Pyramids with Nadja - s/t (2009) (FLAC)

Artist: Pyramids with Nadja
Album: Self-titled
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: 27 Oct 2009
Genre: Drone, Doom, Ethereal, Shoegaze, Ambient
Label: Hydra Head Records
Size: 309 MB

This is just plain awesome...
Producing machines Nadja have really benefited from their work with Pyramids.
This is a lot more shoegazy than most of their material, that usually features down-tuned guitars and a drummachine in very low tempo - just as the tag "drone" would suggest, if you feel like using one.

The most obvious difference is the following though:
You'll find echoing, Thom Yorkesque vocals, that made me think of Slowdive's Albatross, floating like haze amidst endless outburst of heavy, distorted walls; uptempo beats and somewhat of a structure to a larger extent throughout the record.

Especially the last piece, "An Angel Was Heard to Cry Over the City of Rome" has a surprisingly driving beat, basically blast beats as we know them from black metal compositions.
This piece also features spoken, distorted words - Nadja going transcendental metal! ;)

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Boards Of Canada - In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country (2000) (FLAC)

Artist: Boards Of Canada
Album: Music Has The Right To Children
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: 2000
Genre: Electronic, IDM, Downtempo, Ambient
Label: Warp, Music70
Size: 130 MB

This an awesomely epic EP that hold I very dear.
Especially the second track "Amo Bishop Roden" is a masterpiece in it's own right.
Calm, dreamy and the perfect tonal extrapolation of "Music Has The Right To Children".

This record works on me the same way as Tim Hecker's "An Imaginary Country" does:
I either imagine myself driving through a cold, snowy, quiet city, or I in fact AM on my way through the city - usually with public transport.
And when I do, everything seems so completely out of place. Everything, everybody just floats by, like a time lapse video.
Listening to "Amo Bishop Roden", you're caught in the timeless stream of sound - it is so far away from the vicissitude around you, the fast pace of life. You instinctivly begin to question all this without even knowing why, but you're sure that something definately is wrong. Maybe because you feel reminded of the carefree when you were little and how there was no such thing like deadlines.

At least that's the way how I feel.
Maybe you'll experience a similar sentiment while savouring this gem.

Have a look at this:

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Boards Of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children (1998) (FLAC)

Artist: Boards Of Canada
Album: Music Has The Right To Children
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: 1998
Genre: Electronic, IDM, Downtempo, Ambient
Label: Warp, Skam
Size: 350 MB

So I decided to share this classic with you.
I´ve been thinking about wether or not I should write somewhat of a review about this and I still don't quite know.
While I do have my own opinion on this album and I do not praise pitchfork as the ultimate index for what is good music and what isn't, I do agree with this particular review. Forwarding without it gnawing at my conscience.

READ.
I understand this album isn't for everyone as it's "nostalgic" references root in the 70ies - samples of educational videos and commercials, that is.

My favourite: Sixtyten.

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On - Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not (2010) (FLAC)

Artist: On (Sylvain Chauveau, Steven Hess), Fennesz
Album: Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: July 26, 2010
Genre: Ambient, Drone, Soundscapes
Label: Type
Size: 237 MB

So this is indeed something I found intriguing and original, when I first heard about it.
On, consisting of French composer/producer Sylvain Chauveau and Chicago-based percussionist Steven Hess, approach their music in a rather unconventional way: at first improvisations are recorded in a studio and are then given to a guest musician who is to "rework" their music. That doesn't mean that he is simply remixing it but more putting it in and out of context, arranging it, adding to it, practically forging a record from the components given to him.
This isn't completely unheard of, of course, since .O.rang had been experimenting with a very similar idea when recording "Herds Of Instinct", especially when it comes to putting the recorded material out of context and making it part of something completely different.
At their last record "Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night" this task was taken over by Helge Sten alias Deathprod. This time it's - my beloved - Fennesz.

The result comprises drony soundscapes, gently added white noise here and there and a slowly evolving cacophony that merges into repetitive, hypnotic patterns. Fennesz' fingerprint is pretty obvious, yet the record doesn't feel like another one of his, but indeed more like countless musical textures filtered through Fennesz' mind.

This album isn't an easy listen at first, especially with the feedback-fueled opening.
If you take your time though you might find this actually quite enjoyable - personally I liked the homonymous "Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not".

Find Type's comment here.
I must admit I don't think I could put this in better words than the label itself - only more personal, subjective.


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By the way, the vynil comes as an awesome white press whose format is just perfect for that kind of cover artwork.

Ben Frost & Daníel Bjarnason - SÓLARIS (2011) (FLAC)

Artist: Ben Frost, Daníel Bjarnason
Album: SÓLARIS
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: November 11, 2011
Genre: Modern Classical, Ambient
Label: Bedroom Community
Size: 195 MB

"We have no need for other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is."

Poland's Unsound Festival commissioned Ben Frost and Daníel Bjarnason to create a new piece of music inspired by Andre Tarkovsky’s 1972 Solaris - of which the original novel was written by Polish author Stanislaw Lem - as 2011 marked the novel's 50th anniversary.
The piece then has been performed live by Frost, Bjarnason and Krakow’s 28-piece Sinfonietta Cracovia - intensified with visual manipulations of the original by Frost's mentor Brian Eno and Nick Robertson.
I'm truly grateful I had the opportunity to witness this..let me call it.."happening" myself.

SÓLARIS imaginates the spooky silence, the loneliness in space of the science fiction-dystopia as a man-machine-sound, an eerie blend of Bjarnason's classical arrangement and Frost's numbing minimalism.

Combining the warmth of a string orchestra with prepared piano and waves of guitar, for "Solaris", they took Melodyne, (music software designed to improve music and pitch), and "turned it against itself and encouraged it to misbehave." --> source
I don't feel I should tell you much more about what this record sounds like, but instead you should take a listen - probably while watching the film on mute.

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Xiu Xiu vs. Grouper - Creepshow (2006) (FLAC)

Artist: Xiu Xiu, Grouper
Album: Creepshow
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: 2006
Genre: Ambient, Drone
Label: States Rights Records, Slender Means Society
Size: 132 MB

Take Grouper's timeless realm of eery soundscapes and add severe tearfulness from Xiu Xiu's i-hate-myself-days.
The title is a reference to Creepshow, a horror anthology film.
Harris wrote on her MySpace page: "We both had immense terror of terror films when we were children and was in lathe of these feelings that we explored the subjects of the record."

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PS: 700 views in two days, wow, thank you guys!

Aidan Baker & Tim Hecker - Fantasma Parastasie (2008) (FLAC)

Artist: Aidan Baker & Tim Hecker
Album: Fantasma Parastasie
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: October 14,  2008
Genre: Abstract, Drone, Noise, Ambient
Label: Alien8 Recordings
Size: 205 MB

Alien8:
"Fantasma Parastasie sees the pairing of Aidan Baker, of the Ambient Doom band Nadja, and Tim Hecker, two of Canada’s brightest musicians in the world of abstract electronic music."

Not quite as calm as I´d expected this album to sound like - it felt like it was neither Hecker's nor Baker's touch that could be heard. What we hear instead are noisier landscapes that slowly disintegrate.

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Tim Hecker - Harmony In Ultraviolet (2006) (FLAC)

Artist: Tim Hecker
Album: Harmony In Ultraviolet
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: 2006
Genre: Abstract, Ambient
Label: Kranky
Size: 291 MB


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Oneohtrix Point Never - Rifts (2009) (FLAC)

Artist:Oneohtrix Point Never
Album: Rifts
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: 2009
Genre: New Age, Drone, Noise, Experimental, Ambient
Label: No Fun Productions
Size:  729 MB

The 'Rifts' trilogy comprises of the first three full length records - Betrayed in the Octagon, Zones Without People, and Russian Mind as well as selections from rare and out of print cassette and CD-R releases, with recordings spanning as far back as 2003. Fully re-mastered for digital audio.

Chosen by Animal Collective to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that it curated in May 2011.


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Fennesz - Black Sea (2008) (FLAC)

Artist: Fennesz
Album: Black Sea
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: 2008
Genre: Abstract, Drone, Ambient
Label: Commons, Touch
Size: 304 MB

Drony soundscapes from Austrian fella Fennesz.

Fennesz - Venice (2004) (FLAC)

Artist: Fennesz
Album: Venice
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: May 2004
Genre: Experimental, Ambient
Label: Digital Narcis Corporation, Touch

Size: 285 MB

Fennesz - Endless Summer (2006 Remaster) (FLAC)

Artist: Fennesz
Album: Endless Summer
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: 2001/2006 Remaster
Genre:  Glitch, Experimental, Ambient
Label: Mego/Editions Mego
Size: 309 MB

Mego Edition Remaster from 2006.

William Basinski - Vivian & Ondine (2009) (FLAC)

Artist: William Basinski
Album: Vivian & Ondine
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: December 9, 2009
Genre:  Ambient
Label: 2062

Size: 158 MB

Enjoy..

Link in comments.

William Basinski - 92982 (2009) (FLAC)

Artist: William Basinski
Album: 92982
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: March, 2003
Genre:  Ambient
Label: 2062
Size: 212 MB

If you´re familiar with Sir Basinski there is no need for any explanation.

Link in comments.

William Basinki - The Disintegration Loops I - IV (2002-2003) (FLAC)

Artist: William Basinski
Album: The Disintegration Loops
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: 2002-2003
Genre: Abstract, Ambient, Minimal
Label: 2062
Size: 1070 MB

After having left his recordings on tape to rot for more than 20 years, Basinski finally reused them..the result: a more and more distorted, minimalistic, epic loop, taking the listener to a journy far outside their body..
This may be interpreted as metaphor for men's life - hundreds and hundreds of the same loop over and over, slowly dissolving - wether you feel or not feel to see it that way is up to you.
Either way: enjoy!

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William Basinski - Melancholia (2003) (FLAC)

Artist: William Basinski
Album: Melancholia
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: 2003
Genre: Abstract, Ambient, Minimal
Label: 2062
Size: 150 MB

All I have to say is..enjoy this masterpiece..

Link in comments.

Tim Hecker - Ravedeath 1972 (2011) (FLAC)

Artist: Tim Hecker
Album: Ravedeath 1972
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: February 14, 2011
Genre: Electronic, Ambient
Label: Kranky
Size: 278 MB

Yet again the master strikes..



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Link in comments.

Tim Hecker - Dropped Pianos (2011) (FLAC)

Artist: Tim Hecker
Album: Dropped Pianos
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: October 10, 2011
Genre: Electronic, Ambient
Label: Kranky
Size: 134 MB

The source material for Ravedeath 1972, piano driven sketches that had been recorded in 2010.



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Link in comments.

Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country (2009) (FLAC)

Artist: Tim Hecker
Album: An Imaginary Country
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: March 9, 2009
Genre: Electronic, Ambient
Label: Kranky
Size: 316 MB

This is easily one of the most favourite albums that I own..dynamic ambient.
Take the public transport, drive through the city, listen to Tim Hecker with closed headphones.



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Link in comments.

Tim Hecker - Mirages (2004) (FLAC)

Artist: Tim Hecker
Album: Mirages
Quality: Lossless FLAC
Released: September 20, 2004
Genre: Electronic, Ambient
Label: Alien8 Recordings
Size: 262 MB



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Link in comments.