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Ambient music is a musical genre in which sound is more important than notes.^[1] It is generally identifiable as being broadly atmospheric^[2] and environmental^[3] in nature.

Ambient music evolved from early 20th century forms of semi-audible music, from the impressionism of Erik Satie, through musique concrete and the minimalism of Terry Riley and Philip Glass, and Brian Eno's deliberate sub-audible approach.^{[citation needed]}

Later developments found the dreamy non-linear elements of ambient music applied to some forms of rhythmic music presented in chill-out rooms at raves and other dance events, but always with the primary feature that the music is intended to drift in and out of the listener's awareness while creating its effect on the listener's consciousness.^[4]

History

Turn of the 20th century French composer Erik Satie created an early form of ambient music that he referred to as "furniture music" (Musique d'ameublement), in reference to something that could be played during a dinner whose sound would simply create an atmosphere for that activity rather than be the specific focus of attention.^[5]

Early electronic soundscape music and theories come from the work of Pierre Schaeffer, considered as the inventor of "Musique Concrète", who followed the futurists in classifying music into categories such as man made, natural, short and long.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} Even his work can be seen as preempted by Schopenhauer's ideas of 'soundworlds', literally worlds made up entirely of sounds.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

Brian Eno is generally credited with coining the term "ambient music" in the mid-1970s to refer to music that, as he stated, can be either "actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener", and that exists on the "cusp between melody and texture."^[5] Eno, who describes himself as a "non-musician", termed his experiments in sound as "treatments" rather than as traditional performances. Eno used the word "ambient" to describe music that creates an atmosphere that puts the listener into a different state of mind; having chosen the word based on the Latin term "ambire", "to surround".^[6]

The liner notes of Eno's 1978 release Ambient 1: Music for Airports includes a manifesto describing his philosophy of ambient music:

"Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting."Brian Eno, Music for Airports liner notes, September 1978

Eno has acknowledged the influence of Erik Satie and John Cage, in particular Cage's use of chance such as throwing the I Ching to direct a musical composition; and minimalist music in general. This influence was manifested in Oblique Strategies, a set of cards devised by Eno and Peter Schmidt and intended to direct the musician or artist when a dilemma occurred in a working situation. Eno used the term "ambient music" to distance his work from elevator music and Muzak. Eno also acknowledged influences of the mood music of Miles Davis and Teo Macero, especially their 1974 epic piece, "He Loved Him Madly", about which Eno wrote, "that piece seemed to have the 'spacious' quality that I was after...it became a touchstone to which I returned frequently."^[6]

In fact, much ambient music existed well before Eno's work,^{[citation needed]} and early albums such as Ummagumma by Pink Floyd and by the "kosmische Musik"-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. Other notable albums include Sonic Seasonings (1972) by Wendy Carlos and L'apocalypse des Animaux (1973; recorded in 1970) by Vangelis. Additional 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.

Influences on other genres

Beginning in the 1970s, Ambient music influenced some pop bands including New Order, Depeche Mode, Simple Minds and U2^{[citation needed]}. 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, Geir Jenssen's Biosphere, and the Higher Intelligence Agency.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

Chillout is generally linked to club culture and is sometimes used as a term which includes ambient music as a subset of itself, though usually chillout music has a beat and is not completely ambient with no rhythm at all.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} From this scene developed ambient dub and ambient techno.^{[citation needed]} Intelligent Dance Music is another term synonymous with this scene.^{[citation needed]} Electroacoustic and acousmatic music are 'classical' art music forms that use electronic sound creation instead of or alongside acoustic instruments.^{[citation needed]} Glitch music is a subset of this work.^{[citation needed]} Some club groups have created live ambient music, mixing dub techniques with ambient textures and dance grooves.

Several second-wave black metal artists (most notably Burzum) experimented with dark ambient textures on some of their albums. The two genres still remain linked, however loosely, to this day, as evidenced by the music of Xasthur.^{[citation needed]}

Soundtracks

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Ambient music has been used in many television shows and motion pictures and is notable for contributing to their atmosphere, or soundscapes. 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 atmospheric music score by Toto and Brian Eno. Electronic musician Paddy Kingsland is noted for the music style he brought to several serials of the television series Doctor Who which had until then relied mostly on stock music cues or minimal music for much of its history.

Related and derivative genres

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Ambient dub

Ambient Dub was a phrase first coined by the now defunct Beyond record label in early 1990s in Birmingham, England. Their defining series of albums "Ambient Dub 1, 2, through to 4 inspired many, including sound engineer and producer Bill Laswell, who used the same phrase in his music project Divination, where he collaborates with different musicians on each album (though sometimes the same ones are on more than one of the albums such as Tetsu Inoue and others). Laswell also presented Ambient dub and Ambient house music on albums by his collaboration project Axiom Dub, featuring recording artists the Orb, Jah Wobble, Jaki Liebezeit and DJ Spooky.

Ambient dub involves the genre melding of dub styles made famous by King Tubby and other Jamaican sound artists with DJ inspired ambient electronica, complete with all the inherent drop-outs, echo, equalization and psychedelic electronic effects. As writer and performer David Toop explains in an early Beyond Records newsletter, "Dub music is like a long echo delay, looping through time...turning the rational order of musical sequences into an ocean of sensation."

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, Ma Ja Le, Vir Unis, James Johnson, Loren Nerell, Tuu and Robert Scott Thompson.

Some works by ambient pioneers such as Brian Eno, Laraaji or Popul Vuh who use a combination of traditional instruments (such as piano or hammered dulcimer or hand percussion, though usually processed through tape loops or other devices) and electronic instruments, would be considered organic ambient music in this sense. In the 70s and 80s 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. The album Second Nature by Bill Laswell, Tetsu Inoue, and Atom Heart is an ambient album that uses processed nature sounds, with reverb and echo to create a hypnotic environment.

Dark ambient

Main article: 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 an eerie feel. The Robert Rich/Lustmord collaboration album Stalker epitomizes this sub-genre. Related styles include ambient industrial and isolationist ambient. (See also List of dark ambient artists)

There are also a few black metal bands, such as Burzum and Beherit, who produce ambient music, be it not always with such a dark atmosphere. Illbient is another kind of dark ambient music that has more of a beat but still creates the spooky disturbing feelings.

Ambient techno

A rarefied, more specific re-orientation of ambient house, ambient techno is usually applied to artists such as B12, early Aphex Twin, the Black Dog, Higher Intelligence Agency, and Biosphere. It distinguished artists who combined the melodic and rhythmic approaches of techno and electro-use of drum machines; well-produced, thin-sounding electronics; minor-key melodies and alien-sounding samples and sounds-with the soaring, layered, aquatic atmospheres of beatless and experimental ambient. Most often associated with labels such as Apollo, GPR, Warp, and Beyond, the terminology morphed into "intelligent techno" after Warp released its Artificial Intelligence series, although the music's stylistic references remained largely unchanged.

Ambient house

Main article: Ambient house

Ambient house is a musical category founded in the late 1980s that is used to describe acid house featuring ambient music elements and atmospheres. Tracks in the ambient house genre typically feature four-on-the-floor beats, synth pads, and vocal samples integrated in an atmospheric style.^[7] Ambient house tracks generally lack a diatonic center and feature much atonality along with synthesized chords.

Ambient industrial

Main article: 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 Köner, 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.

Space music

Main article: Space music

Space music, also spelled spacemusic, includes music from the Ambient genre as well as a broad range of other genres with certain characteristics in common to create the experience of contemplative spaciousness.^[8][9][10] Space music ranges from simple to complex sonic textures sometimes lacking conventional melodic, rhythmic, or vocal components,^[11][12] generally evoking a sense of "continuum of spatial imagery and emotion",^[13] beneficial introspection, deep listening^[14] and sensations of floating, cruising or flying.^[15][16]

Space music is used by individuals for both background enhancement and foreground listening, often with headphones, to stimulate relaxation, contemplation, inspiration and generally peaceful expansive moods^[17] and soundscapes. Space music is also a component of many film soundtracks, commonly used in planetariums, and used as a relaxation aid and for meditation.^[18]

Hearts of Space is a well-known radio show and affiliated record label, specializing in Space Music since 1984, having released over 150 albums devoted to the music style. Notable artists who have brought elements of Ambient music to Space music include Michael Hedges, Michael Stearns, Constance Demby, Jean Michel Jarre, Robert Rich, Steve Roach, Numina, Dweller at the Threshold, Jonn Serrie, Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream (as well as the group's founder Edgar Froese).

Isolationist ambient music

Isolationist ambient music is also known as "isolationism", differentiated from other forms of ambient music in its use of repetition, dissonance, microtonality, and unresolved harmonies to create a sense of unresolved unease and desolation.^[19] 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.^[20] 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 and Chuck Hammer Guitarchitecture.

Notable musicians and works in chronological order

Main article: List of ambient artists

Notable films incorporating ambient music or sound design

Notable ambient music shows on radio and via satellite

• Echoes, is a daily two-hour music radio program hosted by John Diliberto featuring a soundscape of ambient, spacemusic, electronica, new acoustic and new music directions - founded in 1989 and syndicated on 130 radio stations in the USA.
• Hearts of Space, a program hosted by Stephen Hill and broadcast on NPR in the US since 1973.^[22][23]
• Musical Starstreams, a US-based commercial radio station and internet program produced, programmed and hosted by Forest since 1981.
• Star's End a radio show on 88.5 WXPN, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1976, it is the second longest-running ambient music radio show in the world.^[24]
• Ultima Thule Ambient Music, a weekly 90-minute show broadcast since 1989 on community radio across Australia.

See also

• Background music
• Black ambient
• Drone music
• Glitch
• Incidental music
• Intelligent dance music (IDM)
• Minimalist music
• List of ambient artists
• List of dark ambient artists
• List of electronic music genres

External links

• Ambient Techno in Sound on Sound
• Ambient Music Guide Comprehensive ambient music resource site.

References