Ambient recommendations?

[LuckyKarma]

Originally Posted by kuviaq

Ulrich Schnauss

Ulrich Schnauss – Listen free at Last.fm

Listen to this man! Ulrich Schnauss makes some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard. Far Away Trains Passing by is my favorite I think, though A Strangely Isolated Place is about the best study music ever.

I love it when Ambient music comes up Some stuff I've discovered:

Biosphere - Substrata, Cirque
Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right to Children
Brian Eno - AMBIENT 1/Music For Airports, Apollo
Crisopa - He's come out with a few EPs, available on his myspace
Discuss - Discuss
Eluvium - Copia, Talk Amongst the Trees
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Englabörn, IBM 1401
Library Tapes - Höstluft
Max Richter - The Blue Notebooks
Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline, The Tired Sounds of...

[rincewind]

I'm also going down this route the past month or so (mixed with minimal electronica), check out my last.fm profile for what I've listened to over the past month or so.

I'm surprised, noone's said Robert Rich or Ian Boddy yet.
If you love Atrium, you'll like the album "Stalker" by RR and Lustmord (whose solo work is also very cool). Ian Boddy's "Outpost" is also pretty cool. And I'm ASSUMING from you're nickname that you know Synaesthesia. Desideratum is one of my faves of theirs. Murcof are also interesting minimal. If you wanna have some weird dreams, check out Robert Rich's Somnium (it's something you'd put on to sleep to, not actively listen to). Read about his nighttime concerts on wiki.

[loches]

I need to second Boards of Canada and Biosphere off the bat. Check out Andrew Chalk, Tycho, Bibio, Seefeel, DJ Shadow's Preemptive Strike, Air, Zero 7, and though they don't quite fit the genre, Cyann & Ben.

[Fungi]

Biosphere, Robert Rich, Andrew Chalk, Stars of the Lid

[arteom]

i love boards of canada, but their albums although do have ambient tracks to them they arent ambient. Although In a Beautiful Place out in the Country is so good to relax/sleep to.

[Uncle Erik]

I've loved the Brian Eno Ambient series for years.

If you want to veer into a similar genre, give a listen to some of the minimalist 20th century classical. Even if you're not much into classical, this might just hook you. Arvo Part is a good beginning - very chill, very relaxing. And if you want some very, very laidback rock, try Galaxie 500.

[MoodySteve]

At the moment, I think Alio Die is making the best pure ambient. His music is extremely organic, bright and flowing, so it's quite different from, say, Eno's rather academic sound or Roach's cavernous sound.

Vir Unis also makes some beautiful ambient - check out Aeonian Glow, Henry Hud and The Drift Inside to start.

If you want something that's downright psychedelic, check out Matt Hillier's releases under various guises (Ishvara - Magik Square of the Sun, Elve - Infinite Garden, Colourform - Visions of Surya, Ishq - Orchid, Indigo Egg - Ixland).

For some good dark ambient, check out Ionosphere, in particular 'The Stellar Winds'.

[synaesthetic]

I will check out the Ionosphere. Dark ambient is good.

[sailboat]

x4 Brian Eno, his Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks album was a great introduction for me.

[cwell2112]

x5 on Brian Eno. He really is the king of ambient. I started with the Ambient series (1-4), and recently discovered Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks, which is also excellent. Definitely worth looking into.

[BillC]

Another recomendation for Eno's Ambient work.

Some more to look for:
The Brian Eno/Robert Fripp albums are fantastic as are the David Sylvian/Holger Czukay albums.
Robert Fripp, "At the End of Time - Churchscapes"
David Sylvian, "Approaching Silence"