Chihei Hatakeyama - Minima Moralia (2006)

Chihei Hatakeyama is a Japanese artist that has dedicated most of his work to create ambient, post ambient, and electronic music. Minima Moralia is his debut album, a post ambient conceptual work where each track is composed with the idea of representing a situation, or a different scene, therefore the names of the songs, such as "Bonfire on the field", often resulting in slow paced, very relaxed melodies. It's good to keep in mind the names of the tracks while listening to them, because most songs match the scenery proposed by the title.

In my opinion, this album is very different from other ambients works because of two factors. First, the instrumentation utilized by the artist is more vast and complex than most classical composers of the genre (Hatakeyama plays piano, guitar, vibraphones and synths on a laptop, and features some beautiful violin arrangements). Secondly, the carefull mix of different styles like dronning chords, with the mellow melodies characteristic of the genre, throwing in some bits of old fashioned noise static, creating dynamic songs that guide the listener through a calm and imaginary soundscape of vibrating sounds. Totally worth to give it a listen, and certainly this essential of the ambient genre.

Chihei Hatakeyama - Minima Moralia  Tracklist:

1. Bonfire On The Field - 8:13 

2. Swaying Curtain In The Window - 8:25

3. Starlight Reflecting On The Surface Of The River - 7:00

4. Towards A Tranquil Marsh (Violin – Masahiro Kobayashi) - 4:46

5. Granular Haze - 7:21 

6. Inside Of The Pocket (Violin – Masahiro Kobayashi) - 4:31 

7. Beside A Well - 11.30

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Bartholomäus Traubeck - Years (2011)

If you ever wonder how a tree sounds, you may want to hear this album. The best way to explain this work may be quoting the artist himself. Straight from Traubeck's page:

"A tree’s year rings are analysed for their strength, thickness and rate of growth. This data serves as basis for a generative process that outputs piano music. It is mapped to a scale which is again defined by the overall appearance of the wood (ranging from dark to light and from strong texture to light texture). The foundation for the music is certainly found in the defined ruleset of programming and hardware setup, but the data acquired from every tree interprets this ruleset very differently."

In this new approach to experimental music, even though the tracks from Years are generated based on wood pieces, the songs somehow remain strangely coherent, with a defined style between every track, resulting in a particular, relaxed and atmospheric record. Besides the interesting concept of this, the music itself may result appealing to some ambient, classical, and experimental music listeners. Totally worth to give it a try in my opinion.

Bartholomäus Traubeck - Years Tracklist (every song features a different kind of tree)

1. Picea (Spruce) - 04:54

2. Fraxinus (Ash) - 05:21

3. Quercus (Oak) - 04:53

4. Acer (Maple) - 04:52

5. Alnus (Alder) - 05:16

6. Juglans (Walnut) - 05:10
7. Fagus (Beech) - 04:22

DISCLAIMER: Since I had to rip the files directly from Traubeck's bandcamp, the tracks are featured in 280kbps, considered by some people as bad audio quality. However, there's no other free download mirror on the internet (that I could find, at least), so I think this is an OK option if you want to download this album.

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Brian Eno - Ambient 4 On Land (1982)

This one caught my attention the last couple of days: the 4th volume from the Brian Eno's "Ambient" works. The presence of more drone-like, dynamic songs; instead of the tranquil & repetitive melodies of previous works, such as "Discreet Music" and "Ambient 1: Music for Airports", makes this in my opinion the most outstanding work from the series.

Even though the overall sound of the album changes (from previous ones), there's still a lot of elements and characteristics of his early work. Most tracks might be more drone-ish,  but at the same time they preserve the mellow soundscape and the relaxed atmospheres that made some of his older albums classics of the genre.

Brian Eno - Ambient 4 Tracklist:

1. Lizard Point – 4:34
2. The Lost Day – 9:13
3. Tal Coat – 5:30
4. Shadow – 3:00
5. Lantern Marsh – 5:33
6. Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills) – 5:23
7. A Clearing – 4:09
8. Dunwich Beach, Autumn, 1960 – 7:13

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Nils Frahm - The Bells (2009)

Nils Frahms is a German pianist, prolific in both solo and group projects. Through his career he has been able to bring together the style of some old compossers, and the fresh sounds of modern ones.

In this album, the artist develops a particular sound characterized by mixing both low intensity-slow paced melodies, and intense and fast rhythm changes, creating a high number of diverse athmospheres.

All in all, this is a clear and well rounded album, where every song is up to the expectectation of the listener. Mellow and and exciting at the same time

Nils Frahms - The Bells Tracklist

1. In The Sky And On The Ground
2. I Would Like To Think
3. Said And Done
4. Dedication, Loyalty
5. Down Down
6. Over There, It's Raining
7. Small Me
8. My Things
9. Peter Is Dead In The Piano
10. It Was Really, Really Grey
11. Somewhere Nearby

DOWNLOAD HERE