Environment

The ambient is a musical genre, interpreted primarily with electronic musical instruments, in which emphasis is placed on tone and sound atmosphere above other parameters such as the musical structure or rhythm. Ambient compositions usually have a longer duration than those of other more popular genres, some pieces exceeding 30 minutes. Born in the United Kingdom in the 1970s, although with antecedents in France in the 19th century, its emergence was favored by the creation of new instruments and devices for producing electronic sounds, such as the synthesizer, and by previous work made in other genres and musical styles of an experimental nature. Compositions made by Mike Oldfield, Jean-Michel Jarre or Vangelis in the same decade were decisive in the appearance of the environment. Robert Fripp and Brian Eno popularized the term, while experimenting with loops of magnetic tape, especially after the appearance of the album Ambient 1: Music For Airports in 1978. Already in the 1990s groups and soloists such as The Orb or Aphex Twin achieved commercial success with songs of this genre that have continued until today.

BGM is said to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "understated" quality. In the words of Brian Eno "BGM should be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without imposing one in particular, it should be as ignorable as it is interesting". According to musicologist David Toop "ambient is more a way of listening than making music".

History

Claude Debussy

The first antecedent of the genre was the attendance of the composer Claude Debussy (1862-1918) at a concert of Javanese music performed by a gamelan at the Paris Exposition of 1889. According to the music critic David Toop this fact represents the beginning of the musical XX century and represents the first antecedent of the genre.

Erik Satie

In 1917, the French composer Erik Satie (1866-1925) also coined a musical term that preceded ambient music: "furniture music" ("Musique d'ameublement"). serve as background music, performed by live artists, who accompanied certain spaces or social events without anyone paying attention to them. In the presentation of the first piece of music composed in this style, it is indicated:

We urge them not to take into account the music and to behave in the intervals as if nothing happened. This music... pretends to make a contribution to life in the same way as a private conversation, a painting in a gallery, or the chair in which you may or may not be sitting.

Erik Satie, March 8, 1920, Paris.

Pierre Schaeffer

The initial theory and music of the electronic soundscape stems from the work of musicologist Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1995), considered the inventor of música concrete, who followed the futurists in classifying music into categories such as man-made, natural, short and long. Schaeffer made some of the first recordings of electronic music through the use of turntables and natural sounds, and by cutting tape, making the first use of experimental music and magnetic tape.

The term ambient is attributed to Brian Eno, who coined the term to refer to a different type of music than Muzak, the "canned music" of the 1950s. The first recording specifically to use the term is Ambient 1: Music For Airports (1978) which began a series of four albums. Faced with this, Eno intends to develop a type of music that requires active, dynamic and deep listening from the listener. In the terms of this musician, ambient is understood:

An environment is defined as an atmosphere, or an influence that surrounds us: a nuance. My intention is to produce original pieces apparently (but not exclusively) for particular moments and situations in order to build a small but versatile catalog of environmental music that fits with a variety of moods and atmospheres.

While the enlatada music serves the companies to standardize environments leaving their acoustics and atmospheric idiosyncrasy blank, the ambient music aims to enhance these. While conventional background music is produced to dispossess all sense of doubt and uncertainty (and thus all genuine interest) to music, the atmosphere music retains those qualities. And while his intention is to "abrillantar" the environment by adding stimuli to it (and thus supposedly relieve the tedium of routine tasks and balance the natural bass and ups of the body itself) the ambient music aims to induce calm and a space to think.

Mike Oldfield

In addition to the fundamental influence of Brian Eno, there were other solo musicians who contributed to the development of the genre since the 70s such as Wendy Carlos, Mike Oldfield, Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis, among others. Also groups like Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream and the Hafler Trio can be mentioned as notable influences.

1990s: ambient and electronic music

Richard D. James (Aphex Twin)

In the early 1990s a large, diverse and not necessarily related group of electronic music musicians began to introduce ambient elements into their music. This tendency was progressively accentuated, carrying out not only pieces with elements of the genre, but also works that were directly categorized as ambient house, ambient techno, intelligent dance music or simply ambient. Although a song doesn't have to be devoid of rhythm to be considered ambient, many of these musicians entered the genre by abstracting from the techno or house they had practiced until then, minimizing or eliminating the most recognizable elements. of the rhythmic pattern. A prototype ambient theme from the first half of the 90s is based on synth pads, in a way reminiscent of its use in krautrock, while incorporating a whole series of sounds and techniques typical of the music of dance, like certain rhythms or breaks or the typical sound of rave music.

Global Communication

At first this type of music was called "Chill Out" a term derived from the club culture of the early 90s linked to the use of ecstasy. At this time it was common to have an area called Sala Chill Out in nightclubs that people used to relax. In these rooms, a calmer type of music was heard than dance music, with sounds that oscillated between dub and ambient designed to relax the mind. A seminal group of this type of music is The KLF and their album Chill Out (1990).

Garry Cobain (The Future Sound of London)

Ambient is developed at this time by musicians such as The Orb, Aphex Twin, Pete Namlook, James Bernard, Geir Jenssen's Biosphere or Higher Intelligence Agency. The scene that developed in England closely linked to the IDM stands out. Among its most representative records are Selected Ambient Works 85-92 by Aphex Twin, 76:14 by Global Communication, Accelerator or ISDN by The Future Sound of London or the Artificial Intelligence series of publications by the record label Warp Records.

Later on, the ambient is reworked and used by musicians who are located in the field of pure electronic experimentation such as Pole, Mika Vainio or Ryoji Ikeda.

Soundtracks

Background music has been widely used as background music for video games, television spots, and movies. Some examples are the works of Brian Eno as a composer of music for David Lynch films or the electronic musician Paddy Kingsland who composed the music for the television series Doctor Who. To portray an apocalyptic world, the popular Fallout video game trilogy uses this musical genre, although there are other examples in this industry.

Related or derived styles

Ambient Dub

Bill Laswell

Ambiental Dub is a term coined by the defunct Beyond Records label to describe the sound of a series of eponymous recordings. The style is characterized by fusing elements of ambient with others typical of Jamaican dub and refers to any form of rhythmic ambiance that utilizes the tastes, textures, and production techniques (for example, reverb, emphasis on bass and percussion, or heavy use of effects). Although the term has lost its popularity, due to the mix of genres that electronica has experienced in the XXI century, it remains useful for demarcating the denser, more electronic applications of dub from the more derivative styles of slow-tempo hip-hop and atmospheric-tempo music. The artist Bill Laswell is an example of a composer and performer who can be categorized under this denomination.

Environmental Organic

Steve Roach

The style called Organic Ambient fuses the usual electronic instruments of the genre with other acoustic and electric instruments. It is also characterized by incorporating influences from the so-called world music. The music here seeks harmony with the natural environment rather than calm in a disco. Among the artists categorized in this style are Michael Stearns, Robert Rich, Steve Roach, Spirit Hertz, Vidna Obmana, O Yuki Conjugate, Vir Unis, James Johnson, Loren Nerell, Tuu or Robert Scott Thompson.

Dark Ambient

Bohren & der Club of Gore

Dark Ambient, also called Industrial Ambient, is a general term referring to any type of ambient music with a dark sensibility (translation of "dark& #34;), oppressive or distressing. It is characterized by presenting very attenuated rhythms, or completely non-existent, to which are added disturbing instrumentation of keyboards, unsettling samples and treated guitar effects. Like most styles related to electronic music from the 1990s, it is a loose term and many artists who have practiced it move in or out of the genre as new releases are released. In the list of musicians that are part of this style are industrial experimenters, Japanese noise artists or independent rockers: Coil, CTI, Lustmord, Nine Inch Nails, Susumu Yokota, Hafler Trio, Nocturnal Emissions, Zoviet France, Scorn, PGR, Thomas Köner, Controlled Bleeding, Deutsch Nepal, False Mirror, Lull, Bohren & der Club of Gore, Cold Summer, Controlled Bleeding The Poisoner and the collaborative project between Robert Rich and Lustmord on the album Stalker.

Illbient

DJ Spooky

Circumscribed to the area of Brooklyn (New York, United States), although there are various variants of Illbient, with this denomination it refers to a variant of ambient characterized by the use of soundscapes based on dub, hip hop-style use of sampling, and a comprehensive approach to rhythm programming that encompasses different styles of world music and electronic music. Producers such as DJ Olive or DJ Spooky stand out, who was the artist who defined the rules of this style.

Ambient house

Ambient house is a classification that can be found towards the end of the 1980s. It is a type of acid house that incorporated typical ambient elements and atmospheres. The genre does not leave aside the four-four rhythm, the voice and the sounds of strings and synthesizer but, at the same time, it shows an atmospheric and enveloping sound. It was used to categorize compositions by artists such as The Orb, The KLF, Irresistible Force, Future Sound of London or Orbital, referring to dance music that was not intended for the dance floor of a club. It was later superseded by different categorizations and is deprecated.

Space Music

Tangerine Dream

The so-called Space Music is a type of music that includes elements of both ambient and other genres used to create a contemplative experience. Linked to easy listening, elevator music and lounge music, it is a difficult term to define, as it has changed over the last 50 years, but it is usually described as "calm, hypnotic and soulful&#34 music.;. Notable artists include Ash Ra Tempel, Michael Stearns, Constance Demby, Enigma, Jean-Michel Jarre, Manuel Göttsching, The Cosmic Jokers, Jean Ven Robert Hal, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Peter Baumann, Robert Rich, Steve Roach, Numina, Dweller at the Threshold, Deepspace, Telomere, Jonn Serrie, Klaus Schulze, Vlisa, Tangerine Dream, Yeiker, Vangelis and Spirit Hertz.

Ambient pop

Ambient pop is an extension of dream pop, possessing a form common to conventional pop, while its textures and electronic atmospheres reflect the meditative qualities of environmental. It is influenced by krautrock's lock groove melodies, but is less abrasive.

Environmental Isolationist

The Isolationist Ambient can differ from other types of ambient in its use of repetition, dissonance, microtonality, and unresolved harmonies to create a sense of bewilderment, meaninglessness, and desolation. The term was popularized by The Wire magazine in the mid-1990s and by the compilation Ambiental 4: Isolationism (1994). However, it is considered the release of the album Permafrost (1993) by Thomas Köner, suggesting ragged icy sound fields and low-frequency explosions, the beginning of this musical style.

Significant musicians and works in chronological order