Looking for ambient reference.

[Rossd25]

Robert Rich and B Lustmord - Stalker

[polybonk]

What kind of ambient?
Drone
Beats
Soundscape
etc

[Transistor]

Three more beat-oriented, not-"new ageish" albums to try are The Orb's UFOrb and Ultraworld, plus FSOL's Dead Cities. The latter combines ambient soundscapes with sputterings of quite abrasive beat-stuff. All sound very good.

Eno's "Ambient" series is of course the baseline reference. Two personal favourites are Moby's Underwater (Everything is Wrong bonus disc) and Jarre's Waiting for Costeau (where Calypso is the exception )

r,
j,

[James Lehmann]

Anything by Steve Roach usually sounds incredible.

[wado1942]

I was thinking soundscape, sorry I didn't clarify.

[Babaluma]

Steve Hillage's "Rainbow Dome Music", although that's quite melodic.

I'd say for darker soundscape stuff that is not overcooked, try the afore mentioned Lustmord, Robert Rich, Steve Roach, Vidna Obmana etc. Brian from Lustmord has a ridiculous surround setup, scores a lot of work for film, and often puts really low tones in the music, so that's always a good reference/speaker check.

For more uplifting soundscape work I haven't found anything that sounds nicer than Ishq. I use his music as a reference all the time. Was the first music I played when I got my new ATC's. Big smiles. The newest album, "Deep Space Objects", is great and available in lossless download here:

Deep space objects | Virtual

Or as a CD from here:

Ishq - Deep space objects

[Rossd25]

Raison D'être is another one I can think of.

[Lute]

Some nice ambience on Dead Cities (Future Sound of London)

[Sunbreak Music]

"The Crossing" by David Helpling and Jon Jenkins. Yeah, I did it. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYT8cybJw8I

Go hi-res (720)

[Huntley Miller]

Check out Biosphere and Tim Hecker for a few contemporary references.

[huejahfink]

Some classics - getting on in years, but still holding their own and sounding great to me.

A mix of soundscapes and minimal ambient stuff

Global Communication - 76:14 (most GC stuff actually)
The Irresistible Force - Global Chillage
Air (Pete Namlook) - Air and
Air II - Travelling Without Moving (actually, pretty much any Namlook.... Silence, Hearts of Space, Sequential etc etc)

FSOL have been mentioned many times, but I would be more inclined to use Lifeforms which contains more soundscape references - both the album and the separate single/EP.

Neotropic - some of her stuff for sure. Can't remember the name of the track off hand, but there's one on Prestatyn (The Horse Trainer??) that's just gorgeous. That's a bit less electronic that one....

[Transistor]

Originally Posted by huejahfink

FSOL have been mentioned many times, but I would be more inclined to use Lifeforms which contains more soundscape references - both the album and the separate single/EP.

Agreed, since the OP is doing soundscaping. I only have the original vinyl and have no idea how the CD (which is the only one available today?) sounds, though. And - I can't believe I forgot Biosphere, anything from his catalogue is worth referencing.

Edit: Prompted by the OP's question, I went through the albums mentioned a bit more thoroughly, and:

Lifeforms and Underwater are still favourites - musically. I found them both quite dull and, dare I say, lifeless sonically. Biosphere's Microgravity (Origo, 1991 version) was a surprise, it sounds even better than I remembered, with a lot of bottom end, while Jarre's Waiting for Costeau was quite simply stunning, I had to sit through the whole thing. Next up: do a runthrough of In the Nursery albums, and pull out the Tangerine Dream soundtracks - Sorcerer should fit right into this

r,
j,

[huejahfink]

Lifeforms has not been remastered to the best of my knowledge. The production is not as 'hi-fi' as Dead Cities with the nature of the raw sample collages being considerably more obvious, but on Lifeforms CD I don't think the levels ever max out (apart from maybe that ONE noise!!) and although I'm willing to say that nostalgia probably plays a part.... I think it still sounds great and is a perfectly good example for the genre.

[wado1942]

Man, these are all great suggestions and I've forgotten about half those!

Thank you everybody.

[polybonk]

Thomas Köner - DAIKAN
Lull - Moments

[James Lehmann]

So many good suggestions from everyone!

It's hard to know what the OP means by 'soundscape' though? Are we talking ambient field recordings or musique concrète, acousmatic what?

Anyway...

Brian Eno/Jah Wobble - Spinner
Biosphere - Dropsonde/Man With A Movie Camera/Substrata
Tomas Koner - Kamos
FSOL - Lifeforms
Steve Roach - Dreamtime Return
Remanence - A Strange Constellation
Tange - The Difference Between
Max Corbacho - Vestiges

I'd also like to draw everyone's attention to the amazing music of Giorgio Robino aka Solyaris - this guy does ambient drones using electric guitar to quite extraordinary effect. Check him out!