Monday 27 Aug 2012, 10:34am

Below I shall provide a list of recommended ambient albums, as well as a brief rundown on what each subgenre constitutes. Links will be provided when possible (Note: This guide is still under construction, I intend to add more suggestions, links and subgenres as I go along). Keep in mind that this is a rough overview which merely scratches the surface of all that ambient music has to offer.

Ambient Music: As a genre, ambient focuses on creating a mood or atmosphere through texture and timbral qualities. It often lacks the presence of any net composition, beat, or structured melody. The main idea is less to "write a song," and more to "produce a sonic space."

Kosmische Musik / Berlin School: A precursor to ambient music which developed from the German krautrock scene of the late '60s and early '70s. Taking cues from the electronic compositions of Karlheinz Stockhausen as well as the minimal music of Terry Riley and Steve Reich, kosmische musik tends to focus less on sonic space and more on complexly syncopated, layered compositions based around repetition and subtle change.

Sound Art: This is a rather nebulous concept which encompasses many different approaches to music production. Sound art differs from ambient music in that the purpose is comparable to that of an abstract, but highly textured painting or video. As art historian Don Goddard explains it, "It may be that sound art adheres to curator Hellermann's perception that "hearing is another form of seeing,' that sound has meaning only when its connection with an image is understood… The conjunction of sound and image insists on the engagement of the viewer, forcing participation in real space and concrete, responsive thought rather than illusionary space and thought."

Electroacoustic improvisation (EAI), glitch and lowercase music are all variants of sound art. Though not synonymous, these terms can often be applied to the same subjects. Electroacoustic music encompasses numerous different approaches to music production, and is not limited to the realm of ambient music (musique concréte, for example, can also be described as electroacoustic music). Electroacoustic music describes any form of abstract art music composed of electronically-sourced sounds or electronically-processed acoustic sounds.

Another form of electroacoustic music, "lowercase" was coined by sound artist Steve Roden to describe an extreme form of minimal music featuring sounds book-ended by indeterminate stretches of silence.

Similarly, glitch music is another electroacoustic form which relies primarily on the so-called "aesthetic of failure," wherein the deliberate use of glitch-based audio media such as CD skipping, electric hum, digital or analog distortion, bit rate reduction and other sonic artifacts, is a central concern.

Field Recording: Probably the most straightforward of these descriptions (at least at first glance), a field recording is simply a recording of sounds, either naturally-occurring or made by beings who are not the artist - whale songs, rain storms, traffic, etc, which are made in the field rather than the studio. However, some recordings are more abstract, such as the electromagnetic imprints of celestial bodies recorded by a space probe and translated into sound waves, or captured and complied radio transmissions. Many artists also compile musique concrete-style collages from field recordings, but for the sake of ease, these will be filed more under the banner of electroacoustic music.

Essential Classics:
1. Brian Eno – Ambient 1: Music for Airports
2. Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon
3. Steve Roach – Dreamtime Return (Part 1) / (Part 2)
4. Coil - Time Machines
5. William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops
6. Labradford - E Luxo So
7. The KLF - Chill Out
8. Eliane Radigue - Adnos I
9. La Monte Young, et al - Dream House 78' 17"
10. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol. II
11. Tetsu Inoue - Ambiant Otaku

Recent Releases:
1. Eleh - Floating Frequencies / Intuitive Synthesis I
2. Chihei Hatakeyama – A Long Journey
3. Stars of the Lid - Their Refinement of the Decline (Part 1) / (Part 2)
4. Andrew Chalk - Ghosts of Nahodka
5. Celer - Capri
6. Marble Sky - The Sad Return
7. Pausal - Autumnal
8. Jonsi & Alex - Riceboy Sleeps
9. Expo '70 - Where Does Your Mind Go?

Kosmische Musik (a.k.a. "Berlin School"):
1. Tangerine Dream – Phaedra
2. Tangerine Dream - Rubycon
3. Popol Vuh – In den Garten Pharaos
4. Klaus Schulz - Timewind
5. Manuel Göttsching - Inventions for Electric Guitar
6. Ashra - New Age of Earth
7. Edgar Froese - Aqua
8. Laurie Spiegel - The Expanding Universe
9. Vangelis - L'Apocalypse des Animaux
10. Conrad Schnitzler - Ballet Statique

Kosmische Musik Revival:
1. Emeralds - Does it Look Like I’m Here?
2. Oneohtrix Point Never - Rifts
3. Steve Hauschildt – Tragedy & Geometry
4. Mark McGuire - A Pocket Full of Rain
5. Mist - Glowing Net
6. Lilypad - Capacitor
7. Sam Goldberg - Out Of Body Experiences
8. Outer Space - Stereo Constellations: Surveillance from the Star Room
9. Color Dream - Cloud Factory
10. Sky Stadium - Plateau
11. Amazing Births - Younger Moon
12. Colored Mushroom & The Medicine Rocks - s/t

Sound Art:
1. Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
2. Steve Roden - Forms of Paper
3. Alva Noto - For 2
4. Fennesz - Endless Summer
5. Ryoji Ikeda - Dataplex
6. William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops
7. Bee Mask - When We Were Eating Unripe Pears
8. Moth Cock - s/t
9. /// - Thesis Tracks

Field Recordings:
1. NASA Voyager Recordings - Symphonies of the Planets
2. The Conet Project - Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations
3. Jana Winderen - Energy Field
4. Dr. Roger S. Payne - Songs of the Humpback Whale
5. Irving Teibel - Environments 1: Psychologically Ultimate Seashore
6. David Sun - Sounds of the Earth: Rain In The Country