About 7 years ago when I was still in school I was struggling with an algebra class. Via some flyer on a street corner I found this nice but weird guy, he claimed to be a self-taught mathematician and help out students for relatively small money. So I started meeting him twice a week at his place and he helped me get better at my class. We would just work on math problems for hours and during that time he always made green tea with soy milk and played music that back then I just perceived as extremely weird.
Most of what he played turned out to be by Jon Hassel, as I learned a couple years later. Somehow it really helped with what we were doing. We rarely took breaks and worked one problem after another and the music functioned as an atmospheric soundscape that was just going on the whole time... it kept us concentrated and left only little space for conversation or distraction... This album in particular left a huge impression on me. It was my first contact with music of the experimental ambient spectrum ever. Now, years later I am a gigantic fan of Hassels work. In my opinion, he is the absolute master of creating a weird and simultaneously soothing atmosphere sonically.
This album is called
"Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street". Back in school, the title track used to be stuck in my head for days... It makes me feel lonely but somehow it also makes the loneliness seem okay - maybe even comfortable. It's hard to explain and this might be extremely subjective, depending on your individual environment while listening, but I think that's exactly what I love so much about ambient music. It leaves air for you to use it to nuance a moment with a layer of sound that changes the way you perceive the situation. Once you get into this, it is highly addictive - and Jon Hassels music, this album in particular, work perfectly in this context.
Anyway sorry for the tiring monologue but maybe some people here enjoy this kind of music as much as I do and/or use it for the same purpose.
Cheers