Currently listening, part 1

[ffcal]

Thomas Ronkin - Within; Distance (Thought I'd check him out after reading posts about him on the forum.  Nicely done EM with a symphonic twist.)

Forrest

[Bert/SonicImmersion.org]

yeah, "Within:Distance" indeed is a great album.
Good call, Forest!

[drone on]

I have Within; Distance as well, in fact just listened to it a couple weeks ago. Excellent album.

[drone on]

Solar Fields-Until We Meet the Sky.  Another wonderful album from Ultimae.  This one has a lot of piano on it, which is a different sound for SF and it really works well.  Beautiful stuff. 

[jim02]

five elements music/andrea marutti/jim haynes - tri-ton
(best drone comp. i heard in a while! has been on a heavy rotation as of late, yummy!)

loren nerell - slow dream
(great CD, beautiful cover, sometimes i wish the metallic gamelan tunings do become more clear (less processed) in the mix..)

bvdub - i remember
(one of my favorite Bvdub releases..)

mathias grassow - uttarakuru
(i'm glad this got a remastered re-issue! overall quite static though imo it has enoughy depht to bite into it for over 2 hours)

thomas koner - novaya zemlya
(good but i'm still chewing on it to make up my mind..)

celer - merkin
(another very fine piece of quiet lingering dronics.. i understand Celer is overwhelming its fans/listeners by their immense output, though their ambient-approach is the one i do adore..)

david tagg - hand of clovers
(beautiful music, a definite favorite of the year)

isnaj dui - abstracts on solitude
(a rather short but lovely and introverted album all with processed flutes)

next;
steve roach - slow dream 


anticipating;

deepchord - sommer
deepchord presents echospace - silent world
east of oceans (Bvdub) - 121 years
willits+sakamoto - ancient future
k. leimer - permissions

[drone on]

Alpha Wave Movement-Beyond Silence, Terra, Transcendence, The Edge of Infinity.  Gregory Kyryluk, one of the finest US space music synthesists!!

Geoffrey Oryema-Beat the Border, Exile.  Revisited this great Real World album from the 90's, with that thick ambient production sound of Gabriel/Eno/Brook/Lanois etc from the early 90's. 

Michael Brook-Cobalt Blue.  When Brook was a cutting edge artist instead of a "music on demand" soundtrack peddler.  Those were the days. 

Robert Rich-Humidity.  An ambient "Big Gulp" of three whole concerts. 

Pixies-(my own "best of" mix).  If you're a fan, no explanation here.  I highly recommend the film "Loud Quiet Loud", a documentary about their 2004 reunion.  Fascinating film, even for the non-fan.  It is on Youtube.   

[drone on]

U. Srinivas & Michael Brook-Dream (Real World).  My favorite of all the Michael Brook collaborations on "Real World," probably because it's most like his own solo music.  Intense Indian ambient music.

[Seren]

  Will be a Deep Purple day tomorrow - RIP Jon Lord - Made in Japan and Burn.

[Dave Michuda]

Moritz Von Oswald Trio - Fetch  -  longer, meandering pieces that combine elements of dub, techno & jazz.  The result is a an excellent hypnotic trip.
Steve Roach & Dirk Serries -  low volume music  -  beautiful album of floating soundscapes.  This is music we've all heard before but done very, very well.
Spheruleus - Cyanometry  -  acoustic instrumentation mixes with electronics to produce an album of great lo-fi atmospheres.

[drone on]

Durutti Column-Short Stories for Pauline.  I don't think most of this album was ever issued on CD until now.  Some of it was used on the reissue of "Circuses and Bread."  In any event, lovely early 80's music from Vini Reilly, when he did his best work.  Highly recommended. 

The Damned-The Black Album, Phantasmagoria, Anything.  I always liked their more melodic "new wave" sound as opposed to the early punk stuff.  Several gems on each of these albums. 

Wire-The Ideal Copy, A Bell is a Cup.  I liked the late 80's Wire music more than their early punk stuff, like the Damned. 

Serries/Roach-Low Volume Music.  I agree with the comments above.  This is better than I thought it would be (goes to show you can't always tell from a 30 sec to 1 min. sound sample), lovely and unobtrusive.  The cover "art" is awful, though, gotta say...

[ffcal]

Bill Nelson - The Practice of Everyday Life (one of my longtime favorites, dating back to the days of his 70s band BeBop DeLuxe.  It's a monster of a box at 8 CDs and I'm only now on Disc 3, but have been enjoying it so far.  He's had a really eclectic 40-year career, and I've enjoyed nearly every phase of it.)

Forrest

[chris23]

Various Artists - Lost in the Humming Air
This is a solid compilation of electronic and ambient music inspired by the works of Harold Budd. The lineup is quite impressive and includes some of my favorite artists, including Loscil, Christopher Willits, Deupree, Mokira, and Marsen Jules. The standout track, in my opinion, is Hushhh by Andrew Thomas.

I think one reason I was drawn to this particular album is that I'm a long-time fan of H. Budd, but very little of the work by these artists reminds me of Budd. I was really curious to see how they would approach this task. I recommend this album strongly. It might not blow you away, but it is a highly rewarding listening experience.

[drone on]

There were a few excellent tracks on Lost in the Humming Air, but overall I thought it wasn't that great.  Some of the tracks are very Budd-like, while others not at all.

[drone on]

Echo & the Bunnymen-Do It Clean.  Live album recorded December 2010 in Liverpool, where they performed their first two (and best) albums, "Crocodiles" and "Heaven Up Here."  This is a blistering live set, and great recording!  I saw this tour, in San Francisco, and they were fantastic. 

[phobos]

Agalloch - Pale Folklore
Agalloch - Marrow of the Spirit

[Julio Di Benedetto]

Robert Rich : Somnium.   Hard to say much about...Ive been asleep.   Still only half way through but so far what strikes me most about this music is the beautiful balance between field recordings, instruments and electronics.  They sit so well together.  Great recording/mix!

[APK]

Some albums by

Ishq : I've grown to really like most of these. I came to them late. Flowering Mountain Earth is pretty special.

[El culto]

For my taste one of the best songs ever.

michael andrews-mad world

[Jeff Sampson]

For my taste one of the best songs ever.

Loved the original, but always thought the emotion in this rendition nailed the lyrics. Somewhat surprisingly, this is the first time I've seen the video.

[chris23]

Greg Haines - Digressions
This is a great album of neo-classical/cinematic style ambient and will likely appeal to folks who enjoy some of the early Type recordings, Peter Broderick, etc.  The atmosphere is mostly that of subdued melancholy, with a few dramatic moments.  The standout track is 183 times.

Yagya - The Inescapable Decay of My Heart
I'm a big fan of Yagya. He releases albums so infrequently that, when something comes out, I want to celebrate (eat cake, dance, drink extra espresso). This album is interesting. The music itself sounds like standard Yagya fare (it harkens back more to Rhythm of Snow than Rigning). What is innovative here is that Yagya has included vocals on each track of Disc 1. (Disc 2 contains instrumental versions of all the songs.) The Yagya + Vocals combo works really well for the female vocalists. It feels a bit like ambient pop and works really well. However, I'm not sure I like the male vocal tracks much (the male vocals appear to be those of Yagya/Gudmundsson himself). The vocals are okay, but don't really fit the mood of the Yayga sound, at least for me.