Pure timbre music?

[superluser]

I'm a huge fan of the late György Ligeti's work, and especially of a few of his works that involve nothing but timbre--no melody, no harmony, and no rhythm.  You might remember Lux Aeterna from 2001: A Space Odyssey, when they dig up the monolith on the moon, or Atmospheres when Dave Bowman has that psychedelic experience at the end.

If you don't remember them, I'm sure you can find copies or samples on the web somewhere.

Does anybody know of anything by any other composers like that?  I'm constantly looking for music like this, since it makes for great background music, and I'm never tempted to concentrate more on the music than what I'm doing.

Anybody ever run across anything like this?

[Tapewolf]

How about Stockhausen?  Granted it's been a while since I've seen 2001, but 'Mikrophonie II' is very atonal.  IIRC it consists of various voices speaking in German, ring modulated against a Hammond organ.  Not exactly listening for pleasure, but interesting nonetheless.

[superluser]

How about Stockhausen?  Granted it's been a while since I've seen 2001, but 'Mikrophonie II' is very atonal.  IIRC it consists of various voices speaking in German, ring modulated against a Hammond organ.  Not exactly listening for pleasure, but interesting nonetheless.

Sounds fascinating.

[looks for samples online]

The movements that I found are not quite as rich as the stuff that I was looking for, but it calls to mind some of Ligeti's madrigals.

We will be buying it, yes.

If you're curious, I've a couple of samples of the Ligeti pieces that I'm talking about:  Lux Aeterna (lyrics) and Atmospheres