I think we should have a topic for ambient, drone and contemporary classical music! Everything from recommendations and reviews to breaking news and rants about how music should have structure, post ahead.

Ambient and drone is pretty self-explanatory, I think. By modern classical I primarily mean composers who're experimental, minimal or atmospheric, such as Max Ricther, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Gavin Bryars, John Cage or Yasushi Yoshida but why not minimalists like Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass and Steve Reich too.

So, what are your favorite artists in these genres? How do you like to listen to your ambient - attentively or on the background? Are there any specific styles you like? What do you really want to share with us?

I'll post later about my favorites and albums I'm really looking forward to or that have just been released.

Umm I'm pretty sure there are topics for each of those individually brah, definitely for ambient and drone O.o

Though I'd quite happily keep this thread open myself.

I didn't find anything for ambient, at least. Just one requesting electronic ambient recommendations. (The recent one titled Ambient Recommendations actually concerned darkwave.) I figured the lines between the three are blurry (and drone is just a type of ambient if fairly established, I guess) it would be better not to draw any too restricting boundaries. Checking now, there's nothing for drone outside the drone metal topic, and only a generic classical music topic.

Could be I don't know how to use the Search function, though. I just typed the keyword in the field up there on the right and chose "forum." I guess that only looks for topic titles.

But to start with a bit of new music, Julianna Barwick's third release The Magic Place will be released in a few days. Her music is based on loops and layers of haunting vocals, reminiscent at times of Coteau Twins' Victorialand but more shapeless. For now you can stream a first listen here at NPR Music.

Good new albums!

Kimmo Pohjola recorded Uniko with the Kronos Quartet. It's pretty nice:


Tim Hecker is a Pitchfork pet, but damn good with his warm drone:


Another solid album from Natural Snow Buildings. This album has wonderful texture:


Pretty cool experimental stuff from Fabio Orsi:


This is from last year. Peter Broderick is pretty much my favorite composer right now:


Another favorite from last year, Rafael Anton Irisarri's interpretation of Arvo Pärt:

I'm listening to some Miles now, and In A Silent Way really was ahead of its time and anticipated ambient and post-rock, to modern ears anyway:


On that note, Bohren & Der Club Of Gore just released a new album. It's a bit of a disappointment for me, since it's only three tracks and they're a bit uneven, but it has its moments:


More jazzy stuff, The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble released a great album From The Stairwell earlier this year:

http://www.metalstorm.net/forum/topic.php?topic_id=10570
http://www.metalstorm.net/forum/topic.php?topic_id=26195
http://www.metalstorm.net/forum/topic.php?topic_id=571

Written by Troy Killjoy on 10.05.2011 at 01:01

http://www.metalstorm.net/forum/topic.php?topic_id=10570
http://www.metalstorm.net/forum/topic.php?topic_id=26195
http://www.metalstorm.net/forum/topic.php?topic_id=571

First topic is about drone metal, not about drone in general. We've been told explicitly not to talk about non-metal in the metal forums, and Grouper probably doesn't belong in the same topic with Sunn O))).
Second topic is not about ambient. I referenced it earlier in this topic. It's asking for specific kind of recommendations, and those are actually darkwave. This topic is 1) general for all kinds of chatter, news and recommendations and 2) actually about ambient.
Third topic is about classical music. The contemporary or modern "classical" (art, chamber) music at stake here is not classical in anything but the vaguest sense. It's just that there's no good umbrella term, because even modernism and minimalism are very specific if notable trends of 20th and 21st century music. Mozart and John Cage should not be mentioned in the same topic. The scenes and audiences are rather different, in any case.

Lots of great stuff on here that have been released this year. That UNIKO record, The Kilimanjaro whatsit (though Mount Fuji's 'Anthropomorphic' is far better if you ask me, or at least more enjoyable), Tim Hecker etc.

I'd like to youtube link to a dozen+ other great records from this year of this type but I just don't have the energy but they've all been mentioned in my recent top 2011 list. Forgive some of the genre-tags' ambiguity, I mostly went by Last.fm's most used tags until I've properly figured them out. I'll list them anyway:

Jorn Zorn - Nova Express
The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation - Anthropomorphic
The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble - From The Stairwell
Æthenor - En Form for Blå
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972
Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - Beileid
Antonymes - The Licence To Interpret Dreams
Tartar Lamb II - Polyimage Of Known Exits
Kronos Quartet, Kimmo Pohjonen, Samuli Kosminen - UNIKO
Bvdub - Tribes at the Temple of Silence
Amon Tobin - Isam
Grouper - A I A : Alien Observer
Grouper - A I A : Dream Loss
Sembler Deah - Kaessariah. Heel een Leven Lang
The Psychic Paramount - II
Field Rotation - Acoustic Tales
Six Organs of Admittance - Asleep On The Floodplain
Deaf Center - Owl Splinters
Paintings For Animals - Kristeater
Natural Snow Buildings - Waves Of The Random Sea (which I haven't properly listened to yet)
Various Artists - Cloud 11 (very nice mix of random downtempo electronica and the like I stumbled onto by accident)

And the nice thing is most of these are on Spotify.

And yeah I agree with IronAngel regarding this topic now, there's a definite feel amongst the kind of music mentioned here which differs immensely from classical and metal and it's nice to have a topic which encompasses a large array of them because I find it quite difficult to find stuff like this. You might see me mentioning a few noise bands here too.

Also extremely interested in getting hold of Cold Spring's new British Folk Compilation, the John Barlycorn Reborn one was excellent.

Written by Guest on 18.05.2011 at 21:02

Lots of great stuff on here that have been released this year. That UNIKO record, The Kilimanjaro whatsit (though Mount Fuji's 'Anthropomorphic' is far better if you ask me, or at least more enjoyable), Tim Hecker etc.

I didn't like Anthropomorphic at all, myself. I felt it didn't really go anywhere, it was just fairly harmless drones floating about. Which is something I don't really mind, actually, but I guess I just expected something more melodic, noirish, from the band.

Good list, some of my favorites (Zorn, Grouper, Amon Tobin), a few I've been wanting to hear (Tartar Lamb, Deaf Center), and I'll definetely look up the rest.

I quite like the new album by Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto. It's something that seems to have gone mostly under the radar so far, which is odd because especially Sakamoto is a legend:


I don't know if Implodes belong here, because they have this alt-rock/shoegaze thing going, but they're also droney. I like the new album Black Earth:


Hauschka does cool things with the prepared piano, and now he's done an album of dance music with chamber music instruments. It's pretty fun, if a little uneven:


The new Lustmord, Songs Of Gods And Demons, is also enjoyable, medieval and gloomy ambient/darkwave. Reminds me a little of Silent Hill at times, too. Couldn't find a YouTube link, but it's on Spotify. I couldn't for the life of me find a sample of NOW Ensemble's Awake, which is an awesome album of modern classical music in the vein of Steve Reich. Worth keeping an eye out for.

I just discovered a really nice Japanese ambient/electronic/pop artist, Cokiyu. She's apparently a professional musician for some time now, but just released her second solo album. If you like the Icelandic band Múm, Cokiyu is rather similar but a little more ambient. She seems quite unknown and obscure at the moment (even considering the limited target audience), so I wanted to advertise her a little bit. It's sweet and soft stuff, so if you like your music unpleasant and menacing, be warned.

http://www.myspace.com/cokiyu

I would say check out Bersarin Quartett. They play some really great classically inspired music (Strings, Horns, Keys, etc.) over electronic beats. Some really dark, moody music at times. Check out their self-titled album. Highly recommended.

Written by Clintagräm on 15.10.2011 at 06:41

I would say check out Bersarin Quartett. They play some really great classically inspired music (Strings, Horns, Keys, etc.) over electronic beats. Some really dark, moody music at times. Check out their self-titled album. Highly recommended.

Forgot to comment on this. I checked them out, and really liked them. Great sound, and it's quite accessible. That's a virtue in a genre that's so full of meandering soundscapes with no hooks.

Written by IronAngel on 20.10.2011 at 00:33

Written by Clintagräm on 15.10.2011 at 06:41

I would say check out Bersarin Quartett. They play some really great classically inspired music (Strings, Horns, Keys, etc.) over electronic beats. Some really dark, moody music at times. Check out their self-titled album. Highly recommended.

Forgot to comment on this. I checked them out, and really liked them. Great sound, and it's quite accessible. That's a virtue in a genre that's so full of meandering soundscapes with no hooks.

Good, I'm glad you enjoyed them! I agree that they aren't as catchy as say Bohren & der Club of Gore or the Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble can be, but they are very good at what they do. Cheers!

And go listen to Dreamcatcher at their bandcamp now.
http://heinaliandmattfinney.bandcamp.com/track/dreamcatcher

Occurrences in Rain. Chill stuff
http://occurrencesinrain.bandcamp.com

This is a strange mix of genres here, but I'll take any chance to talk about contemporary classical or 'art music' or whatever it's called.

First order of business: listen to Gyorgy Ligeti. Everything he's ever done is freaking amazing, from his big symphonic and choral works in the 60's and 70's, to his absurd experimentation with polyrhythms and pianos in the 80's. What makes this guy amazing is that he was sort of in the math camp with Stockhausen and Boulez, but instead of being a pure integral serialist, he decided to actually care what his music sounded like. This means that he used interesting mathmatical techniques for rhythms, pitch and tuning, but was not afraid to step outside the box to offer a more musical element. His techniques can actually be heard in the music, as opposed to the serialists who were so structured their music sounded like random noise.

Ligeti's music is atmospheric, powerful and complex. My best recommendations would be his Violin Concerto, his Requiem and his Piano Etudes. Really, listen to this stuff you won't regret it.

Second I'd like to mention Luciano Berio's Sequenza's. As metal fans most of us have a certain respect for single instrument virtuosity. Usually we are referring to guitars or basses or drums or what not. Berio made a series of 'Sequenza's', each for a single instrument, that take that instrument to its idiomatic and virtuosic extremes. Each one is very experimental with techniques while having some sort of musical theme that grounds the work. Check these out, pick an instrument that works for you and listen, these are really interesting. There is one for guitar, but my favs are violin and trombone.

Third, George Crumb. This guy is really sweet and I suggest everyone just do an image search on him, because his scores are works of art in themselves. His music happens to be pretty interesting too. Another guy very interested in pushing instruments to their extremes. Very experimental and wild music, but again, kind of grounded in themes that pull you back in. Also the performances of his pieces are very dramatic (involving playing inside the piano, whistling inside a piano, dipping a gong in water, bizarre stage direction), so if you ever have a chance to see his work perform or even just watch a youtube video, I highly recommend it. Pieces you should check out: Macrocosmos, Black Angels. Like I said, check out the scores too, freaking sweet.