25 Essential Echoes CDs for 2008

Digitonal Tops the 25 Essential Echoes CDs of 2008

The Echoes Listeners Poll is still open for less than a day, but here are the CDs we thought were essential for the year as judged by me (John Diliberto) and the Echoes staff. It’s not based on the most played CD, CDs of the month or any other “objective” criteria. These are the CDs, out of the 2000+ we received, that consistently inspired us over the year. Some years, it’s difficult to find 25 CDs that warrant being on the list, but this year, even more than a great year like 2007, the dividing line between the first and 25th choice has never been thinner. 2008 was just a great year for music.

I write more extensively about the 25 Essential Echoes CDs in an article on the Echoes website. It’ll have lots of links to soundfiles, pics and features on these artists.

Sumner McKane's What A Great Place To Be

For now, let me say that Digitonal’s Save Your Light for Darker Days floored me from the start and became deeper with each listening. It was the most sophisticated, intoxicating, inventive and emotive album of the year and defined that meeting of classical chamber and ambient music. It was nearly a toss-up between that and Sumner McKane‘s What a Great Place to Be. Like Digitonal, it was a CD of the Month and an album of deeply moving, but strangely nostalgic psychedelic Americana.

This was the soundscape of Echoes, 2008. The full list is below.
You can read my personal Top Ten Albums and Top Ten Songs in the Echoes Blog.

Be sure to make you own list and vote in the Echoes 2008 Listener Poll. There’s only a day left. You’ll be entered into a drawing to win all 25 of the top listener selections. Without giving anything away, I can assure you that many of the Essential titles will be in the listener poll.

John Diliberto ((( echoes )))

25 ESSENTIAL ECHOES CDs FOR 2008

1.	Digitonal	Save Your Light for Darker Days	Just Music
2	Sumner McKane	What A Great Place to Be	Don’t Hit Your Sister Records
3	Balmorhea	Rivers Arms	Western Vinyl
4	Fernwood	Almeria	Self Released
5	Saul Stokes	Villa Galaxia	Binary/Stokesmusic
6	Jamshied Sharifi	One	Ceres Records
7	Ahn Trio	Lullaby for My Favorite Insominac	Sony BMG
8	Lights Out Asia	Eyes Like Brontide	N5md
9	Jami Sieber	Unspoken	Out Front Music
10	Bombay Dub Orchestra	3 Cities	Six Degrees Records
11	Nik Bartsch’s Ronin	Holon	ECM Records
12	General Fuzz	Soulful Filling	Self Released
13	Qntal	Qntal VI: Translucida	Noir (Big Daddy)
14	Marconi Union	A Lost Connection	MU Transmissions
15	Hammock	Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow	Darla Records
16	John Gregorius	Heaven and Earth	Spotted Peccary
17	Gerry O’Beirne	The Bog Bodies and Other Stories	Self Released
18	Johann Johannsson	Fordlandia	4AD/Touch
19	Ronn McFarlane	Indigo Road	Dorian Recordings
20	Biomusique	The 10,000 Steps	Kosmic Music
21	Anja Lechner and Vasillis Tsabropoulos	Melos	ECM Records
22	California Guitar Trio	Echoes	Inner Knot
23	Darshan Ambient	From Pale Hands to Weary Eyes	Lotuspike
24	Kevin Bartlett	Glow in the Dark	Aural Gratification
25	Alu	Lobotomy Sessions	Alu Music

Tags: Ambient, Digitonal, echoes, electronica, John Diliberto, Will Ackerman, Windham Hill, World Fusion