The 10 Best Tracks Sampling Ambient Field Recordings, according to Willaris. K

"This one is insane..."

For many years now, music producers have been breaking away from the all-too-often repetitive workflow associated with modern studios, opting to capture their audio from the natural surrounding environment. This raw and unpredictable form of experimentation has given way to some of the era’s most iconic electronic albums such as Brian Eno’s ‘Ambient 4: On Land’ and The KLF’s ‘Chill Out’.

Australian producer Willaris. K is one of this technique’s biggest advocates, toasting various obscure sounds across the realms of techno and electro to cinematic sounds and film scores. Having recently created official remixes for Grammy-nominated artists Flume and Rüfüs Du Sol – and following the release of his latest double single ‘Slow Down/Melt’ – we spoke to Willaris. K to get the low-down on his favourite tracks using sample field recordings and ambient sounds.

1. HAAi – ‘Head Above The Parakeets’

“I just love this song so much. It was the first one that came to my head when my manager asked me to make this list of 10 songs.”

2. Shlohmo – ‘Beams’

“This is the second song that came to my head and also one of my favourite songs ever. The video is wild too.”

3. Seekae – ‘John Duncan’

“This is my plane song. So beautiful but heart-breaking at the same time. Pretty sure it’s the only track that’s stayed in my personal playlist since I first created it.”

4. Jon Hopkins – ‘Abandon Window’

“This song has a special place in my heart. I remember listening to it for the first time ever, also on a plane taking off and I felt things I hadn’t felt before then. I later discovered somewhere that the noise towards the end is fireworks exploding in slow motion. Crazy. A big reason why I started making music.”

5. Daine – ‘New Ground’