Ambient Music

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I've ordered both of Aphex Twin's 'Selected Ambient Works' from my local record store. But I can't remember which one is the good one. Can you?
On the topic of ambient works, what is some electronic ambient/non-vocal music that you like. Lately, I've been pretty impressed by Four Tet.
What defines ambient music as such? Does it just put you to sleep...

― Jaromil (Jaromil), Monday, 16 February 2004 01:37 (twenty-two years ago)

They are both "the good one."

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 16 February 2004 01:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Top 100 Ambient Albums
Ambient Recommendations
recommend me early-mid90's ambient records
wanted: ambient/drone/transcendental rock

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 16 February 2004 01:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Since Brian Eno is often credited with coining the term, his description of "ambient music" is a good starting point: "Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting".

However, this is but one of a number of possible conceptions of the term/genre. Erik Satie, Edgard Varese, John Cage, Earl Brown, Christian Wolff, and Morton Feldman, among others, all preceded him in exploring the idea of music created specifically to interact with other environmental sounds and hence not "enforcing" a level of listening attention that attempts to exclude other sounds.

For illuminating examples, see the threads that scott has provided.

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Monday, 16 February 2004 01:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Thank you very much for the response Nom de Plume. And Cut1s Stephens, I think the reason I have understood one of the albums as being 'the good album' is because I had a particular hallucinogenic experience while listening to one of those albums and have forever associated that album with being the 'the good album' in my mind. Brian Eno's defintion for ambient music is interesting, but I think it ultimately fails -- I have listened to (what I would describe as) ambient music that is impossible to ignore. In fact, I think one the functions of 'good music' (as opposed to 'bad music') is its ability to hold your attention, obv. Hence, after having ingested some strange mushrooms, that Aphex Twin album became almost unbearably attention-grabbing. And I have forever believed it to be very, very good. Although I would strongly recommend against listening to Come to Daddy (the title track anyway) in a fragile, altered frame of mind....What do people think of Four Tet?

― Jaromil (Jaromil), Monday, 16 February 2004 02:01 (twenty-two years ago)

II is the good one. It's beatless, ambient. The first one has beats, not really ambient at all. I mean, they are both good, but II is great and I'm pretty sure that's the one you're asking about.

― Broheems (diamond), Monday, 16 February 2004 02:07 (twenty-two years ago)

II is beatless? Whaddya call disc 2 track 3 then?

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 16 February 2004 02:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, you know, "for the most part". If you own both records, you know the distinction I was attempting to draw for the benefit of Jaromil. Pedant.

― Broheems (diamond), Monday, 16 February 2004 02:16 (twenty-two years ago)

What I remember is beatless and very sparse sonically.

― Jaromil (Jaromil), Monday, 16 February 2004 02:16 (twenty-two years ago)

"II" is absolutely gorgeous. I can listen to it for hours. But as good as it is, "I" sounds to me a little ... embryonic?

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Monday, 16 February 2004 02:47 (twenty-two years ago)

In the hope of giving this thread some life, let's debate: Aphex Twin Ambient I vs. Ambient II -- which is better?

― Jaromil (Jaromil), Monday, 16 February 2004 03:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I like them both about the same. They're both totally different, but equally classic. SAW 85-92 has the slight edge for me, I can listen to it anytime. With SAW Vol. II I might have to be in the right mood to listen to it, but I'll be damned if it isn't one of the most sublimely beautiful and awe-inspiring albums ever made. So SAW 85-92 wins for accessibility, SAW Vol. II wins for being the superior, ultimately more rewarding record.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 16 February 2004 05:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I like Global Communication's album better than both of them. Though there's a track or two on SAWII which beats anything GC ever did.

― oops (Oops), Monday, 16 February 2004 05:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Aphex Twin, Global Communications, Eno--they're all good, but they're all anyone ever mentions when it comes to ambient. If you're really looking for interesting ambient, then try William Basinski (especially The River and The Disintegration Loops), Steve Reich (not really ambient in the strict sense, but his music is ambient by mood), Henryk Górecki, Bernhard Günter, Colin Potter, and even Arvo Pärt.
mh

― Michael Heumann, Monday, 16 February 2004 06:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Also the first Woob CD (em:t 1194). Find it online, it's out of print and sells for big bucks secondhand. I love both SAWs, but Woob is at the top of my list.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Monday, 16 February 2004 07:12 (twenty-two years ago)

lots of FAX should be dropped into this thread aswell. PEte Namlook and his gang made some gorgeous stuff in the 90's. for full breakdown on the Classic period there is a 4 cd set called the Ambient Cookbook that was orig just pressed up in the usual FAX 1000 limited run way .. but then reissued and should be easy to get .. full on ambience. others that do it for me Dreamfish (1 and 2) by Mixmaster Morris, all very trippy and E enahnced ambience .. but still very lovely.
then there are the epic droneathons from Bill LAswell/Axiom, though i have to say i have recently become bored of the LAswell sound and subsequently find his style quite cold and uninvolving .. but for while back in mid-90's i loved his "Axiom does Ambient" stuff. never really got the ambient stuff by Aphex .. just never really hit me as interesting (should ambient music be Interesting ?) probably due to the time period and i was too engrossed with finding the latest Pete NAmlook cd .. which became far too compulsive and costly ..
(maybe i should start ebaying them now ?)_

― mark e (mark e), Monday, 16 February 2004 10:12 (twenty-two years ago)

you should read the customer reviews of saw II on amazon.com (or possibly co.uk)
anyway,i prefer two,although i like the first one as well...
other recommendations-susumu yokota,arvo part,murcof,steve reich,the fourth track off garbage by autechre,various others i've probably forgotten...
there's other people who know a lot more about ambient music than me here though,but all the artists mentioned above have some great stuff...

― robin (robin), Monday, 16 February 2004 16:02 (twenty-two years ago)

One Mile North - 'Glass Wars'

It has guitars, but, like recent electronic ambient stuff, it works as either foreground or background music. Some pieces remind me a lot of the Murcof album.

― Curt (cgould), Friday, 20 February 2004 22:11 (twenty-two years ago)

steve roach is often lumped with new age, but his ambient is fantastic. on par with SAWII. i suggest "mystic chords and sacred spaces".

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 20 February 2004 22:33 (twenty-two years ago)

At the risk of having this turn into another "top 100 ambient albums" (such as those scott linked to), I am going to concur with Hazel and say that Woob 11:94 is the best ambient record ever made, for both beats and non beats, hippie ambient, cold dark ambient, creepy rumbling ambient, rainforest ambient, ambient dub, and I could go on and on. I wrote the Rough Guide to Ambient, so I'm allowed a little leeway to hijack the thread and gush :-)

And SAW II shits a river all over SAW I.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Friday, 20 February 2004 22:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Drive By by The Necks will astonish you. I promise. Plus Seven days Of falling by Esbjorn Svensson Trio.

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Friday, 20 February 2004 23:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Silent Records, California? Lots of US and Europena ambient music released by them, including Kim Cascone's 'ambient chaos' music (he rand his wife ran the label). They hit their stride in the early 90's but folded in about 1995. Here's the archive site:

http://www.silentrecords.net

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Friday, 20 February 2004 23:29 (twenty-two years ago)

"And SAW II shits a river all over SAW I."

What?! shits a river!!

This is going to turn into an AMBIENT SMACKDOWN of EPIC proportions.

but done in a very slow and etheral way.

― hector (hector), Friday, 20 February 2004 23:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Ambient smackdown - he hit me and it felt like a kiss.

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Friday, 20 February 2004 23:41 (twenty-two years ago)

exactly

― hector (hector), Friday, 20 February 2004 23:42 (twenty-two years ago)

kind of like trying to hit someone in a dream

― hector (hector), Friday, 20 February 2004 23:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Hahahahaha!!

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Friday, 20 February 2004 23:44 (twenty-two years ago)

T/S : SAW I vs. SAW II is somewhat of a fruitless argument since they're so very different from each other. The question gets posed a lot since the titles give the impression that II was the sequel to I, but they've got almost nothing in common other than the name.
For me, I love the isolationism of II, and I think Aphex did much stronger beat-oriented material than the stuff on I ("Surfing on Sine Waves = one billion stars).

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Saturday, 21 February 2004 01:50 (twenty-two years ago)

II > I

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 21 February 2004 03:04 (twenty-two years ago)

As much as I love "Xtal," the hi-hat can be ear-piercing

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 21 February 2004 03:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Consider that SAW85-92 was essentially made on what you would now wear on your wrist.

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 21 February 2004 09:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe its just cause they hit me in that order. I then II For a while 85-92 and the first Orb album were the definition of Ambient for me.

Saw them together once at brixton academy. Nice...

― hector (hector), Saturday, 21 February 2004 09:23 (twenty-two years ago)

ambient music = AM radio static through Chorus -> Delay -> Reverb

― Former Supposed So Called Nihilist Teenage Drug Disco Addiction Counselor (mjt), Saturday, 21 February 2004 19:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Consider that SAW85-92 was essentially made on what you would now wear on your wrist.

Same with "Surfing on Sine Waves" -- which I'll take over SAW I any day.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Saturday, 21 February 2004 19:35 (twenty-two years ago)

five years pass...

So what's with this Leyland Kirby fellow. I downloaded some things by him, and just listened to the 15 minute epic When We Parted My Heart Wanted to Die (apparently he just released an album/box-set/whatever of 4 hours worth of music) and it was great. He's been getting a lot of love at FACT and, erm. Boomkat. I'm intrigued.

Also what is it with these ambient producers and their great names, Leyland Kirby, Ezekiel Honig, Terre Thaemlitz...

― EDB, Monday, 14 December 2009 16:53 (sixteen years ago)

six years pass...

not sure if this is the perfect thread for this but new bing and ruth coming!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjxRwSmVm5Y&feature=share

― global tetrahedron, Wednesday, 2 November 2016 14:21 (nine years ago)

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