I personally have a problem with the term "Ambient". I remember one
radio show I did at UMD where I spent the entire 3 hours playing (and
comparing) music that was called "ambient".
So that included music by Satie, Feldman, Cage, Richard D James,
Autechre, If Bwana, John Zorn, and a handful of other "ambient" artists.
Suffice to say none of this music sounds anything alike.
Defining what falls into a category of "Ambient" is a task doomed to
fail. "Ambient" music implies a relationship with the unnoticable, the
unintentional sound present in our environment.
I think people have conveniently used the word to describe everything
from "music that you can't dance to" to "music you can meditate with" to
"music you play in a haunted house."
An album I released recently is described as "Ambient" but holds about
as much relationship with the artists mentioned above as it does with
R&B and Country Western.
Given that ALL genrification is by nature subjectively exclusive, the
term "Ambient" is especially bad; I put it right up there with
"Classical" and my personal favorite "IDM". What some call ambient,
others do not.
So I'd ask you back, what's the point of finding out?
A lot of what's considered "Ambient" has its musical underpinnings in
non-western music, especially the Ragas and trance-like drummings of
other cultures (which I might add are certainly extremely functional in
those cultures, if not ours).
So while one may call something Ambient, another may call it Downtempo,
another may consider playing Gesualdo during a gallery opening as
Ambient, while someone not so predisposed to classifying music would
just enjoy it as choral harmony and not something "ambient" at all.
Sometimes people use the term simply to classify the undefinable.
.,m
(ps - Strickland's Minimalism is a good one if you haven't read it yet)
Matt Tierney wrote:
> Hi, first post on the list... :)
>
> I asked on the Rhizome forum where I could find some descent discussion
> online of avant-garde/experimental and 'other' musics. I hope this post
is
> suited to the overall vein of the list. If not I would glady accept
> recommendations!
>
> -
>
> I'm reading Prendergast's "The Ambient Century".
>
> It's a nice idea for a book, a 'century' of ambient music... But did
ambient
> music really start with Mahler or Satie?
>
> What about 15th Century Rennaisance choral music like Palestrina,
> Tallis
and
> many other similar composers from this period?
>
> There's something about this era that strikes an 'ambient' chord with
me. Or
> is the music too *intense* to be classified as ambient?
>
> I don't want to confuse *beauty* and ambience, but if I'm wanting to
listen
> to some ambient music, I'll often go for Tallis...
>
> What are others thoughts on this?
>
> Regards,
>
> Matt Tierney
>
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 3:49 PM, Paulo R. C. Barros <
> paulorcbarros@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=jVCki_4DuyI
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Paulo
>>
>>
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