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Lyndsie Alguire's Top Five Ambient and Downtempo Tracks
We invited Montréal-based audio-visual Lyndsie Alguire to share her top five ambient and downtempo tracks with us. Having been writing music since she was 17, Lyndsie shares a selection of songs that have played an important part in shaping her sound, from her youth to present day. These songs serve as early influences for her upcoming album '...like butterfly wings’ due October 17 on Reflections. Listen to lead single ‘through the boughs of the garden’, and click the button below to pre-order the album.
⚫️ Arvo Pärt - Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
"There's not much I can say about Arvo Pärt that hasn't already been said more eloquently. The silence, the simplicity. The intention and purpose behind each spotlit note. The first time I heard this piece, my heartstrings were achingly tugged in a way they had never been before. It still has this effect on me now. I hope to create something this distilled one day."
⚫️ Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians
"Another obvious choice, maybe, but there's a reason this work is a touchstone of minimalism. It instantly pulls you inside of time itself. Deceptively simple, deliciously textural. I often work with melody first, but this piece always challenges me to put rhythm and harmony in the foreground."
⚫️ Nine Inch Nails - Leaving Hope
"As an awkward conservatory kid, Nine Inch Nails made me feel like the piano was actually a cool instrument (the cool kids at my school were all in metalcore bands). This track, and the NIN discography in general, has all the ingredients I love: tension, melancholy, hope, noise, a distorted beauty. I remember printing the sheet music at school and really digging into this piece's subtle simplicity."
⚫️ Skinny Puppy - Riverz End
"Were you really a Canadian goth kid if you weren't poring over the entire Skinny Puppy discography? This is another group that pairs beauty with ugliness for some deeply-affecting atmospheres. The music has so much mystique, it's at turns contemplative and confrontational. I love the contrast and immersion."
⚫️ Britney Spears - Everytime
"Maybe a cheeky answer, but who am I to deny that I blushingly asked my middle school best friend to burn this on a CD for me, or that I listened to it every day on the way to school thinking the most perfect arrangement existed (plinking piano, delicate harp, breathy falsetto, sinister swells) and it was contained in a Britney Spears song? Honestly un-toppable, everyone else can hang it up. I still love trying to evoke this angelic feeling."
Written by Penny Longstaff
