Friday, October 05, 2012

Favorite ambient artists

There is a new release from Loscil called "Sketches from New Brighton."  And of course it's excellent, everything from Loscil is excellent.  As I listened to it I figured that Loscil would have to be one of my favorite ambient artists of all time.

That got me thinking...what are my top ten ambient artists of all time?  The artists on the list are ones I come back to again and again.  And also ones that have a decent sized body of work.  Scott Solter did one of my favorite ambient albums of all time, "One River."  But that was pretty much it from him.  So to make the list it was important to have a fair number of releases.

Well, here's the list, in no particular order:

  1. Stars of the Lid
  2. Brian Eno
  3. Steve Roach
  4. Loscil
  5. Harold Budd
  6. Maps & Diagrams
  7. Alio Die
  8. Sonmi451
  9. William Basinski
  10. Kyle Bobby Dunn

This mix is a collection of tracks from each of those artists.  The cuts used in the mix are not necessarily my favorite track from that artist, just tunes that worked well within the mix.  I did want to use something new from Loscil but something old from Eno & Harold Budd.

Honorable mentions might be:

  • Marconi Union
  • Robert Rich
  • Taylor Deupree
  • Saul Stokes
  • Gas
  • Hammock
  • Aglaia
  • Marsen Jules
  • Spheruleus
  • Windy & Carl
  • David Tagg
  • A Produce
  • 36


If any listeners would like to leave their lists in the comments that would be very cool.


[ s t r e a m ]  [ d o w n l o a d ]   [ i t u n e s ] 


T R A C K L I S T :


  • 00:00    Loscil - Prairie Trains
  • 07:15    Steve Roach - Tranquility Base
  • 13:55    Stars of the Lid - The Atomium, part 2
  • 21:00    Harold Budd - Balthus Bemused by Color
  • 25:25    Brian Eno - Slow Water
  • 28:00    Maps & Diagrams - Secrets of the Shore
  • 30:45    Kyle Bobby Dunn - The Tributary(for voices lost)
  • 38:03    Alio Die - Ultima Latet
  • 50:40    William Basinski - 92982.3
  • 55:30    Sonmi451 - Ruis
  • 1:03:33    end







6 comments:

  1. Stars of the Lid, Brian Eno, Steve Roach, Harold Budd, William Basinski, Steve Roach, and Wendy & Carl are some of my favorites of yours mentioned. I guess my top 10 would be (in no order):

    1. Paul Avgerinos
    2. Stars Of The Lid
    3. Harold Budd (w/John Foxx)
    4. Jonn Serrie
    5. Steve Roach
    6. Robert Rich
    7. Michael Stearns
    8. David Helping
    9. Between Interval
    10. Brian Eno

    Honorable Mentions:

    1. Biosphere
    2. The Inventors Of Aircraft
    3. Global Communication
    4. Conelrad
    5. Koda
    6. Windy & Carl

    I've downloaded the mix and I'm listening to it now. I went into my 'Low Light Mixes' folder to be cherished. I'm really digging it, it's hitting the spot!

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  2. Oops, forgot to put William Basinski in that top 10 somehow!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Excellent list (you too, Thomas!), and I look forward (as always) to hearing the mix. Here's my list as of 11 AM today:

    Alio Die
    Chihei Hatakeyama
    Brian Eno
    Robert Rich
    Tetsu Inoue
    Thomas Köner
    Jon Hassell
    Steve Roach
    Celer
    Robert Davies
    Off the Sky

    There are 11 names there, yes, but that's only to avoid double-posting like Thomas did. Here are some more names:

    Milieu
    Jeff Greinke
    Fabio Orsi
    David Tagg
    Stars of the Lid
    Windy & Carl
    Oöphoi
    Loscil
    Biosphere

    Naturally I could continue ...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Excellent lists guys! I'll have to spin up some of the artists that made your lists but not mine.

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  5. I've always been puzzled as to why you never included Aphex Twin in any of your mixes...

    ReplyDelete
  6. fffff,

    You're right, I don't use much Aphex Twin. As far as I can tell I've only used one Aphex cut, Rhubard, on the Retroact 1.0 mix.

    I'm listening to Aphex twin #19 as I write this & it makes me think that I definitely need to dig into my Aphex Twin music & use some in an upcoming mix.

    Thanks for the reminder1

    ReplyDelete