Ambient Recommendations

[easy g]

good work! thanks all. when i get a job again im gone shopping...

but what is this album renegadedog recommends here - anyone recognise it (its not a Future sound of london thing is it? the artwork looks in their style)

it is FSOL..... Lifeforms, double album

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

off topic but ambient spotters might like to be aware that the new danone advert for some yoghurt or other features the plucked guitar riff from The Orbs Little Fluffy Clouds.

In fact something should be done about this!

 

[gentlegreen]

After the Aphex Twin and Lifeforms my first ambient CD was Virgin's A Brief History of Ambient Vol.1 - though the bittyness can be a bit tiresome.

At some point ambient crosses over into newage. Post-rave I don't feel inclined to play my handful of specifically newage CDs any time soon, but I hope I come across Steve Hillage's "Rainbow Dome Music" as I restore my CD collection to working order this weekend. I'm currently listening to "Meditation Music" on Live365 ...

Before Ambient there was Pink Floyd's Grantchester Meadows, Tangerine Dream, side 2 of Bowie's "Low" and the odd Genesis instrumental ....

Of course Eric Satie's Gymnopédies were probably the first ambient music - composed with the knowledge that clinking cutlery would be part of the soundscape.

Some tangential things :-

Syntrillium's Windchimes - discontinued due to Adobe buyout.
Sseyo Koan - generative music player
I did have, but it packed up on me a copy of "Atmosphere Deluxe"

(even more laterally I installed PrayAlert to see what it was to have one's life regulated by setting aside fixed times for contemplation....)

I've always been keen on "son et lumière" and I have a dualhead graphics card that puts WINAMP's excellent AVS visuals on my TV.

Other than that I have a UV lamp, two fibre lamps and a couple of Maplin Sequencers for when the music has beats in it ...

I know - I'm a blinking hippy
.
.

 

[gentlegreen]

off topic but ambient spotters might like to be aware that the new danone advert for some yoghurt or other features the plucked guitar riff from The Orbs Little Fluffy Clouds.

In fact something should be done about this!

Barstewards - I'll have to keep an ear out for that ...

 

[Pingu]

?

a bit cliched in parts but still a good chilly type group

pitched up at the edge of reality is a reasonably decent album (imo of course)

or some william orbit?

 

[ska invita]

off topic but ambient spotters might like to be aware that the new danone advert for some yoghurt or other features the plucked guitar riff from The Orbs Little Fluffy Clouds.

In fact something should be done about this!

...that reminds me, does anyone know what name that string quartet who covered "dance anthems" went under?

I heard their version of little fluffy clouds on teh radio once (patrick forge played it) and it was bad... i've always wanted a copy of that.. also, what was that brass band covers of dance tunes called?

Are either of them any good?

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

...that reminds me, does anyone know what name that string quartet who covered "dance anthems" went under?

I heard their version of little fluffy clouds on teh radio once (patrick forge played it) and it was bad... i've always wanted a copy of that.. also, what was that brass band covers of dance tunes called?

Are either of them any good?

The Brass band is the willliam Fary brass band (see here ). I enjoyed Voodoo Ray but its a bit novelty and doesn't stand up to repeated lsitenings.

I don't know about the string quartet - the only string quartet I was aware of doing vagulely contemporary covers was The Balanescu Quartet who did a load of Kraftwerk covers (as well as the theme tune to University Challenge).

 

[ska invita]

just a little bump, if anyone knows the name of that string quartet who covered dance classics, including little fluffy clouds... thanks

 

[Sunspots]

off topic but ambient spotters might like to be aware that the new danone advert for some yoghurt or other features the plucked guitar riff from The Orbs Little Fluffy Clouds.

Would that be Steve Reich's 'Electric Counterpoint'* then?

(*Fuckin' beautiful piece of music. )

 

[Sunspots]

*Woo! My first ever duplicate post!*

 

[maya]

Thomas Köner/Porter Ricks
Wolfgang Voigt/Gas
Basic Channel/Chain Reaction

...are you me??

-agree with Chill Out, too-
and there's this italian bloke i never remember the name of, who makes wicked ambient...

 

[gentlegreen]

...that reminds me, does anyone know what name that string quartet who covered "dance anthems" went under?

I heard their version of little fluffy clouds on teh radio once (patrick forge played it) and it was bad... i've always wanted a copy of that.. also, what was that brass band covers of dance tunes called?

Are either of them any good?

"bad" as in good ?

 

[Sunspots]

...that reminds me, does anyone know what name that string quartet who covered "dance anthems" went under?

Edit: I fucked up the link to AMG. Sorry.

 

[gentlegreen]

your allmusic ID is showing !!!

 

[jbob]

I'll second Porn Sword Tobacco.

I would also highly reccomend:

Playthroughs by Keith Fullerton Whitman
The tired sound of Stars of the Lid - by the Stars of the Lid
The Dead Texan by The Dead Texan
and Venice by Fennessz.

All of which are gorgeous.

Amen to all of the above , brilliant recommendations (especially The Dead Texan). I'd add:

Herbstlab by Marsen Jules
The Avalon Sutra by Harold Budd (or anything HB really)
Tangled Wool by Xela
Corduroy Road by Goldmund

 

[Sunspots]

your allmusic ID is showing !!!

Cheers.

 

[ska invita]

thanks! "acoustik" - that was it! includes quartet versions of
1. Forever
Composed by Phil Hartnoll
2. Little Fluffy Clouds
Composed by Alex Paterson
3. Smokebelch Version 1
Composed by Lamont Booker
4. Smokebelch Version 2
Composed by Andrew Weatherall
5. Sparrowfall
Composed by Brian Eno
6. Hymn
Composed by Moby
7. Re-Evolution
Composed by Colin Angus
8. Moonshaker
Composed by Andrew Hale
9. Consume
Composed by Richie Hawtin

check the reviews (all five out of five)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...67733/sr=11-1/ref=sr_11_1/102-6319476-0443329

 

[Sunspots]

thanks! "acoustik" - that was it! includes quartet versions of
...

2. Little Fluffy Clouds
Composed by Alex Paterson

...

If you like that, you'll probably love the aforementioned 'Electric Counterpoint' by Steve Reich, which is what 'Little Fluffy Clouds' originally samples.

It's beautiful, and once I'd heard it, 'Little Fluffy Clouds' didn't sound half as imaginative as it had at first appeared...

 

[gentlegreen]

If you like that, you'll probably love the aforementioned 'Electric Counterpoint' by Steve Reich, which is what 'Little Fluffy Clouds' originally samples.

It's beautiful, and once I'd heard it, 'Little Fluffy Clouds' didn't sound half as imaginative as it had at first appeared...

I bet the Steve Reich version goes on for a bit though !

(and the Orb version's "got a good beat" )

shit - just checked - it's performed by Pat Metheney too - how could I not have that in my collection ? !!

Amazon .. clickety click - job's a good 'un -- "wish list" anyway !

 

[Sunspots]

I bet the Steve Reich version goes on for a bit though !

Nope. Three parts, totalling less than 15 minutes. 'Tis so beautiful.

-Oh, and I say all this as one who wouldn't normally touch Pat Metheny with a barge pole!

 

[braindancer]

Amen to all of the above , brilliant recommendations (especially The Dead Texan). I'd add:

Herbstlab by Marsen Jules
The Avalon Sutra by Harold Budd (or anything HB really)
Tangled Wool by Xela
Corduroy Road by Goldmund

Seeing as you have seconded all my reccomendations - I need to check out some of yours. I've never heard of this Marsen Jules fellow but he sounds interesting from what I've just read. He has a recent album for download on his website so I'll check that first.

Not too sure about Xela mind.

I read a review about it that said 'music for people who still take a teddy bear to bed'. I thought that was pretty accurate.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

good work! thanks all. when i get a job again im gone shopping...

but what is this album renegadedog recommends here - anyone recognise it (its not a Future sound of london thing is it? the artwork looks in their style)

Yes, it's Life forms...

 

[easy g]

...are you me??

-agree with Chill Out, too-
and there's this italian bloke i never remember the name of, who makes wicked ambient...

remember the comics?

what did you think of that Daniel Pinchbeck book? I think it came at the right time for me....

 

[easy g]

Yes, it's Life forms...

I refer the honourable gentlemen to the answer I gave some time ago

it is FSOL..... Lifeforms, double album

 

[ska invita]

Reserructing this thread:


Whats new in the world of bleeps, squelches and pads?

 

[Loki]

And re-resurrecting Anyone got suggestions to add? My ambient collection is pitiful atm...

 

[exleper]

max richter. more neo-classical than ambient, but ive found it to be perfect post-rave music, a lot like phillip glass. minimalist piano and lush strings. the two albums i have, 'memoryhouse' and 'the blue notebooks' are nothing short of masterpieces.

if youre looking for something more electronic, then murcof is your man. beautifully restrained minimalism with occasional orchestral samples...quite dark but never taxing. look for 'martes' and 'remembranza'.

and if you havent already come across them, mum (with a little thing over the u so its pronounced 'moom') are sublime, icelandic chillout in the sigur ros tradition. all their albums are good; 'finally we are no one' and summer make good' are personal faves.