Comments

2
Did the PFork list include Tangerine Dream's Zeit? I feel like that's their ultimate "ambient" statement. Shocked if it wasn't included.

Also, would give a nod to Popol Vuh's first album for sure. Did PFork include any Taj Mahal Travellers as well?
3
I love Plight & Premonition. Glad someone else does too.
4
Whew! Was I glad I saw Eno's "Ambient 1 Music for Airports" on the list. I've had it for decades. A fine piece of music (anti-Music?). I listened to it once in the car on the way back from Burning Man. I recall zipping through Lassen Peak Park in California while it was playing. Ethereal.

Fascinating stuff. Brian Eno might just be the father of Ambient.
5
Another omissions are Spacetime Continuum's Sea Biscuit or Main cds!!!
Check out our top Ambient outisde euro-anglo world and from Peru
http://peruavantgarde.blogspot.pe/2016/0…
6
Shuttle358, Frame.
7
A few ambient-ish albums missing from both lists that I go to regularly:

The Art Of Noise - The Ambient Collection (goofy, China-era AoN, kinda daydreamy)
Autechre – Quaristice.subrange.ep.ae
Jóhann Jóhannsson ‎– Virðulegu Forsetar (hands-down fav from Jóhann)
Moby - Underwater (Everything Is Wrong bonus disc. Surprisingly decent)
Monolake - Gobi. The Desert
Nurse With Wound - Soliloquy For Lilith
Robert Henke - Layering Buddha
Robert Henke - Indigo_Transform
Steve Roach - The Magnificent Void
8
michael stearns- planetary unfolding
Dan Hartman- new green clear blue
Gas-pop
shuttle 358- understanding wildlife
snd-make sndcassette
9
Great picks, all. Thanks. @2, no Zeit or Taj-Mahal Travellers on Pitchfork's list.
10
I think the Pitchfork list has got way too much Eno (Apollo and Evening Star are pretty but I would never rate either as a landmark), two by Stars of the Lid where only one would have been enough (meanwhile there's no The Sinking of the Titanic, which could be seen as the grandad of all those string-drenched ambient pieces that came out from the 90s onwards), Epsilon in Malaysian Pale is good but not quite like Phaedra or Rubycon, early masterpieces of synthesizer music such as Cluster 71 and Klaus Schulze's Irrlicht are absent, the latter's Timewind should have been there instead of Ash Ra's New Age of Earth (which is lovely but not as prescient as Inventions for Electric Guitar or the immaculate trance of E2-E4... there are harder beats in Orbus Terrarum, for goodness' sake), Popol Vuh are totally absent (no Hosianna Mantra, none of their two pioneering electronic albums, none of their unique meditative music of the late 70s and early 80s)...

I'm not sure that there's too much American music in there, much of it makes great sense to me; it could be argued that many of the artists in the list owe a debt to John Cage's irreverent approach to composition... much more than to Eno's endlessly quoted verbosity. The US were also home to a horde of synthesizer pioneers (makers and musicians)... Wendy Carlos' Sonic Seasonings predates all the synth-and-natural-sounds music that came later by almost ten years. Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co. were already playing accessible minimalist synth music when Tangerine Dream had barely bought their first electronic gear. TONTO's Expanding Head Band had already released two albums when Vangelis was still playing prog and Jarre was still doing jingles. Steven Halpern might have committed lots of aural crime later on but his Spectrum Suite still deserves all due credit. Well... none of these are in the list (actually, not in this list either).

You can't blame Pitchfork for missing the dozens of diamonds that were being cut in Japan during the 80s. Check Hiroshi Yoshimura, Yoshio Ojima, Yutaka Hirose or Motohiko Hamase for example. It's a shame that their music isn't more readily available. There are also very enjoyable examples of early New Age done with computers, such as Synergy's Computer Experiments 1, Don Slepian's Sea of Bliss and the Erdenklang Computerakustische Klangsinfonie by Bognermayr/Zuschrader (a full-on Fairlight soundfest already in 1982).

As far as the new list is concerned, I like lots of it. My Stearns album of choice would be Planetary Unfolding, though, and my Marc Barreca one would be The Sleeper Wakes. I find Eno's Neroli a bit of a scam, Irving Teibel's Tintinnabulation did exactly the same thing (with much less self-promotion in the liner notes) about fifteen years earlier. This leads to another strand that media don't quite acknowledge - field recording collages. Chris Watson's Weather Report is as beautiful and fascinating to listen to as any ambient music record.
11
I apologise, neither Cluster 71 nor Irrlicht had any synthesizer in them... they coped perfectly without them (!!!).

By the way, kudos for including Eliane Radigue, Mort Garson and chemical badass Nik Raicevic.
12
Sorry, I can't count - Irv Teibel's Tintinnabulation was released on vinyl in 1970 (i.e. 23 years before Neroli). Even the expanded version for CD is way earlier (1987).
13
Great supplement! Don't be too down on Pitchfork for getting the conversation started...it prompted this thoughtful list. Btw...I found this by listening to Sean Nelson on AirRaid.net podcast. Great to find such a source for music and literature.
14
This is a better list, but Steve Hillage's "Rainbow Dome Musick" is missing, and so is The Art of Noise's Ambient Collection. I like that Irv Teibel is mentioned. The Environments series are all great Ambient recordings.
15
I'm not an expert or even an aficionado -- so I ask with the upmost respect -- why no Metal Machine Music by Lou Reed? Eno was the beginning, but Lou made it ugly and profane.
16
"Stalker" your only Robert Rich? You cannot. Go "Trances/Drones" if a double repackage is allowed. "Stalker" is fine but it's not essential.

You need some Jon Hassell, I'd say "Power Spot".

I would include more "classic minimalism" than just Terry Riley, but you might hear minimalism differently.

Some interesting-sounding stuff I'd never heard of on these lists!

17
nice to see people mentioning irv teibel's environments series which was a major influence on a lot of these artists and came out almost a decade before eno's ambient work. his "tintinnabulation" and "intonation" recordings would fit on any top ambient list. a strong second for more releases from the field recording genre: chris watson, francisco lopez and plenty others could all make the list.
18
just to name a few, here are some criminally underrated artists:

Alio Die (extensive discography with lots of jewels in it - from medieval-infused ambiences to psychedelic drone and field recording/soundscape works)

Klaus Wiese (on of the pioneers, ex-member of Popol Vuh - check his late 80's drone albums like Space, Geisha, Qumra, Baraka )

Al Gromer Khan's works - his unique style of ambient (he calls it paisley music) developed for 30+ years now and the last decade was very prolific for him despite the age. I recommend these albums: Chai & Roses (1987), Monsoon Point (with Amelia Cuni), Turya, Far Go, Lalita

Dirk Serries (ex- Vidna Obmana) - so many great albums under both names

Mathias Grassow (from the early new age works in 80's to massive deep meditative drones in the last decade)

David Parsons (on of the pioneers! check his Tibetan Plateau (1982), Parikrama (2000), Akash (2010))

Tor Lundvall (ghostly ambient with vocals, truly mesmerizing - check the Empty City album)

Oöphoi (master of long silent soundscapes, Upuaut (1999), Bardo (2002), The Spirals of Time (2007))

David Hykes & The Harmonic Choir - overtone choirs which made excellent ambient recordings

Laraaji (solo works are much better imo than collab with Eno )

Cornelius Cardew - The Great Learning (late 60's!, absolutely underrated)

Charlemagne Palestine - works like Strumming Music (1974) and Godbear (1998)

Rhys Chatham (symphony for 400 electric guitars)

Somei Satoh (Mandara Trilogy 1982-90 is gorgeous and his symphonic works may be easily called ambient)
19
A few more glaring omissions, if I may (for heaven's sake so I can sleep tonight), in no particular order:

Taylor Deupree + Marcus Fischer - In A Place Of Such Graceful Shapes (12k, 2011)
Stephan Mathieu - Remain (Line, 2011)
Stephan Mathieu - Radioland (Die Schachtel, 2008)
Rafael Toral – Sound Mind Sound Body (Moikai, 1999)
Federico Durand – El Estanque Esmerelda (Spekk, 2014)
Janek Schaefer - Unfolding Luxury Beyond the City Of Dreams (Dekorder, 2014)
Klimek - Music To Fall Asleep (Kompakt, 2006)
Pausal - Lapses (Barge Recordings, 2010)
Akira Rabelais/ Harold Budd - As Long As I Can Hold My Breath (Samadhisound, 2004)
Hermann Nitsch – Harmoniumwerk Volumes 1-12 (Cortical Foundation, 2000)
Gavin Bryars, Alter Ego, Philip Jeck - The Sinking of the Titanic (1969- ) (Touch, 2007)
Stephan Micus - The Music of Stones (ECM, 1989)
Richard Skelton - The Complete Landings/ Rift Music Part One (Type, 2009/ Sustain-Release, 2012)
Waterwheel – Panchroma (Alley Sweeper, 1997)
Piano Magic - Son de Mar (4AD, 2001)
Duane Pitre - Bayou Electric (Important, 2015)
Gas – Zauberberg (Mille Plateaux, 1997)
Reinhard Voigt – Premiere World (Profan, 2000)
Kyle Bobby Dunn – Kyle Bobby Dunn & the Infinite Sadness (Students of Decay, 2014)

Also, do yourself a favor and be sure to scope Brian Eno's Thursday Afternoon (14 Video Paintings 1981-1984). You can find it on youtube. It’s an extended version of Thursday Afternoon perfectly set to the most sensual, subtly trippy images you may ever encounter.

And of course, many other releases on the 12k (Sogar, Shuttle358, Taylor Deupree, Fourcolor, Minamo, Seaworthy, Marsen Jules, Simon Scott), Root Strata (Grasslung, RV Paintings, Danny Paul Grody, Scott Wells, Maggi Payne, Sean McCann), Kranky (Growing, Labradford, Pan American, Brent Gutzeit, Chris Herbert, Ken Camden, Brian McBride), Room40 (Lawrence English, Rafael Anton Irisarri) and Students of Decay (En, Ryonkt, Concern, Caboladies, Alex Cobb, Asuna, Opitope, Billy Gomberg) labels are worthy contemporary qualifiers. Others still: Mokira, Porter Ricks, Seefeel, Giuseppe Ielasi, Jan Jelinek, Dettinger, Oren Ambarchi, Rosy Parlane, Main, Makoto Kawabata, Joe Jones, Henry Flynt, and (selections from) Kompakt’s Pop Ambient series…

More: Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Songs Of Forgiveness (Baro, 2014), Terre Thaemlitz – Lovebomb (Mille Plateaux, 2003), Nobukazu Takemura – Milano: For Issey Miyake Men by Naoki Takizawa (WEA Japan, 1999), Vladislav Delay - Anima (Mille Plateaux, 2001), Hakan Lidbo – 06.10.60 (Mitek, 2002), Boxhead Ensemble – Two Brothers (Atavistic, 2001)
20
Literally punching myself for forgetting Rainbow Dome Musick, one of my favorites of all time. That's what happens when you hastily compile a list away from your collection... Anyway, there are so many great suggestions in all of your posts, which confirms my belief that a freakin' encyclopedia of ambient music needs to be written... preferably by many authors.
21
what? no love for Robin Guthrie?

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