How to listen to Ambient music
Hi!
I'm going to write about a strange type of music called Ambient. It's a little difficult to talk about specific elements in the music without resorting to some odd language, so be warned. Ambient is a form of electronic music that has almost no drums in it. I approached this genre with hesitance, as I generally like interesting rhythms in the music I listen to. But I found that there can be a lot of depth and structure in this form, but it took me a while to come to terms with it.
The fundamental issue is that you have to know where to look for the music. In pop, there is music in the melody and how the accompaniment interacts with it. In rap, there is music in the interactions between the rhythms of the lyrics and the rhythms of the music. In Ambient, the music can be hidden in the interactions between the textures of the sounds.
Here's a link to a 2-minute excerpt of a track called Chukhung from Biosphere's brilliant 1996 album called Substrata. It's a landmark in the genre, and I highly recommend it to anyone wishing to begin an exploration of Ambient. Give the excerpt a listen now, then come back and continue reading. Your best bet is to listen in headphones. (I'm really hoping Mr. Jenssen and his publisher will consider this a fair use of the material, should they come across this post.)
This album was in fact my first experience with Ambient music. I had heard the artist's earlier work (the excellent Microgravity from 1991), which did include a lot of drum work as it was in the Ambient Techno genre. But a few tracks had no drums, and they were very good. So I figured it was worth seeing what he did on a full album without drums (well, there's a very light bit of drumming in Uva-Ursi, but that's the only exception).
When I first listened to Chukhung, I heard the repeating "poong" that starts at 0:06, the "boo-ner-eem" that starts at 0:52, and the guitar that starts at 1:37. I thought they were interesting-sounding textures, and that was as far as it went. But after listening many more times, I came to hear a lot more elements.
The "poong" actually changes pitch with each hit, rising and falling quite slowly. Accompanying it is a bass sound that pans left and right a bit. The "poong" also has a very long echo on it, which doesn't actually end in time for the next "poong."
The echo of the "doo-ner-nim" is accompanied by an almost-metallic scraping sound, a dissonant mid-range chord, and slightly lower-frequency chord. These sounds change subtly in stereo positioning from hit to hit. The guitar also pans around alot, and has a lot of ambient echo on it throughout the soundspace.
The complexity in this music is not in the notes, as they would look quite simple on sheet music. The structure is all tied up in the textures of the sounds, and how these textures work with each other to create a soundscape.
In the full track 7.5 minute track, these elements change volume relative to each other, disappear and reappear, and one other element is brought in. The result is a subtly shifting soundscape that never bores me. Since my first experience with headphones when I was a kid, I've always loved what music can do with the soundstage in your head. Good Ambient artists really make this most of this, so it is best listened to in headphones. Much of the subtlety is lost if you aren't getting the effects of stereo placement of the sounds.
If you're interested in delving into his music, I recommend starting with Microgravity, then going on to Cirque, Substrata, then Shen Zhou. All of his main albums are excellent, but these give a good idea of the range of what he does. You can find his work at biosphere.no. It's not for everyone, but if you can get into it, it's a very special place in the world.
I'm going to write about a strange type of music called Ambient. It's a little difficult to talk about specific elements in the music without resorting to some odd language, so be warned. Ambient is a form of electronic music that has almost no drums in it. I approached this genre with hesitance, as I generally like interesting rhythms in the music I listen to. But I found that there can be a lot of depth and structure in this form, but it took me a while to come to terms with it.
The fundamental issue is that you have to know where to look for the music. In pop, there is music in the melody and how the accompaniment interacts with it. In rap, there is music in the interactions between the rhythms of the lyrics and the rhythms of the music. In Ambient, the music can be hidden in the interactions between the textures of the sounds.
Here's a link to a 2-minute excerpt of a track called Chukhung from Biosphere's brilliant 1996 album called Substrata. It's a landmark in the genre, and I highly recommend it to anyone wishing to begin an exploration of Ambient. Give the excerpt a listen now, then come back and continue reading. Your best bet is to listen in headphones. (I'm really hoping Mr. Jenssen and his publisher will consider this a fair use of the material, should they come across this post.)
This album was in fact my first experience with Ambient music. I had heard the artist's earlier work (the excellent Microgravity from 1991), which did include a lot of drum work as it was in the Ambient Techno genre. But a few tracks had no drums, and they were very good. So I figured it was worth seeing what he did on a full album without drums (well, there's a very light bit of drumming in Uva-Ursi, but that's the only exception).
When I first listened to Chukhung, I heard the repeating "poong" that starts at 0:06, the "boo-ner-eem" that starts at 0:52, and the guitar that starts at 1:37. I thought they were interesting-sounding textures, and that was as far as it went. But after listening many more times, I came to hear a lot more elements.
The "poong" actually changes pitch with each hit, rising and falling quite slowly. Accompanying it is a bass sound that pans left and right a bit. The "poong" also has a very long echo on it, which doesn't actually end in time for the next "poong."
The echo of the "doo-ner-nim" is accompanied by an almost-metallic scraping sound, a dissonant mid-range chord, and slightly lower-frequency chord. These sounds change subtly in stereo positioning from hit to hit. The guitar also pans around alot, and has a lot of ambient echo on it throughout the soundspace.
The complexity in this music is not in the notes, as they would look quite simple on sheet music. The structure is all tied up in the textures of the sounds, and how these textures work with each other to create a soundscape.
In the full track 7.5 minute track, these elements change volume relative to each other, disappear and reappear, and one other element is brought in. The result is a subtly shifting soundscape that never bores me. Since my first experience with headphones when I was a kid, I've always loved what music can do with the soundstage in your head. Good Ambient artists really make this most of this, so it is best listened to in headphones. Much of the subtlety is lost if you aren't getting the effects of stereo placement of the sounds.
If you're interested in delving into his music, I recommend starting with Microgravity, then going on to Cirque, Substrata, then Shen Zhou. All of his main albums are excellent, but these give a good idea of the range of what he does. You can find his work at biosphere.no. It's not for everyone, but if you can get into it, it's a very special place in the world.
posted by Almo at 8:17 PM
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