Ambient music
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| Ambient music | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins: | 20th century classical music, Electronic Music, Minimalist music, Kosmische Musik, Musique concrète, Space rock |
| Cultural origins: | 1970s, Europe |
| Typical instruments: | Electronic musical instruments, Electroacoustic music instruments, and any other instruments or sounds (including World instruments) with electronic processing |
| Mainstream popularity: | Niche |
| Derivative forms: | Ambient house - Ambient techno - Drum and bass - New Age - Chillout - Downtempo |
| Subgenres | |
| Dark ambient - Drone music - Lowercase - Black ambient | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Ambient dub - Illbient - Psybient - Ambient industrial -Ambient house - Space music | |
| Other topics | |
| Ambient music artists - List of electronic music genres - Furniture music | |
Ambient music refers to a kind of music that envelops the listener without drawing attention to itself [1]
| “ | '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 [1], September 1978) | ” |
Contents |
[edit] History
The term "ambient music" was first coined by Brian Eno in the mid-1970s to refer to music 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 phrase "ambient music", he is also quick to reference the works and influence of Erik Satie and John Cage, in particular Cage's use of chance as in using the I Ching to influence the contents of a musical composition. 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.
Many of the works of turn of the century French composer Erik Satie are regarded as predecessors to 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'), 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.
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 (Musique Concrete). Even his work can be seen as preempted by Schopenhauer'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.
Ambient music can be seen as a kind of minimalism that was an influence on Eno's groundbreaking style. John Cage created the ultimate minimalist work with his 4'33", three periods of silence first played on the piano, which can also be considered ambient music because it causes the audience to become aware of the ambient sound surrounding them. Cage inspired minimalist composers such as La Monte Young, Morton Feldman, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass.
Early albums by Pink Floyd (such as Ummagumma and Meddle) 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. 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.
[edit] Influences on other genres
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).[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.
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.
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. 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.
[edit] Soundtracks
Ambient music has been used in many television shows and motion pictures and is notable for contributing to their atmosphere, or soundscapes. 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, comic relief, 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 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.
[edit] Related forms and styles
[edit] Ambient dub
Ambient Dub was a phrase first coined by the now defunct Beyond record label in early 1990s in Birmingham, England as well as later from noteworthy electronic musician and re-mixer Bill Laswell, especially 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 on the liner notes of such defining ambient dub releases as "Earthjuice" and the "Ambient Dub" (A.D.) series of releases on Waveform Records, "Dub music is like a long echo delay, looping through time...turning the rational order of musical sequences into an ocean of sensation."
[edit] 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, Oophoi, Jeff Grenke, Deepspace,[2] O Yuki Conjugate, James Johnson, Neal Merrick AKA Neal Merrick Blackwood, Loren Nerell, Dolmen and Tuu.
Some works by ambient pioneers such as Brian Eno, which use a combination of traditional instruments (such as piano, though usually processed through tape loops or other devices) 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.
[edit] 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, Alio Die's Meiyju, 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 cho to create a hypnotic environment.
[edit] 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. Robert Rich's collaboration with Lustmord on 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 Distantrumbling, 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.
[edit] Ambient techno
A rarified, 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 808 and 909 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.
[edit] 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.[3] Ambient house tracks generally lack a diatonic center and feature much atonality along with synthesized chords.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.[4][5][6] Space music ranges from simple to complex sonic textures sometimes lacking conventional melodic, rhythmic, or vocal components,[7][8] generally evoking a sense of "continuum of spatial imagery and emotion",[9] beneficial introspection, deep listening[10] and sensations of floating, cruising or flying.[11][12]
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[13] 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.[14]
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, Deepspace[15],Constance Demby, Jean Michel Jarre, Giles Reaves, Robert Rich, Steve Roach, Dweller at the Threshold, Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream (as well as the group's founder Edgar Froese).
[edit] 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.[2] 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.
[edit] Notable musicians and works in chronological order
| Artist name | Influential works |
|---|---|
| Erik Satie | 1917 - Furniture music (1) 1920 - Furniture music (2) 1923 - Furniture music (3) |
| Edgard Varèse | 1934 - Ecuatorial |
| Pierre Schaeffer | 1948 - Etude aux Chemins de Fer |
| Terry Riley | 1964 - In C 1968 - A Rainbow in Curved Air |
| Miles Davis | 1969 - In A Silent Way 1974 - Big Fun for "Orange Lady" 1974 - Get Up With It for "He Loved Him Madly" |
| Popol Vuh | 1970 - Affenstunde 1971 - In den Gärten Pharaos |
| Cluster | 1971 - Cluster 1972 - Cluster II 1974 - Zuckerzeit 1976 - Soweisoso 1977 - Cluster & Eno (with Brian Eno) 1978 - After The Heat (with Brian Eno) 1979 - Grosses Wasser 1980 - Live In Vienna (with Joshi Farnbauer) 1981 - Curiosum 1991 - Apropos Cluster 1995 - One Hour 1997 - Japan 1996 Live 1997 - First Encounter Tour 1996 |
| Pink Floyd | 1971 - Meddle |
| Tangerine Dream | 1971 - Alpha Centauri 1972 - Zeit 1974 - Phaedra 1975 - Rubycon 1975 - Ricochet 1976 - Stratosfear — 2000 - The Seven Letters from Tibet |
| Wendy Carlos | 1972 - Sonic Seasonings |
| Klaus Schulze | 1972 - Irrlicht 1973 - Cyborg 1974 - Blackdance 1975 - Timewind 1976 - Moondawn 1977 - Mirage 1977 - Body Love Vol. 2 1978 - X 1979 - Dune 1995 - In Blue — With Pete Namlook: 1994 - Dark Side of the Moog I - Wish you were there 1994 - Dark Side of the Moog II - A saucerful of ambience 2002 - Dark Side of the Moog IX - Set the controls for the heart of the mother 2005 - Dark Side of the Moog X - Astro know me domina |
| Can | 1973 - Future Days 1974 - Soon Over Babaluma |
| Gong | 1973 - Flying Teapot for "The Octave Doctors and the Crystal Machine" 1974 - You for "A Sprinkling of Clouds" |
| Fripp & Brian Eno | 1973 - No Pussyfooting 1975 - Evening Star 2005 - The Equatorial Stars |
| Kraftwerk | 1975 - Radio-Activity |
| Harmonia | 1974 - Musik Von Harmonia 1997 - Tracks and Traces |
| Neu! | 1975 - Neu! '75 |
| Brian Eno | 1975 - Another Green World 1975 - Discreet Music 1978 - Ambient 1 / Music For Airports 1980 - Fourth World 1 / Possible Musics (with Jon Hassell) 1982 - Ambient 4 / On Land 1983 - Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks 1985 - Thursday Afternoon |
| Steve Reich | 1976-1978 - Music for 18 Musicians |
| Jean Michel Jarre | 1976 - Oxygene 1978 - Equinoxe 1990 - Waiting for Cousteau |
| Chuck Hammer | 1977 - Guitarchitecture |
| Michael Stearns | 1978 - Ancient Leaves 1979 - Morning Jewel 1981 - Planetary Unfolding 1984 - M'ocean 1988 - Encounter 2000 - Within |
| Earthstar | 1978 - Salterbarty Tales 1981 - Atomkraft? Nein, Danke! 1982 - Humans Only |
| Robert Fripp | 1981 - Let The Power Fall 1998 - The Gates Of Paradise |
| Steve Roach | 1984 - Structures from Silence 1988 - Quiet Music 1988 - Dreamtime Return 1993 - Origins 1994 - Artifacts 1996 - The Magnificent Void 2000 - Early Man 2003 - Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces |
| Coil | 1984 - How to Destroy Angels 1998 - Time Machines |
| The KLF | 1990 - Chill Out |
| Enigma | 1990 - MCMXC A.D. |
| The Orb | 1991 - The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld 1992 - U.F.Orb |
| David Morley | 1992 - Evolution 1993 - The Shuttle EP 1995 - Angular Art 1998 - Stardancer 1998 - Tilted 2007 - Ghosts |
| Biosphere | 1992 - Microgravity 1994 - Patashnik 1997 - Substrata |
| Aphex Twin | 1992 - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 1994 - Selected Ambient Works Volume II |
| Pete Namlook | 1992 - Silence I 1993 - Air I 1994 - Air II 1996 - Outland 2 (with Bill Laswell) 1996 - The Fires of Ork (with Geir Jensen of Biosphere) |
| Moby aka Voodoo Child | 1993 - Ambient 1996 - The End of Everything (as Voodoo Child) 2005 - Hotel:Ambient (Disc Two) (limited edition only) |
| Neptune Towers (Gylve Nagell aka Fenriz) | 1994 - Caravans to Empire Algol 1995 - Transmissions from Empire Algol |
| Robert Leiner | 1994 - Visions of the past |
| Global Communication | 1994 - 76:14 |
| Alpha Wave Movement | 1995 - Transcendence 2000 - Drifted Into Deeper Lands |
| Burzum (Varg Vikernes) | 1996 - Filosofem (tracks 4 to 6) 1997- Daudi Baldrs 1999 - Hlidskjalf |
| LVX Nova | 1996 - LVX Nova (self-titled) |
| MK Emre | 1996 - The Tower 2006 - Solace 2007 - Fairy Tales /in six volumes |
| Stargarden | 1998 - Ambient Excursions 1999 - The Art of Analog Diversion 2001 - Step Off 2003 - Music for Modern Listening |
| Sounds From the Ground | 1996 - Kin 2000 - Terra Firma 2004 - Luminal 2006 - High Rising |
| Future Sound of London | 1994 - Lifeforms 1994 - ISDN |
| Vir Unis | 1999 - The Undivided Flow |
| Richard Bone | 1998 - The Spectral Ships 1999 - Ether Dome |
| Stars of the Lid | 1999 - Avec Laudenum 2001 - The Tired Sounds Of Stars Of The Lid |
| Darshan Ambient | 1999 - The End Of Days 2005 - Autumn's Apple |
| Marvin Ayres | 1999 - Cellosphere 2002 - Neptune |
| Ishq | 2001 - Ishq 2001 - Orchid |
| Rados | 2001 - The Transparent Man 2001 - My soul is at the end of the universe |
| William Basinski | 2002 - The River 2002-2003 - Disintegration Loops I, II, III and IV |
| Animal Collective | 2002 - Hollinndagain 2003 - Here Comes The Indian |
| Deepspace | 2007 - The Barometric Sun 2007 - Slow Moving Lifeforms Volume 1 (July 2007) 2007 - The Barometric Sea |
| Bob Lanois | 2006 - Snake Road |
| Landschaft | 2003 - Indistinct Borders 2006 - Karelia 2007 - Jute 2007 - Nostalgia 2007 - Tone Poem for Hidden Places Viewed From a Train 2007 - Concerto No1 2007 - and now the trembling light |
[edit] Notable films incorporating ambient music or sound design
| Film | Director | Composer or Sound Designer | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 - Forbidden Planet | Fred Wilcox | Louis and Bebe Barron (electronic tonalities) | This soundtrack definitely was ahead of its time with its spacey ambient sounds |
| 1968 - 2001: A Space Odyssey | Stanley Kubrick | György Ligeti (composer "Monolith" and "Beyond Saturn" themes) Winston Ryder (sound editor) | "A cutting edge ambient, multimedia accomplishment...the ambient revolution, now and for the past couple of decades, owes much of its impetus to the achievement of 2001." — D.B. Spalding [3] |
| 1971 - THX 1138 | George Lucas | Lalo Schifrin (composer) Walter Murch (sound design) | Murch's "Theater of Noise" offered as alternate soundtrack on Director's Cut DVD |
| 1972 - Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes | Werner Herzog | Popol Vuh (composer) | |
| 1976 - Sebastiane | Derek Jarman | Brian Eno (composer) | |
| 1977 - Eraserhead | David Lynch | Alan Splet (sound design) | Features innovative ambient noise sound design in place of musical score. |
| 1977 - Sorcerer | William Friedkin | Tangerine Dream (Composer) | |
| 1980 - The Elephant Man | David Lynch | Alan Splet (sound design) | |
| 1986 - The Hitcher | Robert Harmon | Mark Isham (composer) | |
| 1989 - For All Mankind | Al Reinert | Brian Eno (composer) | Score released as Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks |
| 1997 - Insomnia | Erik Skjoldbjærg | Biosphere (composer) | |
| 2001 - Traffic | Steven Soderbergh | Cliff Martinez (composer) Brian Eno (composer- end theme) | |
| 2002 - Solaris | Steven Soderbergh | Cliff Martinez (composer) | |
| 2005 - Me and You and Everyone We Know | Miranda July | Michael Andrews (composer) | |
| 2006 - The Prestige (film) | Christopher Nolan | David Julyan (composer) | |
Ambient music | |
|---|---|
| Ambient house - Dark ambient - Drone music - Illbient - Lowercase - New Age - Psybient | |
| Other electronic dance music genres | Ambient - Breakbeat - Drum and bass - Electro - UK garage - Hardcore - House - Industrial - Synthpop - Techno - Trance - Triphop |
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