| Ambient music | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | 20th century classical music Electronic art music Minimalist music Drone music[1] Psychedelic rock Krautrock Space rock New Age |
| Cultural origins | 1970s, United Kingdom |
| Typical instruments | Electronic musical instruments, Electroacoustic music instruments, and any other instruments or sounds (including World instruments) with electronic processing |
| Mainstream popularity | Low, mainly based in the European Union |
| Derivative forms | Ambient house - Ambient techno - Chillout - Downtempo |
| Subgenres | |
| Dark ambient - Drone music[1] - Lowercase - Black ambient - Detroit techno | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Ambient dub - Illbient - Psybient - Ambient industrial -Ambient house - Space music | |
| Other topics | |
| Ambient music artists - List of electronic music genres - Furniture music | |
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric",[2] "visual"[3] or "unobtrusive" quality.
The roots of ambient music go back to the early 20th century. In particular, the period just before and after the first world war gave rise to two significant Art Movements that encouraged experimentation with various musical (and non musical) forms, while rejecting more conventional, tradition-bound styles of expression. These art movements were called Futurism and Dadaism. Aside from being known for their painters and writers, these movements also attracted experimental and 'anti-music' musicians such as Francesco Balilla Pratella of the pre-war Futurism movement and Kurt Schwitters and Erwin Schulhoff of the post-war Dadaist movement. The latter movement played an influential role in the musical development of Erik Satie.
As an early 20th century French composer, Erik Satie utilised such Dadaist-inspired explorations to create an early form of ambient / background music that he labeled "furniture music" (Musique d'ameublement). This he described as being the sort of music that could be played during a dinner to create a background atmosphere for that activity, rather than serving as the focus of attention.[4] From this greater historical perspective, Satie is the link between these early Art movements and the work of Brian Eno, who as an art school trained musician, had an appreciation of both the music and art worlds.
Alongside these early developments, more conventional forms of music began to take note of such experimentation and in turn gave rise to future influence of ambient in the work of modernists composers such as John Cage and Morton Feldman as well as minimalist composers such as La Monte Young,[5][6] Terry Riley,[6] Philip Glass,[6] and Steve Reich.[6]
Brian Eno is generally credited with coining the term "Ambient Music" in the mid-1970s to refer to music that, as he stated, can be either "actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener", and that exists on the "cusp between melody and texture."[4] Eno, who describes himself as a "non-musician", termed his experiments in sound as "treatments" rather than as traditional performances. Eno used the word "ambient" to describe music that creates an atmosphere that puts the listener into a different state of mind; having chosen the word based on the Latin term "ambire", "to surround".[7]
The album notes accompanying Eno's 1978 release Ambient 1: Music for Airports include a manifesto describing the philosophy behind his Ambient music: "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."[8]
Eno has acknowledged the influence of Erik Satie and John Cage. In particular, Eno was aware of Cage's use of chance such as throwing the I Ching to directly affect the creation of a musical composition. Eno then utilised a similar method of weaving randomness into his compositional structures. This approach was manifested in Eno's creation of Oblique Strategies, where he used a set of specially designed cards to create various sound dilemmas that in turn, were resolved by exploring various open ended paths, until a resolution to the musical composition revealed itself. Eno also acknowledged influences of the drone music of La Monte Young (of whom he said, "La Monte Young is the daddy of us all"[5]) and of the mood music of Miles Davis and Teo Macero, especially their 1974 epic piece, "He Loved Him Madly", about which Eno wrote, "that piece seemed to have the 'spacious' quality that I was after...it became a touchstone to which I returned frequently."[7]
Beyond the major influence of Brian Eno, other musicians and bands added to the growing nucleus of music that evolved around the development of "Ambient Music". While not an exhaustive list, one cannot ignore the parallel influences of Wendy Carlos, who produced the original music piece called "Timesteps" which was then used as the filmscore to Clockwork Orange, as well as her later work Sonic Seasonings. Other significant artists such as Mike Oldfield, Jean Michel Jarre and Vangelis have all added to or directly influenced the evolution of Ambient music. Adding to these individual artists, works by groups such as Pink Floyd, through their albums Ummagumma : Meddle and Obscured by Clouds. Other groups including Yes with their album "Tales from Topographic Oceans" , the Hafler Trio and Kraftwerk have all added distinctive aspects to the growing and diversified genre of Ambient Music.
1986 saw the release of the prototype ambient-house / chill out album Designer Beatnik by Dr Calculus mdma. By the early 1990s artists such as The Orb, Aphex Twin, Seefeel, the Irresistible Force, Geir Jenssen's Biosphere, and the Higher Intelligence Agency were being referred to by the popular music press as ambient house, ambient techno, IDM or simply "ambient" according to the liner notes of Brian Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports:
| “ | Ambient Music is intended to induce calm and a space to think. | ” |
So-called 'Chillout' began as term deriving from British ecstacy culture which was originally applied in relaxed downtempo 'chillout rooms' outside of the main dance floor where ambient, dub and downtempo beats were played to ease the tripping mind.[9]
The London scene artists, such as Aphex Twin (specifically: Selected Ambient Works Volume II, 1994), Global Communication (76:14,1994), FSOL The Future Sound of London (Lifeforms, ISDN), The Black Dog (Temple of Transparent Balls,1993), Autechre, (Incunabula,1993, Amber), Boards of Canada, and The KLF's seminal Chill Out, 1990, all took a part in popularising and diversifying ambient music where it was used as a calming respite from the intensity of the hardcore and techno popular at that time.[10]
Later in the period much experimental electronica, (particularly sound artists such as Pole, Mika Vainio, Ryoji Ikeda, Christian Fennesz, Aphex Twin (drukQs, 2000) and Autechre) expanded the themes of 'ambient' along the lines of earlier 1970s ambient music & dub but with increasingly abstracted sample-based textures and digital electronics that ultimately began to converge with minimalist compositions and music concrete.
Digital era electronic 'electroacoustic' artists, including the recent work of Eno himself,[11] are notable in their attempts to create 'sonic sculptures' which interact with the physical architecture of the listening space using advanced electronic installations.
Literally 'ambient' field recordings are a specialism of the Touch Music label. The electroacoustic influence can be heard in the contemporary work of Polish artist Jacaszek or Krzysztof Orluk. Forerunner of this species in Poland is Brunette models.
Glitch music is a major subset of this work produced by (usually German-speaking) labels such Mille Plateaux (Clicks & Cuts Series, 2000).
Some dubstep producers, notably Burial,2006 and Kites (Bristol Ambient Dub step) have nostalgically referenced the sonic 'post-rave' ambience of the nineties era.
Ambient music has been used in many video games, television shows and motion pictures and is notable for contributing to their atmosphere, or soundscapes. David Lynch's 1984 film Dune, for example, forgoes the epic sci-fi adventure style theme music popularized by Star Wars in favor of a more atmospheric music score by Toto and Brian Eno. Electronic musician Paddy Kingsland is noted for the music style he brought to several serials of the television series Doctor Who which had until then relied mostly on stock music cues or minimal music for much of its history. The video game trilogy Fallout and its spinoffs use ambient music that sometimes contains gentle rumblings to portray the bleakness of the post-apocalyptic world which the games are set in. Another game series that uses ambient music is the Oddworld games, notably Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath. That music was composed by Michael Bross. The games featured in Valve's Half-Life series, including spinoffs such as Portal, feature ambient music soundtracks by composers Kelly Bailey and Mike Morasky. The EA Game Mirror's Edge also used ambient music to give a futuristic feel or puzzling atmosphere to sections of the game. The Sci-Fi horror game Doom 3 uses an ambient soundtrack made by former drummer Chris Vrenna of the band Nine Inch Nails, instead of having a song, mainly a MIDI file, looped through the entire map.
"Ambient dub" is a phrase first coined by the now defunct Beyond Records from early 1990s in Birmingham, England. Their defining series of albums Ambient Dub 1, 2, through to 4 inspired many, including sound engineer and producer Bill Laswell, who used the same phrase in his music project Divination, where he collaborates with different musicians on each album (though sometimes the same ones are on more than one of the albums such as Tetsu Inoue and others). Laswell also presented ambient dub and ambient house music on albums by his collaboration project Axiom Dub, featuring recording artists The Orb, Jah Wobble, Jaki Liebezeit, Scorn and DJ Spooky.
Ambient dub involves the genre melding of dub styles made famous by King Tubby and other Jamaican sound artists with DJ inspired ambient electronica, complete with all the inherent drop-outs, echo, equalization and psychedelic electronic effects. As writer and performer David Toop explains in an early Beyond Records newsletter, "Dub music is like a long echo delay, looping through time...turning the rational order of musical sequences into an ocean of sensation."
Organic ambient music is characterised by integration of electronic, electric, and acoustic 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, Voice of Eye, Vir Unis, James Johnson, Loren Nerell, Tuu and Robert Scott Thompson.
Some works by ambient pioneers such as Brian Eno, Laraaji or Popol Vuh who use a combination of traditional instruments (such as piano or hammered dulcimer or hand percussion, though usually processed through tape loops or other devices) and electronic instruments, would be considered New Age / organic ambient music in this sense. In the 1970s and 1980s, Klaus Schulze often recorded string ensembles and performances by solo cellists to go along with his extended Moog synthesizer workouts.
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 New Age. 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. Transformation by Suzanne Doucet and Christian Buehner and the album Second Nature by Bill Laswell, Tetsu Inoue, and Atom Heart are ambient album that use processed nature sounds, with reverb and echo to create a hypnotic environment.
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 an eerie feel; the term "isolationist ambient" could be used interchangeably with it according to the listener or artists perspective. Some artists and releases that epitomize the style could include Lull's Cold Summer, Controlled Bleeding's The Poisoner, and the Robert Rich/Lustmord collaboration album Stalker. Related styles include ambient industrial and isolationist ambient.
Several second-wave black metal artists (most notably Burzum) experimented with Dark Ambient textures on some of their albums, since being coined as Black Ambient. The two genres still remain linked, however loosely, to this day, as evidenced by the music of Xasthur. Or Norwegian band Ulver, which started out as a black metal band, but is now a well-known ambient/electronica-act.
There are also a few black metal bands, such as Burzum and Beherit, who produce ambient music, albeit not always with such a dark atmosphere. Illbient is another kind of dark ambient music.
Ambient house is a musical category founded in the late 1980s that is used to describe acid house featuring ambient music elements and atmospheres. Tracks in the ambient house genre typically feature four-on-the-floor beats, synth pads, and vocal samples integrated in an atmospheric style.[12] Ambient house tracks generally lack a diatonic center and feature much atonality along with synthesized chords.
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, Nine Inch Nails, Susumu Yokota, Hafler Trio, Nocturnal Emissions, Zoviet France, Scorn, PGR, Thomas Köner, Controlled Bleeding, and Deutsch Nepal. However many of these artists are very eclectic in their output, with much of it falling outside of ambient industrial per se.
Space music, also spelled spacemusic, includes music from the ambient genre as well as a broad range of other genres with certain characteristics in common to create the experience of contemplative spaciousness.[13][14][15] Space music ranges from simple to complex sonic textures sometimes lacking conventional melodic, rhythmic, or vocal components,[16][17] generally evoking a sense of "continuum of spatial imagery and emotion",[18] beneficial introspection, deep listening[19] and sensations of floating, cruising or flying.[20][21]
Space music is used by individuals for both background enhancement and foreground listening, often with headphones, to stimulate relaxation, contemplation, inspiration and generally peaceful expansive moods[22] and soundscapes. Space music is also a component of many film soundtracks, commonly used in planetariums, and used as a relaxation aid and for meditation.[23]
Hearts of Space is a well-known radio show and affiliated record label, specializing in space music since 1984, having released over 150 albums devoted to the music style. Notable artists who have brought elements of ambient music to space music include Michael Stearns, Constance Demby, Enigma, Jean Michel Jarre, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Robert Rich, Steve Roach, Numina, Dweller at the Threshold, Paul Ellis, Deepspace, Telomere, Jonn Serrie, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream (as well as the group's founder Edgar Froese), and Vangelis.
Isolationist ambient music, also known as isolationism, can be differentiated from other forms of ambient music in its use of repetition, dissonance, microtonality, and unresolved harmonies to create a sense of unresolved unease and desolation.[24] The term was popularized in the mid-1990s by the British magazine The Wire and the Ambient 4: Isolationism compilation from Virgin, this began as more or less a synonym for ambient industrial, but also inclusive of certain post-metal streams of ambient, such as Final, Lull, Main, or post-techno artists such as Autechre and Aphex Twin. It may be less appropriate to call isolationist ambient a genre than using it to describe the style or "feel" of particular works by an artist working in an ambient mode. This is because many artists better known for other styles of work can occasionally create pieces that "sound" isolationist. (For example, Labradford, Seefeel, Techno Animal, Voice of Eye, KK Null, etc.)[25] There are many labels releasing work that could be termed Isolationist Ambient, among these are Malignant Records, Cold Spring, Manifold Records, Soleilmoon, and The Sombient label with the "drones" compilation series. Some of the artists known for this style of ambient music include Lull, Final, Deutsch Nepal, Inanna, Negru Voda, Thomas Köner, Robert Fripp and Chuck Hammer Guitarchitecture.
Of late there has been an influx of progressive metal artists who have clear ambient influences. Bands such as Cult of Luna, Isis, Devil Sold His Soul and Between the Screams have pioneered the genre and are largely credited with popularizing the sound. This bands are largely known as Post-metal.
| Artist name | Influential works |
|---|---|
| Arnold Schoenberg | 1909 - Fünf Orchesterstücke - III. "Farben" (Five Orchestral Pieces - III. "Colours") |
| Erik Satie | 1917 - Furniture music (1) 1920 - Furniture music (2) 1923 - Furniture music (3) |
| John Cage | 1952 - 4′33″ 1989 - One3 1991 - One8 |
| György Ligeti | 1961 - Atmosphères |
| Fleetwood Mac | 1969 - "Albatross" |
| Popol Vuh | 1970 - Affenstunde 1971 - In den Gärten Pharaos |
| Cluster | 1971 - Cluster 1972 - Cluster II 1974 - Zuckerzeit 1976 - Sowiesoso 1977 - Cluster & Eno (with Brian Eno) 1978 - After the Heat (with Brian Eno) 1979 - Grosses Wasser 1981 - Curiosum 1991 - Apropos Cluster 1995 - One Hour |
| Tangerine Dream | 1971 - Alpha Centauri 1972 - Zeit 1974 - Phaedra 1975 - Rubycon 1975 - Ricochet 1976 - Stratosfear — 2000 - The Seven Letters from Tibet |
| Wendy Carlos | 1972 - Sonic Seasonings |
| Klaus Schulze | 1972 - Irrlicht 1973 - Cyborg 1974 - Blackdance 1975 - Picture Music 1975 - Timewind 1976 - Moondawn 1977 - Mirage 1977 - Body Love Vol. 2 1978 - X 1979 - Dune 1985 - Inter*Face 1986 - Dreams 1988 - En=Trance 1990 - Miditerranean Pads 1991 - Beyond Recall 1994-2008 - The Dark Side of the Moog (with Pete Namlook) 1995 - In Blue 1997 - Dosburg Online 2005 - Moonlake 2007 - Kontinuum 2008 - Farscape (with Lisa Gerrard) 2009 - Come Quietly (with Lisa Gerrard) |
| Can | 1973 - Future Days 1974 - Soon Over Babaluma |
| Gong | 1973 - Flying Teapot for "The Octave Doctors and the Crystal Machine" 1974 - You for "A Sprinkling of Clouds" |
| Fripp & Brian Eno | 1973 - No Pussyfooting 1975 - Evening Star 2005 - The Equatorial Stars |
| Kraftwerk | 1975 - Radio-Activity |
| Harmonia | 1974 - Musik Von Harmonia 1997 - Tracks and Traces |
| Neu! | 1975 - Neu! '75 |
| Brian Eno | 1975 - Another Green World 1975 - Discreet Music 1978 - Ambient 1: Music for Airports 1980 - Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics (with Jon Hassell) 1982 - Ambient 4: On Land 1983 - Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks 1985 - Thursday Afternoon 1992 - The Shutov Assembly 1993 - Neroli |
| Jean Michel Jarre | 1976 - Oxygène 1978 - Equinoxe 1990 - Waiting for Cousteau 2001 - Interior Music 2002 - Sessions 2000 2003 - Geometry of Love |
| Chuck Hammer | 1977 - Guitarchitecture |
| Harold Budd | 1978 - The Pavilion of Dreams (1972–1975, recorded 1976) 1980 - Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror (with Brian Eno) 1984 - The Pearl (with Brian Eno) 1986 - Lovely Thunder 1988 - The White Arcades 2000 - The Room |
| Michael Stearns | 1978 - Ancient Leaves 1979 - Morning Jewel 1981 - Planetary Unfolding 1984 - M'Ocean 1988 - Encounter 2000 - Within |
| Earthstar | 1978 - Salterbarty Tales 1981 - Atomkraft? Nein, Danke! 1982 - Humans Only |
| Robert Fripp | 1981 - Let the Power Fall 1998 - Gates of Paradise |
| Robert Rich | 1982 - Sunyata 1983 - Trances 1983 - Drones 1987 - Numena 1992 - Soma (with Steve Roach) 1997 - Fissures 2001 - Somnium |
| Steve Roach | 1984 - Structures from Silence 1988 - Quiet Music 1988 - Dreamtime Return 1993 - Origins 1994 - Artifacts 1996 - The Magnificent Void 2000 - Early Man 2003 - Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces |
| Coil | 1984 - How to Destroy Angels 1998 - Time Machines |
| Erik Wøllo | 1985 - Traces 1986 - Silver Beach (re-release 2006) 1990 - Images of Light 1992 - Solstice 1996 - Transit 1998 - Guitar Nova 2001 - Wind Journey 2003 - Emotional Landscapes 2003 - The Polar Drones 2004 - Blue Sky, Red Guitars 2007 - Elevations |
| Hirokazu Tanaka | 1986 - Metroid |
| Mingo | 1989 - Eroded Cloudiness 1999 - Strange Calibration 2000 - The once and future world 2004 - The floating planet 2006 - This side of the night 2007 - Astrofield Grave 2009 - Guide to Invisibility 2010 - Formidonis Tentatio 2010 - Narcosys |
| Vidna Obmana | 1989 - Gathering In Frozen Beauty 1991 - Passage In Beauty 1991 - Refined On Gentle Clouds 1992 - Shadowing In Sorrow 1993 - Echoing Delight 1993 - Ending Mirage 1994 - Still Fragments 1994 - The Spiritual Bonding 1994 - The Transcending Quest 1996 - The River Of Appearance 1998 - Crossing The Trail 2000 - The Contemporary Nocturne 2000 - The Surreal Sanctuary 2001 - Soundtrack For The Aquarium 2001 - Tremor 2003 - Spore 2004 - Legacy |
| Dr Calculus mdma | 1986 Designer Beatnik |
| The KLF | 1990 - Chill Out 1990 - Space (as Space) |
| Enigma | 1990 - MCMXC A.D. 2006 - A Posteriori |
| Alio Die | 1991 - Introspective 1992 - Under An Holy Ritual 1996 - Suspended Feathers 1997 - Fissures (with Robert Rich) 1998 - Password For Entheogenic Experience 1998 - The Hidden Spring 1999 - Le Stanze Della Trascendenza 2000 - Echo Passage (with Vidna Obmana) 2001 - Incantamento 2001 - Leaves Net 2003 - Il Tempo Magico Di Saturnia Pavonia 2003 - Khen Introduce Silence 2004 - Sol Niger 2008 - Aura Seminalis 2008 - Tempus Rei 2009 - Music Infinity Meets Virtues 2010 - Horas Tibi Serenas |
| Aube | 1991 - Hydrophobia 1996 - Quadrotation 1998 - Pages from the Books 1999 - 108 1999 - Ricochetentrance 2000 - Millennium 2006 - Comet |
| The Orb | 1991 - The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld 1992 - U.F.Orb |
| Biosphere | 1992 - Microgravity 1994 - Patashnik 1996 - Polar Sequences (with Higher Intelligence Agency) 1997 - Insomnia 1997 - Substrata 1998 - Nordheim Transformed (with Deathprod) 2000 - Birmingham Frequencies (with Higher Intelligence Agency) 2000 - Cirque 2002 - Shenzhou 2004 - Autour de la Lune 2006 - Dropsonde |
| Aphex Twin | 1992 - Selected Ambient Works 85–92 1994 - Selected Ambient Works Volume II 2001 - drukQs (in some tracks) |
| Voice of Eye | 1992 - Mariner Sonique 1994 - Vespers 1995 - Sprocket 1995 - The Hungry Void, Volume One: Fire with Life Garden 1995 - Transmigration 1996 - Narratives: Music for Fiction with Paul Schutze & Robert Rich 2009 - Emergence and Immersion 2009 - Seven Directions Divergent 2009 - Substantia Innominata' |
| Pete Namlook | 1992 - Silence I 1993 - Air I 1994 - Air II 1996 - Outland 2 (with Bill Laswell) 1996 - The Fires of Ork (with Geir Jensen of Biosphere) |
| Lull | 1992 - Dreamt About Dreaming 1993 - Journey Through Underworlds 1994 - Cold Summer 1996 - Continue 1997 - Way Through Staring 1998 - Moments 2003 - They're Coming Out Of The Walls 2008 - Like A Slow River |
| Raison d'être | 1993 - Prospectus I 1994 - Conspectus 1994 - Enthraled By The Wind Of Lonelienes 1995 - Within The Depths Of Silence And Phormations 1997 - In Sadness, Silence And Solitude 1998 - Lost Fragments 2000 - The Empty Hollow Unfolds 2003 - Requiem For Abandoned Souls 2006 - Metamorphyses 2009 - The Stains Of The Embodied Sacrifice |
| Moby aka Voodoo Child | 1993 - Ambient 1996 - The End of Everything (as Voodoo Child) 2005 - Hotel:Ambient (Disc Two) (limited edition only) 2009 - Wait for Me |
| The Fireman (Paul McCartney and Youth) | 1993 - Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest 1998 - Rushes 2008 - Electric Arguments |
| Neptune Towers (Gylve Nagell aka Fenriz) | 1994 - Caravans to Empire Algol 1995 - Transmissions From Empire Algol |
| Tetsu Inoue | 1994 - Ambiant Otaku 1995 - Organic Cloud 1995 - Slow and Low 1996 - World Receiver |
| Kenji Yamamoto | 1994 - Super Metroid |
| SETI | 1994 - SETI 1995 - Pharos 1996 - Ciphers |
| Omicron | 1994 - Acrocosm 1995 - The Generation And Motion Of A Pulse |
| Global Communication | 1994 - 76:14 |
| Spacetime Continuum | 1994 - Sea Biscuit |
| The Future Sound of London | 1994 - Lifeforms 1996 - Dead Cities |
| Robyn Miller | 1995 - Myst: Soundtrack 1998 - Riven: Soundtrack |
| Philip Cashian | 1995 - Landscape |
| Facil | 1995 - Facil |
| Alpha Wave Movement | 1995 - Transcendence 1997 - The Edge of Infinity 1998 - Concept of Motion 2000 - Drifted Into Deeper Lands |
| Burzum (Varg Vikernes) | 1996 - Filosofem (tracks 4 to 6) 1997 - Dauði Baldrs (Balder's Død) 1999 - Hliðskjálf |
| Stars of the Lid | 1996 - Gravitational Pull vs. the Desire for an Aquatic Life 1997 - The Ballasted Orchestra 1998 - Per Aspera Ad Astra 1999 - Avec Laudenum 2001 - The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid 2007 - Stars of the Lid and Their Refinement of the Decline |
| Robert Scott Thompson | 1996 - The Silent Shore 1998 - Frontier 2002 - Sidereal 2005 - At the Still Point of the Turning World 2008 - Frozen Light |
| Oöphoi | 1996 - Static Soundscapes: Three Lights at the End of the World 1998 - Behind The Wall Of Sleep 1998 - Night Currents 1998 - The Spirals of Time 2000 - Mare Vaporum 2001 - Mare Tarnquillitatis 2002 - Athlit 2002 - Bardo 2003 - Mare Imbrium 2003 - The Dreams of Shells 2003 - The Rustling of Leaves 2004 - Dreams 2004 - Three Lights at the End of the World 2005 - Hymns to a Silent Sky 2005 - Signals from the Great Beyond 2006 - Amnios 2006 - Aquos - The Complete Drones 2007 - Arpe Di Sabbia 2008 - An Aerial View |
| Boards of Canada | 1998 - Music Has the Right to Children 2002 - Geogaddi 2005 - The Campfire Headphase |
| Richard Bone | 1998 - The Spectral Ships 1999 - Ether Dome |
| Marvin Ayres | 1999 - Cellosphere 2002 - Neptune |
| Radiohead | 2000 - Kid A - Treefingers |
| Ishq | 2001 - Orchid 2005 - Magik Square Of The Sun (as Ishvara) 2006 - Infinite Garden (as Elve) 2008 - Timelapse In Mercury 2008 - Visions Of Surya (as Colourform) |
| Loscil | 2001 - Triple Point 2002 - Submers 2004 - First Narrows 2006 - Plume 2009 - Strathcona Variations 2010 - Endless Falls |
| William Basinski | 2002 - The River 2002-2003 - Disintegration Loops I, II, III and IV 2003 - Melancholia |
| Proem | 2004 - Darker Still 2009 - Til There's No Breath |
| Nine Inch Nails | 2008 - Ghosts I–IV |
| Buddha Sounds | 2002 - Buddha Sounds 2003 - Buddha Sounds II - The Arabic Dream 2005 - Buddha Sounds III - Chill in Tibet 2007 - Buddha Sounds IV - Inner 2009 - Buddha Sounds V - New Mantrams |
| Film | Director | Composer or Sound Designer | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956 - Forbidden Planet | Fred Wilcox | Louis and Bebe Barron (electronic tonalities) | This soundtrack is generally considered to be ahead of its time with its spacey ambient sounds |
| 1968 - 2001: A Space Odyssey | Stanley Kubrick | György Ligeti (composer "Monolith" and "Beyond Saturn" themes) Winston Ryder (sound editor) |
"A cutting edge ambient, multimedia accomplishment...the ambient revolution, now and for the past couple of decades, owes much of its impetus to the achievement of 2001." — D.B. Spalding[26] |
| 1971 - Clockwork Orange | Stanley Kubrick | Wendy Carlos (composer) Wendy Carlos (Electronic Music) |
Wendy Carlos's "Timesteps" was used as the basis of the soundtrack |
| 1971 - THX 1138 | George Lucas | Lalo Schifrin (composer) Walter Murch (sound design) |
Murch's "Theater of Noise" offered as alternate soundtrack on Director's Cut DVD |
| 1972 - Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes | Werner Herzog | Popol Vuh (composer) | |
| 1976 - Sebastiane | Derek Jarman | Brian Eno (composer) | |
| 1977 - Eraserhead | David Lynch | Alan Splet (sound design) | Features innovative ambient noise sound design as its musical score. |
| 1977 - Sorcerer | William Friedkin | Tangerine Dream (Composer) | |
| 1980 - The Elephant Man | David Lynch | Alan Splet (sound design) | |
| 1981 - Halloween II | Rick Rosenthal | John Carpenter (composer) & Alan Howarth (synthesizer programmer) | |
| 1982 - Blade Runner | Ridley Scott | Vangelis (composer) | |
| 1982 - Halloween III: Season of the Witch | Tommy Lee Wallace | John Carpenter (composer) & Alan Howarth (synthesizer programmer) | |
| 1984 - Starman | John Carpenter | Jack Nitzsche (composer) | |
| 1984 - Paris, Texas | Wim Wenders | Ry Cooder (composer) | |
| 1986 - The Hitcher | Robert Harmon | Mark Isham (composer) | |
| 1989 - For All Mankind | Al Reinert | Brian Eno (composer) | Score released as Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks |
| 1989 - Sex, Lies, and Videotape | Steven Soderbergh | Cliff Martinez (composer) | Soderbergh's instructions to Martinez were to channel Brian Eno. Soundtrack on Virgin/EMI Records |
| 1992 - Alien 3 | David Fincher | Elliot Goldenthal | |
| 1997 - Insomnia | Erik Skjoldbjærg | Biosphere (composer) | |
| 1999 - The Limey | Steven Soderbergh | Cliff Martinez (composer) | |
| 2000 - Requiem for a Dream | Darren Aronofsky | Clint Mansell (composer) | [27] |
| 2001 - Donnie Darko | Richard Kelly | Michael Andrews (composer) | |
| 2001 - Traffic | Steven Soderbergh | Cliff Martinez (composer) Brian Eno (composer- end title theme) |
End title theme is "An Ending (Ascent)" from Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks |
| 2002 - Solaris | Steven Soderbergh | Cliff Martinez (composer) | This score (and the film in general) is highly influenced by Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The track "Hi Energy Proton Accelerator" is very similar to György Ligeti's "Atmosphères," used in Kubrick's film. |
| 2003 - Lost in Translation | Sophia Coppola | Kevin Shields (composer) | Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine composed a number of ambient pieces for this film. |
| 2003—High Tension | Alexandre Aja | François-Eudes Chanfrault (composer) | |
| 2005 - Me and You and Everyone We Know | Miranda July | Michael Andrews (composer) | |
| 2006 - The Prestige (film) | Christopher Nolan | David Julyan (composer) | |
| 2006 - Silent Hill | Christophe Gans | Akira Yamaoka (composer) | |
| 2007 - Zodiac (film) | David Fincher | David Shire (composer) | David Shire's dark ambient title theme is clearly influenced by Charles Ives' "The Unanswered Question." |
| 2007 - Southland Tales | Richard Kelly | Moby (composer) | |
| 2007 - Sunshine | Danny Boyle | John Murphy (composer) & Underworld | Danny Boyle provided the film to the band Underworld, which improvised a score for the film. Karl Hyde of Underworld was influenced by the music of avant-garde composer György Ligeti, which had been used in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). "Lux Aeterna" by Ligeti particularly influenced Hyde. When Underworld finished recording, the band sent its work to composer John Murphy, who completed the score, resulting in a hybrid between Underworld and Murphy. |
| 2007 - 30 Days of Night | David Slade | Brian Reitzell (composer) |
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