Background Sounds
These albums are more towards the minimal end of the musical spectrum and are best for when you really want to concentrate:
- Music For Black Holes by Jeremy Bible (four hours of music inspired by and named after black holes)
- Stasis Sounds For Long Distance Space Travel by 36 and Zake (there are two volumes of this that sound pretty much the same).
- Xerrox Vol 1 by Alva Noto
- Selected Ambient Works Vol 2 by Aphex Twin
- The Disintegration Tapes by William Basinski (NB each track on this is a looped sample played to destruction - literally - over and over. You will either love this or it will drive you nuts)
- Become Ocean by John Luther Adams (an orchestra pretending to be the sea).
- Ypres by Tindersticks (one of their soundtrack albums. Hardly there in places).
Low-Key Music
Some of these might be classed as more like classical/orchestral music, but they are great in the background):
- Music For Brainwaves by VA
- Atomos by A Winged Victory For The Sullen
- And Their Refinement of the Decline by Stars of the Lid
- The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid by Stars of the Lid
- Faintly Recollected by Danny Norbury and Ian Hawgood
- Sleep by Max Richter (there’s the full 8-hour version and the ‘From Sleep’ edited version. The former is better).
- Empire by Markus Guenter
- Music For A Year in Small Paintings by Stuart Staples (yes, him out of Tindersticks. A 30-min track rom his ‘Arrythmia’ album)
- Orphee by Jóhann Jóhannsson
- Music For Film by Jan Wagner & Tobias Preisig
- Music For Animals by Nils Frahm
- Orchestral Tape Studies by Zake
Stuff With Voices
This may not work for you if you find a human voice distracting.
- Hamlet Gonashvili by Hamlet Gonashvili (first IAMC recommendation of a Georgian folk singer!)
- Gorecki: Symphony No.3 (lots of versions of this. I like the David Zinman and Dawn Upshaw version. Sung in Polish so good luck singing along!).
- Léonin & Pérotin: Sacred Music from Notre-Dame (first IAMC recommendation of 12th Century choral music!!)
- Der Klang der Offenbarung des Göttlichen by Kjartan Sveinsson (composed by a former member of Sigur Ros. Fourth movement of this is IMO one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written).
- Mark Hollis by Mark Hollis (this isn’t strictly an ambient album but it’s so low key that it counts).
Soundtrack-y Stuff
Some of these are actual film soundtracks and some just ought to be. They are generally ambient-eqsue but they may have odd tracks that are loud/fast:
- Last and First Men by Jóhann Jóhannsson & Yair Elazar Glotman
- Arrival OST by Jóhann Jóhannsson
- La Panthère Des Neiges OST by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
- Mars by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
Tuneful Stuff
These are at the ‘catchy’ end of the ambient spectrum and some even have a beat on some tracks, so may not be good for deep concentration.
- Flying High by The Irresistible Force (my favourite album ever)
- 76:14 by Global Communication (probably the peak of the 90s ambient boom)
- UF Orb by The Orb (features hit single ‘Blue Room’ as seen on Top of the Pops!)
- #1 by Skylab (more of a proto-trip-hop album but its very atmospheric. IMO of the great lost albums of the 90s).
Wild Cards
Stuff that isn’t ambient but can have the same effect.
- The 10-hour looped version of ‘Hallogallo’ by Neu! On YouTube (about three hours in you realise that its actually been on for nine hours :-)
- Apologues by Masayoshi Fujita (an album of vibraphone music. Yes, really).
- Philip Glass Solo by Philip Glass (greatest living composer etc etc. Just him playing the piano).
Addendum: Finally updated the Spotify version of my (13 hour) ambient playlist. Features something from most of the albums I mentioned last week. It’s in a sort-of order (the first track is there as a volume leveller - get the volume of the crescendo to a just-too-loud level and the rest should be about right for working - and Clair du Lune really should be the last track IMO). However, it also works as a shuffled list.
