Ambient classical, or post-classical music, is a growing phenomenon that brings the sounds of classical music together with digital and studio effects normally found in the pop world.
Many of these albums feature personal music performed by solo pianists, while others explore a larger canvas, harnessing full orchestra, synthesizers and clever production techniques. This new contemporary music is being embraced by millions – no wonder that the likes of conductor Kristjan Järvi are dipping their toes in this exciting experimental genre.
Fancy dipping your toe into the calm waters of ambient classical? Here's a list of some beautiful, brilliant, and/or game-changing ambient classical albums that would make great entry points into this atmospheric soundworld. This list will change as new releases appear, so check back from time to time to see what we’ve selected.
Contents
- What is ambient classical?
- Best ambient classical albums: Max Richter, Alexis Ffrench and more
- More best ambient classical: Craig Armstrong, Ludovico Einaudi, Anna Meredith
- Best ambient classical albums: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sufjan Stevens and more
What is ambient classical?
It can be very tricky to precisely ringfence the boundaries of post-classical or ambient classical, and we probably shouldn't delve to thickly into that particular section of musical undergrowth. Suffice to say that the term 'post-classical' broadly describes a range of music that fits within the wider classical music family, but has emerged after the mid-20th century. It will often span various musical styles and idioms, blending genres including ambient, pop, and electronica. Here are six key features.
Ambient classical: some key features
Eclecticism: Post-classical and ambient classical music will often draw on a variety of genres, including jazz, rock, electronic, and world music.
Adventurous soundworlds: An unashamedly modern and forward-thinking musical genre, post-classical music will often use instruments, sounds, and recording techniques outside of the sphere of traditional classical music. Synthesizers, computers and other technology will be pressed into service in the creation of these brave new (sound)worlds.
Emotion: Some of Modernism, post-classical's precursor, could at times by cerebral, austere, dry even. Not so post-classical or ambient classical, which tends to have a strong emotional pull. Beauty, mood, and atmosphere are to the fore. This makes post-classical a relatively accessible genre, which has won huge numbers of fans outside the traditional boundaries of classical music.
Repetition and minimalism: The influence of minimalism, and of that genre's leading lights such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and John Adams, can often be heard.
Cinematic qualities: Some of the leading lights of the post-classical and ambient classical worlds have worked in, or at least been influenced by, the world of film scoring. This music is often cinematic, epic, widescreen in nature. There are storylines implied, landscapes suggested. Ludovico Einaudi, Max Richter, and Ólafur Arnalds are three examples of post-classical composers who can compose what sounds like a film inside you head.
Collaboration: Post-classical composers will often work across different artistic genres and fields - for example, dance, visual art, and literature. Sufjan Stevens, for instance, has collaborated on a series of dance theatre works, and he is just one example. It's a musical world that bleeds seamlessly into other fields.
Best ambient classical albums: Max Richter, Alexis Ffrench and more
Max Richter Voices
Max Richter has been leading the pack for some time, since his album The Blue Notebooks changes the rules back in 2004 with its innovative use of ambient sounds, voices and slow moving, hypnotic strings. Voices is a sonic journey through the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with passages narrated over ambient music for strings, piano and voices. Richter’s ‘upside-down orchestra’ places an emphasis on the lower members of the string section, for a more resonating bass sound.
Luke Howard The Sand that Ate the Sea
Australian composer Luke Howard reflects on his homeland’s delicate ecosystem and the damage that climate change has wrought upon the landscape. It’s a mournful album, as you might expect – but listen out for his debts of Arvo Pärt and his inventive uses of musical textures to create a sense of claustrophobia and dizziness.
Alexis Ffrench Dreamland (2021) / Truth (2022)
We found some wonderfully old-school romance to some of the pieces featured on Alexis Ffrench's 2021 debut Dreamland. Ffrench whisks the listener along with wide-eyed lyricism, melodic heart and a delightful contemporary glow.
Then came 2022's Truth. 'Ffrench is becoming something of a force to be reckoned with, and this latest album once again showcases the composer-pianist’s ‘pop’ sensibilities and an innate gift for melody,' said our review. 'This is glossy music-making from an artist whose high standards are clearly audible.'
Erland Cooper Folded Landscapes (performed by Scottish Ensemble)
Erland Cooper is never one to do things by halves. This 2022-23 project, recorded in extremes of temperature, is a disarmingly beautiful love letter to the planet and a wake up call for action, with poetry, gorgeous swathes of strings and field recordings (wildfires, breaking ice). It’s all thrillingly affective.
Sebastian Mullaert and the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich Natthall
Zurich’s Tonhalle concert hall is known for its nightclub evenings that follow on from its traditional concerts. So – why not bring the two together? This album, which reflects on the fragility and beauty of nature, brings members of the Tonhalle Orchestra together with DJ and producer Sebastian Mullaert for an atmospheric treat.
More best ambient classical albums: Craig Armstrong, Ludovico Einaudi, Anna Meredith
Craig Armstrong Nocturnes
From Chopin’s Nocturnes to Max Richter’s Sleep, composers have long been fascinated by the night. During the 2020 lockdowns, darkness took on a particular significance for Craig Armstrong as it became the only time he was able to work. All 14 Nocturnes on this recording were created during that period and are intended to comfort the listener – as they did the composer.
Our review singled out Nocturnes as an excellent gateway recording for fans of traditional minimalism who might be looking to explore post-classical styles.
Chad Lawson You Finally Knew
The American pianist and composer also looks to Chopin for this album of original works. This is Lawson in reflective mode, much of it charming in its innocence and simplicity. A beautiful album for the darker, more wintry days ahead. ‘Rain’ is typical of Lawson’s gift for expressing deep emotion with the slenderest of means.
Redi Hasa The Stolen Cello
The ‘stolen cello’ that gives this album its evocative title refers to an instrument Redi Hasa took with him when he fled his native war-torn Albania in 1990. Hasa, a long-term collaborator with Ludovico Einaudi, is a gifted player and uses multi-tracking to achieve rich tapestries of sound. ‘Little Street Football Made of Socks’ is brilliant, poignant look back to his childhood.
Kristjan Järvi, Nordic Pulse Ensemble & London Symphony Orchestra Nordic Escapes
Lockdown was hard for most musicians – and many sought to reflect their pain and uncertainty in music. Nordic Escapes represents a home-coming and a refuge for conductor Kristjan Järvi – this is his first album of self-composed music and it contains vast washes of sound and atmospheric, icy sounds. Listen to the folky ‘Nebula’ for a beautiful sonic image of the frozen Baltic landscapes.
We named London Symphony Orchestra one of the best orchestras in the world
Ludovico Einaudi Underwater
Ludovico Einaudi is one of the leading lights of the post-classical landscape, but 2022's Underwater was his first solo piano album for some 20 years. And what a return it was. It was, like Craig Armstrong's Nocturnes above, a response to the pandemic and its enforced lack of collaborators. Instead, Einaudi found himself at the piano, making music without any interference from the outside world.
As our review notes, this results in a purity and a warmth to Underwater. It's unobtrusive, and its apparently meandering music might appear simplistic. The trade-off, though, is a kind of innocence, and an intimacy, as if you are listening to the composer in his own private communion with the instrument.
Anna Meredith: Nuc (Ligeti Quartet)
Born in London in 1978, Anna Meredith has become one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary music, adroitly mixing elements of classical, pop, electronic, and experimental music into her own unique and captivating sound. Early works such as Nautilus showcased her skill at creating powerful, rhythmically driven pieces that push the boundaries of traditional classical music.
There are several places to begin your Anna Meredith journey, but we might start with 2023's Nuc, performed by the Ligeti Quartet, with its diverse and fascinating soundworld featuring musical elements from the Middle East, Europe, the Americana of Aaron Copland and more.
Best ambient classical: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sufjan Stevens and more
Stephan Moccio Tales of Solace
Stephan Moccio is a pop songwriter extraordinaire, having written for the likes of Celine Dion and Avril Lavigne. The Canadian musician’s training, however, was classically-grounded, and this album, while not specifically intended for lockdown, was released at the height of the COVID crisis. It’s a collection of reflective piano miniatures, performed on a dampened Yamaha piano. Many of them are intensely beautiful.
Arash Safaian, Sebastian Knauer, ZürcherKammerorchester This Is (Not) Beethoven
This was something different composed for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth in 2020. Much of this inspired album, which features reworked and recomposed Beethoven works, is rooted in the composer’s Symphony No. 7, although the opening track is a rather stunning version of the ‘Moonlight’ Sonata while the fugue from the ‘Hammerklavier’ gets a majestic make-over.
Read more reviews of the latest Beethoven recordings here
Meredi Stardust
Pianist and composer Meredi’s debut album is a collection of atmospheric piano pieces, intimately performed and recorded. There’s an improvisatory feel to the music, and much of it feels heartfelt. ‘Circles in the Sky’ is the undoubted highlight.
Ryuichi Sakamoto: 12
Where to start with the great Ryuichi Sakamoto? The great Japanese composer, musician, and producer had a huge impact on the worlds of electronic music, classical music, pop, and film scores. We've had a go at listing some of the best Ryuichi Sakamoto recordings elsewhere on the site. And he also crops up, memorably, in our list of the greatest film scores of all time.
For starters, though, try 2023's 12. Slight and pared back, the album's intriguingly coded miniatures – each identified by an eight-digit title denoting their composition date – are structurally and melodically clean. Our reviewer found the album's opening tracks 'strangely comforting, like a Rothko or Yves Klein painting; the minimalism inspired by the purity of Morton Feldman or John Cage, rather than the pop style that infuses later tracks.'
Elsewhere, pieces such as 20220123 and 20220214 display a gradual melodic development, focused around the keyboard's upper-mid-range. And 20220302 is a mysterious, jazz-infused reflection.
Sufjan Stevens: Reflections
Sufjan Stevens is probably best known as a singer-songwriter, across a range of genres spanning everything from indie folk to electronica. However, he's also a prolific composer for film, dance and other visual media. With choreographer Justin Peck, Stevens has collaborated on several small-scale dance theatre pieces, of which Reflections is the sixth.
This album is composed for piano duet, and performed by Timo Andres and Conor Hanick. Our reviewer was beguiled by the tightly woven melodies, passed back and forth at a sharpish tempo. Their' delivery is precise and incredibly well executed. While this might not be a particularly varied work stylistically when heard in isolation, it provides a 'A highly effective basis for dance and a vibrant, energetic listen.'
Bruce Brubaker & Max Cooper Glassforms
This is among the most inventive of the albums in this list – while pianist Bruce Brubaker plays works by Glass, Max Cooper takes the ‘data’ from his playing and adds mesmerising digital effects. It works, because of the timelessness and futuristic feel of Glass’s music. Challenging at times, but always beautifully conceived and endlessly imaginative.
Read more reviews of the latest classical music recordings here
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