Holy CRAP this was only 99 cents?!

That's one of my favorite albums of all-time, what a great find

Ambient Top 5
 

Ambient Top 5 (of the moment)

I'm not counting box sets - they'll be featured in the days ahead.

• Brian Eno's classic, Ambient 1:Music for Airports
• Ambient pop - Air's Moon Safari
• The Frippertronic masterpiece, (No Pussyfooting) by Fripp & Eno
• Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works vol 2 3LP
• and the drone ambient magnum opus - Gas' Nah Und Fern

These albums are sure to show up on any good ambient lists.

What do you think? Is there a more appropriate title I'm missing for the Top 5?

http://i.imgur.com/glbObMs.jpg

It all boils down to taste really, but I think my all time favourite ambient record apart from Music for Airports is Keiji Haino's Koko. Popol Vuh's In den Gärten Pharoas would probably make it on my list as well.

Pharaos is stunning, though my own favorite is the Wah-Wah reissue of Hosianna Mantra. :)

Grand Unified Theory of Contemporary Music
 

Below is a tribute print I created celebrating the work of Brian Eno. "The Grand Unified Theory of Contemporary Music" (with Eno at its center) visually maps every major print, sound, and visual art project by Eno (and all other artists' works produced by Eno) from 1967 to the date I created the graphic.

I have a 24" x 24" PVC-mounted wall print of this piece in my studio. (Sample area magnified for legibility.)

I created another graphic featuring every artist John Peel ever played on The John Peel Sessions. (Sample available upon request.) I had a lot of fun putting these together!

And stay tuned - a really cool piece on The Hearts of Space program will be coming up later today!

http://i.imgur.com/ztPGYa1.jpg

A Taste of Fresh Aire
 

Featured box set of the day - a gift item from American Gramophone. This is Mannheim Steamroller's Fresh Aire 1972-1982 Limited Edition Collectors Series from 1983.

The set comes in a hardbound velvet case with an embossed pewter emblem. Each set is numbered and includes a wonderful color book. The LPs are housed in embossed silver foil jackets.

I already had each of the Fresh Aire LPs including the ambient "Interludes" volume, but I couldn't pass up this splendid collectible!

Slow Music for Fast Times
 

This morning saw the conclusion of our latest archival project. The world's longest-running ambient radio program, Hearts of Space began broadcasting slow music for fast times back in 1973. The original program was a 3-hour set, shortened to its present 1-hour format when the show began public radio syndication in 1983.

http://i.imgur.com/2RXjmIb.jpg

Since syndication Heats of Space has aired 1080 hour-long episodes showcasing quality ambient music each week for over 30 years. Innerspace has successfully compiled a complete archive of the show's broadcasts and will continue to add new episodes as they are aired.

We've made sure to uniformly name and tag each program and to include the original broadcast date and a companion track listing with the metadata for each episode.

Beginning next week I'll be moving into a larger office and wanted to create a downtempo chill-out library as a relaxing ambient soundscape for my work day. The Hearts of Space broadcasts will be added to a rotation along with other complete label archives, such as:

- the six phases from the late Pete Namlook's ambient FAX +49-69/450464 label

http://i.imgur.com/u78LYOa.jpg

- the intelligent d'n'b sounds of LTJ Bukem's Good Looking Records and its companion projects

http://i.imgur.com/c36i5dC.jpg

- the first ~150 records on the Ninja Tune label for some jazzy, downtempo electronic music

http://i.imgur.com/3bozm8u.jpg

- a wonderful 330-hour audio archive of psybient albums from Simon Posford and other prominent figures of the scene

http://i.imgur.com/YG8DeHP.jpg

- and an additional 72-hour collection of quality psybient mixes by Spacemind

http://i.imgur.com/9QneMoU.jpg

The majority of these selections are not offered by any of the major streaming networks or from current commercial markets, but Innerspace Labs has got it covered.

And you can check out Spacemind's mixes on Youtube. Here's Light Reactions (Remastered)

wouldn't Nah Und Fern be a box set?

either way Gas would definitely be on my top 5. mine would probably look like this:

In den Garten Pharoas by Popol Vuh - favorite piece of music of any genre
Zauberberg by Gas - his darkest and most brooding Gas album
Die Festung by Paysage D'hiver - winter ambient over the likes of Biosphere, Thomas Koner, etc
Quique by Seefeel - irresistibly catchy. a grower this year but I couldn't do without this one anymore.
The Sinking of the Titanic by Gavin Bryars - you aren't real if you don't cry to this

yeesh this was really tough. could easily change this whole list to a totally different 5

While the CD version of Nah Und Fern is a box set, the vinyl issue is just a 2LP comp of edits- hardly qualifying as a "set."

Each of your other mentioned albums are fantastic examples of the genre. While not technically an equal comparison, I would say that naming a top 5 of the ambient genre is similar to asking for a consensus of a top 5 for "rock." It is simply too wide of an umbrella to narrow to so small a selection.

Moonbuilding 2703 AD (2015) has arrived!
 

This evening, the latest 3LP special edition of The Orb’s new album arrived from Kompakt Records!

Check out the photos below.

http://i.imgur.com/dYFB7WF.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/FJr4E1q.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/pbayGn0.jpg

If you missed my recent review of a promo copy of the album, tune in here!