Ambient music? What is it?
 

I didn't think this was much of an issue but after having a converation with a bunch of people I found a bunch of very distinct viewpoints as to what ambient music was and some of which contradicted others.

What are your viewpoints as to what makes ambient music? Is it not isolated to electronical? is it the focal point on sounds rather then notes? Is is music with no distinct sounds? Anything that is background music?

Those were some of the examples I can recall people saying.

hmm interesting topic.

i'd say it's an amalgamation of the views you present.

for myself the background aspect of it is very crucial. for the most part, good ambient music shouldn't feature any real jarring or bombastic elements. it's something i find good to listen to while trying to get to sleep but not necessarily specific to background music, a cinematic score is not necessarily ambient.

i wouldn't call it specific to electronic music either, although it's predominantly made with electronics. generally speaking ambient music that isn't made with electronics usually gets dumped into the 'shoegaze' genre.

i think the idea of the focus being on sounds over notes is spot on. i don't necessarily agree that it's music without distinctive sound though. if anything i think too many musicians are conditioned to perform based on the instrument they use, as in if you pick up a guitar you're 'supposed' to play guitar (ie: chords or riffs or lead).

Ambient music evolved from the experimental electronic music of '70s synth-based artists like Brian Eno and Kraftwerk, and the trance-like techno dance music of the '80s. Ambient is a spacious, electronic music that is concerned with sonic texture, not songwriting or composing. It's frequently repetitive and it all sounds the same to the casual listener, even though there are quite significant differences between the artists. Ambient became a popular cult music in the early '90s, thanks to ambient-techno artists like the Orb and Aphex Twin.

These are the liner notes to Eno's first album in his ambient series (Music for Airports).


"The concept of music designed specifically as a background feature in the environment was pioneered by Muzak Inc. in the fifties, and has since come to be known generically by the term Muzak. The connotations that this term carries are those particularly associated with the kind of material that Muzak Inc. produces - familiar tunes arranged and orchestrated in a lightweight and derivative manner. Understandably, this has led most discerning listeners (and most composers) to dismiss entirely the concept of environmental music as an idea worthy of attention.

Over the past three years, I have become interested in the use of music as ambience, and have come to believe that it is possible to produce material that can be used thus without being in any way compromised. To create a distinction between my own experiments in this area and the products of the various purveyors of canned music, I have begun using the term Ambient Music.

An ambience is defined as an atmosphere, or a surrounding influence: a tint. My intention is to produce original pieces ostensibly (but not exclusively) for particular times and situations with a view to building up a small but versatile catalogue of environmental music suited to a wide variety of moods and atmospheres.

Whereas the extant canned music companies proceed from the basis of regularizing environments by blanketing their acoustic and atmospheric idiosyncracies, Ambient Music is intended to enhance these. Whereas conventional background music is produced by stripping away all sense of doubt and uncertainty (and thus all genuine interest) from the music, Ambient Music retains these qualities. And whereas their intention is to `brighten' the environment by adding stimulus to it (thus supposedly alleviating the tedium of routine tasks and levelling out the natural ups and downs of the body rhythms) Ambient Music is intended to induce calm and a space to think.

Ambient Music must be able to accomodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting."

-Brian Eno

Orb and Aphex are IDM

way to plagiarize poopsniffer

http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=77:226

and while aphex twin is far better known as an IDM pioneer, his selected ambient work albums are top notch. SAW2 is still a fantastic listen.

Um, yeah how about primary sources?

This excludes alot of aphex, because its notorious for being both jarring and bombastic.

This includes alot of aphex twins because most of his sounds are extremely abstract and not used by others. And his beats are almost never polished rather randomly thrown around.

So with what you said above is aphex more or less ambient because those 2 lines seem to suggest he is and isnt ambient @ the same time.

He's a walking contradiction; and a moron. Just ignore him.

Exactly what will be happening to you if you carry on name calling. It's not the first time I have read some disparaging comments from yourself in your very short stay here.

This is why I made the topic because I'm not sure if you really can pinpoint what ambient music is.

I think Ambient is whatever you personally feel comfortable with and what sets your mind at ease or makes your current situation relaxing. I personally think Pink floyd Animals is Ambient-but probably only to me. When Ambient is discussed or examples given then it tends to be repetitive rhythms played on as few instruments as possible with few peaks and troughs. It is all subjective though.

i wouldn't call aphex twin ambient, he's released some great ambient records but he's not specifically an ambient 'artist' if you will.

like any other style of music you can't just build up a quick checklist and say 'yup, yup, nope, yup' and call something a style. the easiest way i can define ambient music is a very slow paced electronic music with a focus on the maximum amount of sounds produced from the least amount of notes.

This is the song that really prompted me to ask what ambient music is. This guy is notorious for dubstep, but this song I felt might be ambient.



Anyone know why the video isnt working?

Fixed. You only have to include the code after the = sign in utube tags. The rest is'nt needed.

I personally don't find that Ambient. The bass is too intusive. I'm sure you have checked out Burial? Who are indeed Ambient and have a Dubstep tag.

i wouldn't call that skream track ambient either.

do all dubstep types sample the same 6 songs? this is like the 4th version i hear of this track.

either way, it's too busy to call it ambient in my book. there's also too much dynamic distinction between the samples to draw attention away from the minimalism that provides another cornerstone to ambient music.

this is what i'd call a prime example of ambient music

This is an interesting site dedicated to Ambient.

AmbientMusicGuide.com - A Guide To Essential Ambient & Downtempo Albums

I have to enjoyed reading it but have the odd disagreement. My fav Dead Can Dance are IMO not ambient but be that as it may as Jackhammer suggested it is sometimes in the ear of the listener.

great link....

but i must add that ambient music is extremely hard to define..i posed this question to a friend of mine and the two things that came up the most was taht it should contain relaxing elemants and it must be clean i.e not alot must be happening..
now thats where the confusion occurs where different people have different views on what the relaxing elements are..i personally like to hear a wicked guita solo(with tones of flanger)ontop of only a slow acoustic riff...gets me all relaxed...but thats just me...

i'd have to assume the dead can dance entry leans more towards the downtempo aspect of the site. same as the way they list 'air' which is a great band, good and mellow, but not ambient.

actually the mention of air, dead can dance, and pink floyd in this thread makes me wonder if one of the main points of contention into what is or what is not ambient revolves around an individual's taste in regards of what they like to listen to when they want to relax.

i'd go so far as to say that 'relaxation of the listener' is another fundamental aspect of ambient music.

Agree mr dave. In a "pure" sense Ambient to me is the classical style pioneered by Eno, as an example, but when the term is used generically in even Noise rock I understand the reasoning.

Have you ever listened to Dark Ambient? I was given a file last year by a group called Inade. I was rather impressed. if you have recommendation's along that line I would be more than interested.

i've heard of 'dark ambient' but it generally comes from people who consider it to be instrumental nine inch nails tracks.

as for 'inade' i'm just sampling what youtube has to offer and the first thing that comes to mind is the 'delerium cordia' album by fantomas. keep in mind, DC is something like a 74 minute track, and not representative of the rest of the bands work (which is generally far more chaotic).

it also reminds me a bit of Sunn 0))) without the screaming.

Fantomas I know nothing about but thought they were more a Metal band.

yeah that's probably the easiest classification for them but they're not a typical metal act by any means. the album i mention was created as a 'soundtrack for a surgery that never happened' or something along those lines. as i said it's not representative of the group but would definitely fit in with the 'inade' sampling i got yesterday.

I'm interested. I will have to check it out.