Need some ambient/soothing music suggestions

I have listened to Enya and Secret Garden for many, many years now. I love to listen to it as I relax or fall asleep at night. But I would like to branch out and find some new songs/artist to listen to as well. I have listened to Loreena McKennitt but did not care for her at all. I know she is very popular and I'm not here to offend anyone but I thought her voice was too high pitched to be soothing/ambient.
Some of the other's I've listen to lately is 2002 and Cusco. I love their style of music as well.
Any suggestions of artist that I should take a listen to would be greatly appreciated.
Also are there any websites that you can download new artists and stuff for free (legally)? I love listening to new musicians but can't seem to google any sites for some reason.
Thanks for your time.
Nancy

 

Check out a band called Sigur Ros. It's very ambient/new age-ish post rock... somewhat similar to Enya.

Also, there's a great ambient/electronic producer called Kettel, which you might be into also since you seem open minded towards branching out.

There's a lot out there, and a good way to check out new bands is to visit bands' myspace or purevolume pages so you can listen to their newer material.

Also, check out pandora.com. All you have to do there is type in an artist that you enjoy and you'll get to listen to a non-stop list of similar artists/bands... so definitely give that a shot too.

 

You took the words right out of my mouth. And pretty much all other post rock is very soothing and relaxing as well--Explosions in the Sky, Mono, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai, and This Will Destroy You are just a few of my favorites.

Also, there's always Brian Eno.

 

Yes, Brian Eno is as good as it gets.

Check out "Music for Airports" and "The Plateaux of Mirror".

Aphex Twin is also kinda nice.

...and yes, I can easily second Sigur Ros, Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Mogwai... all great bands.

 

I find a lot of Sigur Rós's music to be rather intense, especially Untitled 7 and 8, and Viðrar Vél Til Loftárása...

 

Oh yeah, definitely mogwai. If you want to hear some truly amazing material, pick up Mogwai's "Mr. Beast". And I can't believe I forgot Brian Eno, he's the god of ambient music.

Also, there's a kickass band called Tribes of Neurot that it pretty cool as well... but this is only if you're into darker, more experimental subgenres.

 

Early Aphex Twin is good.

I like Lustmord and a few Burzum songs from when he was in the clink. If you can get past the ideology of Varg Virknes it's actually kinda soothing in a spooky way.

Also, it sounds like you might like Steve Roach since you mentioned Enya (gag). He's a little more 'light'.

also, Deep Forrest?
what about...Enigma?
Many soundtracks are good also, see BarakaSndtrk!
oh, can't forget later Dead Can Dance!

 

The latest album of Alcest, entitled Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde ("Souvenirs from another world"). It's atmospheric black metal, but it has a warm, fuzzy sound and it's not aggressive in any sense. All vocals are clean sung. It's very dreamy, melancholic and springlike, and incredibly beautiful. Some people even experience it as uplifting.

Also, try Nest, a Finnish ambient neofolk band.

Another band, not ambient at all, but plenty atmospheric, is The Softies. Beautiful female voices entwining with acoustic guitars. A bit sad at times though.

I'm sorry if all of this is a bit too depressing, but don't judge it until you've tried it!

 

Some album reccomendations...

Global Communication - 76:14 - My favourite ambient album ever, genius genius genius the whole way through...
Gaudi - Bass, Sweat and Tears
Abakus - That Much Closer To The Sun
Tripswitch - Circuit Breaker
Kaya Project - Elixir
The Future Sound Of London - Lifeforms
Ott - Blumenkraft

 

Haha, as much of a genius Varg was, his dark ambient is among the worst I have ever heard. Incidentally.

Not at all ambient, but you should check Benjamin Biolay. Works for me!

 

I know Enigma is oldschool, but I still love em'. I can always relax when listening to them..

 

Seasons 01 by Sound Trbe Sector 9 is what you need.

 

May I suggest the next one:
http://www.psyshop.com/shop/CDs/coi/coi1cd001.html

 

my suggestion for Soooooooooothing ambient is go to numina's web page, or that of synth music direct. there's a ton of links on the former, and a whole universe on the latter.

http://www.synthmusicdirect.com/

you might click on the little icon on the right where it says sound bytes:
several hundred minit and a half or so samples plus links to buy cd's

really the best thing to do is surf musician's web sites and fallow their links to each other of course. ultimately that's how i found both smd and numina in the first place.

another 'band' i've been liking a lot lately is rogue elements.

of course if you're in a spendy mood there's always the grand daddy of them all, steven hill (of wyndym hill)'s hearts of space.

that's where i first heard the kind of music i most like back when it was on the radio locally, before there even was the net and it was on something called 'the well'.

hearts of space is of course at HOS.com

then there's that eastern european agent/promoter's site with a ton of links to some of the better known names like aeterna and yatri, some guy named koslovski or somthing like that, who'se link i've posted on hips in varios places, probably multiple times before.

numina's website is i think a .com too.

i'm also currently listning to syndromida. who are also on smd.

=^^=
.../\...

 

I think my biggest problem with music like enya is the vocals. I hate vocals in my soothing music.. it only ends up pissing me off. :]

wish they were all instrumentals

 

I reccomend AIR (french band) It stands for Amour (Love) Imagination (guess) and Reve meaning dream or dreams?

Le Voyage de Penelope - AIR

New Star In the Sky - AIR
(possibly one of the most beautiful tracks I've ever heard using lovely bass, piano and sweet vocoded lyrics.

Oh! How could I forget this..

Mike Mills - AIR
This song is just pure beautiful, relaxing and unique.

Premiers Symptomes -their fist album is nice. Both the tracks I've posted are from their second - Moon Safari.

Hope you check them out and enjoy them

 

Seefeel. United States of Ambience compilations. Kruder and Dorfmeister. Yeah, AIR. Listen to Shoutcast - Drone Zone, Groove Salad, SOMA FM. Seefeel is one of the coolest things ever, like being in the womb.

 

Also try some artists like Erikah Badu and Lizz Fields

 

Entheogenic! Magical sparkly GOAmbient!

 

i first started listening to ambient and trance music as a genre when NPR broadcast Music from the Hearts fo Space in 1982. I recorded every show for about two years, but I moved and the new NPR affiliate did not carry HOS. I still listen to these tapes. I purchased many recordings by the featured artists. The last time I looked at the website, they had listings of the programs. The music itself is good and it is placed in a good thematic context. Jean-Micheal Jarre, Vangelis, Eno, Deuter, Hovanis are all good