why is ambient so popular now

Trillhouse

Well-known member
Newage definitely had a rediscovering / resurgence around the end of the 00s, the records became more sort after, people started digging up rare tapes etc, Indie bands started incorporating influences, pitchfork wrote articles etc. Ambient's resurgence has come along with that somewhat. It seeped into all the Lil B, Cloud Rap hip hop then that sound became more and more prevalent in hip hop. Then you have things like chillwave/vaporwave/seawave, artists like OPN, Dedekind Cut etc all which have elements of ambient music. Of course there's Burial and all the imitators, then later people like Logos, Mr Mitch, Visionist, Fatima Al Qadiri etc whose music has elements of newage or ambient woven in. There have also been quite a few reissues of tapes & lps, compilations, new labels, radio shows etc in the last 5/10 years, so it definitely has more of a presence. There's also the balearic scene which leans into ambient pretty heavily and that stuff's going pretty strong right now.

I don't really know how well new straight up ambient sells as that's not really my thing, but the genre's influence seems to be everywhere these days.

 

droid

Well-known member
I coined a new phrase to describe all that Ben Frost style power ambient bullshit.

'Manbient'.
 

Numbers

Well-known member
To answer the initial question: I think it's the promise of integrity/authenticity, driven to the extreme in case of vaporwave (non-integrity as authentic) and noise (idem). It's music that lives on that paradox and so generates space to surprise.
 

Numbers

Well-known member
Well, its definitely not only a thing among sisters, etc. Pitchfork has an (admittedly good) ambient collection as its best new album.
 

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
i remember ambient being popular with dads in the 1990s - usually post-hippie types with hi-fi stereos and full beards
 

Numbers

Well-known member
Considering ambient's druggy past and the promise of bliss in its more new agey variants, the link with work is maybe even more on the mark than that flyer describes. The ambient ethic and the spirit of Capitalism!

Personally, the last year I listened mainly to minimal classical-ambient-vaporwave and it's indeed largely because I nowadays listen to music almost exclusively while working.
 

droid

Well-known member
Edited from an email.

There core of the list is OK, I think, but it seems unbalanced overall... list making is tough, the mix of the canonical and the personal favourites, the important and the loved. Covering all the bases and getting a breadth of styles and, personnel and eras and the challenge is multiplied with something as amorphous as ambient, but it strikes me that there was no strong editorial voice here and there’s some glaring absences, strange repetitions and category errors as a result.

What is the definition of ambient that was used? Was it simply ‘without beats’, or ‘lacking structure’ or ‘rewarding as background music’? There’s stuff there that I would categorise as jazz, folk, soundtrack, experimental, classical etc… not strictly ambient. I know this is a tricky one, but in my mind there’s no way that Alice Coltrane album should be in there, or the John Hassel, or probably the Ernest Hood… its a subjective thing, and you could probably justify some of these using a wider definition, but on that basis you could do the same for ‘kind of blue’, or ‘meddle’, and even if you widen the net you should ensure you have all the hardcore genre stuff in there first.

So with that said, I reckon some huge, glaring, unforgivable omissions are Thomas Koner, Kevin Drumm, Elaine Radigue, but the biggest hole is the lack of the new ambient of the last 15 years or so. Oneohtrix shouldn’t be there, certainly not twice and not at the expense of the likes of Kyle Bobby Dunn Lawrence English, Stephan Mathieu, Ian William Craig, Deaf Centre, Olan Mill , Rafael Anton Issari, Celer, Illuha… theres much more Im sure, its been an incredibly fertile period.

In terms of foundation stuff - I like Pauline Oliveros as much as the next man, but two entries are perhaps suspect? I would’ve diversified with some other early electronic composers… Delia Derbyshire, some Tod Dockstader or Phil Niblock, maybe solo Stuart Dempster.

The 70’s - the Germans are reasonably represented, might have gone for more though… Ralph and Florian, Zeit by TD, Cyborg by Klaus Schulz maybe… Cluster and Eno, some Rodelious. David Sylvian might’ve deserved a mention alongside Hillage for the Night on Earth instrumentals... Oh, and some post punk, NWW’s ‘Lilith’. Time machine by Coil.

Geographically, Im a bit surprised by the lack of Japanese entries. There’s Ryosuke Miyata, Tomonari Nozaki, Toshiba Tsunoda, Yui Onodera, Masayoshi Fujita…

I don’t even want to start getting into soundtracks, but one thing from recent years that springs to mind is Mica Levi’s Under the skin OST. I think 2 stars of the lid is too much as well… there's a godspeed LP or 2 worthy of consideration and theres a ton of other post rock derived stuff that could’ve slipped in.

90’s chill out hasn’t aged to well to my ears but Dreamfish and Fax might’ve been worthy of a mention. I think If I had to pick some Namlook it would be the Definitive Ambient Collection vol. 2, though Id probably bin all the rising high chill out or die type stuff.

And last but not least theres some standout things from recent years. Alva Noto’s amazing xerrox Vol. 3, the last David Toop album, that Lau Nau LP, Before Nostromo By Stephan Mathieu, maybe even that Anthony Child album.

Oh, and they picked the wrong Ekkehard Ehlers.
 

bruno

est malade
for intimate transcendental ambient i would go for roedelius' selbstportrait, a piece like this is impossible to forget:


also gigi masin which that lovely venetian air:

 

droid

Well-known member
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