Favorite ambient albums of all time

About a year ago I did a mix of my favorite ambient artists of all time.  I have been meaning to do a mix of my favorite ambient albums of all time ever since.  And now here it is.

I did not go back and look at my favorite artist list.  I sorted through my ambient collection and came up with my fav albums.  Then I compared the two lists and not surprisingly they are almost identical.  Basically I substituted Scott Solter for Alio Die when I made the fav album list.  At least I didn't repeat any tunes from one mix to the next.

Choosing a favorite album from some of these artists was difficult.  Steve Roach has some many recordings that it was tough to know where to start but I kept coming back to the one that gets the most play and that is "The Dream Circle."  I wonder how many other folks like this album as much as I do.  I'm not e really sure why I like it more than his other releases, it definitely sounds similar to a lot of his other output.  I guess over the years it's become like a comfy sweatshirt.

Stars of the Lid & Eno were both hard to choose a favorite as well.  With SOTL I ended up going with the album that I first discovered them with.  In choosing "On Land" from Eno I really could have just flipped a coin to choose between it and "Music for Airports," "Apollo" and "Music for Films."  

The one favorite that probably doesn't make a lot of lists is "One River" by Scott Solter.  Using mostly processed guitars this album ebbs & flows beautifully from one tracks to the next.  I was happy to see that it's available on Bandcamp, although it's one long track instead of separate tracks like the original.  You can find it HERE.  

Enjoy.

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Scott Solter - Cypress Road from One River
• 04:38    Stars of the Lid - Dust Breeding from Avec Laudenum
• 11:45    Maps & Diagrams - Honeycomb Archipelago from Get Lost
• 14:45    Brian Eno - Unfamiliar Wind(leeks hills) from On Land
• 19:25    Loscil - Lucy Dub from First Narrows
• 25:25    Sonmi451 - Orange from Spectrum
• 31:00    Steve Roach - The Dream Circle from The Dream Circle
• 40:45    Kyle Bobby Dunn - Empty Gazing from A Young Person's Guide to
• 46:35    Harold Budd & Brian Eno - Against the Sky from The Pearl
• 50:00    William Basinski - 1.2 from The Disintegration Loops
• 1:01:00    end