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The Top Ten
Ambient Music and Books
A personal selection of ten of the best ambient CDs and ten of the
best books about the ambient scene.
"Prendergast's
essential 20th Century recordings are an invaluable guide to the
music, in fact, perhaps the best definition of Ambience extant"
- Eric Olsen in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 2001.
Most of these CDs and books can be bought through this site, in
association with Amazon.co.uk in the UK and Amazon.com in the US.
| MUSIC |
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1.
Erik Satie - The Early Piano Works (Philips Duo 1998)
The slowest and most exquisite Satie of all time played
by Reinbert De Leeuw in the late 1970s.
Buy This CD: UK
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2.
Brian Eno - Music For Airports (Virgin/EG 1978)
Eno pushes Ambient into the mainstream with four graphics
and four pieces of haunting space-filled beauty with
girlie chorus and Robert Wyatt on piano.
Buy This CD: UK
/ US
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3.
Love - Forever Changes (Elektra 2001)
Recently voted the greatest album ever made, Arthur
Lee's quintessential sixties vision is made perfect
by scoring the songs for acoustic guitar and strings.
Comes with seven bonus tracks.
Buy This CD: UK / US
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4.
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (EMI Harvest 2000)
Twenty-fifth anniversary edition CD in original packaging
of black shrink-wrap, handshake sticker, diver postcard
etc. The epitomy of Ambient Rock.
Buy This CD: UK
/ US
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5.
Vangelis - Blade Runner OST (East West 1994)
The Greek maestro's greatest music to Ridley Scott's
greatest film.
Buy This CD: UK
/ US
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6.
The Durutti Column - The Return Of The Durutti Column
(Factory Once/London 1996)
The quietest record of the post-punk era - glittering
guitar miniatures with a clutch of period bonus tracks.
Buy This CD: US
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7.
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol 2 (Warp 1994)
Richard James nudges Mozart and says come see the symphonies
inside my wires and boxes. Ambient genius at work.
Buy This CD: UK
/ US
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8.
William Orbit - Pieces In Modern Style (WEA 2000)
Madonna's producer gives Barber, Satie, Ravel, Cage,
Gorecki and even Beethoven the Ambient Trance stylee.
Buy This CD: UK
/ US
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9.
Moby - Play (Mute 1999)
Drawing on Satie and New Order, Moby defines Ambient
techno with this peerless set of melodies. Everyone's
heard the piano riff of Porcelain and in 2000 a 2-CD
edition added all the B Sides.
Buy This CD: UK
/ US
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10.
Air - The Virgin Suicides (Source / Virgin 2000)
France's premier Ambientizers give Sofia Coppola's movie
the haunting Pink Floyd treatment.
Buy This CD: UK
/ US
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| BOOKS |
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1.
Kraftwerk - I Was A Robot by Wolfgang Flur (Sanctuary
Publishing 2001)
Inside the most enigmatic and influential German electronic
group of all time.
Buy This Book: UK
/ US
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2.
A Century Of Recorded Music : Listening To Musical
History by Timothy Day (Yale University Press 2000)
A history of the recording of classical music and its
social effects by National Sound archivist.
Buy This Book: UK
/ US
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3.
Painting With Sound : The Life And Music Of Hans-Joachim
Roedelius by Stephen lliffe (Meridian Music 2003)
The first exhaustive biography of a man who contributed
much to German, electronic and Ambient music. Lovingly
compiled by lliffe with foreword by Eno and first colour
illustrated discography
Buy This Book: UK
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4.
Bass Culture : When Reggae Was King by Lloyd
Bradley (Viking 2000)
Everything you ever wanted to know about the music which
pre-empted Hip-Hop, House, Techno and invented the words
Drum & Bass.
Buy This Book: UK
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5.
Kind Of Blue : The Making Of The Miles Davis Masterpiece
by Ashley Kahn (Granta 2001)
Exhaustive account of the making of Miles Davis's most
famous record of shimmering jazz sketches.
Buy This Book: UK
/ US
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6.
Waiting For The Sun : The Story Of The Los Angeles
Music Scene by Barney Hoskyns (Viking 1996)
Unbelievably exhaustive and brilliant account of the
city which produced The Beach Boys, Love, The Doors,
Tim Buckley, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
and tons more.
Buy This Book: UK
/ US
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7.
The Unknown Paul McCartney - McCartney And The Avant-Garde
(Reynolds & Hearn 2002)
Subtitled from Loops to Trance, this incredible book
documents, over an exhaustive 255 pages, McCartney's
forays into the avant-garde from John Cage to Unit Delta
Plus, Stockhausen to The Fireman, it's all here
in loving detail.
Buy This Book: UK
/ US
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8.
Altered State : The Story Of Ecstasy Culture & Acid
House by Matthew Collin (Serpent's Tail 1998)
Before today's coke-fuelled Hard House there was Ecstasy
and an entire history of House & Techno. This one tells
it from the battlefield raves and you can still smell
the dry ice.
Buy This Book: UK
/ US
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9.
Emperors Of Dreams : Drugs In The Nineteenth Century
by Mike Jay (Dedalus 2000)
Wonderful account of ether, laughing gas, cannabis,
cocaine, opium and mescaline as they were used in the
19th Century. Includes social and artistic impact. Did
you know that Robert Louis Stephenson used coke!
Buy This Book: UK
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10. Up-Tight : The Velvet Underground Story by Victor
Bockris and Gerard Malanga (Omnibus 1983)
Hugely influential, it was here I found out about John
Cale and John Cage playing Satie. A wonderful ride of
a read and visual feast.
Buy This Book: US
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