Number Ten: For Involving the Mind as Well as the Ears:
Terre Thaemlitz: Means From an End
(Mille Plateux - 1998) - Scholarly discourse via discordant sounds; a very satisfying work, but not for the passive listener.
Number Nine: For the Ambient Frontiersman in Us All:
Robert Scott Thompson: Frontier
(Mirage -1998) - True ambient synthscapes - a wondrous 72-minute journey to the unknowable.
Number Eight: For the Meditative Space Gathering:
Various Artists: The Other World
(Hypnos - 1998) - Various artists but a common theme... check out the dreamworld of meditation in this wonderfully spacey 2 disc comp.
Number Seven: For Her Continual Dance:
Lisa Gerrard/Pieter Bourke:Duality (4AD - 1998) - If you love Dead Can Dance's songstress, then you must own this!
Number Six: For Darkness, Dirt and Humidity:
Tuu: Terma
(Fathom -1998) - Ethnic instruments and electronics form a dark, dusty ambience. Entrancing!
Number Five: For the "Westward Ho" Attitude:
Steve Roach/Roger King:Dust to Dust (Projekt - 1998) - Head out West with guitar-flavored electronics. A masterfully executed atmosphere!
Number Four: For the Pieces and the Whole:
Lull:Moments (Release - 1998) - The latest from Mick Harris. Can be optionally heard as one long industrial drone, or as 99 broken shards. Very interesting!
Number Three: For Doing What He Does So Well:
Vidna Obmana:Crossing the Trail (Projekt - 1998) - A gorgeous excursion from Belgian ambient master. Required listening!
Number Two:For Playing Well Together:
Nigel Ayers, Randy Grief, Robin Storey: Oedipus Brain Foil (Soleilmoon - 1998) - To be Reviewed January 1999... 3 Discs of collaborative effort yield an introspective journey through alienated soundscapes.
Number One: For Historical Impressions and Modern Reworkings:
The Box Set of:
Arne Nordheim: Electric (Rune Grammofon - 1998) - Utterly amazing rerelease of sound experiments recorded 30 years ago; and
Biosphere/Deathprod:Nordheim Transformed (Rune Grammofon - 1998) - Two Norwegian artists remix early experimental master Arne Nordheim with beautiful results.
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