Ambient Music Guide: 5 Characteristics of Ambient Music

Ambient music is a form of instrumental music that accentuates texture, tone, mood, and atmosphere. It does not contain the formal melodies or steady rhythms found in most popular music, opting instead to craft ambience from waves of aural textures.

Some ambient albums also qualify as electronic music because their soundscapes are built on synthesizer pads. Ambient musicians often augment these synths with acoustic instruments and ambient sounds from nature. The aural quality of ambient music often overlaps with that of minimalism, drone rock, and new age music.

Ambient music came of age in the twentieth century in the era of electronic synthesizers, but its origins trace back decades before the first synths.

• Furniture music roots: Ambient follows in the tradition of musique d’ameublement (furniture music), a genre French classical music composer Erik Satie pioneered in 1917. Satie intentionally composed a series of five pieces that he viewed as background music. Satie's compositions sat unplayed for many years after his death, but the avant-garde composer John Cage revived them in the mid-twentieth century. Cage had been exploring minimalism and musical timbres at the time.
• Continued classical music embrace: In the middle of the twentieth century, composers experimented with the avant-garde in classical music. Some composers from this era—particularly minimalists—embraced the concept of ambiance via drones (sustained sounds) and tape loops. La Monte Young, who is often deemed the original classical minimalist, along with Harold Budd, Gavin Bryars, and John Cage all contributed to these experiments.
• The rise of synthesizers: In the 1970s, analog synthesizers became available on the retail market. This innovation sparked a generation of ambient music artists who did not come from the world of classical music. The Krautrock scene in Germany, led by Kraftwerk, gave way to a number of ambient or semi-ambient acts such as Tangerine Dream and Popol Vuh.
• Brian Eno: English musician and producer Brian Eno amplified ambient music to new heights. Famous among pop music audiences for his work in Roxy Music and his late-seventies collaborations with David Bowie, Eno also created the pioneering Ambient Series of albums on the Polydor record label. Famous among these was Ambient 1: Music for Airports and Ambient 4: On Land. Although not formally part of the Ambient Series, Eno's 1975 record, Discreet Music, also pioneered textured soundscapes via synthesizers and tape loops.
• Merge with electronica: In addition to ambient music, the emergence of synthesizers also gave rise to the electronic dance music (EDM) genre. In the late 1980s, the merge of EDM's propulsive rhythms with the textures of ambient music created a subgenre that some critics dub ambient house or ambient techno. Ambient albums in this style include Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works, The KLF's Chill Out, and Autechre's Incunabula. You can hear such music at raves and on EDM playlists.
• Indie ambient: As ambient music became more mainstream, it inspired a legion of indie and alternative ambient artists. Many of these groups embrace the drone sound of 1960s ambient music and intentionally forego the synthesizers of ambient house. Beginning in the 1990s and early 2000s, artists like William Basinski, Stars Of The Lid, and Labradford have brought ambient music to a more iconoclastic audience.

A few key elements provide a throughline for different subgenres of ambient music.

1. 1. Emphasis on atmosphere and texture: From the new age-adjacent ambient style of Brian Eno to the psychedelic sounds of ambient dub music, the genre seeks to build atmosphere above all else.
2. 2. Gradual exploration of timbre: Ambient music lingers on notes and chords for a long period of time. Artists create variation by shifting the timbre of the sounds, either by introducing new instruments or by applying filters to electronic sounds.
3. 3. Minimal harmonic progression: Ambient music does not cycle through chords the way that pop music, jazz, and classical music do. It luxuriates on simple chords or even single notes as it builds out an overall atmosphere.
4. 4. De-emphasized melodies: Ambient music is not known for its melodies as much as it is known for moods and soundscapes. This makes it different from Muzak, which is a smooth-sounding rendition of melody-driven songs.
5. 5. Space for improvisation: Live ambient music has an improvisational aspect to it when producers and DJs experiment with sonic textures. Their improvisations are somewhat limited by the fact that most ambient music does not have distinct melodies or consistent chord changes.

The contemporary ambient music scene has spawned many distinct genres, most of which are variations on ambient electronica.

1. 1. Ambient house: Ambient house music is a close cousin to classic Chicago house and acid house music, which are characterized by four-on-the-floor bass drum beats and analog synthesizers. The "ambient" component to ambient house involves layered sonic textures without a tonal center.
2. 2. Ambient techno: Ambient techno is a more melodically active ambient electronic genre. Some of the biggest names in ambient EDM—including Autechre and Aphex Twin—are considered ambient techno.
3. 3. Ambient dub: Inspired by the Jamaican dub music tradition, ambient dub offers an edgy, psychedelic take on ambient music. It is highly associated with the 1990s English record label Beyond Records and nineties acts like the Orb and Higher Intelligence Agency.
4. 4. Dark ambient: Dark ambient artists craft atmospheres that evoke fear and dread. This music—by groups like Nurse with Wound and Scorn—borders on industrial music and even avant-garde noise.

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