Ambient music
The earliest electronic soundscape music and theories come from the work of
Pierre Schaeffer who followed the futurists in classifying music into categories such as man made, natural, short and long. He made some of the first electronic music using record players and natural sounds, and cutting up tape, making the first experimental music use of recording and magnetic tape. Even his work can be seen as preempted by Shopenhauer's ideas of 'soundworlds', literally worlds made up entirely of sounds.
Karlheinz Stockhausen created pioneering electronic musical experiments later in 1955, and these two (amongst others) lay the groundwork for ambient music to appear decades later when music technology had developed.
The term "ambient music" was first coined by
Brian Eno in the late
1970s to refer to music that would envelop the listener without drawing attention to itself, that can be either "actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener" (Eno, who describes himself as a "non-musician" termed his experiments in sound as "treatments" rather than as traditional performances). Hence, Brian Eno is considered the father of ambient music: his
1978 release
Ambient 1: Music for Airports includes a manifesto describing this music. Although having coined the word "ambient", he is also quick to reference the works and influence of
Erik Satie. Eno coined the term in an essay to distance his work from
elevator music and
Muzak, it is more often similar to
mood music or an ambient background in movie and radio
sound effects. Often listeners will forget they are listening to ambient music, which is one of the biggest attractions of the genre. It can be any musical style, including jazz, electronic music and modern classical music.
Some of the works of the
20th century French composer
Erik Satie, today best known for his
Trois Gymnopédies suite, can be regarded as predecessors of modern ambient music. He referred to some of his music as "Musique d'ameublement" ('furniture music' ,or more literally, 'music for the furniture' and 'music to mingle with knives and forks', referring to something that could be played during dinner and would simply create an atmosphere for that activity rather than be the focus of attention. Similarly some of the works of the French composer
Edgard Varèse, who used the theremin extensively in his compositions as well as atonal techniques and non-standard time signatures, can also be viewed as predecessors of ambient music.
John Cage created the ultimate ambient work with his
4'33", three periods of silence first played on the piano, which make the audience listen to the ambient sound surrounding them. Cage inspired minimalist composers such as
La Monte Young,
Morton Feldman,
Terry Riley,
Steve Reich and
Philip Glass also influenced Eno's groundbreaking style, and ambient music can be seen as a kind of minimalism.
Early albums by
Pink Floyd (such as
Ummagumma and
Meddle) and by the "kosmische music"-oriented
krautrock artists, like
Tangerine Dream,
Popol Vuh, and
Cluster have greatly influenced the genre. Among the first
electronic ambient albums were
Affenstunde (
1970) and
In Den Garten Pharaos (
1971) by
Popol Vuh. Another important album was Sonic Seasonings (
1972) by
Wendy Carlos. Other early artists such as
Klaus Schulze (a former member of
Tangerine Dream and
Ash Ra Tempel),
Jean-Michel Jarre, and
Kraftwerk in the 1970s and 1980s were influential. In the 1970s, some ambient, krautrock, and other musicians who were influenced by
new age spirituality created the eclectic genre known as
New Age music, selling millions independent from the mainstream music industry by direct order or new age shops. By the 1980s, New Age music had become so much better known than ambient music, that ambient was taken as a synonym for "New Age", and many ambient musicians deliberately took on new age themes to market themselves to this audience.
Beginning in the
1980s, Ambient music influenced some pop bands (examples can be found among instrumentals by
New Order,
Depeche Mode,
Simple Minds and
U2). Later,
electronic dance music and synth pop merged in many artists' works with the dreamy, meandering sound of Eno-style ambient music. Under the guise of various styles, this new genre sometimes referred to as
ambient house,
ambient techno, ambient
dub,
IDM, ambience, or simply "ambient" in common use, saw the birth of a new wave of artists like
The Orb,
Aphex Twin, the
Irresistible Force, and Geir Jenssen's
Biosphere.
Early Warp records artists, (as well as later ones such as
Aphex Twin), FSOL
Future Sound of London (
Lifeforms,
ISDN)
Autechre, (
Incunabula,
Amber),
Boards of Canada,
Massive Attack,
Portishead, and
The KLF all took a part in popularising and diversifying ambient music. There are now a dizzying array of different sub-genres, festivals, websites, discussion lists, clubs, labels and artists making new, interesting, original music.
Ambient music has been used in many
television shows and
motion pictures and is notable for contributing to their atmosphere. Being an alternative to canned
incidental music or stock music cues, it also gives the musician artistic freedom. The traditional practice of composing for film or television usually involves the composer creating recognizable theme songs or
jingles for the setting, hero or villain, and for plot elements such as
love interest, action, and death scenes. However, ambient music is noted for taking a less formulaic approach in its use in film and TV shows.
David Lynch's
1984 film
Dune, for example, forgoes the
epic sci-fi adventure style theme music popularized by
Star Wars in favor of a more effective and atmospheric music score by
Toto and
Brian Eno.
Organic ambient music
Organic ambient music is characterised by integration of
electronic,
electric, and
acoustic musical instruments. Aside from the usual electronic music influences, organic ambient tends to incorporate influences from
world music, especially
drone instruments and hand
percussion. Organic ambient is intended to be more harmonious with
nature than with the
disco. Some of the artists in this sub-genre include
Robert Rich,
Steve Roach,
Vidna Obmana,
O Yuki Conjugate,
James Johnson,
Loren Nerell,
Numina, and
Tuu.
Some works by ambient pioneers such as Brian Eno, which use a combination of traditional (such as piano) and electronic instruments, would be considered organic ambient music in this sense. In the 70's and 80's
Klaus Schulze often recorded string ensembles and performances by solo
cellists to go along with his extended
Moog synthesizer workouts.
Nature inspired ambient music
The music is composed from samples and recordings of naturally occurring sounds. Sometimes these samples can be treated to make them more instrument-like. The samples may be arranged in repetitive ways to form a conventional musical structure or may be random and unfocused. Sometimes the sound is mixed with urban or "found" sounds. Examples include much of
Biosphere's Substrata,
Mira Calix's insect music and
Chris Watson's
Weather Report. Some overlap occurs between organic ambient and nature inspired ambient. One of the first albums in the genre,
Wendy Carlos'
Sonic Seasonings, combines sampled and synthesized nature sounds with ambient melodies and drones for a particularly relaxing effect.
Dark ambient
Dark ambient is a general term for any kind of ambient music with a "dark" or dissonant feel, but often involves extensive use of digital reverb to create vast sonic spaces for frightening, bottom-heavy sounds such as deep drones, gloomy male chorus, echoing thunder, and distant artillery. It has a relentlessly gothic feel. Lustmord's collaboration with
Robert Rich Stalker epitomizes this sub-genre. Related styles include
ambient industrial and
isolationist ambient.
(See also List of dark ambient artists)Ambient industrial
Ambient industrial is a hybrid genre of ambient and
industrial music; the term industrial being used in the original experimental sense, rather than in the sense of
industrial metal or
EBM. A "typical" ambient industrial work (if there is a such thing) might consist of evolving dissonant harmonies of metallic drones and resonances, extreme low frequency rumbles and machine noises, perhaps supplemented by gongs, percussive rhythms, bullroarers, distorted voices and/or anything else the artist might care to sample (often processed to the point where the original sample is no longer recognizable). Entire works may be based on radio telescope recordings, the babbling of newborn babies, or sounds recorded through contact microphones on telegraph wires.
Among the many artists who work in this area are
Coil,
CTI,
Lustmord,
Susumu Yokota ,
Hafler Trio,
Nocturnal Emissions,
Zoviet France,
PGR, Thomas Koner,
Controlled Bleeding, and Deutsch Nepal. It is important to note, however, that many of these artists are very eclectic in their output, with much of it falling outside of ambient industrial per se.
Isolationist ambient music
Also known as
isolationism. The term was popularized in the mid-1990s by the British magazine
The Wire and the Ambient 4: Isolationism compilation from
Virgin, this began as more or less a synonym for ambient industrial, but also inclusive of certain post-techno streams of ambient, such as
Autechre and
Aphex Twin.[
1] The Sombient label is now the primary purveyor of isolationist ambient, in particular with the "drones" compilation series. Some of the artists known for this style of ambient music include
Robert Fripp.
Other 'less ambient' ambient styles
There are many other styles which identify themselves as ambient music. There is information on these styles on other pages, but many artists who are not in the new age world of music making produce albums which mix beatless ambient music with downtempo electronica, so the categories have blured edges.
Chill out (music) is generally linked to club culture and is sometimes used as a term which includes ambient music as a subset of itself. UK techno developed in particular at
Warp Records in Sheffield, where previous electronic pioneers such as
Cabaret Voltaire and
Autechre laid the groundwork for ambient techno to develop, and for
Aphex Twin and
Boards of Canada to develop later. From this scene developed ambient dub and ambient techno.
Intelligent Dance Music is another term synonymous with this scene. Electroacoustic and acousmatic music are 'classical' art music forms that use electronic sound creation instead of or alongside acoustic instruments.
Glitch music is a subset of this work. Some club groups have made live ambient music, mixing dub techniques and styles with ambient textures and dance grooves, for example artists such as Sonic State, Junkielover, the Orb,
Chillage People, H.U.V.A. Network, Solar Fields, The Starsound Orchestra, and the Kuma Mela Project.
Main article:
List of ambient artists*
List of ambient artists*
List of dark ambient artists*
Intelligent dance music (IDM)
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Glitch*
Ambient Techno in Sound on Sound*
Ambient Visions(Interviews, reviews, and news announcements concerning ambient, new age and world music).
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Ambient.us (Positive Energy Ambient Music Guide) CD reviews, radio stream, forum and music download site.
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Ambient Music Guide Comprehensive ambient music resource site.
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Ambient Music Resources Anotated guide to the most relevant ambient music mega-sites.
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Ambient Reviews - Morpheus Music Ambient review, news and interviews.
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Mp3blog Ambient Mp3blog
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Ambient Music Guide to ambient music style, including reviews of important ambient works.
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25 Years of Ambient Music Retrospective on ambient music.
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Calmscape, the Chillout Lounge Portal for chillout, ambient and downbeat music.
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Royalty Free Mood Music Ambient/Mood Music Used as Background Music.
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Properlychilled.com Dedicated to down tempo music & culture (ambient, glitch, idm, ...)
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Farfield Ambient Reviews, CDs, downloads, radio station and licensing
Major FM and satellite radio shows
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Echoes US public radio show produced by music critic
John Diliberto.
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Hearts of Space ambient music programme broadcast in the US since the 1970s.
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Musical Starstreams aka Starstreams US-based commercial radio program produced and hosted by
Forest since 1981.
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Ultima Thule Ambient Music Radio popular programme on Australian public radio since 1989.
Online streaming audio
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OverXposure.FM Streaming site featuring downtempo, nu-jazz, brokenbeat, trip-hop, ambient pop, and deep house.
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The Buzzoutroom 24hrs a day Chilled-out Ambient Downbeats
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Chill Zone One Radio chillout, ambient, downtempo, soundscapes, atmosphere
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SomaFM Listener-supported, commercial-free, underground/alternative internet radio. Has a strong focus on ambient music.
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AmbientMusic-Radio An online ambient music show.
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StillStream Ambient music mixed by DJs and streamed live, 24 hours a day.
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Urban_D RADIO - A weekly podcast of ambient music by independent artists.
Software
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Native Instruments Computer based music software, ambient as well as many other styles of music
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SSEYO Generative Music Brian Eno used Koan software on Another Day on Earth
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fLOW ambient soundscape generator by Karlheinz Essl
