Arvo Part... Where have you been my whole life?

Yikes! Been loving Part for eons, it seems. And he found the right label in ECM, as he gets sound quality to match his compositions.

If you like Part, you'll also like Giya Kancheli, another ECM artist. Same qualities and compositional sense. Doesn't use silence quite as well as Part, but a remarkable composer. As mentioned by Ejlif, Ligeti will meet those needs. It's also worth trying works by a Russian woman, Sofia Gubaidalina. Not quite as austere as Part, but in the same sonic family.

The Gorecki No. 3 is nice, but be careful. The most popular one, featuring Dawn Upshaw, is unmitigated crap. Almost ANY of the others in catalog are better. My absolute favorite, if you can find it, is on Olympia. The soprano is Stefania Woytowicz.

Returning to Part, an overlooked work of his is "Kanon Pokajanen." Gorgeous vocal piece.

A bit different from those already mentioned but definitely worth checking into is Valentin Silvestrov.

I found that the only solution was to buy them all. And then listen to them in order. I found that quite interesting - so much so that I have done it a few times. I have my favorites but it is an interesting 'journey'. I enjoyed that so much that I started doing it with a variety of composers.

There are some great "complete works" boxed sets out there for not huge money. Going through them in chronological order (where possible) provides insight into how the composer's music changed over time (assuming that you trust the interpretation - and that is, in itself, an issue one has to deal with as well). Doing so for a few composers is a great education!

But back to Part. I like Missa Sillabica, Magnificat, Berliner Messe, and possibly my favorite, Miserere. The most accessible of his music might be "I am the True Vine" (if you don't like that one, you might as well skip the rest - if you do, then there is a world beneath which is wonderful to dig into.

Arvo Part is kind of off by himself in terms of style, but I find Tavener (for obvious reasons) and Britten (for reasons I am not sure I can clearly explain) have similarities. I also think fans of Arvo Part who have not listened to Ernest Bloch might enjoy it. Ditto for Bartok, though one might have to listen to a fair bit of him to see the links - but don't worry, it's definitely worth the journey too!

I agree with T_Bone. Part is fairly unique when it comes to style. While I enjoy Kancheli and Gubaidalina I think a different approach may be to go back in time instead of looking for similar contemporary composers. Try Thomas Tallis "Spem in alium" or masses by William Byrd or even some gregorian chant. I find this is where Part draws a lot of his inspiration from.

As to Part recommendations, anything from ECM label has been worthwhile. Great pieces played by dedicated performers in very good sound.

If you try and like the orchestra pieces in "Arbos" you may want to also try Janacek's "Glagolitic Mass". Another stylisticaly interesting composer with a unique sound world

A bit different from those already mentioned but definitely worth checking into is Valentin Silvestrov.

Good recommendation. I have a few Silvestrov recordings. A favorite is the Symphony No. 5/Posludium disc by Sony Records. David Robertson conducts the Deutches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin with Alexei Lubimov, piano.