Hello there and welcome to the second part of 2017 Best Ambient music chart.
Here’s next 3 great albums of the year. All of them are produced by very well experienced representatives of the genre, but maybe not so well known as heavyweights Brian Eno or Ryuchi Sakamoto who are both released great new albums this year. We shall go little bit deeper underground which is always exciting.
Taylor Deupree – Somi (12K Music)
Abstractly perfectly placed sounds – this all about Brooklyn-based composer/visual artist Taylor Deupree and his unique sense of beauty. Taylor's new solo work is a dive into the vast reverberating space and it is filled with tones and strains placed very far away from each other so you can’t rid of the feeling that you're floating through some kind of invisible cosmos which is full of weird, barely understandable but intelligent and friendly form of life. «Somi» is real slow goer. Seems it smoothly moves ahead track by track with no specific direction but then you recognize the moods are becoming brighter, less abstract and more emotional, like grey morning light turns to golden.
Gas – Narkopop (Kompakt)
Comeback of «ambient techno» originator after 17 years of absence. «Narkopop» is definitely referred to previous album «Pop», but, as we can see from the title, more expanded. New millennium Gas is still very recognizable with his distinct estranged and very orchestrated sound. But textures became richer and current mood is way brighter than it was before and it’s totally fine if you ask me. Monotonic patterns of the album somehow reminds a narcotized orchestra stuck in endless foggy loop reaching out to complete one perfect tone but never able to it. All that chase of dragon’s tail is witnessed by relentless and indifferent bass drum doing 4x4 and never-ending cascades of hi frequency grains being thrown into emptiness. Stunning atmospheric album, definitely is a great addition to any collection.
Leandro Fresco & Rafael Anton Irisarri - La Equidistancia (A Strangely Isolated Place)
Unexpected collaboration between two bright minds of modern ambient music, «La Equidistancia» is a perfect improvisation backed by great skills of it's both participants. The album surrounds listener by soft but very massive atmosphere. Sound production is massive, every new track of the album comes up like a huge waves of the Pacific and general mood of the whole thins is universal Bliss. Length of this record is comparably short at the scale of ambient full-length, but level of intensity is out of reach. Which is fair sign of a masterpiece.
Thanks for reading! Please feel free to share your opinion about these albums and your personal musical prefs of 2017 in the comments section.