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  stylistic Origins 20th Century Classical Music , Electronic Art Music , Krautrock
  cultural Origins 1970s
  instruments Electronic Musical Instrument s, some ambient artists use traditional instrumentation of almost any variety
  popularity Low
  derivatives Ambient House - Ambient Techno - Drum And Bass - New Age
  subgenrelist List of electronic music genres
  subgenres Dark Ambient - Dronology - Lowercase
  fusiongenres Ambient House - Illbient - Psybient - Ambient Industrial
  other Topics Ambient Music Artists


Ambient music is a loosely defined Musical Genre that incorporates elements of a number of different styles - including Jazz , Electronic Music , New Age , Rock And Roll , modern Classical Music , Reggae , Traditional , World and even Noise .

"'' 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 {Link without Title} , September 1978)


OVERVIEW


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 '' 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 Effect s. 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 , 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.


DERIVATIVE FORMS AND SUB-GENRES



Organic ambient music


Organic ambient music is characterised by integration of 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

See Also: 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'''.


Ambient industrial

See Also: 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 .


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.


NOTABLE MUSICIANS AND WORKS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER


''Main article:'' List Of Ambient Artists



NOTABLE FILMMAKERS AND WORKS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER


''Main article:'' Film Director



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