Exposed Artists in Ambient
| 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. It is chiefly identifiable as having an overarching atmospheric context.
The term "ambient music" was first coined by Brian Eno in the mid-1970s to refer to music that would envelop the listener without drawing attention to itself, 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 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 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', 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 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. 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, 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. substyles: Ambient Dub Berlin School Dark ambient New Age taken from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_music |
