Best Ambient of 2016

      Every year I make two lists of my favorites albums of the year.  One list is generally indie music and the other is ambient/instrumental.  Even though I have a difficult time deciding on the final group it is easier coming up with the indie list than it is for ambient.  Maybe it's because after a year of music they all tend to blur together and sound the same.  There are definitely some stand outs, like the two releases from Johann Johannsson this year.  But generally it's tough to make a list because there are a lot of quality recordings every year.   As hard as it is, it's still a lot of fun digging through a ton of releases to find my favorites and then out them together in a coherent mix.  The tracks don't appear in any particular order.  I just figured out what cuts sounded good together.  Not all the tracks from my best of list made into the mix because that's just the way mixes go sometimes.   Here's the list, I'd love to hear about your favorite albums of the year, tell me about them in the comments. BEST AMBIENT/INSTRUMENTAL OF 2016: 1. Johann Johannsson - Orphee 2. Ryuichi Sakamoto And Alva Noto - The Revenant OST 3. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Ears 4. Paul Haslinger - Halt & Catch Fire OST 5. The Green Kingdom - Harbor 6. Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein - Stranger Things Season 1, Vol. 1 7. Olafur Arnalds - Island Songs 8. Huerco S. - for those of you who have never (and also those who have) 9. Yagya - Stars And Dust 10. Johann Johannsson - Arrival OST Coppice Halifax - Green Shape 11. Coppice Halifax - Green Shape 12. 36 - The Infinity Room 13. Loscil - Monument Builders 14. Oddisee - The Odd tape 15. Olan Mill - Land Cycle 16. Pye Corner Audio - Stasis 17. Piers Faccini - no one's here 18. Voces8 - Winter 19. Marconi Union - ghost stations 20. Mac Quayle - Mr. Robot, Vol. 1 OST 21. AXX - Command Z 22. Rezo Glonti - Budapest 23. Riverrun - Romer Shoal 24. Daniel Lanois - Goodbye To Language 25. Spheruleus - Sundials     T R A C K L I S T : 00:00    The Green Kingdom - Haze Layers 06:46    Huerco S. - The Sacred Dance 12:10    Yagya - Motes in the Moonlight 16:25    Piers Faccini - no one's here 1 20:00    Marconi Union - Shadow Scheme 22:30    Johann Johannsson - A Song for Europa 24:34    Olan Mill - Part 2 27:35    Loscil - Weeds 32:58    Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Existence in the Unfurling 43:36    Paul Haslinger - It's Not Right 44:41    Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein - This Isn't You 46:50    Ólafur Arnalds - Raddir 50:00    36 - Room 8 52:25    Coppice Halifax - Green Shape phase 4 57:10    Rezo Glonti - Pulse Added Two 62:10    Heavenchord - Night Waterline 67:13    Daniel Lanois - Time On 72:10    AXX - Prelude 73:31    Riverrun - Weehawken 76:00    Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto - The Revenant Theme(Noto remodel) 79:33    Johann Johannsson - Arrival 81:33    end