Origins of Psybient?

[Xpander 22]

Any more suggestions folks? Is Mystical Experiences (1995) truly the oldest Psybient album release??? Old as fuck Psybient is so god damn good, so even if you have other 95-99 Psybient/Goa Ambient then please share my friends.

[yiannis 201]

The Mystery of the Yeti, if you aren't familiar. https://www.discogs.com/Mystery-Of-The-Yeti-The-Mystery-Of-The-Yeti/master/37152 Part 2 from '99 is a compilation https://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Mystery-Of-The-Yeti-Part-2/release/82535

And on the topic of compilations, Global Psychedelic Chillout: https://www.discogs.com/label/592449-Global-Psychedelic-Chill-Out, although that's 2000-2003. In the 90s the same label released some double CDs, one trance, one downtempo, under the Global Psychedelic Trance name. Also the Ambient Meditations series on Return to the Source are pretty good, especially the first two installments. https://www.discogs.com/label/576416-Ambient-Meditations Finally, the Feed Your Head series on Planet Dog.

 

Sorry for any redundant information.

[Salamantis 10]

One of my fave albums from that era is Spacetime Continuum - Sea Biscuit (1994).  It is mainly ambient, but has definite psybient elements.  And it still sounds fresh nearly a quarter century later.  But there are also psybient elements in the albums of Human Mesh Dance and Dreamfish, as well as in the early work of Atom Heart and Tetsu Inoue.

 

The Human Mesh Dance albums are Hyaline (Instinct Records 1993), Mindflower (Instinct Ambient 1994) and Thesecretnumbertwelve (12K  1997).  The Dreamfish albums are Dreamfish (FAX 1993) and Dreamfish 2 (FAX 1995).

[yiannis 201]

I'll second Sea Biscuit, thanks for the reminder Salamantis

 

Here's a few more:

 

Astralasia - Axis Mundi

Banco De Gaia, just about everything

O-Head - Silent Universe (a bit on the ambient side)

Future Loop Foundation - Time & Bass (atmospheric d'n'b)

Jake Stephenson's projects; Alien Mutation, Optica/Optic Eye, Dr Psychedelic, Ganja Beats (very dubby those two), plus Crystal Moon with Matt Hillier

Gregory T. Kyryluk's Alpha Wave Movement (Berlin School) and Open Canvas - Nomadic Impressions. The latter is highly recommended.

Makyo/Padmasana

Mystical Sun - Primordial Atmospheres (and everything else )

Orbital - Snivilisation and In Sides (that one is a masterpiece)

Patchwork - self-titled https://www.discogs.com/Patchwork-Patchwork/master/1124745

Angel Tears

Sounds from the Ground (psydub)

System 7 - Power of Seven

The Future Sound of London - Dead Cities

Timeshard

The Orb - Orbus Terrarum

And a bit of a cheat, as this is a 2000 compilation of tracks from '87 to 2000: Nodens Ictus - Spacelines

 

Hope you find something you enjoy among the lot.

[Salamantis 10]

A few more:

 

Solitaire (FAX 1995, reissued 2010) by David Moufang, otherwise known as Move D

 

Quiet Logic (Daisyworld 1998) by Mixmaster Morris (The Irresistible Force, Dreamfish (with Pete Namlook)) & Jonah Sharp (Spacetime Continuum)

 

Shellground (FAX 1995) by Modula Green

 

Qubism 2294 (em:t 1994) and the first two Woob albums (1194 and 4495) as well as Gas 0095, all also on em:t

 

Mysteries Of Science - Mysteries Of Science (Instinct Ambient, 1995)

 

Realignment (Modulation Elektronik 1993) and Journey To The Sun (Instinct Ambient 1995) by Adham Shaikh 

 

Flowerhead by Datacide (Tetsu Inoue & Uwe Schmidt AKA Atom Heart) (Rather Interesting 1995)

 

City Of Light (Sub Rosa 1997) by Bill Laswell with Tetsu Inoue and 2 members of Coil

[Xpander 22]

Fantastic suggestions from you all. Been listening to many of these today and lots added to my purchase list. Its interesting to see that around the 94-95 some of the first truly Psybient records were being released. It was kind of a two pronged approach with some of the Goa guys experimenting with slower tempos (eg MWNN Azymuth) and then also the ambient guys dabbling with more psychedelic textures and details (eg Adham Shaikh). The spacetime Continuum album has exceeded my expectations. Cant wait to get my ears on the rest of these suggestions.

[Salamantis 10]

Sorry, I meant REalignment by Adham Shaikh.  His 1993 release Nomad is superb also.  Other good stuff by Spacetime Continuum include Fluresence EP (1993) and Freelon (1995).

 

Good solo Tetsu Inoue includes Ambiant Otaku, Slow And Low, Organic Cloud, and a later album, Inland (all but the last issued by FAX in the mid 90s and reissued later on Ambient World).  Good Tetsu Inoue collabs (besides his Pete Namlook and Bill Laswell stuff) include Electro Harmonix (FAX 1994 with Jonah Sharp of Spacetime Continuum), Zenith (FAX 1994 with Carlos Vivanco), MU: Masters Of Psychedelic Ambiance (Rather Interesting 1995 with Uwe Schmidt AKA Atom Heart) and OM: Instant Enlightenment (C & S Records 1993, with Dennis Ferrer)

 

Good solo Uwe Schmidt releases under his Atom Heart alias (there are many more good releases under many more aliases) include Orange (Fax 1994), Milagro EP (Our Choice 1994), Morphogenetic Fiends (Our Choice 1994), Softcore (FAX 1994), and Shellglove (Recent Programmings, Semaphore 1996).

 

Some of Uwe Schmidt's best stuff under various aliases includes Dots - Dots, Flextone - Flextone, and VSVN - Very Synthetic Virtual Noise, (1994), Semiacoustic Nature - Semiacoustic Nature, Interactive Music - Interactive Music and Silver Sound - 60 (1995), and Machine Paisley - Machine Paisley and Brown - Brown (1996), all on the Rather Interesting label.  His collabs with Lars Muller and Stocha as +N are good too, especially ex.s (Geometrik 1993) and Plane (FAX 1994).  Superficial Depth - Digital Superimposing (Side Effect 1997) is also excellent.

[Lorn 74]

Chill Out Trance a VA series released in late 90's.

 

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Chill-Out-Trance/release/601333

[thanosp81 16]

My personal recommendation, certainly not for the origins, but mainly for the broader definition of Psybient/Psychill throughout the first years of Goa and Psychedelic Trance are the series Chill Out - Voyages Into Trance And Ambient and Global Psychedelic Chill Out. 

 

 

Chill Out Trance a VA series released in late 90's.

 

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Chill-Out-Trance/release/601333

Really?

 

[Xpander 22]

Here's another one from Eat Static, this time its 1993. This guy really was ahead of his time.

 

Eat Static -Kothluwalawa

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrFX_0NMwoc

[yiannis 201]

This guy really was ahead of his time.

This guy is outside time!

 

I like the compilation this comes from but my favourite is the second installment.

[Robonaut 1]

On 3/10/2016 at 4:08 PM, Solastalgia said:

I agree on the roots in '70s prog rock and early electronic ambient music through the '80s. Also, let's not forget about the KLF's Chillout (1990) with the start of what continues evolving today on psychill stages at festivals. All of which can then be rooted in earlier psychedelic music from the '60s, and on and on and on, back throughout history and past that into pre-history. I think the beauty of psybient and psychedelic music in general, is that it's roots are so diverse and lay in our ancient beginnings as music/trance loving human beings. Lots of ancient instruments and sounds used in the latest releases, and the most primal sounds even with all the nature environmental recording elements.

Another hugely important album that I don't think has been mentioned yet is The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld, particularly "A Huger Ever-Growing, Pulsating Brain..." (1991).  While not psybient itself, it certainly seemed to bring an awareness of electronic chill-out music to people who previously didn't know the genre even existed (remember, this is pre-Internet, so you couldn't just stumble across this stuff on YouTube, LOL).

Then in the early 90s you had what was called "ambient dub".  Tracks like "Spectral" by Higher Intelligence Agency (1993) would almost certainly be classified as psybient if they came out today.  A similar band is A Positive Life.  Tracks like "Bathdub" (1994) sound very psybient to me.

Another early psibient-ish band is Optic Eye.  Tracks like "Wobbling in Space" and "Far Out Race", actually pretty much most of their Light Side of the Sun album (1994), sounds very psbientish.