Seems few know what 'ambient' means......

[Bobbotov]

If you want discussions about ambient music go to Ambient Online.

I have done ambient music but not exclusively. Sometimes it is boring. But so is naval gazing. Yet, it can be therapeutic like meditation. It is really a mood thing. If you have a diverse musical palette then it is just another form that can suit how you feel at the time. Personally, I couldn't listen to ambient all the time but there at times when it is just perfect. But then again I couldn't listen to any one genre exclusively. I am too eclectic.

[Aryaroman]

The way I see the so-called ambient music, think a lion's share of modern ambient music is video game music, maybe some film and TV-scores, but then again they see fewer releases and the releases don't see the ambient cues. There is a great amount of official and more unofficial ambient vg scores/cues/tracks, due to the fact that they're easy to rip off the game files and people seem to like listening to them outside the games. Ambient cues are naturally best for that, allthough, I heard some do listen to action cues while working out. Since someone mentioned Schulze, I'll add in my take. I like to listen to Schulze while jogging. Thor from Kontinuum is really great for jogging anyhow, lots of EQ-ed, light rhythm, I'd call it bordering on ambient.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkXeOMSwdZQ

So yes, speaking technically, ambient music is hard to define. I hear and feel so many things here. Sinister and unsettling themes, bit of unfamiliar, yet familiar odd nostalgia. I could imagine listening to this, exploring an old attic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRZkbKt ... 43&index=7

Few months back, I talked with a friend of a friend who opened up about coincidentally having a lot of vg-scores on his iPod, like myself and told me he liked to listen to them when he felt depressed, essentially as way of escaping reality. I think that's the essence of ambient music, the sonic capability to transfer one to another world or state of mind, universe, whatever... unfold the mind in ways drugs do, but without drugs. (But one can enjoy ambient with drugs if they prefer) No other genre springs to mind which does what ambient does. But then again it's not really a genre I guess. A classical piece or a slow guitar piece can be ambient too.

[zerocrossing]

I have to admit that I find a lot of ambient music pretty boring. A droning ambience that goes on for ten minutes with only the occasional gradual timbral variation over the course of a minute. I guess this is the Brian Eno philosophy of background music which creates a mood. Personally, I think there is a lot of room to explore more structured pieces with recurring motifs, even without a rhythmic element. I'm sure there are plenty of artists who have done that sort of thing, but if anyone can point me to some specific examples, I'd love to hear them.

You find ambient music boring much in the same way you'd find reading a dictionary boring if you were hoping for an exciting narrative. It's like walking though a building and saying, "Well there really isn't much plot to this story." (see what I did there? )

I came upon ambient feeling pretty much like you. Someone lent me Music for Airports and I remember thinking, "Wow, this is some intro... when does it start?" The problem was I was looking for a traditional structure that doesn't (shouldn't) exit in ambient music. It took me a while to "get it." I even experimented adding to the Eno tracks, which can be pretty fun. Anyway, ambient music is more akin to a structural element in architecture (I think Eno's said this or something like it) than to a stage play. Once you can sort of ditch that need for a traditional musical structure, you can discover that good ambient music is really amazing, just in a very different way for a different purpose.

My problem is in the fact that today a lot of music that is purely pop/dance "chill" instrumental music get's lumped in with ambient music just because it features some drones.

[zerocrossing]

The way I see the so-called ambient music, think a lion's share of modern ambient music is video game music, maybe some film and TV-scores, but then again they see fewer releases and the releases don't see the ambient cues. There is a great amount of official and more unofficial ambient vg scores/cues/tracks, due to the fact that they're easy to rip off the game files and people seem to like listening to them outside the games. Ambient cues are naturally best for that, allthough, I heard some do listen to action cues while working out. Since someone mentioned Schulze, I'll add in my take. I like to listen to Schulze while jogging. Thor from Kontinuum is really great for jogging anyhow, lots of EQ-ed, light rhythm, I'd call it bordering on ambient.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkXeOMSwdZQ

So yes, speaking technically, ambient music is hard to define. I hear and feel so many things here. Sinister and unsettling themes, bit of unfamiliar, yet familiar odd nostalgia. I could imagine listening to this, exploring an old attic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRZkbKt ... 43&index=7

Few months back, I talked with a friend of a friend who opened up about coincidentally having a lot of vg-scores on his iPod, like myself and told me he liked to listen to them when he felt depressed, essentially as way of escaping reality. I think that's the essence of ambient music, the sonic capability to transfer one to another world or state of mind, universe, whatever... unfold the mind in ways drugs do, but without drugs. (But one can enjoy ambient with drugs if they prefer) No other genre springs to mind which does what ambient does. But then again it's not really a genre I guess. A classical piece or a slow guitar piece can be ambient too.

I disagree about a classical piece being considered ambient, though all music can have ambient elements to it.

Also, about the drug part, one day when we have time, let me tell you about Cymatic Scan and some really strong LDS.

[chk071]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkXeOMSwdZQ

Hey, that's not bad really, i like the first track. At least some of the better KS stuff i heard. Still very repetitive, but then, that's Berlin School. Maybe i pre-judged.

[Aryaroman]

I disagree about a classical piece being considered ambient, though all music can have ambient elements to it.

Also, about the drug part, one day when we have time, let me tell you about Cymatic Scan and some really strong LDS.

I'll take your word for it. But, let's take that LSD and go to a live concert of classical music. Or a church concert.

Yes, I suppose it's more about the ambient elements. But there is a lot of great classical music that can be listened to as ambient. Gustav Holst' Venus springs to mind. I thought it was ambient at it's purest, if not the oldest, but most refined, the first time I heard it. That was in a live concert and ironically, the atmosphere really was otherwordly. Neptune is another great ambient piece.

[Numanoid]

Ambient music is the most environmental music

You don't need a powerful pumping electricity guzzler of a system to enjoy it

[Numanoid]

But there is a lot of great classical music that can be listened to as ambient.

+1

Shostakovich wrote this one, long before before most modern ambient artists were even born:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjHaY2KkoN8

[Aryaroman]

But there is a lot of great classical music that can be listened to as ambient.

+1

Shostakovich wrote this one, long before before most modern ambient artists were even born:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjHaY2KkoN8

I hate to break this line of fine classical ambient tunes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91DuxjzlLLU

There really are great ambient compositions whether one looks at that time "long before" or the past 100 years. Don't drones date back at least as far as when people still lived in caves?

[Echoes in the Attic]

Ambient music is really just music the creates an ambience with sound and does necessarily have the main characteristics of typical music - Rhythm, melody, harmony. Ambient music doesn't need these, and often doesn't have them. A lot of music today has ambience as well as these, but I would say strictly ambient music would have very little rhythm and melody. Perhaps slightly distinguishable harmonies. And I do think a lot of people confuse soft or mellow music to be ambient music.

[ariston]

Listening to and writing/performing ambient is a form of meditation to me. It really teaches you HOW to listen. Do it often and you'll begin to appreciate the little details while still being able to experience the whole.

[maschinelf]

Steve Roach is alright. What some ppl said about him being repetitive is spot on. Far more engaging artists around in my very humble opinion and according to my personal preference, like Biosphere, Tetsu inoue, pete namlook, rapoon etc. Even some psybient artists, like cell, carbon based lifeforms, huva network (all the ultimae artists basically), are far more interesting imho, and I tend to find even that stuff really cheesy sometimes.

[Numanoid]

Today I bought the two albums by Channel Light Vessel (ambient "super group" ), a grand total of just about €3

I would call that good bang for my bucks

[ccDuckett]

My problem is in the fact that today a lot of music that is purely pop/dance "chill" instrumental music get's lumped in with ambient music just because it features some drones.

Ambient music is really just music the creates an ambience with sound and does necessarily have the main characteristics of typical music - Rhythm, melody, harmony. Ambient music doesn't need these, and often doesn't have them. A lot of music today has ambience as well as these, but I would say strictly ambient music would have very little rhythm and melody. Perhaps slightly distinguishable harmonies. And I do think a lot of people confuse soft or mellow music to be ambient music.

I took a peek at this thread hoping this point was going to be made; I'm not one of those genre-nazis that thinks absolutely strict definitions need to be applied for a piece of music to fall under a umbrella term, but when I'm looking on YouTube or Soundcloud for new ambient works, it's annoying to wade through tons of DJ-mix beat-heavy material which is better labelled chill/psychill/psybient etc.

If you want discussions about ambient music go to Ambient Online.

Thank you, O fellow AO member Something expressed in a thread over there (which I agree with) is the idea that listeners often will drift between focused-mode and wallpaper-mode; therefore, a good goal to pursue while making an ambient piece, is to make either mode of listening equally rewarding... it's a lot harder than you might think! Here's an example where IMHO I didn't fail terribly: https://soundcloud.com/duckettl/innerspace-1977s-dreams

[J.Hartmann]

Coil, Nurse with Wound - some of their work is THE TOP!!!

Agreed.