Meditative Music

'Meditative' is one of those adjectives, when related to music, that feels vague and nebulous: it's not descriptive of anything in particular, and is open to interpretation for the individual listener. You might nod out to Ascenscion as much as you might nod out to the Bitchin Bajas.

So, to set my priors for what I *don't* mean. Not Steve Roach or the like: it is, of course, meditative in its way, but that kind of long-form ambient is aiming for something else. Not Pharoah, late-Coltrane, etc: that kind of 'walk in the flames' meditation is too abrasive and, to me, requires a certain amount of effort from the listener to find the meditative sweet-spot.

Here's what I mean with some more vague adjectives: long-form, gently propulsive, hovering, changing-same, shimmering. It doesn't demand too much from the listener; it is characterised by warm, welcoming tones; it carries you along without truly delivering you anywhere; it isn't bothered about progression (necessarily).

So, if this kind of music *is* having a moment (happy to be told I'm talking bollocks), by way of a list of likely candidates...

Oren Ambarchi's Ghosted project
Natural Information Society (particularly their albums with Bitchin Bajas)
The Necks, obviously.
Jeff Parker's EVA IVtet

Maybe *too* propulsive but certainly in the right wheelhouse:

GAS
Dawn of Midi
Nik Bartsch.

What say you?

John Luther Adams: In the White Silence

Hiroshi Yoshimura - Music for Nine Post Cards

long-form, gently propulsive, hovering, changing-same, shimmering. It doesn't demand too much from the listener; it is characterised by warm, welcoming tones; it carries you along without truly delivering you anywhere; it isn't bothered about progression (necessarily).

if backbeats are allowed, katzenmuzik checks most of these.

Tony Scott - Music for Zen Meditation

Liner notes by Alan Watts. I liked this extract:

For it took Tony Scott, Western jazz clarinetist to coax two of the greatest masters of traditional Japanese music to join him in an unrehearsed session of purely spontaneous playing. Ordinarily, Japanese classical music - as performed on the koto (table harp) and shakuhachi (bamboo flute) - is extremely rigorous and formal, but Scott, like the Pied Piper, charmed Yuize and Yamamoto into this free-floating improvisation by his skill in playing the clarinet in the mood and style of bamboo flute, in some ways the result is more Zen than Zen - in the sense that, today, Japanese Zen Buddhism and the many arts associated with it have settled too firmly into the rigid- though nonetheless expert - ruts of traditions. Early Chinese Zen, so close in spirit to the Taoism of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu was much more spontaneous , and this record recaptures its feeling quite remarkably.

I think fourth world is sort of in this neighborhood. Or on a different tack, Natural Snow Buildings?

Blue Divers, instrumental ambient, guitars keys clarinet, beach-core, Wollongong act

https://bluedivers.bandcamp.com/album/blue-divers-ii

Something like The Koner Experiment perhaps?

to me it sounds like you're describing Music for 18 Musicians!

Here's what I mean with some more vague adjectives: long-form, gently propulsive, hovering, changing-same, shimmering. It doesn't demand too much from the listener; it is characterised by warm, welcoming tones; it carries you along without truly delivering you anywhere; it isn't bothered about progression (necessarily).

So, if this kind of music *is* having a moment (happy to be told I'm talking bollocks), by way of a list of likely candidates...

Ooh I have some thoughts about this after listening to hours of unvarnished bandcamp releases by a guy who used to be Jim O’Rourke this past week.

- physical releases were an opportunity for artists to put their best foot forward that bandcamp is not. I’m not saying the music isn’t good, it’s actually astonishing how much of it is excellent, but the property of flotsam places natural limits on expenditure (of, in particular, effort). and this stuff is quicker and easier to make.

-attention is currency and asking for attention rn today can come across as an unreasonable demand. a lot of artists seem to be conscious of this debt and one of the ways they respond is by making music that offers more support.

there's some great stuff on "i am the center: private issue new age music in america" that light in the attic put out .. almost ten years ago? yeesh. it's maybe a little hippy dippy but surprisingly deep. love it to death. some tracks feel pretty blissed out and altered and do a good job of inviting you to come along. personally i have a hard time meditating with any music playing. i've tried it before but it seems neither here nor there and/or unnecessarily distracting. for music that approximates the feeling though... that's a whole field of stuff i tend to at least be curious about.

I have this habit of both over- and under-explaining with my shit! I didn't really mean anything that purports to be 'meditative' at all (not that it's not valid as good music per se) - more that in the listening, there is a meditative quality, brought on by the gently propulsive nature of it.

I was thinking about ur-texts for this and Budo has nailed it really: Music for 18 Musicians and Charlemagne Palestine's Strumming Music. So yes to backbeat (albeit not motorik = *too* propulsive) but really it's this: Here's what I mean with some more vague adjectives: long-form, gently propulsive, hovering, changing-same, shimmering. It doesn't demand too much from the listener; it is characterised by warm, welcoming tones; it carries you along without truly delivering you anywhere; it isn't bothered about progression (necessarily).

Ooh I have some thoughts about this after listening to hours of unvarnished bandcamp releases by a guy who used to be Jim O’Rourke this past week.

Intrigued as to what this means!

I did say!

I could add that there was a time when it was possible to be Jim O'Rourke, that he encourad a specific type of fandom (to borrow a phrase from the babyshambles thread) that doesn't fly in 2025, but i think that was sort of implied

someone i initially thought of upon reading this thread was will ackerman. he has good songs in this respect, but the albums can be inconsistent. i love this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztPifwXaV0M
will ackerman - "the search for the turtle's navel" (1977)

did anyone say e2e4? e2e4. and ashra to boot.

Oh god, I've fallen into listening to so much of this specific thing in recent years, I usually think of it as rhythmic ambient. The ambient that it's ok to like.

Some artists/records that I mentally file here:

Ex-Easter Island Head (minimalist compositions using treated guitars as percussion instruments)
Mark Ernestus' Ndagga Rhythm Force
Ensemble Nist-Nah - Spilla (on Black Truffle)
Binkbeats - OHM

For me, some percussion ensemble stuff like Jaki's Drums Off Chaos or the recent Simon Popp 'Trio' record.

Also everything here, the ambient jazz/Scando-jazz/nu-ECM world of jazz musicians who are interested in hovering in the same space -
Thread of Jakob Bro (Danish jazz guitarist, maker of floating minimal ballads)
Ambient/post/nu/new-age jazz - S/D

Is anyone familiar with the L.A. based jazz-slash-Indian-classical musician, Michael Robinson? I have no idea how he got on my radar a couple years ago, but he's a prolific composer and releaser (via Bandcamp) of very long pieces of music that are... I don't know if "meditative" is the exact right word, listen for yourself and decide

https://michaelrobinson1.bandcamp.com/album/spirit-lady

Enjoying these recent examples. I was wondering if the 'meditative' bat signal might attract map and Jordan.

Wow at the Ensemble Nist-Nah: clatter for the gods.

I've been listening to Laurie Anderson's United States Live lately in the same way I listen to zen mantras/readings

I find much of this very meditative despite the density of notes, although some tracks are pretty out there. Jazz bassist creates a virtual + algorithmic plucked instrument and has a different legendary musician play duets with it on each track.

https://lovelandcph.bandcamp.com/album/around-you-is-a-forest

“long-form, gently propulsive, hovering, changing-same, shimmering. It doesn't demand too much from the listener; it is characterised by warm, welcoming tones; it carries you along without truly delivering you anywhere; it isn't bothered about progression (necessarily).”

been binging on echospace/cv313 stufff this week and this sorta sums up the feeling except added humidity

Also the duo record I did a couple years ago was very much in this vein, imo - https://thetrilogytapes.bandcamp.com/album/gurum-triads

maybe a weird answer: some discussion on the rolling metal thread but I caught the death metal band ulcerate a few nights ago and def got into a zoned-in, transfixed state watching their drummer. felt something like a conductor (with sick chops) guiding us all through their ebbs and flows, keeping things moving in a very fluid way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg5w5j78iDQ

less weird answer: gamelan usually does the trick for me and the l'art du gamelan degung comp is a personal fave:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJm8rn6gW5I