Defining ambient music through the decades

[Rhys]

I might ponder on this subject over the New Zealand summer when I am largely in the forests and mountains working for a living (or living for a working). I suspect there have been major developments in ambient and related music over the past decades and maybe there is a way to put some chronological perspective on it all. A mere precis, a rudimentary collage for the bigger picture that will never be completed.

Someone came in the other day trying to sell me a house but we talked mainly about music, and he had a few CDs in his bag. One was by Klaus Schulze, whom he and some others regard (dare I say it) as the “father of ambient”. Well maybe not to my liking, as I always preferred the more atmospheric, organic or spiritual type of ambient such as by early pioneers Deuter, Stephan Micus, Al Gromer Khan and David Parsons. Though I do have quite a big collection from ex German group Popol Vuh who may have some influence from Schulze's music.

It would be good to have your opinion on what classic ambient album or albums defined ambient (OK New Age, whatever) for each decade with perhaps a need to stratify the calendar into years as we approach the present. And an opinion as to what great works (other that traditional classical) may have contributed to the pre-dawn of ambient as we know it now.

[John Koch-Northrup]

I just found this link and need to read more of it... looks interesting but haven't really delved in yet...

The History of Rock Music: 1990-1999

The ambient avantgarde in the digital age

http://www.scaruffi.com/history/cpt522.html

[John Koch-Northrup]

Forgot to link this one...

AMBIENT MUSIC, BEGINNINGS AND IMPLICATIONS.
by Chris Melchior
http://music.hyperreal.org/epsilon/info/melchior.html

[John Koch-Northrup]

Some nice reading if you'd like to jump in...

http://www.ambientmusicguide.com/pages/history.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_music

AMBIENT MUSIC, BEGINNINGS AND IMPLICATIONS.
by Chris Melchior
http://music.hyperreal.org/epsilon/info/melchior.html

more articles from Hyperreal (which also hosts the long running ambient mailing list)
http://music.hyperreal.org/epsilon/info/

[phrozenlight]

Schulze and TD started ambient music on their first albums, but they are not the Godfathers.
There are a lot classic composers, like John Cage or Satie, who made ambient music before them.
But KS, TD and Popol Vuh were the first who brought ambient into the progressive pop world.

Eno just made some short noodlings, he started in 1975 with his soundscapes, long after PV's Affenstunde, KS's Irrlicht, TD's Alpha Centauri or Zeit ;)
BTW I do not like Eno.

Ambient music is for me music settled in the background, creating a mood.
So even some pop music can be ambient, the so called muzak (elevator or library music).
Ambient music contains a lot of genres, but their most target is to let people dream.
When you had listened a half track your mind was drifting away, you listen no more to the music, you are only floating on the sounds.

My fav is of course longform ambient spacemusic ;)

[rikm]

It's really quite an interesting discussion to see how far back one can see the beginnings of ambient music. Admittedly Eno gets a lot of credit for coining the phrase and developing the technical elements of the genre, but there are definitely elements of ambient music (or at least ambient ideals) in some of Philip Glass' earlier works (largely labeled as mimimalism), and John Cage. In fact, if you go with the idea that Cage's 4:33 is a creation of the inherent space around which it's "played" (as opposed to the idea that it's just 4 and a half minutes of silence), then you could probably point to it as the first significant ambient release.

Maybe Cage is the Grandfather of Ambient music?

[Rhys]

Amazon says Schulze was the father of ambient, Wikipedia say its Brian Eno. I go along with the experts from the Atmoworks and Wikipedia :-)

[SAVO]

Being that I wasn't in existence in the 70s...so from what Ive read no-one knows 100% for sure if it was Schulze who actually started the ambient genre? I never really put much thought in it because I always thought Eno was the Father of ambient.

[åpne sinn]

I have to agree with RXM on this one. Eno is the father of what we currently consider "ambient" music. The man actually coined the phrase (and here you thought I was the Phrase Coiner, John) ambient to describe the listening system he created to hear the "lost" notes in his music. I've got nothing but respect for Schulze and what he's accomplished over the years, but one listen to 1975's "Discreet Music" should put to rest any question of who started this mess.

Little known side note: Dean Richards is colloquially known as the "Holy Ghost" of ambient music, having gotten started shortly after Eno in 1977. Unfortunately, he was tucked away on an obscure south pacific island knows as Awztralya (or some such place) so nobody knew it.

[Rhys]

Thanks for mentioning Eno John. Maybe I start another blog...'hands up all who don't have an Eno album' :-) Perhaps you have half an Eno album, namely "The Pearl" which in my mind is up there leading one of the decades of ambient music?

[John Koch-Northrup]

John (Vir Unis) and I were just discussing Brian Eno on the phone today as he'd picked up a reissue - and I'd have to say I see Eno mentioned as the father of ambient time and time again. Schulze I see as kind of the 'berlin school / sequencer driven' side of the fence. I'll be the first to admit I'm not really up on many of the ambient classics (I own no Eno albums... heresy!)

Satie usually pops up in origins of ambient conversations. I'll dig up some stuff on this soon... great topic! If everyone adds there thoughts and observations - one of us can do a nice sort of summary of everything.