Released in 2011 on Blackest Rainbow Format: LPx2, 180g Ltd. to 750 copies
Tag: Ambient
Brokeback – Field Recordings from the Cook County Water Table
Doug McComb’s first album as Brokeback is imbued with pastoral Impressionism, experimentalism, and a sense of Zen contentment. The record is mostly centered around his Bass VI, a short-scale bass with six strings that is trebly enough to function in both guitar and bass roles. This versatile instrument is usually wet with chorus and reverb that sculpt a fluid, aquatic tone to complement the slow, tranquil melodies. Outside of some solo pieces Doug is joined by a variety of accompaniment including lap steel guitar, synth, upright bass, Rhodes, vocals from Mary Hansen, and light percussion provided by producer/Tortoise bandmate John McEntire. This is a record that can be appreciated from a passive impressionistic standpoint, as well as under the microscopic attention of an engaged ear. (Follow link for full review)
Recommended for fans of Tortoise or Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti Western soundtracks
Fripp & Eno – Evening Star
Arve Henriksen – Towards Language
On Towards Language, Norweigan trumpeter Arve Henriksen creates a blend of meditative and suspenseful ambient-jazz, demonstrating a more soothing side to his playing than his noisier output with electro-acoustic improvisers Supersilent.
Tim Hecker – Konoyo
Harold Budd/Brian Eno – Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror
Enveloping blankets of piano and synthesizers that are mostly beautifully soothing, but occasionally venture down shadowy alleyways full of eerie suspense.
Brian Eno – Ambient 1: Music for Airports
Information: Released in 1978 on PVC Records Format: LP
Tangerine Dream – Zeit
This is what I imagine a black hole might sound like. “Zeit” translates to “Time”, yet time feels completely suspended here, filled instead with vast negative space in which burbling VCS 3 synthesizers, suspenseful organs, and a droning quartet of cellos float in and out. These four sidelong pieces erase all traces of rock or any kind of beat from Tangerine Dream’s sound, leaving ominous space-ambient music in its purest form.
Tony Scott – Music for Yoga Meditation and Other Joys
Peaceful drone meditations and mantras for bass clarinet and sitar. The improvisatory melodies are beautifully expressive, exploratory, and blanketed in a soft, soothing reverb.
Sigur Ros – Valtari
Album Information: Released in 2012 on XL Recordings Format: LPx2
A Silver Mt. Zion – He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts Of Light Sometimes Grace The Corner Of Our Rooms…
Album Information: Released in 2000 on Constellation Records Recorded November 1999 at the mighty Hôtel2Tango
Gimmer Nicholson – Christopher Idylls
Performed on acoustic guitar and an early delay pedal, Christopher Idylls is a soothing, reflective way to ease into the morning. It fits somewhere between ambient, new age, and American primitive guitar.
Eno, Roedelius, Moebius – After the Heat
Brian Eno and German kosmiche duo Cluster collaborate on a spacey synthesizer album with diverse moods, including peaceful ambient swells, sinister sequencers, industrial drum machine grooves, and suspenseful piano motifs. The release is mostly instrumental but Eno songs sparingly on a couple tracks. The last track features Can’s Holger Czukay playing some pulsing, harmonic bass grooves
Bitchin Bajas – Bitchitronics
Soothing, cosmic drones constructed with with tape loops, synths, organs, guitars and flute.
Tim Hecker – Harmony in Ultraviolet
A dense fog you can sink into and never want to leave…Glacial, enveloping waves of sound meticulously sculpted from processed organs, piano, and distorted guitar feedback.
Western Skies Motel – Settlers
Somber ambient-folk with layers of delicate, circular fingerpicking and sparse arrangements of droning harmonium, piano, guitar feedback and the occasional chirping crickets. The soft reverb dampens everything like a light drizzle over the American prairie