I'm looking for some ambient music similar to the likes of Arcana, Dargaard and Elend. Any recommendations similar to these would be greatly appreciated. Also note that I'm not a fan of Black Metal and would prefer artists without harsh vocals, which has proven quite limiting in my attempt to find good ambient.

If you want to stick to more 'structured' ambient music (with some guitars even), maybe you should try out Empyrium (Where At Night The Wood Grouse Plays), Star Of Ash (The Thread), or Wongraven (Fjelltronen).

If you'd like to listen to some Dark Ambient, I'd suggest you start with Spk's Zamia Lehmanni: Songs Of Byzantine Flowers, Lustmord, Raison d'Etre, Coil etc.

http://www.metalstorm.net/forum/topic.php?topic_id=1618

Wrong subforum?

Yeah this should be in the general music forum. Also, from the artists you mentioned, it seems you're actually looking for neoclassical darkwave instead of ambient. Because out of those three only Elend has a substantial amount of ambient in their music, while all of them are neoclassical darkwave (most of their releases anyway).

A few recommendations:
Dead Can Dance (especially "Within the Realm of a Dying Sun")
Ophelia's Dream (especially "Not a Second Time")
Autumn Tears
Dark Sanctuary
Nox Arcana

Written by Bad English on 13.11.2010 at 15:43

http://www.metalstorm.net/forum/topic.php?topic_id=1618

That thread is about ambient music influenced by Black Metal or vice versa, not exactly what I'm looking for so I thought I would start this thread, albeit in the wrong sub-forum perhaps

Thanks for the recommendations, will check them out.

@KryptoN: Yes, I guess what I'm looking for is 'Dark Wave' but also ambient similar to this. Although I'm not very familiar with the genre, I thought that Dark Wave was a sub-genre of ambient, or at least significantly influenced by ambient?

You might enjoy Soul Whirling Somewhere. Very shoegazy/dreamy/ethereal sounding ambient soundscapes with clean vocals.

EDIT: Forgot to mention... you should check out Windy and Carl as well.

Written by R'Vannith on 17.11.2010 at 06:06

Although I'm not very familiar with the genre, I thought that Dark Wave was a sub-genre of ambient, or at least significantly influenced by ambient?

Well no, darkwave does not really have ambient as a key feature. Some bands, like Elend, do have ambient influences though. Also, the subgenre of darkwave called "neoclassical darkwave" is closely associated with western classical music, particularly chamber music, and some of that soft and airy instrumentation could be mistaken as ambient I guess.

Written by R'Vannith on 17.11.2010 at 06:06

That thread is about ambient music influenced by Black Metal or vice versa, not exactly what I'm looking for so I thought I would start this thread, albeit in the wrong sub-forum perhaps

Yep, the General Music forum seems more appropriate, hence the move.

(Although the Extreme Metal forum was technically the wrong place for this topic, to be fair there's a strange kind of crossover there, where a lot of extreme Metal fans are those who are also into ambient and vice versa, even though it's a totally different style.. i.e. with the bands on Cold Meat Industry etc).

I can't think of many more neoclassical darkwave acts I'd listen to. Dead Can Dance is indeed the greatest post-punk/darkwave band ever. You might like to try Soport Aeternus & The Ensemble Of Shadows. Pretty freaky darkwave/gothic shit. There's tons of awesome ambient out there, though, if you're ever interested in more minimal and abstract stuff.

Written by R'Vannith on 13.11.2010 at 06:05

I'm looking for some ambient music similar to the likes of Arcana, Dargaard and Elend. Any recommendations similar to these would be greatly appreciated. Also note that I'm not a fan of Black Metal and would prefer artists without harsh vocals, which has proven quite limiting in my attempt to find good ambient.

What you are looking for is in a Swedish label, Cold Meat Industry!

I've tried some of them. And mostly they're nice. To name the bests I can say Coph Nia is my all time favorite in non-Metal music.. And Desiderii Marginis too.
Brighter Death Now, Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio and Pimentola are quite well too.
And there is a band on Cold Meat Industry called Sanctum. I listened to a few tracks of that bands and they were so nice. But I never found anything from them on the net for downloading... I wish I get the chance to listen to their albums one day.

Not too sure if this fits into the thread, but...



Awesome stuff, although it does take a while to grow on you.

I strongly recommend Wardruna www.myspace.com/wardruna

Written by Slayer666 on 25.12.2011 at 16:22

Not too sure if this fits into the thread, but...

There were some excellent suggestions left on this thread, but as I recall that is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for, though its is less 'darkwave' than say Arcana. Great stuff in any case, thanks!

I stumbled on an exceptional dark ambient album the other day on Spotify but I can't find any Youtube clips or a profile on bandcamp so the best I can do is this: http://www.last.fm/music/David+Kristian/Ghost+Storeys. Very minimal but quite unnerving. Probably not what you're looking for though.

Written by IronAngel on 22.11.2010 at 14:31

I can't think of many more neoclassical darkwave acts I'd listen to. Dead Can Dance is indeed the greatest post-punk/darkwave band ever. You might like to try Soport Aeternus & The Ensemble Of Shadows. Pretty freaky darkwave/gothic shit. There's tons of awesome ambient out there, though, if you're ever interested in more minimal and abstract stuff.

hmmm

Dead Can Dance is good, but a little heavy on the neoclassical

A black tape for a blue girl: my fav
Ataraxia
Narsilion: my fav
Artesia
Aythis
Trobar the morte
Autumn Tears : my fav

Found Clan of Xymox whose Medusa album is rated highly on RYM. Might be promising.