a rocket. He's got countless other CDs & CDRs of his performances -- this one's much better than his first one 'Golden Bowls' -- which is good, but the audio engineering isn't quite as there. And I sometimes don't follow him when he expands the instrumentation to flute / sax / nature sound effects, even though I am usually a sucker for that kind of thing. Of the others I also like 'Chakra Bowls' which is a little more mysterious & edgy, and I also like 'Golden Bowls For Peace'.

http://rootstrata.com/rootblog/?p=1022

Garlo - Vent De Guitares

http://images.artistdirect.com/Images/Sources/AMGCOVERS/music/cover200/drf800/f872/f87207bif16.jpg

Without a description of what it is you're listening to, this would probably initially come across as a very deep piece of cosmic electronic drone. But even if I hadn't read the liner notes going in, I think within 10 or 20 minutes I would have begun to wonder about the exact origin of this music. The cover is an actual concert shot, 54 acoustic guitars spaced along the side of a very tall sand dune, each with special open tunings, and multitracked with direct lines in as the desert wind coasts up the side of the hill and sets the strings vibrating like aeolian harps. you can hear the occasional gust of howling wind, but mainly you just get these unbelievable swells as the rows of guitars all come to life singing -- you can hear the gusts travel through the instruments. I'm sure it was carefully balanced and arranged in the mix, the drones are very deep and the open tunings instantly evoke the kind of tonalities you usually only get with electronic music, but there's something about this record and distinguishes it from a home electronic studio recording, it's the best kind of sound art imaginable, like 'I Am Sitting In A Room' it works as music, but slowly lets on that it's got a voice slightly more elemental than what we're used to when listening to 'music'.

If you like this, 'Voices of the Wind' by Roger Winfield's Aeolian Harps is also pretty great, a very calming shimmering major chord made out of the pure harmonic series. On the noisier, howling side there's the Alan Lamb records and then the real beast is the Wind Harp: Songs From The Hill 2 LP set from the 70's which is more demonic than most noise music.

non spotify link, but I left off the last track

you definitely want to buy this one for the last track & the pictures in the booklet of the dunes, let alone the picture of the 'composer' himself in trenchcoat and sunglasses. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/garlo

Luc Ferrari - Éphémère I & II

http://www.seenallover.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/ferrari.jpeg

Reissued this year by Alga Marghen, two live tracks from 1974 / 1975, neither of which were on the 'Complete Works' GRM box set last year. First track is a fantastic maze of spoken word emerging out of a drone, but it's the 51 minute second track that is the real revelation here. A lot of Ferrari's stuff demands your full attention. The early stuff is hyper-kinetic, constantly exploding sound sculptures, and even his contemplative drone pieces are usually quite tense or prone to ruptures -- i.e. even those pieces where he lets you drown in purely lovely, calm textures, you never know when he's going to throw in a terrifyingly loud thunderclap. So this livemix from 1975 is a complete surprise, or maybe it isn't -- early 70's Paris were the home of Terry Riley's all night tape-delay concerts, endless billowing arpeggios and spirals, often held in churches, often heavily amplified. Several friends have described these concerts to me, though the 'descriptions' are usually just gibbering concluding with 'if you weren't there you don't know' etc. In any case -- when I hear Éphémère II, I hear Ferrari thinking to himself that he wanted to up the ante. This is a tape decay / cyclical loop piece built not out of organ sounds but out of John Fahey-esque acoustic guitar improvising. And I kind of can't understand why it's not getting reviewed everywhere. I got it at Aquarius, which raved about it, but I still hope this is seeding itself in time for some serious end-of-year attention -- with that said, I'll only post the second track, though the first one is just as good and you'll want the whole thing, even if it's 'II' that is the opener

non-spotify link
http://www.aquariusrecords.org/bin/search.cgi/exkeyword=ferrephecd

This looks great, especially the Tibetan bowls recording ...

I love that Tibetan bowls one. I was a bit wary of it to begin with 'cos for me it had associations (unwarranted ones) with panpipes and those CDs you see for sale in garden centres, but it's really good, and very good for zoning out after a hard day at the parenting rockface.

Or, in other words, what Milton said...

there are a lot of recordings of Tibetan Bowls out there and then there's this CD

That Luc Ferrari description is spot-on. You wrote that "this livemix from 1975 is a complete surprise", and was prepared to be surprised ... and I was still surprised!!

I liked the live Isan recording from last week too ... mainly for the first track.

Oh I want that Luc Ferrari but I think it works out at about £20+ to ship it over.

Milt, you're a star

the karma moffett and ferrari are great - thanks.

Hi thread, gimme a couple of hours

OK beatless-heads, here ya go.

1. Jliat - 16:05:94

"16:05:94 was made using the FM operators of the Yamaha SY99 & TG77 synthesizers which allow looping of envelopes. Because each sound is made from four elements which in turn are made by six FM operators, each with its own envelope, complex loop sequences can be programmed. The FM sound can then be sampled and these samples again made into loops. Such looping techniques in the past utilised tape. The piece then needs to be played simply by triggering the loops. Although a sequencer would appear to be the obvious choice I have found its fixed structure limiting. The loops have in them by virtue of their differences an undiscovered sequence, simply by letting them play against each other is all that is needed. The keyboard is used as a set of switches. I have borrowed a method of Herschel's who used brass weights to create an organ continuum, these are placed on the appropriate keys. Over time the rhythms generated produce new sounds. Because each start of a piece is unique, in the relation of the start of each looped sequence, the recording to DAT is of a completely unique event, the same set of algorithms played later produces a different piece."

"I would say that I depart from the minimalist aesthetic in that I would want the pieces to be a witness to a spiritual possibility. The pieces perhaps need to be listened to in not quite the same manner as one would listen to 'conventional' music. It is possible to explore the complex waveforms 'internally' but rather than this I would see the pieces being used not as explorations of music but as modern religious works. Religion in an inner sense of self exploration which would encompass relaxation, meditation, and prayer."

no images available

This guy put out a bunch of fascinating, dense drone records in the 90's. Then he vanished as far as I can tell. There are way more extensive liner notes than what I quoted here.

non-Spotify link

2. Rapoon - Vernal Crossing

http://www.discogs.com/image/R-76565-001.jpg

(that's a Discogs image, sometimes they don't show up for people)

I don't know whether Robin Storey or his former bandmates are responsible for holding up the much-needed reissues of the Zoviet France back catalog, but I try not to hold that against the guy. This is an early release of his and a big favorite of mine, we've been falling asleep to this a lot lately. Very similar to ZF discs like Just An Illusion which was almost all Storey anyway. I left off the last track. I think you can find this pretty easily if you look around - there was a less limited CD without the elaborate wooden box.

non-Spotify link

3. Mirror - Visiting Star

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_imtRA1TFv9s/SiojhCdYk_I/AAAAAAAAGgg/gWfdcuHM9kc/s400/R-582173-1175417070%5B1%5D.gif

Went back and forth about which one of theirs to put up, but this is my favorite. Yet another piece of collector-bait from Heeman and Chalk, I think Andreas Martin might be on this as well. The second side is the real winner here, lowkey sputtering drone that goes nowhere most pleasingly. Views is good too, but you can find that over at Mutantsounds.

non-Spotify link

I'm falling behind, but gotta say that the Garlo album is excellent. Last track definitely worth tracking down. Dance beats!

bump for new answers

loving the jliat. reminds me of a 60 minute version of one of the tracks from Geoffrey Chandler's "Starscapes". Rapoon is always dependable & looking forward to checking out the Mirror

man this luc ferrari is gorgeous, really rich and tactile

Just got the Garlo CD mentioned upthread. Great stuff. Still catching up on last weeks.

just seen this, really looking forward to hearing sleeve's jliat recommendation as i've spent the past year seeking out more and more digital/fm based ambient stuff. cheers

after listening to that Luc Ferrari piece I now see where Rafael Toral got a bunch of his ideas from, I was surprised to hear guitar creep into the mix but it works really well.

Sundar - it's your turn - break out the non-beats, need my fix.

wait ... was it my turn yesterday?

will post tonight if so.

OK, let's see if we can get back on track...I think I was supposed to do mine last monday.
Kent Sparling: Evening Air, Freeway Birds, No Wind Bird
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ymgk5MnVL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
A whole hours of meandering guitar/sounds. Possibly the most relaxing use of a siren ever. I listen to this last thing at night.
Available on Amazon for 79p/99cents as a single d/l. But let me know if you want it.
DJ Olive: Bouy
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514nV814HBL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
One of DJ Olive's three 'sleeping pills' - I think this is the best.
This is a sleeping pill. Listen to it as quietly as you possible can. Mainly two things are going on at once. One is a metaphor. Buoy - an anchored marker that maps the passing waves. Boringly singular, but never the same twice. There for you in a storm. The other is an environment. A sleep over, early morning light across the room - a screen door occasionally whispers as someone moves about. light fingers touch something. Curled in a cosy corner friends near by at the edge of sleep.
You can hear a bit here.
http://www.room40.org/mp3/RM404.mp3

Again let me know if you want it...

That should by 'Buoy' obviously.

Haven't gotten chance to check out DJ Olive or Kent Sparling, but have just heard a track ("In the Nothing of a Night") from Hammock's Chasing After Shadows..., and it's very Eluvium/Infinite Body, full-bodied drone sort of ambient.

Oh shit, it's supposed to be me! Sorry I been sick the last few days. Can prob put up tomorrow or someone can take my slot?

I think it's safe to say that Adam's spot has passed, so what the hey:

Various - Women Take Back the Noise (CD 1)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SAWFVD8N

Part of a 3-CD box, with each one focusing on a different aesthetic. The first CD is the best imo -- all drone, all the time, and as the name suggests, all by women.