When end-of-the-year list season began I wasn't sure if I was going to do a favorite ambient albums list. I wasn't as locked into ambient as much this year as in the past. I spent most of my listening time in indie, jazz, and berlin-school. I had several ambient albums that would for sure make my list so I started with those and the next thing I knew - I had a list of 26 albums that are my 2025 favorites.

Here are my favorite ambient albums of 2025, in alphabetical order:

1. Alexander Knaifel - Chapter Eight


2. Almost An Island - Almost An Island


3. Andrew Heath - Signals and Codes


4. Anthéne & Simon McCorry - Wellspring


5. Bill Brennan and Andy McNeill - Dreaming In Gamelan


6. Byron Metcalf - Spiral Exchange


7. Clarice Jensen - In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness


8. Dictaphone - Unstable


9. Emily A. Sprague - Cloud Time


10. Erik M - Soft Wish


11. Florian T M Zeisig - A New Life


12. Lab's Cloud and Flavio Salvaje - Kalima


13. Loneward - Musings of a Painted Sky


14. M. Sage - Tender Wading


15. Martin Stürtzer - Nexus-6


16. offthesky - form.radio


17. offthesky - Nocturnas


18. Peter Gregson - Peter Gregson


19. Rod Modell - Northern Michigan Snowstorms


20. Seabuckthorn - A Path Within A Path


21. Six Missing - Without Mind


22. Steve Roach - The Reverent Sky


23. Taylor Deupree & Zimoun - Wind Dynamic Organ, Deviations


24. Xu - Murmurs of the Machine


25. Yorkshire Modular Society + Peter Digby Lee - Beneath the Hanging Sky


26. zakè - Silentium

I made two mixes so it will be a little easier to digest. This post is for part one. I hope you enjoy this look back at 2025.

Cheers!

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Erik M. - Tall as Grass (Soft Wish)


• 03:55    Offthesky - Poised Above A Place (Nocturnas)


• 08:06    Rod Modell - Snowstorm In Munising (Snowstorm In Munising)


• 13:40    Emily A. Sprague - Osaka (Cloud Time)


• 19:23    Florian T M Zeisig - Earth Loop (A New Life)


• 21:00    M. Sage - Fracking Starlight (Tender / Wading)


• 26:18    Dictaphone - 122 (Unstable)


• 29:50    Six Missing - Sit Down and Play (Without Mind)


• 35:38    Peter Gregson - Prism (Peter Gregson)


• 38:37    Clarice Jensen - From A to B (In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness)


• 44:05    Alexander Knaifel - Chapter Eight: Stanza XXIII-XXXII (Chapter Eight)


• 49:15    Martin Sturtzer - Nexus-6 (Nexus-6)


• 55:30    Yorkshire Modular Society - Beneath the Hanging Sky (Beneath the Hanging Sky)


• 01:09:28    end