The 15 Best Ambient Tracks of January 2026

If this opening month is any indication, ambient is set for a strong year. The first round suggests a field in healthy motion, with artists approaching the form from multiple angles. Our first roundup of 2026 sees Craven Faults lean into transportive modular sequences, Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore bringing harp and voice into a fragile cinematic frame, while Kayla Painter and Elori Saxl explore texture with near-geological patience. Debit bends slowed cumbia into spectral abstraction, OHYUNG locates something spiritual within restrained electronics, and Reinartz threads dub techno lineage through immersive atmospherics. There’s a lot, and it’s all very good! These are the 15 Best Ambient Tracks of 2026 Danz CM – The Leshy Danz CM’s “The Leshy” comes from MYTHS, her recently released ambient-leaning EP built around mythic archetypes and modular synthesis worlds. On this track she channels the titular Slavic forest spirit through a compact, 4-minute drift of warm analog textures recorded live at the Vintage Synthesizer Museum with CS-80s, Mellotrons and vintage Roland gear at the centre of the palette. Where other pieces on MYTHS unfold with cavernous, cinematic breadth, “The Leshy” is more intimate — a woodsmoke-rich interplay of hum and pulse that suggests expansive mossy clearings and half-heard calls deep in the pines without resorting to overt melodics. Kayla Painter – Pure White Stalactite Drawn from Tectonic Particles, Kayla Painter’s recent album for Quiet Details, this piece sits inside a wider work shaped by the idea that small natural processes can create vast transformation, from stardust to the slow formation of a stalactite. “Pure White Stalactite” reflects that patience. Built from field recordings, tender melodic fragments and finely detailed sound design, the album leans into hypnotic minimalism, letting textures expand at their own pace. Craven Faults – Ganger Taken from Sidings, this piece finds Craven Faults operating in his familiar modular terrain, where cycling sequences and weighty low-end movement hint at travel through imagined northern landscapes. Kosmische traces sit beneath the surface, absorbed into a sound that feels grounded and assured. Subtle shifts carry the track forward, creating an immersive atmosphere that favours patience and quiet momentum. Ian Wellman – Particularly Dangerous Situation Built from sonic material recorded in the midst of the catastrophic 2025 California wildfires 0 wind, smoke and tape-loop drones blended into a stark interpretive field document – this piece feels like ambient as witness rather than escape. Here the raw force of nature is folded into sustained drones and textured loops that carry the dread of those Santa Ana winds without ever resorting to conventional melody. The result is unsettled and immersive. Julianna Barwick, Mary Lattimore – Rachel’s Song A reimagining of Vangelis’ piece from Blade Runner, this recording sits within Tragic Magic, the collaborative album created after improvisational sessions in Paris that blend ethereal vocals with expressive harp. The duo treat the source with care, shaping a colder, more spacious future world that still carries “potential for beauty and love.” Elori Saxl, Henry Solomon – Reno Silver “Reno Silver” drifts naturally from that blend, its soft harmonic washes from Juno-style pads cocooning the woodwinds’ tentative lines. There’s an intimate interplay here, acoustic breath meeting electronic colour, that keeps the track hovering between field and studio, shaping quietly enveloping ambience from subtle, human-scaled gestures. OHYUNG – all dolls go to heaven Lead single from the forthcoming album IOWA, described by Lia Ouyang Rusli as “a memento to my time living in Iowa between 2023 and 2024,” this track returns OHYUNG to the ambient language explored on earlier work while framing the record as “my ambient transexual version of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.” Velv93 – Lobelia From Field Studies, Velv93’s “Lobelia” feels rooted in careful sonic layering and timbral focus. Sparse synth tones and gentle resonances are spaced to allow each element its own room to unfold, creating a calm but attentive sense of presence. There is an emphasis on texture over gesture, with subtle movement emerging from shifting filters and soft harmonic washes. Anthony Child – Waking from the Dream From of the Beginning, released on Anthony Child aka Surgeon’s Old Technology imprint, this track forms part of a record shaped by a year the producer describes as one of “loss, breakdown, heartbreak, reflection and discovery,” with music positioned as a refuge and a way to examine what it means to be human. Christina Vantzou, John Also Bennett, Oliver Coates Issued as a collaboration between Christina Vantzou, John Also Bennett and Oliver Coates, this piece unfolds as a layered convergence of bass flute, cello and drone, with Vantzou’s string textures gradually illuminated by shadowy wind tones before the cello enters in a