John Foxx's ambient playlist – with John Cage, Popol Vuh, Elgar and more

The singer and artist selects music from the tranquil end of the spectrum – from Erik Satie to Thomas Tallis via Virginia Astley and Aphex Twin

Brian Eno gave it a name and mapped much of the territory, an early recognition that the need was already in the air – a search for some new equivalent to classical music, but one more abstract and spacious, as well as intimate and modern, capable of providing a tranquil space in an increasingly crowded, pressurised world.

Jazz had fallen into its own set of cliches and conventions, classical constantly retrod old ground. Pop and dance music both tended to grab you by the lapels. There was a need for something that addressed that other part of the spectrum – tranquillity.

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by John Foxx via Electronic music | The Guardian