Ambient - The Megathread

100 new new age tracks up @ https://aethergaze.bandcamp.com

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Like ambient music, ambient video built on a long history of decorative media designed to blend into the perceptual background. Among the most famous early examples is the several hours of seasonally televised Yule Log fireplace footage, a tradition that began in the 1960s. Ambient video installations like Brian Eno’s Thursday Afternoon (1985) were more abstract and emotionally ambiguous but leveraged the same basic approach to space, spreading screens throughout a gallery or an urban environment. While Anna McCarthy would later describe all television sets in urban space and retail environments as “ambient television,” media more specifically designed with the ambient in mind went beyond news or sports programming playing muted in a bar, seeking specifically to blend into and enhance the particular space they would be installed within. Eno perhaps stated this principle most succinctly in relation to his Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978), noting that a truly ambient airport media “has to have something to do with where you are and what you’re there for — flying, floating, and, secretly, flirting with death.” That is, it would augment the emotional dynamics of the situation rather than simply providing a distraction from it.

[...]

Simply put, like so much else in life, ambience is moving to a subscription model. If ambient once referred to a piece of work designed to help you melt into existing spaces, ambience is a steady drip of atmosphere promising to take you “elsewhere” — and meant to keep you coming back.

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In the Mood - Toward the full commodification of ambience (Paul Roquet/Real Life)

More of Roquet's writing.

i'm generally against subscription models for music but for some ambient music it makes some sense. i guess the more traditional definition of ambient as 'background' music suits this most obviously, but much stuff classed as ambient these days does require attention. some different genre classifications would certainly help with this.

Acoustic Brain Research - Movement With Brain Sync (1986)

A new album by Faith Coloccia and Philip Jeck just dropped yesterday and it's brilliant. While listening to it though I dozed off and then woke up when this came on and for a good half minute didn't understand where the fuck is the weird singing coming from, lol. Very weird experience.

  On 4/16/2021 at 11:35 AM, dcom said:

Oh, and a heads up for those who get the Undisclosed releases (emphasis mine): 

 

Damn it I should really check this thread more often. Ah well.

The new Mark van Hoen album is decent. https://markvanhoen.bandcamp.com/album/just-like-the-moon

Track 5 may be my favourite (at the moment).

Oh and a new discovery for me (probably been mentioned in this thread but since the search function sucks...

and much more to hear, here. <- (bandcamp link)

  On 5/1/2021 at 2:57 PM, auxien said:

i guess the more traditional definition of ambient as 'background' music suits this most obviously, but much stuff classed as ambient these days does require attention.

I agree with this so much. I find a lot of ambient I'm listening to requires more attention, but it's very rewarding.

  On 4/20/2021 at 1:17 AM, prdctvsm said:

100 new new age tracks up @ https://aethergaze.bandcamp.com

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Just went and bought the full discog for €20. Lovely!

  On 5/22/2021 at 7:25 PM, zkom said:

A new album by Faith Coloccia and Philip Jeck just dropped yesterday and it's brilliant. While listening to it though I dozed off and then woke up when this came on and for a good half minute didn't understand where the fuck is the weird singing coming from, lol. Very weird experience.

 

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I really enjoy this. I know Phillip Jeck but not  Faith Coloccia. Is her solo stuff or as a part of Mamiffer good? Any recommendations?

The Typical Lackadaisical Aesthetics Of Autopilots And Foot-Passengers , by Wings Of An Angel

that channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7brSEzOeLLb0l3QhAtdkgw

Anyone know some more stuff like this ?

New album from Tim Hecker-The North Water OST and KMRU-Logue.

Now being beamed via light to a receiver which plays it on the other side of the Thames.
https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/exhibitions/the-pogues-jem-finer-art-sonic-ray-longplayer-b956984.html

New album from Lunar Orbit Rendezvous. Bliss

Good track and album. 50/50 ambient/progressive electronic.

I did an ambient https://dollarstorekeyboard.bandcamp.com/album/the-ghost-is-clear

New The Green Kingdom & Maps and Diagrams split on Handstitched.

Searching for a short ambient album!

The cover is a dark photo (taken in the night) with snow falling. Track titles are only numbers. 6-8 tracks.