Ambient music - Reviews

Ambient music: peaceful to just have on in the background, beautiful to listen to in it's own right. The best way to explore this genre is to listen to some ambient radio, or check out some of the ambient resources listed below.

More about ambient music. Brian Eno's Music for Airports album kicked off the modern ambient movement in the early 1970s, but French pianist and composer Erik Satie writing pieces such as Gymnopedie pioneered this form of music in the early twentieth century. In fact, the whole boundary between ambient music and other music is blurred; I review some 'relaxing music' below that I like and could easily be labeled ambient.

Non-profit: no money made - links are simply for convenience.

Relaxing music

Reviews of general music that I personally find very relaxing and hope others will too. If you like classical music you can buy compilations with titles like 'The most relaxing album in the entire Universe - ever!!' just about anywhere. Here are some other suggestions.

Alina - Arvo Pärt . Contemporary classical music that is very simple, hypnotically repetitive and absolutely beautiful ( audio clips and more reviews)
£12.99 plus p&p from Amazon. US/Can CD Universe, Amazon.ca.

Music for Zen Meditation (and other joys). This landmark album is a collaboration between the clarinetist Tony Scott and two Japanese musicians (playing bamboo flute and Koto). Each track is a gentle improvisation with an emphasis on pauses and tranquility. Sublime. audio audio clips and more reviews. Recorded in 1964 and reissued in 1997.
£7.99 plus p&p from Amazon. US/Can Amazon.com, Amazon.ca.

Ambient music resources

Epitonic has an excellent Ambient genre section, which includes an audio walkthrough and ambient radio player (I think you need to register to use these). There are also profiles of artists and several free legal mp3 tracks for many of the artists. The site layout is confusing but it's worth making the effort. Sadly Epitonic is no longer updated but there's plenty of material still available across all genres, not just ambient.

Ambience for the masses An Ambient Music Archive with hundreds of CD reviews and it's own radio broadcast.

Dreamstate has a comprehensive directory of ambient links

And don't forget to check out Ambient Radio stations and podcasts.

Where to buy ambient music

Ambient music can be remarkably hard to track down and if you're having problems finding that gorgeous track you've just heard, you might want to try these:

eMusic Probably the best and cheapest way to buy legal ambient music. I'm not normally a fan of subscription services but eMusic make it worthwhile. All its music is DRM-free in high quality mp3 files. You can download up to 40 tracks a month for £8.99/month, and they have a huge catalogue of ambient tracks. Free trial offered.

Audio Lunchbox sells mp3s and you can buy without subscribing, but its catalogue is much smaller than eMusic's.