[ Hypnos Forum ]

Chris,  thanks for the heads up on that Spheruleus album.  I got Harry's email about it but never got around to listening.  Just bought & downloaded.

Other spins...
Janek Schaefer - Unfolding Luxury beyond the City of Dreams  https://dekorder.bandcamp.com/album/unfolding-luxury-beyond-the-city-of-dreams
Porya Hatami - Shallow   http://noise.poryahatami.com/album/shallow

non-ambient:
The Decemberists - What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World  -  Another excellent release from these guys.  Can't wait to see them in March.

Chris,

I just bought the Janek Schaefer album tonight then I look and see it on your now playing post.  Great minds.

Other recent spins...

Shaded Explorer - Between The Blue  -  more silent season lush dubbiness.
Dan Deacon - America  -  I love the huge, driving sound of this album.  Can't wait for his new one coming soon.
Steve Roach & Dirk Serries - Low Volume Music -  still a fav for sleeping.

2014 was another year where I continued to listen to more "normal" music than ambient or electronic music.  I'll just repost here much of what I said on my low light mixes blog.

Part of the shift in my tastes can be directly attributed to Spotify.  I listen to Spotify at work a lot and I have used it more and more to discover new music.  I keep a playlist called "2014 albums worth listening to" that now has 4113 tracks in it.  Not all the albums in there are great or even good, necessarily.  The playlist is just a collection of things in my musical wheelhouse that are worth exploring.  I'm constantly on the prowl for new things to add to it.

On Tuesdays, when new music is released, I go here... http://www.allmusic.com/newreleases  to find out what's new and if it looks interesting I sample it on Spotify & maybe add it to a playlist.  Finding new music has become close to an obsession over the past couple of years and with so much stuff out there coupled with ease of access, it's a great time for music lovers.

Most of the albums on this list you can probably find on lots of other indie lists like NPR, Consequence of Sound, Pitchfork, etc.  A couple records not on the national lists are from Wisconsin bands, Phox & Field Report.  Both record for the fine label, Partisan Records, as does Sylvan Esso which came in at #9 on my list.  Another album with a Wisconsin tie is Paradise Outlaw by Pieta Brown.  A beautiful, ethereal album recorded at Justin Vernon's studio in Wisconsin.

Another odd ball selection is the awesome album by Dylan Howe - Subterranean - New Designs on Bowie's Berlin.  It is a collection of jazz versions of Bowie instrumentals from his Berlin period.  I love this record!  Find it & buy it here... http://dylanhowe.bandcamp.com/album/subterranean-new-designs-on-bowies-berlin

I included Loscil - Sea Island on this list, even though it's electronic not indie, because it's very, very good and deserved to be on both lists.

The only other album that doesn't fit under the indie umbrella is Piers Faccini & Vincent Segal - Songs of Time Lost.  It's a subtle record of soft vocals, guitar and cello.  If you like Nick Drake you will love this record.

The rest of the list is all variations of indie music, some loud, some soft, some electric, some acoustic, some straight forward and some a bit more odd - all of it good stuff worth the effort of seeking out.

What were your most played albums this year?

BEST OF 2014:

  1. The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream
  2. Damien Jurado - Brothers & Sisters of the Eternal Son
  3. Field Report - Marigolden
  4. The Rural Alberta Advantage - Mended with Gold
  5. Phox - Phox
  6. Strand of Oaks - HEAL
  7. Dylan Howe - Subterranean - New Designs on Bowie's Berlin
  8. Pieta Brown - Paradise Outlaw
  9. Sylvan Esso - Sylvan Esso
 10. Phantogram - Voices
 11. The Antlers - Familiars
 12. Saintseneca - Dark Arc
 13. Damien Rice - My Favourite Faded Fantasy
 14. The Barr Brothers - Sleeping Operator
 15. Real Estate - Atlas
 16. St. Vincent - St. Vincent
 17. Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots
 18. Eno & Hyde - Someday World
 19. Blaudzun - Promises of No Man's Land
 20. Bill Callahan - Have Fun With God
 21. Loscil - Sea Island
 22. Warpaint - Warpaint
 23. Piers Faccini & Vincent Segal - Songs of Time Lost
 24. Gem Club - In Roses
 25. alt-J - This Is All Yours

Hypnos forum folks, we all must listen to some stuff that's not ambient.  What are a few of your favorites from this year?

Here's my list of my favorite ambient/instrumental albums of 2014:

1. Loscil - Sea Island
2. Dylan Howe - Subterranean - New Designs on Bowie's Berlin
3. Janek Schaefer - Lay-by Lullaby
4. tonepoet - Headspace
5. A Winged Victory For The Sullen - Atomos
6. Dirk Serries - The Origin Reversal
7. The Circular Ruins - Full Circle
8. Kyle Bobby Dunn - Kyle Bobby Dunn and the Infinite Sadness
9. Jordan De La Sierra - Gymnosphere: Song of the Rose
10. Benoît Pioulard - Hymnal Remixes
11. 36 - Dream Tempest
12. Locust - After the Rain
13. Thomas Koner - LA BARCA complete edition
14. Steve Roach - The Delicate Forever
15. ASC - Truth Be Told
16. eternell - Kalimba Ambience
17. John Luther Adams - Become Ocean
18. Brian Reitzell - Auto Music
19. Dirty Beaches - Stateless
20. Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer(Cinematographic Score)

Most of the selections are ambient/electronic with a few excepts like Become Ocean by John Luther Adams and the fantastic album, Subterranean - New Designs on Bowie's Berlin by Dylan Howe.  I've linked to the Dylan Howe album on the forum before & I'll link to it again, cuz it's awesome... http://dylanhowe.bandcamp.com/album/subterranean-new-designs-on-bowies-berlin

Any other forumites with year end lists?

The Circular Ruins - Full Circle  -  Thanks to Chris for this recommendation.  Just downloaded it from Bandcamp today.  Very nice & I agree the opening track is awesome.
Locust - After the Rain  -  This has a 70s electronic vibe to it.  At times sounding like Cluster, Eno or A Bowie instrumental.  Spacey, moody and getting better with each listen.
VA - Kollektion 1 (SKY Records)  -  Speaking of 70s electronic music, this is a great collection of music from Sky records.  Featuring music from Roedelius, Cluster, Michael Rother, Moebius, Asmus Tietchens, etc.  Excellent!

I've been listening to the new album for a few days now.  I definitely like parts of it, but my overall impression is that it's boring.  It's not a bad album, just kind of boring.

I saw Interstellar over the weekend & enjoyed it very much.  Not my favorite movie of the year, that would be Boyhood, but it sure was an excellent ride.

It's a bit long, probably could have cut 20-30 minutes from it.  I love the big, grand scale of the film.  The score, while maybe not as bombastic as usual for Zimmer, is still very intense at times.  The volume in the theater I was in was just on the edge of too loud.  Overall I liked the score.

Just finished Exo, the fourth book in the Jumper series.  I have enjoyed every book in this universe and this one is no different.  The lead character, Cent, is a teenage girl.  She and her parents, can teleport.  Which in past novels has lead to all sorts of action & intrigue.  In this one it leads to space.  Cent figures out how to teleport herself to orbit and begins her own little space program.  There is an awful lot of technical detail is this story about her spacesuit, orbital mechanics, etc.  At times the technical stuff can get to be a bit much, I just skipped through some if it got boring.

Over I had a good time with this book.  Definitely one of my favorite series.

Love the new track!

A Winged Victory For The Sullen - Atomos  -  f-ing awesome!
36 - Dream Tempest
Bill Frisell - Guitar in the Space Age