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Mental States and Ambient Music

A listener's guide suggested by Mark Prendergast, author of The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Moby - The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age

Composer

Piece

Year

Mental State

Debussy

Prelude a l'Apres Midi

1891

New mental states

Delius

On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring  

1912

New mental states

Satie

Furniture Music

1920

New mental states

Rodrigo

Concierto de Aranjuez

1939

Exotic Dream States

Messiaen

Turangalila Symphony (Garden Of Sleeping Love

1946

Exotic Dream States

John Cage

'Dream'/ 'In A Landscape'

  1948

Zen

Morton Subotnik

Elevator Music

 1970s

Electronic Futurism

La Monte Young

The Well-Tuned Piano

1964-1979

MIT Neurosurgeons played with biofeedback musician David Rosenbloom, Longest running installation Dream House, recorded 45 times before released = exceptional psychological state music

Jon Hassell

Aka Darbari Java

1983

Magic Realism

Arvo Part

Fur Alisa / Spiegel Im Spiegel

1999

Divine, spiritual states

Lou Harrison

Perilous Chapel

1948 Planetary Music

The Beatles

Revolution 9

1968

Radical rock Ambience designed to invoke different mental states

Jimi Hendrix A Merman 1968 Radical rock Ambience designed to invoke different mental states
Steve Miller Band Children of the Future album 1968 Psychedelic Ambient State

Nick Drake

River Man (Five Leaves Left)

1968

Unique folk ambience

Grateful Dead

Dark Star

1969

Psychedelic Ambient State

Popol Vuh

(any album)

 

German spiritual Ambience

Tonto's Expanding Headband

Zero Time

1971

Unique exploration of mind alteration using prototype synthesizers

Vangelis

Blade Runner ST

 1982

Nostalgic Futurism

Durutti Column

Sketch For Summer  (Return Of  The Durutti Column )

1980

Unique New Wave Pastoral Ambience

Van Morrison

Coney Island (Avalon Sunset)

1989

Unique Celtic memory states

Pauline Oliveros Deep Listening

1989

Hardcore reality ambience

Spacemen 3

Transparent Radiation (Flashback)

1987

One chord Minimalism meets Ecstasy meets unique Rock

Bill Nelson

Chance Encounters In The Garden Of Light

1988

Magical, Occult States

David Sylvian

Steel Cathedrals

1985

Physical, geographic Ambience

Laraaji

Flow Goes The Universe

1991

Programmable Purposeful Mood State Ambience

KLF

Chill Out

1990

First ever purpose-built Chill-Out Record

Enigma

Sadeness

1991

Spiritual House

Mixmaster Morris

Flying High

1992

Ethno/Mystical Ambience

Future Sound of London

As Amorphous Androgynous - The Isness

1993

New Oriental Techno/Rock Ambience

Aphex Twin

Selected Ambient Works 2

1994

 

Geir Jenssen Patashnik
Substrata
1994
1997
Introverted artic spatial drone
Thomas Koner Nunatak Gongamur
Permafrost
1990
1993
Introverted artic drone
Paul Schutze Apart
Third Site
1994
1999
Warm, exotic, dreamy isolationaism

Brian Jones

The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka

1995

First ever trance ambience, essential album of 20th Century

Bill Laswell

Lost in The Translation

1994

Unique evocation of lost recordings, archaeological ambience

Bill Laswell Baptism Of Solitude 1996 Unique evocation of lost recordings, archaeological Ambience

Moby

Underwater 1-5 (Everything Is Wrong)

1995

New atmospheric Ambience inspired by Erik Satie