who are your favorites?
tl;dr Stars of the Lid; Laraaji; Jon Hassell.
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I want to nerd out here and ask what that means…
The first “ambient record” I know of is Brian Eno’s “Discreet Music”. That’s where the term was first used. One might say that Satie invented the genre, without the name, with his Gymnopedies. Don’t quote me but I believe he called them “furniture music” — which is a similar idea, like furniture in the room that you can use or not. Eno meant music that was rewarding for close listening, but could set a vibe while being ignored. He later did a series of Ambient Music “Volumes” — the first of which was his own “Music for Airports.” Later volumes were by Laraaji and Jon Hassell (I believe all produced by Eno).
Seems to me the term became more about some generalizable “vibe music” even if that included grooves which were NOT easy to ignore; or not “furniture”.
Some of this distinction clearly has to do with volume levels… Eno’s “Discreet Music” has liner notes discussing how he came upon this idea while being sick in bed, and having put on harp music (IIRC) that was barely audible, but then he was too sick to get out of bed to raise the volume… so it was a discovery about focus vs ambience… I also seem to recall this had something g to do with performance artist, Judy Nylon, but now I’m really vague on the memory. It may be as simple as that they were friends, and Judy visited him while he was sick, and at some point turned down. The volume on the harp music by a lot. Led it that way when she left… But now I both sort of think that’s right and also am not at all sure of memory from decades ago reading!
Anyway, the term “ambient” seems to mean things that aren’t quite in that spirit, now; things that are mellow and meandering, but have some elements of insistence which make them unsuitable for ignoring. I am NOT at all sure I am right about this. As an old dude, I am not sure what the crazy kids call “ambient” any more (!).
OK, way simpler answer — I like Laraaji and I like Stars of the Lid.
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this count?
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That is lovely in any case! It says right up front it’s ambient so it must be true!
(After around five minutes there’s that percussion hit though… which is a bit of an alarm clock, to my mind . Would disqualify it from the original Eno-derived meaning I think. Hence my question about what counts nowadays, too, lol).
Again, it is lovely… I like it whatever genre.
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We Are All Astronauts is good
Hazy is good (if this is ambient)
Ennja is good (if this is ambient)
let me know which if any of these are actually considered ambient 
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I’ve enjoyed all the tracks shared. I asked about ‘ambient’ expecting requests for clarification as there are so many sub-genre’s within ambient and so far, I’ve enjoyed everything labeled ambient on Spotify that I’ve tried.
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Real old school:
I guess this is sort of ambient?
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These are bizarre but somewhat relaxing to listen as well:
My favourite:
Carbon Based Lifeforms - Hydroponic Garden Album
Also great:
Carbon Based Lifeforms - Twentythree Album
bvdub
My favorite. He bounces between bassy ambient and low bass ambient. Super prolific (to the point where I can’t catch up).
More nerd out… it’s with Eno’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports that it “Ambient” became a genre under that name. Liner notes to that record were a sort of founding document:
And… still early, in that first series of “Ambient” Eno productions that tumbled out in a hurry… one of my favorite musicians ever is Jon Hassell. I like some of his later music even more — and maybe some of that is considered ambient by today’s usage of the term; but his earliest records were squarely within the original conception… anyway, he did “better” later imo, but already this was a masterpiece. Dude set the bar for himself real high:
that was a bit more ‘ambient’ than I prefer, but not bad as a background sound that you hear but tune out.
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Ya’ll are forgetting Aphex Twin 
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I would like to add
The Dead Texan
William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops
Other honorable mentions (no particular order):
GAS - Narcopop
Keith Fullerton Whitman - Playthroughs
A Winged Victory for the Sullen
Mogwai
Tortoise - TNT
That repeating clip in the video for Stone in Focus, of the monkey in the water, is from the opening scene of a documentary called Baraka, and it is totally amazing. Its got lots of ambient music. Its also a visual masterpiece. I highly recommend it.
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Try the Psychadelic Muse channel on YouTube
Check out Marconi Union.
Their Weightless (ambient transmissions vol2) album is available as a 10hr version!
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