why is ambient so popular now

droid

Well-known member
Dunno if I ever bigged this up - a very accomplished mate of mine recently made a very fine LP of electronic ambient - worth a punt.


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luka

Well-known member
Spotify loves “chill” playlists: they’re the purest distillation of its ambition to turn all music into emotional wallpaper. They’re also tied to what its algorithm manipulates best: mood and affect. Note how the generically designed, nearly stock photo images attached to these playlists rely on the selfsame clickbait-y tactics of content farms, which are famous for attacking a reader’s basest human moods and instincts. Only here the goal is to fit music snugly into an emotional regulation capsule optimized for maximum clicks: “chill.out.brain,” “Ambient Chill,” “Chill Covers.” “Piano in the Background” is one of the most aptly titled; “in the background” could be added to the majority of Spotify playlists.

As an industry insider once explained to me, digital strategists have identified “lean back listening” as an ever more popular Spotify-induced phenomenon. It turns out that playlists have spawned a new type of music listener, one who thinks less about the artist or album they are seeking out, and instead connects with emotions, moods and activities, where they just pick a playlist and let it roll: “Chillin’ On a Dirt Road,” “License to Chill,” “Cinematic Chill Out.” They’re all there.

These algorithmically designed playlists, in other words, have seized on an audience of distracted, perhaps overworked, or anxious listeners whose stress-filled clicks now generate anesthetized, algorithmically designed playlists. One independent label owner I spoke with has watched his records’ physical and digital sales decline week by week. He’s trying to play ball with the platform by pitching playlists, to varying effect. “The more vanilla the release, the better it works for Spotify. If it’s challenging music? Nah,” he says, telling me about all of the experimental, noise, and comparatively aggressive music on his label that goes unheard on the platform. “It leaves artists behind. If Spotify is just feeding easy music to everybody, where does the art form go? Is anybody going to be able to push boundaries and break through to a wide audience anymore?”

opinion i just read on the internet
 

PiLhead

Well-known member
crystal motions

was going to post this in Percussion Records but can't find it - and it fits just as well in here - track by an African sort-of-New-Age artist, from the 1980 album Isophonic Boogie Woogie
 

Numbers

Well-known member
Eno, quoted in P4k's review of his latest album:

“I’m going to set up something that can surprise me.”

I think much of the attraction for ambient is generated by the insoluble and genre-defining tension between soothing uneventfulness and surprise, as Eno himself pointed out long ago. Other than in many genres, ambient can not solve this tension temporarily (once soothing, then surprise, etc.), but needs to keep it present as a paradox (both uneventful and surprising). Ambient is inherently uncertain and ambivalent music. That's its appeal, it seems to me.
 
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droid

Well-known member
Although about 90% of stuff I heard this year was old, we're doing a best of 2017 ambient drone thing for our next radio show. Might make a mix as well.

Late entry with this amazing record:

 

cwmbran-city

Well-known member
volunteer at a refugee center in Cardiff assisting a music therapist who holds Guided Imagery & Music sessions for folks waiting for treatment for ptsd

its a holding operation but the crux is a lot of the music that can help relaxation techniques, full body relaxation scans for tension, the progress through moods & the playlists involved, is proving mind-blowing with what seems to work

its not meditation even if aspects of it might appear that way, the main difference being full immersion in a composition, then slowly descriptions are asked for of the emotional resonance & subjective journey taken, they're then invited to illustrate this experience/journey as a painting/graphic representation

after about 5-6 sessions a lot of people will confront those core experiences that make up war trauma & its stunning to have seen human beings move through these thresholds toward healing where music combined with painting are 2 of the 4 main components

not at home but will post a few playlists asap, spare the Jungian details bit

the main thing with whateverthefuck ambient is or isnt is that something loosely surrounding certain sonic signatures & styles can be both consistently solid with new productions + like House & Drone i dont know if its possible to have listened to everything worth listening to, not by a considerable margin of difference, so its one of those release hunting quests that'll prob never end, at least not personally cos we all fkn die.......saaaaaaaaaaaaafe
 

entertainment

Well-known member
Both the ambient and noise scene are both pretty interesting and spectacularly active in Copenhagen compared to how boring and derivative the general electronic and rap scene is. The people of Posh Isolation are incredibly dedicated to the genres and put out probably the best stuff in Scandinavia.

From the due which started the label (I think)
 

entertainment

Well-known member
The Body Sculptures album "A Body Turns to Eden" is definitely one of my favorite things from 2017. Takes departure in what sounds like Fennesz "Endless Summer", but has a different plan with it. They're a scandinavian collab formed by different approaches to the genres. Based in Posh Isolation as well.
 

droid

Well-known member
Thanks for those - will have to investigate further.

One of the new Atlantis bods released a pretty good LP last year:

 

droid

Well-known member
There's about 50 or so worthwhile records from last year in this thread.



I reckon that's a bit under half of the top drawer ambient/drone releases from last year (that I know of).

Doing some further calculations Id say that makes up about 10% of all the ambient/drone I discovered last year.

It's a seemingly endless reservoir.
 
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CORP$EY

no mickey mouse ting
This will sound like a cheeky question but really I'm posing it to tease out some discussion points - I wonder how is it you distinguish between good and bad, worthy and worthless when it comes to ambient music?

IT ALL SOUNDS LIKE MASSAGE MUSIC TO ME M8
 
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