Best of 2013 - Instrumental version

It is strange that for someone who runs an ambient mix blog, I've been listening to less and less ambient music over the last two years.  I still love ambient but I no longer feel the need to accumulate huge amounts of it.  Maybe because I have so much already that it all starts to blend together and I don't feel I need another 70 minute drone album.

This year's "Best of" list is mostly ambient but contains some other instrumental albums as well.  Some of my favorite albums of the year in any genre were albums from artists like Esmerine, Arve Henriksen, Moritz von Oswald & Nils Petter Molvaer and Jon Hopkins.  There are other odd non-ambient albums, like Paris DJs Soundsystem & Calibro 35, which just stuck with me for some reason & got a lot of play this year.

Of course there was some straight forward ambient which was in heavy rotation all year.  Albums like The Seaman and The Tattered Sail - Light Folds, Nobuto Suda - Transitoriness, infinite_coil - transmit, and Spheruleus - The Possibility Of Loss really hit the spot for a beautiful ambient listening experience.

I listened to a lot of ambient dub this year.  Only three actually made it to the list - Coppice Halifax, Deepchord and Optical Frameworks but there were many more dub recordings in this year's regular rotation.  A few other favs not on the list include
   
  Lars Leonhard - Stella Nova  Adam Michalak - Returning To Essence  Vytis - Deepchord Avenue
  VA - Mountain-Stream
  Nikosf. - Silence Speaks When The Words End
  krill.minima - Sekundenschlaf
  Miktek - elsewhere
  Blamstrain - Sunday Dub

Two great albums from 2013 both combine electronics with trumpet.  Moritz von Oswald & Nils Petter Molvaer - 1/1  and  Saffronkeira + Mario Massa - Cause and Effect are wonderful collaborations that gave a jolt to end of the year releases.

Here's my list of 2013 favs.  What are some of your favorites from 2013?

Best of 2013:

1. The Seaman and The Tattered Sail - Light Folds
2. infinite_coil - transmit
3. Arve Henriksen - Places Of Worship
4. Esmerine - Dalmak
5. Moritz von Oswald & Nils Petter Molvaer - 1/1
6. Optical Frameworks - Little Piece Of Perseverance
7. Justin Walter - lullabies and nightmares
8. Jon Hopkins - Immunity
9. Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
10. Marsen Jules Trio - Présence Acousmatique
11. Saffronkeira + Mario Massa - Cause and Effect
12. The Green Kingdom - Dustloops - Memory Fragments 
13. Field Rotation - Fatalist: The Repetition of History
14. Roedelius - Stunden
15. Marconi Union & Jah Wobble - Anomic
16. Tessellate Recordings - Earthtones
17. Deepchord - Electrostatic Soundfields
18. Maps and Diagrams - Timbre
19. Coppice Halifax - Inland By Night
20. Spheruleus - The Possibility Of Loss
21. Paris DJs Soundsystem - Rise of the Troubadour Warriors - tropical grooves & afrofunk international vol.3
22. Nobuto Suda - Transitoriness
23. CALIBRO 35 - said
24. Hailu Mergia & His Classical Instrument: Shemonmuanaye
25. Icebreaker & BJ Cole - Apollo

Happy New Year!