In my Persian blog, I had written a lot about operating systems, computer architecture and digital electronics. I have plans for English blog and I’ll write about computer science and engineering in future, but, I decided to explain my experiences in music for now. In this article, I’m going to talk about ambient music, and how it’s produced. Of course, this is not a music theory or musical software tutorial.
Let’s talk about ambient music, what is ambient music? Ambient music is a minimalistic, modern and electronic genre, which is invented by “Brian Eno” in early 70’s. Ambient is actually a subgenre of electronic music, but after years of evolution, it’s known as an independent musical genre.
Characteristics
Ambient music, is highly dependent on the environment. You will realize this when you hear the name. Actually, this genre is based on John Cage’s theory, Everything we do is music and his 4’33” is one of the best ambient songs ever! Four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence, the composer asks you to listen to ambient noises. It means, you can record any sounds and then make it ambient music. This is true, but, not every sounds. A lot of ambient tracks are just recordings from nature, and a simple melody is played over that sounds. Some others are electronic productions, based on natural sounds and atmospheres. This means, ambient is some kind of avant-garde music, you are free to do everything you want!
Styles
You know every musical genre, can be played in different styles. In this section, I just explain some of ambient music styles. I’m sure there are more styles, but these styles are my favorites :
- Dark Ambient :
This is one of the most known styles of the ambient music. Sometimes people think that dark ambient is a subgenre of ambient music, but it’s actually not. Because it’s the same concept, but with scary, depressing or dark atmosphere. Sounds like someone plays his/her music in an abandoned and haunted place 😀 - Space Ambient :
This is another style. If you’re a fan of outer space life, science fictions and movies like Star Wars or Star Trek, this is your kind of music. In this style, musicians use effects which can make you feel aliens are in your home! And this is what makes this style awesome!
There are more, but I usually listen to these styles. So, I can explain these two better. For more information, you can find ambient musicians on YouTube, Soundcloud, Jamendo, etc. And ask them about their style!
Subgenres
And now, we are going to take a look on subgenres of ambient music. These genres are created to show us how minimal music can be perfect!
- Drone :
My most favorite subgenre of ambient music, drone music is just sustained chord, note or sound. Also, artists may decorated the sustained sounds using small melodies, or a single melody is repeated on the drone sound. I’ll explain drone music in future. - Lowercase :
This is the most artistic form of ambient music. Artists record sounds from nature, or daily activities, and then, amplify them and edit them to make a melody. Lowercase music is one of the most minimalistic genres, and one of the most amazing ones, too!
In this article, we talked about ambient music and which kind of music we can call ambient. In future, I’ll explain more about making an ambient track and I’ll introduce my favorite ambient artists.
Good luck!