What is Ambient?

[Fubaka]

I have to ask, since, looking at the genre category, the songs seem all over the place in terms of style and format.

Seriously, what separates this genre from the others on NG? Also, examples would be nice.

[Fubaka]

At 6/26/15 02:31 PM, TheDukeofJuke wrote: Brian Eno: "Ambient music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular"

There you go.

Good start, considering he's the father of Ambient music and all. Unfortunately, perusing the Ambient category doesn't seem to inspire confidence in that definition.

[Phonometrologist]

I'd be curious to hear @Lucidshadowdreamer 's own definition on what ambient is since he loves it.

As for me, I associate ambient music to be another way of saying "furniture music" as Erik Satie and John Cage would ascribe meaning to the word. Therefore, I don't necessarily consider Brian Eno the "father" of ambient, but rather just another branch stemmed from the previously two mentioned composers.
Minimalism and avant-garde, I find, are to be considered closely related to ambient as they all are meant to enter the subconscious and not meant to be mainly focused on each individual note. The emphasis of change in the music lies in one's thoughts while the background music may guide them.

Here's an article that I found that matches my same sentiments that I even felt to be true years ago upon my studies in music, but I'm sharing this because they put it more eloquently in words than I do:
https://wfmu.org/~kennyg/popular/articles/satie.html

This more broad definition of the word might be why you may see so much disparity in the category of ambient.

[Daru925]

I would call this ambient...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATzlzPLMUhc

[Fubaka]

At 6/27/15 08:49 AM, Phonometrologist wrote: Here's an article that I found that matches my same sentiments that I even felt to be true years ago upon my studies in music, but I'm sharing this because they put it more eloquently in words than I do:
https://wfmu.org/~kennyg/popular/articles/satie.html

Thanks for showing me that link. It definitely paints a better picture of Satie than the one I had before.

Personally though, I remember Cage for his 4'33" suite more than anything else he did. He is one of the reasons I include silent portions in my albums. (The other being Boards of Canada)

At 6/27/15 09:02 AM, Daru925 wrote: I would call this ambient...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATzlzPLMUhc

I would too, and have been for the past 7 years. That's how long I've owned that album.

[TheBetterAudioPortal]

This is ambient

• 

  Ambient Ambience

  by TheBetterAudioPortal

  Spooky

  Loop

  Ambient

  2,894 Views

  PLAY

[Fubaka]

At 6/27/15 09:25 AM, TheBetterAudioPortal wrote: This is ambient
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/631434

Well done!

[JargusCannon]

At 6/27/15 09:25 AM, TheBetterAudioPortal wrote: This is ambient
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/631434

You have me spooked.

[MetalRenard]

I think you can qualify any piece of music as "ambient" if it creates a feeling without being "in your face".
For example, Devin Townsend does some fantastic ambient rock. Why is it ambient? Because it's pretty "wishy-washy", lots of long notes and more moods than actual in your face rock riffs. Gentle strumming sure, but it's not in the foreground.

*shrug*

[Fubaka]

At 6/27/15 04:21 PM, MetalRenard wrote: I think you can qualify any piece of music as "ambient" if it creates a feeling without being "in your face".
For example, Devin Townsend does some fantastic ambient rock. Why is it ambient? Because it's pretty "wishy-washy", lots of long notes and more moods than actual in your face rock riffs. Gentle strumming sure, but it's not in the foreground.

*shrug*

I could go by that definition as a generality. Unfortunately, most of the songs in our 'Ambient' section are quite in your face. Seems like a poorly understood concept.

[MetalRenard]

At 6/27/15 06:05 PM, Fubaka wrote: I could go by that definition as a generality. Unfortunately, most of the songs in our 'Ambient' section are quite in your face. Seems like a poorly understood concept.

That's because it's "cool". Kids would use any tag if it's popular. tsk tsk. /jk
Yes, I agree, maybe genres should link to wiki pages explaining what they are. ^_^

[LucidShadowDreamer]

At 6/27/15 08:49 AM, Phonometrologist wrote: I'd be curious to hear @Lucidshadowdreamer 's own definition on what ambient is since he loves it.

"It's not the ambiance on the outside that counts, it's the ambiance on the inside"

- LSD, 2015.

Sorry for the late response. I've been on a vacation, hehhe.

Either way. That quote is not incredibly unmeaningful. I would argue that what "ambient" music really is, nowadays, is pretty vague. It has become so broad a term that people use it to define/explain pretty much any kind of music that is a bit softer/slower and could work well as background music. Which is fine. I think that what people feel is ambient, may as well be, as it is, quite a broad term.

To me though, it's all about the atmosphere. There's a specific kind of sound that to me, simply is ambient. I think @Phonometrologist is onto something when he talks about the subconscious. Dreamlike, floaty/liquid, zen music, is perhaps what generally could be said to speak to the subconscious. Something that is relaxing, maybe even with binaural beats themselves as a base.
But the beauty is that you can have all kinds of moods while still keeping music ambient. Often ambiance is associated with creepy moods. Odd music, something unpleasant, and maybe even a bit difficult to grasp. Everything from unorthodox sounds, to pads, or even weird/unusual combinations of muddy notes on a piano, if used in the right context, could be classified as ambient.
I experimented with this a lot in my track "Vos Postergum", while even including recorded sounds of a vacuum cleaner, and some crystal glass etc.
Sometimes, it can be difficult to tell whether one should feel relaxed or uncomfortable or a little bit of both by listening to zen-ish ambient music.
But creepiness is not a limitation. You could also portray love as well as most other emotions with ambient music as well, although pehaps the slower kind, with perhaps a heavily reverbed sweet and slow saxophone solo and such here and there. As long as it's not too uptempo. It would probably still have a weird feel to it though. That feel speaks to me, but it might not to everyone.
Even sounds from nature like a waterfall, waves, or wind can be ambient.
Ambiance has also been used in popular bands, and is very common with examplewise much of the music of Pink Floyd.

In conclusion, it's very difficult to explain what I mean, and all this is just a personal definition anyway.
In the end, it's something that speaks to the human psyche, at least for me, while still being bound by some of the rules/descriptions I mentioned. I honestly can't put it into words, any more than I have done.
Slow, Liquid, Reverb, Dreamlike, Subconscious, Atmospherical, Relaxing, Creepy, Zen, Psychological, floating. In some combination.

I'm sorry, but this is really the best that I can do :p
I am pretty sure that I brought no clarity, but only more muddiness, but I guess that the muddiness is part of the ambient beauty ;)