why is ambient so popular now

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droid

Well-known member
They are seriously all very good, though there's about 4 I don't know.

The Peter Davison and Naegle are fabulous, Music for Massage and Ghostwriters transcend the genre completely but most of them straddle the line between NA and ambient. The number 1 is a great record, but more space/synth music than NA I would have thought. Go and seek em all out, 20 records is not that much and its pretty much the best introduction to credible NA Ive seen.
 
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Trillhouse

Well-known member
Yeah they're all pretty essential if new age is your thing.

J D Emmanuel, Suzanne Doucet, Emeral Web, Upper Astral, Laraaji & Lyghte, Ric Kaestner, Peter Davidson, Don Campbell, i would say fall into your typical new age drifting synth jams type

Iasos - covers a wider range of core new age sounds, so probably a good entry point.

Constance Demby - similar to Brouk in variation of instrumentation, use of her voice etc.

The Ghostwriters ‎- a little later than most on the list, so more digital sounding, more constructed than drifting.

J De La Sierra - cavernous minimal piano music

Craig Kupka - another mix of live and electric
 
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droid

Well-known member
Fun fact! Charles Cohen/ghostwriters was convicted of attempted solicitation of sex with a 14 year old boy.
 
Leo

Leo

Well-known member
droid said:
Fun fact! Charles Cohen/ghostwriters was convicted of attempted solicitation of sex with a 14 year old boy.
Click to expand...

I love the Cohen "retrospective" 2cd comp from a few years ago but since that news came out, I find myself hesitating to play it and feeling a little guilty when I do. maybe that shouldn't matter in the appreciation of the art, we've had discussions on here before about liking music done by not-so-nice people, but unfortunately it does.

also, I recently picked up that Iasos "celestial soul portrait" comp put out by numero, really nice. good Sunday morning music.

have to explore more on that FACT list, thanks for sharing.
 
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Numbers

Well-known member
Really enjoyed that Secret Earth album, quite suprisingly. The new Chris Otchy on C.Tatsu is great as well.
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I don't mean improved obviously - I was prompted to ask by version saying "this could have been made in the early 00s".
 
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sadmanbarty

Well-known member
Lots of genres (for exampme rap and dancehall) sound different now than they did 20 years ago. Can the same be said for ambient? These differences might have to be broken down for laymen like me and corpse
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
The driving force for innovation in a lot of genres is technology. I'd be interested to know if that's the case with ambient too.
 
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droid

Well-known member
Hmmm... Yes I think is the answer?

Different strains have emerged and new areas and themes have been explored, I could easily pick a record from this year and a record from 20 years ago that sound radically different to each other, but on the other hand I could probably pick two records from the same year that also sound radically different. The fundamental problem here is that ambient is an auteur and not a scene genre. Just to give some basic examples from my all time greatest ambient records.

  • On Land
  • Deep Listening
  • Disintegration Loops
  • SAW 2
  • Structures from Silence
  • Air in Resort
Each of these records have very different sounds, they draw from different lineages, progress different ideas and are produced with different technology.

So the problem with applying the standards you might apply to house or reggae etc. is:

1. There is no commonality of technique
2. There is no real scene or physical infrastructure (clubs etc)
3. There is no common mode of production or technology

This goes back to genre definitions. As Monsieur Reynolds would put it, ambient is a 'tint' an aesthetic quality, not a homogenous movement with clear direction and flow as such, it's very difficult to describe 'innovation' or 'progress' or indeed, define what that would even look like
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy


Have to thank droid for introducing me to this, one of the most gorgeous therapeutic choons I've ever encountered.
 
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