~~~Ambient Electronic Music~~~

[guggemmaneuver]

Dost THOU DIG THE OMINOUS ROAR????

Does anyone else out there "catch feelings" for ambient music? (i'm not talking about the CD's at the Grocery store that your mom listens to when she takes a bubble bath, but more of the expiremental soundscape type stuff.) I've been collecting this sort of thing on vinyl, cd, and mp3 for several years now and am curious about whether anyone else on these forums has any leads that I could follow, as my own expertise is very limited.

In my experience it can be a rewarding music to listen to while drawing because the listener's own sounds and environment (in this case, the artist's marking on paper, body movements, breathing) end up contributing to the greater sound experience. Because many of these compositions are formal or earnest in tone they can even aid the artist in taking his work more seriously. As such, they become, in a way, a (for lack of a non-cheesy way of putting it) soundtrack for your present endeavors. In my experience it is a very interactive style of music--although many people i speak with relegate it monotonous or uninteresting.

Other thoughts: a new grocery store (grocery store reference #2... geez.) opened up here and it's the new style where every wall (except for the front of the store where you enter and exit) is covered by some kind of a cooler, whether the open dairy-products, frozen foods or fresh vegetables. Before their easy listening music system went online, it was a most surreal environment to be in. While in the middle of an aisle, you could hear the faint, ominous buzz of the all of the refrigeration units. Walking closer to the end of the aisle the volume, variation, and depth of the sound increased subtly to yield a startling minor chorus of refrigeration motor drones. Sounds like this, to me, are very interesting in that they seem alien, otherworldly or spiritual , but yet, in their origin are so mundane.

Here are a few of my favorites: "Music for airports" by Brian Eno, "Room Tone" by David Kristian, and "Disintegration Loops" by William Basinski. I could go on and on, but will save these for a later time when this thread has elicited a response or two.

Regards,

The Gugg

[Rkhon]

I also really dig ambient tracks. Check out Aphex Twin's ambient works cd's and there are some really good stations on Winamp internet radio. the Sleepbot station in particular. And the stations are a good way of finding other stuff, I often find myself jumping out of bed to write down the name of an artist or song. But usually they are too hard to find.

[mos667]

http://www.digitallyimported.com/chillout/

This is an internet radio station that has excellent ambient music. I can't go a minute on the computer without listening to it

[Rkhon]

Hehe I'm like that with the Groove Salad internet radio station...more often than not its playing in my room, therefore kind of a soundtrack hehe.

[The Iconoclast]

OH man I'm crazy about the Fight Club soundtrack. Best movie...best music...!

And I heard about this electronica band named "Air"...are they good?

[guggemmaneuver]

Greetings;
Here's a link to one of the best ambient shows that I've heard... (and it is a 1.5 hour show, not a 24 hr stream like some of the ones that have been mentioned) "Atmospherics" from (Atlanta) georgia tech's WREK 91.1fm is untouchable in my opinion. You have to click on what bandwidth you prefer before selecting a day to listen to, but it opens as an M3U stream in winamp or itunes, or whatever else you have. The stream may start off as an "earth and sky" spot and may have a few silly college radio style promos mixed in. They have gotten a lot better about announcing the artist and track names afterwards as well. I've picked up on so many amazing groups musicians from this show / station.

http://www.wrek.org/stream/schedule.shtml

Recently there was a selection called "Threshhold" that I heard there by two composers / musicians Peter Fleur and Paul Duncan... imagine the ambient howl of wind, but on diesel.

also, a friend refered me to the amibient channel of this station that promises to be enjoyable: http://www.radioio.com/

I will try to check out sleepbot and the aphex twin "ambient works," Rkhon. I've got one of their other more techno-based cds and really like it--seems like they are really good at what they do. I've spent some quality time with groove salad in the past and really enjoyed. Right now i'm listening to digitally imported's chillout stream and am pretty impressed with it.

I'm not sure that I've ever heard the group air, but i do remember that the soundtrack to "Virgin Suicides" did so much to set up the surprise ending. Good sound direction in a project can add so much.

Regards,
the Gugg

[Lauren Short]

check out PPK

DJ Pimenov alone is awesome, but when he teams up with tochka uleta, it's amazing, pure genious

cheers

[Rkhon]

Cool, love this type of music. Gonna check those out. Ambient noises and music always stick out to me in games and movies etc.

Here is what the album looks like with some samples... http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/aphex_...90/album.jhtml

[Floris Didden]

I checked out groovesalad when you mentioned it. Been putting it on on any comp I sat at since then ...

This shit is wicked.

[Red_Rook]

haha, yea i discovered groove salad a while ago, so its either that, or defcon comedy radio, playing on my computer, like all the time

[mos667]

Air is an excellent group, great sound to their stuff. I got a CD from my painting teacher "Air and Blockhead", great music. (Blockhead is another small group that has excellent electronic/ambient sound). Hearts of Space is another great one, they have hour long sessions dedicated to certain styles of music, and some of them are great, great ambient stuff. Grey Area has some nice stuff too. So many to name!!

[kirubeen]

as far as I know (which isn't much as I dont like this type of music) the new burzum material is ambient. burzum was a black metal band (one of the pioneers) and then varg vikerness decided to stop playing metal. even their old music was ambient black metal, where he would strum the same riff over and over with some synth, it's really good, but the new stuff is pure ambient.

either way get some of that, read about it it here

[.:pitseleh:.]

as far as I know (which isn't much as I dont like this type of music) the new burzum material is ambient. burzum was a black metal band (one of the pioneers) and then varg vikernes decided to stop playing metal. even their old music was ambient black metal, where he would strum the same riff over and over with some synth, it's really good, but the new stuff is pure ambient.

You might not want to support that guy, since he is a horrible white supremacist ass. The reason he's reverted to beatless ambient music (apart from being in jail and only being allowed a synth in the way of musical instruments) is that he now thinks drums, as used in rock music, is a 'black' thing, thus unfit as a basis for 'pure' music. What a tosser...

If you are on the lookout for some dark ambient soundscapes, I would suggest cheching out stuff like Lustmord, Controlled Bleeding, Tarentel, Tribes of Neurot (which is basically an ambient counterpart to some of the Neurosis albums) and also perusing the catalogue of the wonderful record label Warp, which has stuff like Aphex Twin, B12, Plaid and Boards of Canada on their roster. Guess I should plug some highly listenable Norwegian artists too: Biosphere, Arne Nordheim, Deathprod (who has also done some amazing remixes of Nordheim's compositions) are all very atmospheric.

A good source for finding choice ambient and electronic cuts would be www.epitonic.com

[Red Giant]

Aphex Twin is awesome,as are Autechre although their earlier stuff is more ambient. Brian Eno is the godfather and brilliant to boot, and as mentioned it is well worth checking out the warp music web site.

[guggemmaneuver]

Originally Posted by emptybox
as far as I know (which isn't much as I dont like this type of music) the new burzum material is ambient. burzum was a black metal band (one of the pioneers) and then varg vikernes decided to stop playing metal. even their old music was ambient black metal, where he would strum the same riff over and over with some synth, it's really good, but the new stuff is pure ambient.

Posted by .:pitseleh:.:You might not want to support that guy, since he is a horrible white supremacist ass. The reason he's reverted to beatless ambient music (apart from being in jail and only being allowed a synth in the way of musical instruments) is that he now thinks drums, as used in rock music, is a 'black' thing, thus unfit as a basis for 'pure' music. What a tosser...

This guy's (burzum) material does look kind of flaky... what a screwball.

The site in question is hosted by anus dot com. how appropriate!

thanks for all of the great info everyone!

[kirubeen]

oh yes of course I know that, I by no means support him or his beliefs, I've read over 20 interviews and articles on the guy and lost all respect for him once I did when I was getting into his music. just saying his music was good, very abstract and might appeal to ambient fans.

oh and don't diss anus.com

[Odds]

Boards of Canada is amazing, especially Geogaddi and Music Has the Right to Children. www.di.fm and www.hybridized.org are also good places to find new ambient works.

[guggemmaneuver]

Thanks for the tip Odds and Empty box!

i haven't posted on this thread in a while, but here are some really good musicians for ye:

• Eluvium: kind of a distorted and roaring, but at the same time a very soothing and engaging treatment of ambient music; the CD i have, "Lambent Material" is pretty amazing. "Zerthis was a shimmering human image" is this amazing Epic of a song, the one that turned me on to this group.

• Kawabata Makoto: he's this artist who normally plays with the japanese psych-metal supergroup Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paradisio U.F.O., but this record where it's just him is pretty amazing. The one that i have, O Si Amos A Essere Duas Umbras? is comprised of two epic, deeply meditative, spiritual and transcendental compositions. Track one (weighing in at 37 minutes!) is the first track Kawabata has ever recorded on an acoustic guitar – filtered through 3 reverb units and a single delay this epic acoustic track starts off droning but quickly builds into a psychedelic journey with reverb-drenched and finger-picked momentum. track two is more of a traditional ambient piece, but is great as well.

• Vibracathedral Orchestra: my favorite band right now, this UK collective just released Tuning to the Rooster and it has these four tracks that conjure the image (at least for me ) of a group of western musicians performing as the house band at a hindu temple or the like. it's an amazingly intense listen. i love it.

thanks guys!

joel

[one2hit]

I love Delerium/Conjure one. After listening to them so often though it can really be a drag (you know when you wear something out because it's so good?) I gotta check out some of these other artists though! thanks

[Jannepan]

Check out: Ulrich Schnauss, Biosphere, Global Communication, The dead Texan, Secede, and Muslimgauze. And Philip Glass can be considered ambient as well (not electronic).

[DSillustration]

a lot of the stuff mentioned above is really great.

an old album i have that ive been really into lately is:
ICEBREAKER : DISTANT EARLY WARNING
its definetly an acquired taste.
its one of the few albums i listen to while i work.
very hypnotic.

but my fav has to be:
TOSCA: SUZUKI
though, it more down-tempo lounge than ambient.

[vigostar]

damb.... ive gotta get there.. I remember Sneakerpimps were dope... very hypnotic.. actually the soundtrack for teh movie saint was quite good

[ricksmith]

try some four tet. also, mum is nice - if you don't mind a little vocals thrown in.

r

[yAdam]

Need to check out some already mentioned in this thread, but as far as what I have listened to, or own, I would definately check out brian eno, i've only got apollo: atmospheres and soundtracks, but thats really good...Any Lustmord...The lustmord melvins split is really cool too, pigs of the roman empire. I got to recommend aphex twin ambient works too, they're quality.

I buy some things on impulse and some are hit and miss, there seems to be so many ambient artists around...I bought an eric wollo album called emotional landscapes, which is actually really good, despite the gay name. Its like ambient and classical though. Neptune towers are good (transmissions from empire agol and caravans to empire agol), so is somnific flux by bill laswelle and mick harris. House of low culture is ambient, but I dont like it. Its a bit too ambient for me. It might even be classed as noise more than anything.

[capt underoo]

here's mine:

The the movie score for the Last Temptation of Christ done by Peter Gabriel...fantastic to draw to....also anything by Global Communication...the Riven soundtrack is also enjoyable, I'm not usually partial to game music but this stuff is awesome...oh, almost forgot, the Orbital is pretty good as well

[timpaatkins]

Here is something ambient I listen to ALL the time: ANY commentary track I can get my hands on. I got hooked on these (Futurama and Simpsons) by living on my own too long, so I HAVE to fall asleep to one now. ANd now I just put one on at random when Im on the comp. Anyone else?

[guggemmaneuver]

Here is something ambient I listen to ALL the time: ANY commentary track I can get my hands on. I got hooked on these (Futurama and Simpsons) by living on my own too long, so I HAVE to fall asleep to one now. ANd now I just put one on at random when Im on the comp. Anyone else?

here's my visual ambience insanity:
Wow timp that's kind of crazy--My big thing (ha ha, i was SO excited about the possibility of being able to do this with DVD technology becoming widespread and cheap) used to be getting an animation DVD, say, robotech macross saga, 2001 a space odyssey, some film noir epic, or anything else visually very pretty, turn it on, press pause, and then fast forward--get the thing at 1/8th the speed. maybe even do like reference drawings or gestures from it. but the idea is basically taking something that's intended to be something that you'd consciously watch and turn it into a mood-enhancing interesting object. Then when you're cleaning house or listening to music there are some interesting moments when you walk through the house past the tv with this on. it projects nice multicolored light and you see some things you wouldn't see at normal speed.

j

[guggemmaneuver]

The the movie score for the Last Temptation of Christ done by Peter Gabriel...fantastic to draw to

peter gabriel came from that whole group of musicians in the 70s (eno, gabriel, roedelius, john cale, robert fripp to name but a few) that did so many amazing albums and collaborations--it doesn't surprise me that this score is so very good!

WHOA guys the amount of reccomendations is really, really piling up! i'm going to put on my thinking cap and see if there's some way that we could exchange a few select .mp3s. any ideas??? maybe a public "email-to-itself" gmail account or something. heh heh. don't want to get in trouble, but you know, it'd be fun... Like the good old days of exchanging mix tapes with your buddies!

Or, message me your email address and i can .zip up some misc. mp3's to send you. if you're totally offended by doing this, then don't message me.

Lately my big ambient craze has been this band BLACK DICE. they're crazy expiremental, electronic gurgling, but the music is all instrumental and just has this amazing f***** up vibe. saw them last time they rolled through the ATL and it waas like they were in some otherworldly druggy demon posessed trance. i was so genuinely creeped out that i couldn't help but have a GREAT TIME!

joel

[guggemmaneuver]

* * *

...I bought an eric wollo album called emotional landscapes, which is actually really good, despite the gay name....

can anyone say new thread title?!?!?! lol

[bara]

i usually listen to xtc radio london while artisting
http://www.xtcradio.net/
ambient, "semi" ambient, little faster sometimes too, it's all good.