Music to wash over you...
Posted by: ashetty24 on 25 January 2014
Just listening to James Vincent McMorrows new album Post Tropic and was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for ethereal sounding artists/albums? Other artists that come to mind for me are james blake, bon iver.
Would love to hear your picks!
Music to wash over you ... hmmm ... Handel's Water Music? (ducks and runs for cover)
Mendelsshon: Fingal's Cave
Debussy: La Mer
Moving Hearts: The Storm
Handel: Water music.
I have found Goldfrapp's Tales of Us to be one of those albums.
At the risk of being accused of taking the OP's question seriously:
Brian Eno - especially his ambient albums. I just got Apollo, which I'm finding is excellent for either 'ethereal' or more concentrated listening.
From the classical world, try Arvo Part at the modern end of the scale, or Tomas Luis de Victoria at the nearly-500-years-ago end. Careful with the latter though, as quite a few recordings use close miking which I find ruins the experience completely. Going even further back, there's Gregorian Chant, or Hildegard of Bingen, which can be very moving/effective in a religious/meditative context.
Jean-Michel Jarre's Waiting for Cousteau (from the album of the same name) is unlike anything else he's ever released and a valid extension of Eno's ambient experiments.
Mark
Seriously:
John Themis: Atmospheric Conditions
Kate Bush: 50 words for snow
Bach: Cello suites
Any plain chant
Chopin: nocturnes
Carol Kidd: any
But Enya is the ultimate swash.
Steve Wilson
Porcupine Tree
Sigur Ros
Bjork
William Orbit
Eno .... and the list goes on!
forgot...
David Sylvian (ex Japan)
Any of these two might fit the bill..
Sankt Otten
Graham
Or this...
Try the Paris, Texas soundtrack by Ry Cooder.
amiina, an Icelandic band make music you might like. Ambient, but not devoid of melody, percussion nor (occasional) vocals. One of their lead instruments, however, is the saw. I'm sure there are samples on their website, http://amiina.com, I like particularly The Lighthouse Project EP, but Puzzle is good also.