Best electronic albums of 2017: ambient endeavours

Before we get stuck into the top 20, here are some ambient albums that didn't quite make the final list.

Norway's Biosphere offered a stirring dreamscape of Archie Mayo’s 1936 crime drama The Petrified Forest in, you guessed it, The Petrified Forest (Biophon Records). Brian Eno seemed utterly suspended in animation as he dropped his nautical noodlings his latest Warp album, the excellent Reflection (Warp Records). And Dopplereffekt returned to great effect with the interplanetary electro ambience of Cellular Automata (Leisure System).

What else? Check out the magical bleeps of Alessandro Cortini's AVANTI (Point Of Departure), the leisurely and classical No Home Of The Mind (4AD) from Bing & Ruth, and the wild, almost geometric rhythms of Burnt Friedman's The Pestle (Latency).

After two decades, Wolfgang Voigt turned back on the GAS supply for Narkpop (Kompakt). For extra sleepiness, listen to Hiroshi Yoshimura's Music For Nine Post Cards (Empire Of Signs), an old album available outside Japan for the first time, and lose yourself in the fuzzy ether of Jacaszek's KWIATY (Ghostly International).

More ambient also-rans later on. Meanwhile, if all this ethereal goodness has warmed your heart, dive into A Strangely Isolated Place.





Scroll all of the best 2017 electronic albums by clicking here.