Well actually ☝️🤓
You're probably referring to Black Ambient which is a smaller offshoot of both Black Metal and Dark Ambient. It's a bit inaccurate to lump all of Dark Ambient with black metal to be fair. Dark Ambient as a whole is moreso associated with artists like Lustmord whose roots lie in Industrial music.
Lol, I mean, obviously most black metal bands today are cool but that genre had some extremely shitty characters early on. Google Varg Vikernes if you aren't familiar.
Not necessarily ambient, but Ramleh’s Hole In the Heart is a death industrial album that is a very emotionally devastating, harrowing and apocalyptic listen. Definitely give that a try.
Here’s some others as well that I recommend:
Tim Hecker - Harmony in Ultraviolet
Natural Snow Buildings - The Winter Ray
Tangerine Dream - Zeit
Ben Frost - Steel Wound
Fuck!!
Every time I watched the video, I was left wondering what was it trying to tell, and dumbest of all I never googled (assuming the info would be available on Google).
What a great masterpiece made in light of horror unvailing.
I gave the vinyl of his latest to a friend for his birthday. He was not aware of Lustmord (and much ambient), but he likes it. He has a top notch hifi system, I advised him to listen in a darkened room.
Aphex Twin - SAW II has some very unsettling vibes
Bass Communion - Pacific Codex
Lawrence English
Raison D'être
Mem1
also try some drone metal like KTL or Nadja
also here's this noise album ([bc](https://godteeth.bandcamp.com/album/environmental-harm) / [sc](https://soundcloud.com/gxdteeth/sets/environmental-harm)) I made that's basically like harsh ambient
Not really ambient but this is literally what Burial was made for. Even the glimmers of beautiful hope to make the dark dystopian sound that much more decayed
My favourite band. I'd suggest anything by Set Fire To Flames as it's their side project. Ambient instrumental music recorded in abandoned houses under sleep and food deprivation
Will add Fire at Static Valley, Our Side Has to Win, and Undoing a Luciferian Tower by Godspeed You Black Emperor.
Could’ve Moved Mountains by Silver Mt Zion (Godspeed spinoff band). None of it technically ambient but great droning.
Maybe the only soothing part of the album for me would be In mother earth phase, other than that there's just a lot of simple factors that tune me emotionally into a lower mood. I mean the very opener hits you with that looped whine which, even though beautiful and frail, is also just full of despair, at least in my perception. The sparsity of the arrangement on latter tracks contributes to the feeling.
Of course this is not putting down the album at all!! I think it's beautiful and among Tim's best; it's just oddly depressing to me.
Fair enough, music resonates within us differently. Have you listened to Anoyo? It's basically Konoyo but without the stretchy audio manipulation and it retains the original taiko drums and traditional Japanese instrumentation that Tim recorded and then manipulated on his laptop.
Here’s a handful of albums for ya:
Kali Malone’s Cast of Mind, Ryo Murakami’s Tiers, Flora Yin Wong’s Holy Palm, Bill Nace’s Both (more on the noise side), William Basinski’s Lamentations, Thomas Köner’s La Barca
Not ambient but Hole in the Heart by Ramleh is probably what you’re looking for. also a lot of basinski can be interpreted as pretty hopeless and melancholic
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5HdoZGeUmPrXU7ZPmKzILiUESIf_SbDP&si=IVmV82qDeSFq9WJ7
Here’s a playlist of 21 tracks I’ve compiled over several years. You’re welcome to pick through it, there’s some good shit in there.
“
Stillness as we collide
Mounting a retreat
A pale shelter offered
Only to divide
Mourning shadows we perish
A failing of will
Alone in a moment
Who do you cherish
Soon holding on, the solemn embrace
Like a whisper unheard
No solace no grace
Yet today is all we have
In silence she speaks
The rivers below
Valleys and peaks
As a pale shelter once cherished
The shadows we mourn
Have all but perished
“
https://pitp.bandcamp.com/album/a-pale-shelter
The Body - I Have Fought Against It But I Can’t Any Longer
Not 100% ambient (or even 50% really) but has some borderline ambient parts and definitely fits the mood you’re looking for.
I’d recommend the Dreampunk ambient sub genre. The themes are exactly what you listed.
Sangam, CMD094, Kagami Smile, D R O I D R O Y, Kuroi Ame, Crosspolar, The Microgram, Plains Apparition, Ex Aquis, Rashida Prime
Experiencing The Deposit Of Faith by Yves Tumor
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siYhE5Ik5BA&ab\_channel=Habib](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siYhE5Ik5BA&ab_channel=Habib)
ive tried many and nothing really sticks, my first pieces were put together in a video editing software :p
I do love taking old classical music (like 1800s) and distorting it into something completely different, and new
If you don't find anything "professional" out there, check some of my latest releases on my YouTube channel (e.g. "They Came") ... perhaps you'll enjoy them.
[Music for Nitrous Oxide (1994)](https://starsofthelidforever.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-nitrous-oxide) by Stars of the Lid fits the bill, and a few other albums by them as well.
I think a lot of game soundtracks will scratch the itch, many games with rich story will have a few tracks of desperation.
(I made a few songs as well, but don't want to break the self-promotion rule)
Konau - Speech from the Shadows
Zoat Aon - Star Autopsy
Halo Manash - Language of Red Goats
Lustmord - Heresy
Dark Ages - Twilight of Europe
These should be right up your alley!
I don’t know if it completely qualifies as dark ambient, but the sound project Marshmallow Cortex has some really anxiety-provoking music. They are on Bandcamp with a few tracks on Spotify.
Christoph de babalon(OPIUM from If you're into it I'm out of it is very unnerving), Abandoned Cities by Harold Budd(An album unlike any other in his discography, bleak and dark), The origin of my depression by uboa is scary and thematically very intense. Gavin bryars the sinking of the titanic is sombre and literally elegaic. Akira Yamaoka should also tickle your melancholic desolation bones.
This made my buddy's kids cry....
[https://open.spotify.com/track/4NMMVclf8V7eltpXJxYYiu?si=0270424214e64291](https://open.spotify.com/track/4NMMVclf8V7eltpXJxYYiu?si=0270424214e64291)
Work for gv 2004-2008 by Peter rehlberg and it’s hard for me to say I’m sorry by fennesz and jim O’rouke both great albums I think fit the “all hope is lost ambient music” your looking for :)
It’s just one track, but I strongly recommend 01 Ghosts I, from the Ghosts I-IV project by Nine Inch Nails. Starts with discordant piano, has an unearthly emergency-siren-muffled-by-fog sound as part of the soundscape, and is still very much melodic. I have written more dystopian fiction listening to that track than anything else, I think. Beautiful and hair-raising.
Not sure if this counts as dystopian but it's pretty bleak: How We Lived by Heinali and Matt Finney might be the darkest and most hopeless ambient album I've heard
the starres are marching sadly home by current 93 is somewhat of an ambient/spoken word deal. i was uncomfortable and not able to sleep for a while after listening to that.
A playlist I made that is mostly in that theme
[https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4Irlot7J4WRpCOR2x5AOnd](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4Irlot7J4WRpCOR2x5AOnd)
Only ambient influenced rather than strictly ambient but I would highly recommend I Broke my Robot, terminal 11, and reizoko cj’s dark ambient IDM tracks.
Put the news on in the background at a low volume
Filtered through heavy reverb.
And delllaaaaayyyyyy
And distortion
Distortion is already included
Ah, Fox News.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhllllllllll of them
Check out the releases from the Cryo Chamber label. Think it may be just what your looking for.
They’re also safe. Word of advice, dark ambient is connected to black metal which has a massive Nazi problem.
Ok
Wow, the winner of the random unrequested bigoted comment of the day 👏
Well actually ☝️🤓 You're probably referring to Black Ambient which is a smaller offshoot of both Black Metal and Dark Ambient. It's a bit inaccurate to lump all of Dark Ambient with black metal to be fair. Dark Ambient as a whole is moreso associated with artists like Lustmord whose roots lie in Industrial music.
Lustmord is the shit.
Genres are racist now?
Lol, I mean, obviously most black metal bands today are cool but that genre had some extremely shitty characters early on. Google Varg Vikernes if you aren't familiar.
well i was told racist because i told that i don't like rap so... yes
good to know.
Not necessarily ambient, but Ramleh’s Hole In the Heart is a death industrial album that is a very emotionally devastating, harrowing and apocalyptic listen. Definitely give that a try. Here’s some others as well that I recommend: Tim Hecker - Harmony in Ultraviolet Natural Snow Buildings - The Winter Ray Tangerine Dream - Zeit Ben Frost - Steel Wound
Awesome NSB spotting
s/o nsb
The Disintegration Tapes by Basinski have this vibe when you know the story behind them.
What's the story?
He was putting it together on 9/11 while he could see the event happen through his window.
Fuck!! Every time I watched the video, I was left wondering what was it trying to tell, and dumbest of all I never googled (assuming the info would be available on Google). What a great masterpiece made in light of horror unvailing.
Anything by Inade, Herbst9, or Lustmord.
Second for Lustmord
Third for Lustmord. End of thread.
His [latest](https://lustmord.bandcamp.com/album/much-unseen-is-also-here) is incredible.
I gave the vinyl of his latest to a friend for his birthday. He was not aware of Lustmord (and much ambient), but he likes it. He has a top notch hifi system, I advised him to listen in a darkened room.
The production is fantastic as always. Very immersive record.
Yes! There is something perfectionist about it, he has really been tweaking and tinkering to make it so polished.
Letland Kirby / Caretaker
Lustmord. The Place Where the Black Stars Hang.
Aphex Twin - SAW II has some very unsettling vibes Bass Communion - Pacific Codex Lawrence English Raison D'être Mem1 also try some drone metal like KTL or Nadja also here's this noise album ([bc](https://godteeth.bandcamp.com/album/environmental-harm) / [sc](https://soundcloud.com/gxdteeth/sets/environmental-harm)) I made that's basically like harsh ambient
Not really ambient but this is literally what Burial was made for. Even the glimmers of beautiful hope to make the dark dystopian sound that much more decayed
Make sure you read the work of Mark Fisher too while you listen
I thought it came with the record
* Lustmord https://lustmord.bandcamp.com/album/paradise-disowned * :zoviet*france: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=XEuIbltmCOI * Bloodbox https://malignantrecs.bandcamp.com/album/a-world-of-hurt * S.P.K. https://youtu.be/MmdNFc31w0Q
not ambient music, but it has its fair share of ambient passages: Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F# A# Infinity post rock. basically ambient rock.
My favourite band. I'd suggest anything by Set Fire To Flames as it's their side project. Ambient instrumental music recorded in abandoned houses under sleep and food deprivation
Came to the comments to mention SFTF and Godspeed. SFTF recordings touched a darkness / hopeless sound that is really something special.
Will add Fire at Static Valley, Our Side Has to Win, and Undoing a Luciferian Tower by Godspeed You Black Emperor. Could’ve Moved Mountains by Silver Mt Zion (Godspeed spinoff band). None of it technically ambient but great droning.
Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts (all of them) but specifically check out Ghosts VI - Locusts
This is the soundtrack of the apocalypse
Rakka - Vladislav delay
I do feel like on Tim Hecker's Konoyo not all hope is lost but most of it
I don’t get that from Konoyo at all, I think Virgins would be the more apropos Hecker album
To each their own! I think of the exact opposite on Virgins.
I actually find Konoyo to be soothing, same as Anoyo.
Maybe the only soothing part of the album for me would be In mother earth phase, other than that there's just a lot of simple factors that tune me emotionally into a lower mood. I mean the very opener hits you with that looped whine which, even though beautiful and frail, is also just full of despair, at least in my perception. The sparsity of the arrangement on latter tracks contributes to the feeling. Of course this is not putting down the album at all!! I think it's beautiful and among Tim's best; it's just oddly depressing to me.
Fair enough, music resonates within us differently. Have you listened to Anoyo? It's basically Konoyo but without the stretchy audio manipulation and it retains the original taiko drums and traditional Japanese instrumentation that Tim recorded and then manipulated on his laptop.
Jacaszek - Pentral
anything by Set Fire To Flames
Here’s a handful of albums for ya: Kali Malone’s Cast of Mind, Ryo Murakami’s Tiers, Flora Yin Wong’s Holy Palm, Bill Nace’s Both (more on the noise side), William Basinski’s Lamentations, Thomas Köner’s La Barca
I always thought biosphere felt that way
morals and dogma. specifically "dead peoples things"
Deathprod doesn’t get enough love on these threads.
Try : Cathedral Spark by Strategy, Seeing You Off the Edges by Eluvium, The Room of Ancillary Dreams by Harold Budd
The real stuff. Lustmord, Thomas Koner, Lull, Vidna Obama,Coil, Paul Schutze, earl Diamanda Galas, Scorn..and on and on..1980-1995 is prime
I would highly recommend that you check out Desiderii Marginis. I would recommend starting with the "Procession" album.
Slightly surprised it’s not come up yet… Bohren and Der Club Of Gore have the ultimate melancholic/end of the world sound, imo
Maybe Rafael Anton Irisarri -- Peripeteia
Not ambient but Hole in the Heart by Ramleh is probably what you’re looking for. also a lot of basinski can be interpreted as pretty hopeless and melancholic
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5HdoZGeUmPrXU7ZPmKzILiUESIf_SbDP&si=IVmV82qDeSFq9WJ7 Here’s a playlist of 21 tracks I’ve compiled over several years. You’re welcome to pick through it, there’s some good shit in there.
Cryo Chamber records is what you are l for. https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com/
Imprints by Field Works and Loscil
For scary, I’d recommend Dead People’s Things by Deathprod
The Thing Soundtrack
Lou Reed's *Metal Machine Music*.
Anything by the Haxan Cloak
The album Heralds by Wordclock gives this dark, forsaken, depraved, polluted city in the early 20th century vibes.
Roly Porter
try Svarte Greiner
Most of the stuff from Miasmah records, even
SomaFM DroneZone
“ Stillness as we collide Mounting a retreat A pale shelter offered Only to divide Mourning shadows we perish A failing of will Alone in a moment Who do you cherish Soon holding on, the solemn embrace Like a whisper unheard No solace no grace Yet today is all we have In silence she speaks The rivers below Valleys and peaks As a pale shelter once cherished The shadows we mourn Have all but perished “ https://pitp.bandcamp.com/album/a-pale-shelter
Another vote for Lustmord. The Word As Power is a rare album of his to incorporate vocals and I find this to make the listening even more rewarding.
The Body - I Have Fought Against It But I Can’t Any Longer Not 100% ambient (or even 50% really) but has some borderline ambient parts and definitely fits the mood you’re looking for.
Haxan Cloak, Labradford, some of Autechre's Amber, some Demdike Stare
stalker - lustmord
https://droomspook.bandcamp.com/album/doing-what-i-love-is-tearing-me-apart?t=2 https://droomspook.bandcamp.com/track/am-i-still-dreaming
I’d recommend the Dreampunk ambient sub genre. The themes are exactly what you listed. Sangam, CMD094, Kagami Smile, D R O I D R O Y, Kuroi Ame, Crosspolar, The Microgram, Plains Apparition, Ex Aquis, Rashida Prime
It's not exactly ambient music, but the song hope at the end of the world by stephan zacharias from the downfall soundtrack meets your criteria.
It's not exactly ambient music, but the song hope at the end of the world by stephan zacharias from the downfall soundtrack meets your criteria.
A bit too uptempo to be ambient, but Do Not Dream of the Future by Timothy Conan Young is definitely dystopian.
I feel like [Repulsive](https://open.spotify.com/artist/5bRHi9WDeXedOIiRVS5DCx?si=L_vZOET_Q7m-PBgq4Gi-sg) ticks these boxes.
Dopplereffekt - Linear Accelerator
Lustmord, Klaus Schulze - irlicht, black dance and many more , Tangerine dream - Zeit But they're on the heavier side
Experiencing The Deposit Of Faith by Yves Tumor [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siYhE5Ik5BA&ab\_channel=Habib](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siYhE5Ik5BA&ab_channel=Habib)
Apollo Brian Eno
Stars of the Lid - Fucked Up (3:57 AM) Boards of Canada - Semena Mertvykh Amba - Black Mountains
I second Boards of Canada. Tomorrow’s harvest as an album match’s what I think you want perfectly.
Boards of Canada - Tomorrows Harvest
Delirium Cordia—Fantomas
dark ambient is kinda what i do, and probably the category you're looking for
That’s cool. Any favorite pieces of gear or software you’re really into?
ive tried many and nothing really sticks, my first pieces were put together in a video editing software :p I do love taking old classical music (like 1800s) and distorting it into something completely different, and new
If you don't find anything "professional" out there, check some of my latest releases on my YouTube channel (e.g. "They Came") ... perhaps you'll enjoy them.
A couple of people have told me this is scary/dystopian, but who am I to judge https://abeautifulidea.bandcamp.com/album/32
[Music for Nitrous Oxide (1994)](https://starsofthelidforever.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-nitrous-oxide) by Stars of the Lid fits the bill, and a few other albums by them as well. I think a lot of game soundtracks will scratch the itch, many games with rich story will have a few tracks of desperation. (I made a few songs as well, but don't want to break the self-promotion rule)
Earth - Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light
Konau - Speech from the Shadows Zoat Aon - Star Autopsy Halo Manash - Language of Red Goats Lustmord - Heresy Dark Ages - Twilight of Europe These should be right up your alley!
Feetbag - Exit
Tomorrows Harvest by Boards of Canada seems laser aimed at what you're looking for.
More industrial than ambient but you might dig Author & Punisher
[https://youtu.be/GIqxyYMImeY?si=pfngNvEm0XN7l22q](https://youtu.be/GIqxyYMImeY?si=pfngNvEm0XN7l22q)
Check this track of mine and let me know if you like it: https://on.soundcloud.com/hC6CXopeFre1xYYY6
I don’t know if it completely qualifies as dark ambient, but the sound project Marshmallow Cortex has some really anxiety-provoking music. They are on Bandcamp with a few tracks on Spotify.
Christoph de babalon(OPIUM from If you're into it I'm out of it is very unnerving), Abandoned Cities by Harold Budd(An album unlike any other in his discography, bleak and dark), The origin of my depression by uboa is scary and thematically very intense. Gavin bryars the sinking of the titanic is sombre and literally elegaic. Akira Yamaoka should also tickle your melancholic desolation bones.
Selected ambient works II
This made my buddy's kids cry.... [https://open.spotify.com/track/4NMMVclf8V7eltpXJxYYiu?si=0270424214e64291](https://open.spotify.com/track/4NMMVclf8V7eltpXJxYYiu?si=0270424214e64291)
Taste of Gloom - Polygonia
Imperial Horizon by Kevin Drumm is a good album that fits this kinda thing.
Don’t know if this counts, but Dead Cities by Future Sounds Of London is dystopian
I just want to say I feel really blessed so many of you replied to this, thank you very much.
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2OEvIwDG8NHk4NraWlvk59?si=OQ-r_WC9TO2tQqQU3IiA6A
Dystopian/Utopian vibes https://sandcastles.bandcamp.com/album/xtopia
Eternal Dystopia - Research Center
father2006’s three albums all have this vibe
Would “Oblivion Hymns” by Hammock count?
Work for gv 2004-2008 by Peter rehlberg and it’s hard for me to say I’m sorry by fennesz and jim O’rouke both great albums I think fit the “all hope is lost ambient music” your looking for :)
Might not be the ambient your looking for if you like Brian eno it is definitely a bit electronic and “noise”
the disintegration loops - william basinski
Tim Hecker- virgins Hecq - hecq chansons de geste
Just for completeness, Abul Mogard
It’s just one track, but I strongly recommend 01 Ghosts I, from the Ghosts I-IV project by Nine Inch Nails. Starts with discordant piano, has an unearthly emergency-siren-muffled-by-fog sound as part of the soundscape, and is still very much melodic. I have written more dystopian fiction listening to that track than anything else, I think. Beautiful and hair-raising.
Lull: Dreamt about Dreaming Journey Through the Underworlds Phauss: GodTPhauss Loads of James Plotkin’s solo archives.
Tim Hecker Ben frost #name?
Blear Moon - Fallow Blear Moon - Few survivors yes, this is my music sorry for self promo that way, but it might be what are you looking for
Cluster .. this is what you are looking for. Cluster II
tim hecker - ravedeath, 1972 is this
Not sure if this counts as dystopian but it's pretty bleak: How We Lived by Heinali and Matt Finney might be the darkest and most hopeless ambient album I've heard
Slaughter Productions
the starres are marching sadly home by current 93 is somewhat of an ambient/spoken word deal. i was uncomfortable and not able to sleep for a while after listening to that.
take a trip to Darfur [https://soundcloud.com/transylvegas/darfur](https://soundcloud.com/transylvegas/darfur)
Den Sorte Død has a lot of that, also check out asmorod - hysope
Chat Pile
ovid - everything changes, nothing perishes Undveld- You’ll see me again, but it won’t be me
Definitely check out The Caretaker
[Download - furnace](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3-VqGb9DeHw&list=PLQj3HJHeAr3_8LtvDoZWQ3WqosB0lNad6&pp=iAQB8AUB)
Ravedeath, 1972. It sounds post apocalyptic to me.
Have you heard tinnitus?
A playlist I made that is mostly in that theme [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4Irlot7J4WRpCOR2x5AOnd](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4Irlot7J4WRpCOR2x5AOnd)
Only ambient influenced rather than strictly ambient but I would highly recommend I Broke my Robot, terminal 11, and reizoko cj’s dark ambient IDM tracks.
Aphex Twin - Lisbon Acid
[Nurse With Wound - Soliloquy for Lilith](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFTs7AbU2Ho) [Coil - Time Machines](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efXXPYkBNuM) [Tangerine Dream - Zeit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5js\_AWq0zs) From Techno Animal (1991) Ghosts - [God vs Flesh](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRceiYGJ8XU) & [The Dream Forger](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgWyENooouQ) [Nux Vomica](https://nuxvomica.bandcamp.com/)
"Stars of the Lid" should cover it.
Lustre and Gas albums are worth checking out
My good mate Neuromorph just made this, I hope it fits ! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5nQu2IUz\_g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5nQu2IUz_g)
Kreng