1980s



Manuel Göttsching - E2-E4. Named after the most common opening move in a game of chess, E2-E4 showcases longform hypnotic minimal electronic guitar compositions and makes for great ambient music.

Since 1983 Stephen Hill has produced the radio program Hearts of Space: Slow Music for Fast Times. Over 1,100 programs showcase quality ambient and new age music commercial-free. The website provides listeners with a searchable index of all programs and the entire archive is available for download from various sources.



Harold Budd / Brian Eno - Ambient 2 (The Plateaux Of Mirror), The Pearl (with Daniel Lanois), The Pavilion Of Dreams, The Serpent (In Quicksilver), Abandon Cities, Lovely Thunder, and The White Arcades. Budd’s music makes for magnificent sonic wallpaper and his 80s releases are his strongest.

Eno continued his work with Thursday Afternoon, Ambient 4 (On Land), Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks (with Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno), and Fourth World: Possible Musics with Jon Hassell.

Michael Stearns - Chronos. You’d be hard-pressed to find more epic scores than those of the Ron Frick filmography. Stearns produced Chronos, Baraka, and Samsara, and Philip Glass produced Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi. Stunning works both visually and sonically. Koyaanisqatsi is a strong favorite both visually and sonically.

George Winston - Autumn, December and Winter into Spring. Some of the finest recordings from the Windham Hill label.



Vangelis - Blade Runner (OST). While most die-hard fans pledge their allegiance to the unofficial 5-volume Esper 25th Anniversary ‘Retirement Edition’, Vangelis’ original score remains my favorite. In 2013 the original score was pressed for the very first time in a limited red wax audiophile edition, and I didn’t waste any time claiming a copy.

Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Panaiotis ‎– Deep Listening. An iconic improvisational collaboration recorded 14 feet underground in the disused Dan Harpole Cistern in Port Townsend, Washington 200 feet in diameter with a reverberation time of 45 seconds. The trio brought a trombone, didgeridoo, accordion, garden hose, pipe, conch shell, and their voices, and allowed their sounds to stretch out slowly, like sonar, as if nodding to the chamber’s original two million gallon contents.

1990s



The KLF defined the chill out genre with their album of the same name. Chill Out is the sound of driving across the American Midwest after a weekend rave. Elvis on the radio… steel guitar in my soul.



And Jimmy Cauty of The KLF produced an impressive one-off side project called Space - a sparse drone album fully realized years later by M Ward who engineered an expanded edition dubbed, This Is Not What Space Is About.



Space was produced during Cauty’s collaboration with The Orb, concurrent with the production of the essential Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld. Buy this and The Blue Room LPs as soon as you see them.



Pete Namlook spent the 90s exploring ambient electronic soundscapes in collaboration with veteran minimalist Klaus Schulze with the 12-volume Dark Side of the Moog series. Each of the track titles play off of classics from Pink Floyd’s catalog, such as “Wish You Were There,” “A Saucerful of Ambience,” “Obscured by Klaus,” and “Careful with the AKS, Peter.” These were eventually issued as a series of CD box sets.



The 90s also bore the realization of Namlook’s musical vision, founding the FAX +49-69/450464 ambient record label. After his untimely passing a tribute label was founded by his successors and fellow artists called Carpe Sonum, who issued a limited edition 8-disc box set housed in a wooden box etched with his FAX typeface reading, “DIE WELT IST KLANG.” The set features tracks by both FAX artists and fans alike and is a beautiful tribute to his memory and music.



In 1994 Aphex Twin released the genre classic, Selected Ambient Works Vol II. Definitely a staple to track down.

Another classic was also released in ‘94 - Global Communication’s downtempo/ambient techno opus, 76:14. Excellent for both active and passive listening.

In the field of psybient music there is a wonderful 8-volume independently-sourced collection of major works called The Psybient DVD Pack collection. DVD 1 features all of Simon Posford's related work (Celtic Cross, Dub Trees, Eclipse, The Infinity Project, Hallucinogen, Shpongle, etc.), while later volumes showcase collections like the Fahrenheit Project series, H.U.V.A. Network and Solar Field discographies, and more. It is quite a substantial archive, and thankfully there is a guidebook included with the set and a map of all featured recordings.

Brian Eno continued to add albums to his incredibly vast catalog, but perhaps the most noteworthy of his 90s releases is :Neroili: (Thinking Music Part IV). It is important to note that the 2014 reissue of this recording featured an hour-long b-side, “New Space Music” which is one of my all-time favorite minimal ambient drone pieces.

Prior to the release of their critically acclaimed debut LP Moon Safari, Air released an EP titled, Premiers symptômes. An incredibly satisfying listen, this instrumental record is arguably superior to the full-length album that followed.



Kruder & Dorfmeister produced a 3LP set titled, The K&D Sessions - an atmospheric set of downtempo nu jazz and ambient dub which effectively transforms your listening space into a hip urban cafe.

Continued in pt 3.