ihavebeenfloated

I’ve been listening to quite a bit of ambience lately. Not really “quite a bit” as far as most people are concerned, but the most I’ve ever gotten into any sort of mellow ambience was Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume 2, and that was years ago. I though I’d list the three albums I’ve been listening to.

Andy Partridge & Harold Budd – Through the Hill

Andy Partridge is, of course, the head master and godlike genius behind the two man genius-group known as XTC. While he was working on Apple Venus/Wasp Star, he teamed up with ambient composer Harold Budd and they collaborated on this collection of mellow tracks. It’s not apparent who is responsible for what, as they’re both credited equally on all tracks, but you can almost hear Andy plucking away at his guitar. His distinctive voice pops up in sections, as well. Definitely recommend this one, it’s alot more mellow than either of the two albums I’ll list below. If you dug on the music from MYST, definitely check out this disc.

Brian Eno – Another Day On Earth

Never listened to Brian Eno before, sort of disappointed in myself about that. Album is a good collection of fairly mellow tracks with an assortment of more playful or upbeat forms. Definitely a very interesting listen, as he manages to pull off textures and feelings in songs that would seem to conflict with each other when put together in the playlist, but they all flow together really well. Definitely a great listen.

Sigur Ros – Agaetis Byrjun

I grabbed this mostly just for Staralfur which some people might as know as the song that plays in The Life Aquatic when they’re underwater in the submarine at the end. A beautiful song, oddly left out of the soundtrack for that film. The rest of the album is just like that song, gorgeously textured emotive pieces with some ethnic world vocals going on, etc, etc. Good stuff.