One of the most common questions we receive is about our format, the kind of music we play. We play “ambient music”, but what is that? It turns out this is not a simple question.
The problem is that ambient music is so diverse and covers so much ground that a sentence or two cannot cover it. So, for lack of a simple definition, we’ll instead respond to some definitions from others, and hope this helps.
“Ambient music is beatless.”
One of the most common features of ambient music is beatlessness, music with no percussion, whether drums, hand percussion, electronic, or otherwise. This alone covers a large swathe of ambient music, but it has problems:
- It excludes so-called “desert ambient” music made by artists such as Steve Roach, a large category of ambience.
- Some types of ambient dub are so mellow that they fall into the realms of ambience and should not be excluded.
- It does not help with gray areas, such as in modular music, where it is common to hear a percussive sequence that is neither completely percussion nor completely tonal, somewhere in between.
In our view, beatlessness neither guarantees nor defines ambient music, but it is a huge part of the ambient world.
“Ambient music is ignorable.”
We can thank Erik Satie and Brian Eno for this notion: music should be as listenable as ignorable.
Again, we find this definition insufficient. Ignorable music is ambient. But we also find the notion that “ambience must also be furniture music” to be restrictive.
Why? Well for one thing, not all furniture music is ambient. Muzak, for example, was designed explicitly to be ignorable, but is hardly ambient.
Further, there are many kinds of clearly ambient music that are not in any way ignorable, in the sense that they would be not so suitable as music for background listening. A few examples:
- Tribal ambient
- Space music
- Vocal ambient
“Ambient music does not have sequences.”
We’ve heard this occasionally as well, but we simply do not agree. Artists like Thom Brennan, who are clearly ambient in our minds, employ sequences in great quantity and to great effect. But how “sequencey” is too much?
This comes down to a matter of aesthetics. We love sequencey electronic ambient music and want to play it.
“Drone music is not ambient.”
Another qualitative statement that ultimately comes down to personal preference. For us, drone music checks all the ambient boxes. Just like any other kind of music, drones run the gamut from pure beauty all the way to distortion. Part of the mission our station is to find the drones that we think enhance our listeners’ experiences.
“Noise is not ambient.”
While it is true that there is much noise music that is not ambient, there is also a great deal of softer noise that really qualifies as ambient music. We call this “ambient noise” and certainly think it qualifies as ambience to consider for the station. Noise music must be very listenable in order for us to play it, however.
Things that we find we cannot play.
With all this said, there are indeed a few things that we exclude from the station simply on the basis of our own personal taste that others might say are partly ambient. Rather than try to include rules to cover those cases, we’ll simply list a set of exceptions:
- Club oriented music, or any music where a 4-on-the-floor kick predominates, really isn’t our bag. Ambient dub is as clubby as we get, and it has to be really ambient for us to consider it.
- Any drone music that does not evolve. Drones must be enjoyable by an audience.
- Black metal drone, a la Sunn O))). Just too much.
- Music with lyrics. We love good vocal ambience but if it includes verses then it’s really too far into other genres for us.
- Music with speaking. It can certainly qualify as ambience but for us the words distract too much from the music, unless done very carefully.
- Unlistenable sounds. If it triggers tinnitus or makes the cat climb the walls, it’s not suitable for our station.
Hope this helps!