Instrumental Recommendations

A friend asked for instrumental recommendations. I went through my entire library and gave him a list. Since it took a while, and I don't just want to throw it away, I may as well post it here.

Andy Summers - World Gone Strange (world music)

Thomas Newman - American Beauty soundtrack (the vibraphone on this soundtrack is amazing)

Apparat - Walls (you know this)

The Avalanches - Since I Left You (comprised almost entirely of audio samples)

Avishai Cohen - Continuo (good modern jazz)

Avishai Cohen - Aurora (same)

The Bad Plus - These Are The Vistas (jazz band typically known for their covers of famous rock songs)

Balmorhea - River Arms (beautiful ambient stuff)

Balmorhea - Balmorhea (same)

Balmorhea - All Is Wild, All Is Silent (same)

Boards of Canada - all of their albums (some of the best electronic music ever made)

Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Black Earth (It's not what it sounds like, it's basically film noir jazz)

Bonobo - Days to Come (awesome ambient album)

Brad Barr - The Fall Apartment (this is the greatest guitarist alive)

Nathan Johnson - Brick Soundtrack (dem handbells)

Broken Social Scene - Feel Good Lost (their debut album is pretty different from the rest of their stuff)

Collections of Colonies of Bees - Hospital (really experimental post-rock)

Conelrad - Function Creep (experimental ambient)

Conelrad - Sure Is the Risk Safe (experimental ambient)

Do Make Say Think - Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn (classic post-rock)

Ed Alleyne Johnson - Ultraviolt (electric violinist)

El Ten Eleven - El Ten Eleven (basic post-rock)

El Ten Eleven - Every Direction Is North (basic post-rock)

Emancipator - Soon It Will Be Cold Enough (some of the greatest ambient music ever made)

Emancipator - Safe In the Steep Cliffs (some of the greatest ambient music ever made)

Foxhole - Push/Pull (amazing post-rock)

Helios - Eingya (one of the greatest ambient albums ever recorded)

Hoven Droven - Grov (irish instrumental fast folk/rock)

Jaga Jazzist - all of their albums (some of the greatest modern experimental jazz ever made)

Jazz Mandolin Project - Xenoblast (jazz...but with a mandolin)

Jazz Mandolin Project - Jungle Blast (same)

Jean Michel Jarre - Images (french guy who made highly influential experimental electronic music in the late 80s/90s)

Jean Baudin - Solace (composed entirely of a man playing an 11-string bass, I can't even describe the sounds he makes, you have to hear it to believe it)

Kashiwa Daisuke (experimental classic piano with ambient electronic elements)

KC Accidental - Anthems for Could've Been Pills/Captured Anthems for an Empty Bathtub (back when Broken Social Scene made ambient instrumental music)

Los Straightjackets - Supersonic Guitars in 3D (essentially the beach boys without vocals)

The Mercury Program - Confines of Heat (ambient)

Mouse on the Keys - An Anxious Object (really good modern jazz)

Pele - Enemies (experimental)

Plants and Animals - Plants and Animals (instrumental folk)

Saltillo - Ganglion (mixes electronic and classical with audio samples)

Saxon Shore - Four Months of Darkness (really good post-rock)

Saxon Shore - The Exquisite Death of Saxon Shore (really good post-rock)

Six Parts Seven - Casually Smashed to Pieces (similar to El Ten Eleven)

The Slip - Alivelectric (my favorite instrumental album of all time)

Tin Hat Trio - The Sad Machinery of Spring (modern jazz)

Tortoise - TNT (classic post-rock)

A Troop of Echoes - Days in Automation (jazz post-rock)

Tunturia - Maps (ambient post-rock)

Two Lone Swordsmen - Stay Down (this is the definitive soundtrack for being underwater)

Unwed Sailor - Little Wars (indie rock without the vocals basically)

Volta Do Mar - 03>98 (greatest math rock album ever recorded)

Wax Tailor - Tales of the Forgotten Melodies (trip hop with audio samples)

Yndi Halda - Enjoy Eternal Bliss (probably my favorite post-rock album)

Bull of Heaven (drone, they make some of the longest music ever made, I have one track that's 24 hours but they have longer ones (one is over a week long))