Morgan Fisher - Flower Music (1998)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Lol Coxhill & Morgan Fisher - Slow Music (1980)

Beautiful, shimmering ambient sounds for sunny days. Real ones know that this type of stuff + black metal used to be this blog's bread and butter.

Years ago, a couple of old friends of mine dated for a few months, and when he met her dad, they shook hands then stood around not saying anything until her dad looked up at the sky and said, thoughtfully, "those... sure are some... slow moving clouds." Still makes me laugh. (This is a reference to the last song on this album.)

Track listing:

1. The Breathing Earth

2. The Beauty of Clay

3. Kalimba Petals

4. Waterglide

5. Photosynthesis

6. As the Sap Rises

7. Slow Moving Clouds

The distances we covered

You should also listen to:

Bearns & Dexter - The Golden Voyage Volume 1 (1980)

Rudy Adrian - The Healing Lake (2000)

Dreamboat - Dreamboat (2016)

Related:

Ilyas Ahmed - Between Two Skies (2005)

Ilyas Ahmed - Speaking of Shadows (2006)
Golden Retriever - Golden Retriever (2010)

One-off collaboration between two phenomenal Portland artists. The rare collaboration that actually delivers on its implicit promise: Ahmed's spectral desert folk intertwined with Golden Retriever's shimmering synth drone.

Track listing:

1. Aftershock / Face to Face

2. Mirrored Image / Your Sunday Best

What do you think I'd see

If I could walk away from me?

You should also hear:

Charalambides - Market Square (1995)

Yair Elazar Glotman & Mats Erlandsson - Negative Chambers (2017)

Tom Kazas - Deliquescence (1989)

Lovely, often quite emotive new age sounds from down under. Synths and programmed rhythms intermixed with longing, ethereal guitars. Something about this record really taps into my big ol' well of grief, but so does pretty much everything these days.

Track listing:

1. Eyes of a Bird

2. Someday That Is Saturday

3. Heavenly Transport

4. Blankets of Ice

5. Vision of Serenity

6. On Endless Nights

7. Unseen Passage

8. Mediterranean Move

9. Journey of the Whales

Turn your head 'cross the sea

Waves of sorrow, wait for me

And with my eyes, I see your face

Drifting slowly in this space

And now it seems there's no time to fill

All these hours standing still

Also listen to:

Fumio Miyashita - Earth (1983)

Barry Cleveland - Voluntary Dreaming (1990)

Sean Deason - Allegory & Metaphor (2000)

Detroit ambient techno bliss. I got a bunch of shit done earlier, had a workout, then met my buddy for a couple beers, and now I am laying on my couch, petting my cat, and listening to this record. At some point, this became my idea of a perfect Saturday.

Track listing:

1. Creation

2. Phunk

3. Allegory & Metaphor

4. 2030 AD

5. Ambience

6. Interlude

7. Zig

8. Psybadek One

9. My World

10. Hiphoptrak

11. Another Interlude

12. Allegory & Metaphor (Revisited)

Every now and then there comes a time you must defend

Your right to die and live again

Also listen to:

Ro70 - Ro70 (1995)

Miss Dinky - Melodìas Venenosas (2001) 

thisquietarmy - Blackhaunter (2008)

Guitar-based ambient drone for ghosts. Second full-length from what has turned out to be a very prolific project. Found this CD lost in the understock at my old job, knew I was gonna love it on sight. 

Track listing:

1. Black Haunters

2. In the Breathing Forest

3. Vampyr

4. Taming the Beast

5. Hunting Demons

6. Stranger Than the Sea

Old pang, so faithful to us

You should also listen to:

School of Emotional Engineering - School of Emotional Engineering (2004)

Belong - October Language (2008)

Aquila - Observations on the Loss of Culture (1996)

Techno/trance/abstract electronic with a dark, heady vibe from Australian producer Matthew Thomas. Great headphone listening. 

Track listing:

1. Culture

2. Museum

3. Identity

4. Knowledge

5. The Impossibility of Isolation

6. Ritual

7. Progress

Spacial interaction

You should also listen to:

Floatpoint - Beam Error (1995)

Jetone - Autumnmonia (2000)

Bruno Spoerri - Voice of Taurus (1978)

Well, I finally graduated. There's still plenty of work on the near horizon, but for now, I'm basking in the afterglow with this piece of weirdo astrological synth dorky-ness. A mountain of synths with a single bespectacled Swiss nerd on top. Plus, a bit of live drumming and saxophone. Speaking of which, "Saxelite" is an undeniable highlight here, so stick around for that.

Track listing:

1. Hymn of Taurus (Taurus Is Calling You!)

2. Galactic Acid

3. Saucers Over Montreux

4. Hallo World

5. Meditation

6. Space Cantata

7. Cosmotoxology

8. Saxelite

9. Quiet High

Moondust will cover you

You should also hear:

Roger Powell - Cosmic Furnace (1973)

Leon Lowman - Syntheseas (1980)

Philip Sollman - Something Is Missing (2006)

Minimal ambient drone from a Berlin-based composer/producer, with whom I became familiar via his tech-house duo Pigon. Total tonal immersion. Not for the impatient.

Track listing:

1. Room One

2. Room Two

3. Room Three

4. Room Four

5. Room Five

6. Untitled

A pill for remembering

Further immersion:

Rafael Toral - Sound Mind Sound Body (1994)

Keith Fullerton Whitman - Playthroughs (2002)

Necrophorus - Drifting in Motion (2000)

Related:

raison d'être - Residuality (1993)

Glacial dark ambient for the dead of winter, courtesy of Peter Andersson, best known for his work as raison d'être. Droning synths and icy SFX.

Track listing:

1. Lost Land - Part 1

2. Ice Shifting

3. Frost

4. Partial Melt

5. Lost Land - Part 2

6. Drifting

They've all gone

More arctic ambience:

Vidna Obmana - Gathering in Frozen Beauty (1989)

Amir Baghiri & Mathias Grassow - True North (1998)

Jon Bernoff and Marcus Allen - Breathe (1980)

Beautiful, weightless ambient compositions for piano, Rhodes piano, and vibraphone. I'm visiting with my family for Christmas, as always, so I'm not sure that you'll be hearing much from me for at least another week or so, but I'm listening to this while winding down and thought I'd share it with you real quick.

Track listing:

1. Medieval Mist

2. Interlude

3. One Earth

4. Dance on the Wind

5. Travelin' On

6. Space Rendezvous

7. Breathe

Someday comes forever

You should also listen to:

Harold Budd - The Pavilion of Dreams (1978)

Aeoliah - Inner Sanctum (1981)

Auburn Lull - Cast from the Platform (2004)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Auburn Lull - Alone I Admire (1999)

Yesterday I wrapped up the three most demanding weeks of school of my life -- multiple group projects and presentations, individual essays, massive Excel workbook problems, then finals -- and I am honestly still reeling. Usually, finishing my last final is accompanied by a massive sense of relief then a desire to party, but there's an instinctive part of me that won't stop anticipating the next assignment, lest I miss it, fuck up my grade, drop out of school, get shunned by my family and friends, and die broke and alone.

Over the next few days, I hope to convince that part of me to simmer down a bit, and get my year-end list(s) up. I've already done most of the writing, just need to piece it all together. So I'm kicking off the big come down with Auburn Lull, whose gentle, chiming, reverberating calm never fails to ground me. Hopefully tomorrow I won't wake up stressing over literally nothing at 5:30 am.

Track listing:

1. Building Fifty

2. Sinking Meridian

3. Jersey Narrows

4. Seasons of False Starts

5. Deterior

6. Direction & Destination

7. Rising Meridian

8. Seaforth

9. Trenches

10. Sovereign Messages

11. Shallow in Youth

12. [untitled]

Time lost

You would also enjoy:

The Arms of Someone New - Susan Sleepwalking (1985)

Songs of Green Pheasant - Songs of Green Pheasant (2004)

Lol Coxhill & Morgan Fisher - Slow Music (1980)

Experimental ambient pieces constructed by Morgan Fisher via deconstructing, layering, sampling, and otherwise processing recordings of saxophonist Lol Coxhill. As of writing this, I've been working on a succession of extremely complex projects all day, and while I'm finding Slow Music's scattered, warped sensibility extremely relatable, I just don't have the capacity to put any effort into this post, so the end.

Track listing:

1. Que en paz descanse

2. Flotsam

3. Vase

4. Jetsam

5. Matt Finish

6. Slow Music

7. Pretty Little Girl

Life under the floor

Also listen to:

Asunta - Landscapes (1996)

Akira Rabelais - Spellewauerynsherde (2004)

Joel Andrews - The Violet Flame (1977)

Two extended spiritual meditations for solo harp. Mr. Andrews is also a new age author and "music healer" who purports to psychically communicate with celestial beings whose wisdom he spontaneously translates into music, which is fun. Found this LP, along with another Andrews record, in a box of easy listening LPs at my old job, and probably paid around 50 cents for it. Man, I miss working at a record store.

Upon enchanted ground

Other LPs I found through similar circumstances:

Nik Pascal - Magnetic Web (1973)

William Hoskins - Galactic Fantasy - Eastern Reflections (1979)

Gigi Masin & Alessandro Monti - The Wind Collector (1991)

Related:

Gaussian Curve - The Distance (2017)

Gigi Masin is not the most prolific artist, but he makes quite a strong argument for quality over quantity, as his relatively small discography contains at least three of what I consider among my all-time favorite ambient records. Obviously, The Wind Collector is one of them. A one-off collaboration with Italian multi-instrumentalist Alessandro Monti, it's almost all synth and piano, with a couple of absolutely crucial vocals from Mr. Masin. It's just achingly beautiful to take in, and if you're a fan of ambient music who hasn't heard this record yet, I can practically guarantee that you will love it.

Track listing:

1. Satellite

2. Stella Maris

3. She Wears Shades

4. Snake Theory

5. Swallow' Tempest

6. O.A.L.

7. Blue Weaver

8. Random Security

9. La Luna (Demo)

I was blinded by a thousand lies

Other all-timers:

David Darling - Journal October (1979)

Andy Partridge & Harold Budd - Through the Hill (1994)

Asura - Asura (2010)

Ambient IDM from an LA artist who seemingly hasn't recorded anything under this alias since. Downtempo beats and bright melodic elements (synths, guitar, vocals, horns) partially obscured, and at times completely subsumed in a warm, vinyl-crackling-like haze.

(Not to be confused with the French ambient trance project.)

Track listing:

1. Asura I

2. Peptine

3. I Saw You in Vice (Anenon Birthday Remix)

4. Orrorin

5. Asura II

6. From the Beach

7. Manzanita

8. Voxels

9. Asura III

10. Her Tearing

11. Timber

12. The Eleventh

13. Feathers

This night comes out of both of us

You should also be listening to:

Saule - Saule (2002)

The Village Orchestra - Et in Arcadia Ego (2005)

Cyrille Verdeaux and Bernard Xolotl - Prophecy (1981)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Bernard Xolotl - Return of the Golden Mean (1980)

Excellent collaborative album between new age great Bernard Xolotl and Cyrille Verdeaux, who's best known as the central member of Clearlight. Crystalline guitar-synths, regular ol' synths, and a bit of cello, all intertwined in a beautiful, shimmering expanse of sound. This was supposed to be my lazy, relaxing Sunday post but it was pre-empted due to the news about Mimi Parker.

Track listing:

1. Star Gulls

2. Future Seas

3. Drifting Tides

4. Indian Loop

5. Prophecy

Distant, alone, beneath the platinum stars

You should also hear:

Barry Cleveland - Mythos (1984)

Karl Schaffner & Lothar Grimm - Birds of Passage (1984)

School of Emotional Engineering - School of Emotional Engineering (2004)

The only album by this short-lived project, which mostly served as a live vehicle for experimental composer Ben Frost's solo material. An evocative, textural collision of classical minimalism, drone, and abstract post-rock. It's kinda fucked up that this is the first Ben Frost record I've posted.

Track listing:

1. To Be Continued...

2. ... Refrain

3. Falling for Sylvia

4. Of Angel Dust...

5. ... Refrain (Bloodline)

6. Redline

7. She Dreams in Car Crashes

8. Slicing the Skin Between My Toes

Living is a horizontal fall

Also listen to:

Labradford - Prazision LP (1993)

Locrian & Mamiffer - Bless Them That Curse You (2011)

Somei Satoh - Mandala/Sumeru (1982)

Two of many brilliant pieces from Japanese composer Somei Satoh. First, a yawning void of reverberating electronic and vocal drone, then, an extended piece of minimalism via a small chamber orchestra.

Track listing:

1. Mandala

2. Sumeru

From the depth of silence

You should also listen to:

Giusto Pio - Motore Immobile (1979)

Toru Takemitsu - A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden (1988)

Barry Cleveland - Voluntary Dreaming (1990)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Barry Cleveland - Mythos (1984)

Barry Cleveland with Bob Stohl and Kate Epple - Stones of Precious Water (1986)

Insomnia strikes again. Wake up at 4 AM, give up on getting back to sleep a little after 5 as the first hint of daylight comes creeping in. Come downstairs, put headphones on, put this album on. Lush layers of keyboard, guitar (acoustic, electric, 12-string, pedal steel), cimbalom, and gently buoyant percussion fill my ears. My sweet older cat comes and sits next to me, purring. Good boy. My dumb younger cat comes tearing around the corner like a maniac because he has just knocked my copy of Desertshore off the shelf and it was terrifying for him. It also looks like he managed to close the curtains somehow? I'm gonna go make some coffee.

Track listing:

1. Voluntary Dreaming

2. Ritual Sticks

3. Visual Purple

4. The Inward Spiral

5. Cleopatra's Needle

6. Hawk Dreaming

7. The Angel & the Abyss

The things I'll give to you

Also listen to:

Michael Shrieve & Steve Roach - The Leaving Time (1988)

Mark Isham - Tibet (1989)

Rafael Toral - Sound Mind Sound Body (1994)

Great news: post-vacation depression is sinking in, so I'm back on my sadboi shit. Here's ambient composer Rafael Toral's first album. Spacious, drifting drones and abstract, glistening minimalism, almost entirely sourced from electric guitar.

Track listing:

1. A E R 4

2. Loopability I

3. A E R 7 E

4. Soft Energy I

5. A E 1

We are getting closer

You'd also like:

Eluvium - Lambent Material (2003)

Simon Scott - Navigare (2009)