November/December 2007

AmbientMusicGuide.com Top Ten Albums of 2007

Here's my Top 10 album releases for 2007. These selections appear in no particular order. Some might technically be 2006 releases but came into my orbit later on.

Why not send me your own list of top ambient and downtempo albums for the year? If you include your name and home city/country, I'll publish your list on this page. Your privacy is protected and I won't publish your email address.

Thanks for supporting AmbientMusicGude in 2007 and thanks for your emails, comments and criticisms.

Happy Yuletide and a prosperous 2008.

Mike G. :)

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Album: Days To Come (Ninja Tune Records)
Artist: Bonobo
Style/s: trip hop, ethno jazz, retro soundtrack
Even with guest vocals now part of equation alongside his trademark instrumentals, Bonobo's uniquely organic sound and delicate touch remains. Exquisite, pastoral lounge music for couch surfing anywhere.

Album: World Of Sleepers (Ultimae Records)
Artist: Carbon Based Lifeforms
Style/s: ambient trance/techno/electro, spacemusic
These guys are absolute masters at producing ambient trance with depth, mystery and colour with a throbbing bottom-end and Roland 303 acid lines carrying it along. Intensely mysterious, rich in harmonies and truly psychedelic in a sci-fi kind of way.

Album: Subliminal Melancholy (Ajana Music)
Artist: Electrypnose
Style/s: ambient electro/techno, psychedelic chill
A psy-chill album made by a man with no psytrance background. The result is original, alien and and beautiful, not to mention a little bit menacing.

Album: Deeperworlds (Cyberset Music)
Artist: Mystical Sun
Style/s: psy-chill, psy lounge, cinematic, environmental
A real grower that began as "good" and ended up "fantastic" after another 6 months of listening. A testament to the value of treading the road less traveled, ie. finding and creating your own live sounds and digital samples. The tracks range from driving mid-tempo grooves to pure environmental ambience, full of sparkling textures yet with a rounded, soft production sheen.

Album: The Fields (Archaic Horizon Records)
Artist: Orange Crush
Style/s: ambient electro, ambient pop
From Norway comes this exquisite collection of pop instrumentals with an environmental bent. Achingly beautiful drones and hazy melodies over a variety of beat patterns.

Album: The Sound Of Lights When Dim (Hidden Shoal Recordings)
Artist: Slow Dancing Society
Style/s: ambient rock, soundtrack, minimalism, ambient techno
A sensual and melancholy downtempo creation from a gifted American composer. Minimalist repetition, layered guitar, whistling synths and the gentle click and scratch of light percussion. Not to be missed.

Album: Life Squared (Ultimae Records)
Artist: Asura
Style/s: ambient trance, ethno dub, psy-chill, orchestral
Superior epic trance excursion that occasion shifts into clubby 4/4 beats before veering off again into something more downtempo. Massive sounds, memorable melodies, gothic atmospheres, all brilliantly constructed. The title track is the most euphoric thing I've heard this year. A moving journey from this iconic Ultimae Records artist.

Album: Recordings (CD Baby/Feldbauer.com)
Artist: Tristan Feldbauer
Style/s: ambient synthpop, ambient jazz, future lounge
The quirky Feldbauer and his ensemble combine precise machine beats and basslines with warm, airy synths and improvisations on guitar and keyboards. Those melancholy 80's synth sounds hovering in the middle ground are what elevate this album into the realm of sublime.

Album: Midnight Soul Dive (Aleph Zero Records)
Artist: Various
Style/s: psy-chill, ambient pop, low-fi beats
Fine compilation from Israeli label which largely ignores psy-chill cliches (ethnic vocals, big dub grooves, daft Terrence McKenna rants) in favour of something more progressive and intriguing. A perfect release for genre fans ready to dig deeper.

Album: Love When We Are
Artist: Slowdisk (CD Baby)
Style/s: who knows?
My review in September "almost made us blush" say the composers. I guess it's hard to express admiration for something that's great and elusive at the same time. This debut album from a Dutch duo is a unique meeting of live playing and computer craft; bits of folk, ambient drone, chant, pop and lots and lots of space. Odd, contemplative and touching.

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Reader's Top Albums of 2007

From Michael Henaghan, AngryApe.com:

1. 'Rotations' - mwvm (Silber Records)
2. 'After The Night Falls/Before The Day Breaks' - Harold Budd & Robin Guthrie (Darla)
3. 'The Sound of Lights When Dim' - Slow Dancing Society (Hidden Shoal Recordings)
4. ' Of Soft Construction' - Near The Parenthesis (n5MD)
5. 'I' - GP~00 (Forgotten Empire Records)
6. ' All Lines Lead In' - Konntinent (Serein)
7. 'Daydreaming' - Rafael Anton Irissari (Miasmah)
8. ' Sisteris' - Elegi (Miasmah)
9. 'I - VII' - .Redshifts (Parasomniac Inc)
10. 'Behind Us - Disinterested (Dynamophone)

From Sunny aka Mahiane, Ultimae Records (France):

1. Various - 'Oxycanta – Winter Blooms' (Ultimae)
2. Colleen - 'Les ondes silencieuses'
3. Various - 'Bioluminscence' (Native State)
4. Various - 'Devil in the Details' (Interchill)
5. Senviva - 'Giosun'

From Mouka, Ajana Records (Germany):

1. Khooman - Is a Flexible Liquid
2. Objekt4 - Space Jungle Slums
3. Electrypnose - Subliminmal Melancholies
4. Shen - Outlines
5. Roedelius & Friends - Snapshots & Sidesteps
6. Terra Nine - Strange Craft
7. Adam Shaik - Journey to the Sun (re-issue)
8. Various - Bioluminescence (Native State)
9. Rena Jones - Driftwood
10. Various - Devil in the Detail (Interchill)

From Evan Bluetech, Native State Records (USA):

1. Kiln - Dusker (Ghostly)
2. Lars Danielsson (w. Bugge Wesseltoft, Nils Peter Molvaer) - Melange Bleu (Act Nu Jazz)
3. Lucine ICL - Language Barrier (Hymen)
4. Slow Six - Nor'easter (New Albion)
5. Live Maria Roggen - Circuit Songs (Jazzland)

From Forest, Musical Starstreams Radio + Waveform Records (USA):

1. Various Artists - Waveform Transmissions Volume One (Waveform)
2. Flooting Grooves - Upsyde Downe (Peak)
3. Pitch Black - Rude Mechanicals (DubMission)
4. The Peaking Goddess Collective - Organika (Peak)
5. zerO One - ozOne (Waveform)
6. Shen - Outlines (Native State)
7. Various Artists - Sub Signals - Volume 1 (Interchill)
8. Dymons - Druids Brew (Elestial)
9. Mind Soup - Love Songs for Gifted Children (Vernissage)
10. Cobblestone Jazz - 23 Seconds (!K7)

From Arcane Trickster & Stickleback, Tempest Recordings (Aust):

1. Fila Brasilia - Retrospective
2. Various Artists - Box Of Dub (Soul Jazz Records)
3. Terra Nine - Strange Craft (Tempest Chill)
4. Various Artists - Nova Natura 3 (Cosmicleaf Records)
5. Mimesis - Life Imitating Art (Psy Harmonics)

From Mirko Ruckels aka Deepspace (Aust):

1. Telomere - The Stellar Sea
2. Justin Robert - Manasota
3. Northcape - Some Bright Valley
4. Philip Wilkerson - Amorphous Worlds
5. Solar Wind - Mind Traveller
6. Diatonis - Trajectories
7. Krill.Minima - Urlaub Auf Balkonien
8. Ulrich Schnauss - Goodbye
9. Stars Of The Lid - The Refinement of the Decline

Send your own Top Albums Of 2007 list to: mikeg AT ambientmusicguide DOT com.

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