Ambient

Revision as of 08:53, 6 May 2014

Originating Location: UK

Originating Era: 1970s

Key Artists

Brian Eno
Harold Budd
The KLF

Key Albums

Brian Eno - Music For Airports
The KLF - Chill Out

Genre Description

A genre of electronic music that is based at least partially on classical composer Erik Satie's work about using music as a portion of the ambient sound -- where the listener actually isn't sure if they're listening to anything at all. It tends to be repetative though unobtrusive and often subtly shifting. There have been other forms of Ambient music as well; in the 1990s resurgence of the genre (spurred by The KLF's Chill Out album), a new form of Ambient, Ambient House emerged, which used more in the way of found sound and was somewhat more intrusive. With Ambient House, you can still get lost in the soundscapes of the music, but there's no longer any question that you're listening to music -- it no longer really blends in with its surroundings. Brian Eno, though recording almost exclusively Ambient recordings for decades has recently said that he feels he's said all he can say with the genre, and has moved back into doing vocal records (though his recent Another Day On Earth is not a rock record like some was expecting -- though it's a vocal record that's based on using song structures instead of soundscapes as Ambient usually is, the record is very informed by Brian Eno's work in this genre.