Ambient (and sub-genre) Discussion Thread

[ExoBassTix]

A thread for discussion about Ambient, Dark Ambient, Drone Ambient, Ambient Noise, etc etc. because I declare we really needed one, since me doing a lot more with all kinds of Ambient is so important to MLR.



I found Lustmord yesterday, who apparently is one of the founders of Dark Ambient (not sure however).
When I heard his piece Black Star, no matter how high the temperature in my room would've been, it'd have made me shiver anyways.
Instantly bought the album.

Also an important note:
AmbientOnline.org is best site (oh and the forum and the podcast are amazing)



There's your kick-off. Engage discussion!

[Freewave]

Well here's what I have written up for the Ambient box set (RYM Project). 5 discs worth of goodies and essnetial albums/ artists.

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/TheScien ... __ambient/

There's surprsingly a lot of diffences in ambient so stuff like Brian Eno's Ambient 1 is pretty straight forward stark piano, Stars in the Lid is trippy soundscapes, Tim Hecker does mixes of field recordings and almost shoegazey layers, FSOL sounds like Vangelis doing Blade Runner's ambient pieces, and Gas is ambient with a slight hypnotic beat. So it's very easy to like something and not get into others as it can all be very different approaches. Key with ambient is its perfect background music for getting lost in and not actively engaging in it. You can definitely listen (and its great on walk or listening on the train) but its not designed to be incredibly engaging liek a lot of music is. If you're not patient and able to absorb what's going on its easy to slag it as "boring" or "easy to do" and its not.

For Dark Ambient (and yes Lustmord definitely is essential) here's a guest list
https://rateyourmusic.com/list/redflags ... k_ambient/
I would have likely included Deathprod's Morals and Dogma as it is surprisingly absent.

I will say ambient by nature is generally beatless while the wider parent genre Downtempo generally has beats and constitutes the majority of "Chill Out" music. https://rateyourmusic.com/list/TheScien ... downtempo/
That MIGHT be easier to digest for some people. It has parallel lines to ambient but is quite a bit different and more conventional and fits a bit more under lower tempo electronica tree.

[ExoBassTix]

So that's two referrals down :D how many more will join us? :P

I know I'm largely getting into Ambient (pretty much more toward Dark Ambient) myself, and I loce every bit of it.

Also, I found this:
http://soundcloud.com/argyre-planitia/0083-1
Lovely :)

[ExoBassTix]

Any idea what kind of Ambient music you're looking to start producing?
cause the first time I made dark ambient it was kind of an accident... XD

Well, right now I got a small batch of Ambient, Dark Ambient and Ambient Noise in the work. My focus, I'd say, would be on the latter two. Though I do got an absolutely amazing work in the former genre.

It started as an experiment for me too, you know. Everything is really. Just like how I started the Dub Techno thing I started a few days ago, just like discovering Hardcore kick design, all on coincidence.

I do got a little question, even though I highly expect a complex answer that I might not understand xD
Two of the pieces I'n working on are pretty much done, save for some details I guess. But when I raise the gain to just not go into red, it's still softer than any other Dark Ambient track I got. I've been playing around with iZotope Ozone 5, did some things (my half-uncle taught me a bit about stereo imaging, for one), but can't get it to be harder. Wheee for newbie me. Never have this issue with Ambient Noise though :P

Any idea what to do for me? Some trick to it? Must I learn mastering? Am I being stupid or ignorant to something that should be obvious?

[ChocolateChicken]

Kelly Bailey rules <3 His contributions to the Half-Life soundtracks were so outstanding and I hope he returns to Valve. I understand that many songs in HL:2 are reworks or simply reused from HL:1, but Lab Practicum is one of the most memorable ambient songs for me.

[ChocolateChicken]

This is another one of my favorite ambient songs. It comes from the soundtrack to the film Sunshine, and it was composed by Underworld and John Murphy.



According to Underworld, those little melodies in the song are played by an acoustic guitar.

[Mundius]

I'm experimenting with dark ambient a lot lately, and so far, I think this is pretty decent. I went for something that could fit into a game, especially the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series which have some of the best ambient pieces. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/528 ... 0long.flac (change flac to mp3 for 128kbps or wma for weak connections)

[ExoBassTix]

I'm gonna do a round of sharing my finds of recent.

Spoiler Kammarheit - The Poignant:

Spoiler Inade - Abandoned Inferno:

Spoiler Sjellos - Life Left:

Spoiler Dark Frequencer - Venusian Angels:

Lustmord - Infinite Space
Wieland Samolak - Steady State Music (a free-release album)

And even though I haven't released any Ambient (except Sins Of Afterlife) yet, I have quite a bunch nearing completion. Just know I'm getting there, and that I might bring something out at any moment.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

What do you guys think of this song? :D It's one of my favorite ambient works, though it is technically a tonal soundscape

utterly love it. Half Life 2 has an astounding soundtrack.

[ExoBassTix]

Okay. Oooooookay.
So I've been browsing through archive.org a LOT, and I can't believe the amount of infamous talent I've stumbled upon. I'd like to put a few of them here:

Phil Thomson - Systatis III
Dizzonanz Domestic - v-O!-d
Spit It Out - Isolation (album)
Nightech - Field Carriers (album)
Failure & Clownville FM & Loorii & Jeno Ambient Project & Decadaencea - 5-way Split (huge album)
Vlad Shegal - Overnight In A Sinister Forest (20kbps album)
Steam Flow & Dark Flow - Larvae Ligna Mortua (album, not 100% Ambient though)
Failure & Deafness - Empty Words (album)
Maps And Diagrams - The Giant Woods (album)

My god, archive.org is a wonderful source for Ambient! (But also other genres.)

[Acsii]

This is a pretty interesting drone-ish playlist, though it's a little longer than usual.

fix'd

[ExoBassTix]

Time to revive this one with some valuable news:
AmbientOnline has released its newest compilation album, volume 3!
https://ambientonline.bandcamp.com/albu ... n-volume-3

59 -amazing- Ambient(al) tracks, for the price of $9 (which all goes to funding the site's continued existence).

I very highly recommend you check it out :)

[ExoBassTix]

Some of you might be interested to know that AmbientOnline has just announced that submissions are open for AmbientOnline Compilation Volume 4! Submissions are due March 15th.

Definitely gonna make sure I get something to submit!

And for the sake of Ambient music, have some!