This is the place to once again discuss all things ambient: space music, Brian Eno, Phillip Glass, New Age, indeterminism, minimalism, and perhaps some connections to electronica.18 responses total.
I suppose Wendy Carlos should be mentioned in a new electronic music item, but I'm wondering if she'll be involved in the soundtrack for Tron 2.0 (a.k.a. Tron-- Killer App: see http://www.tronkillerapp.com for a promo), as she was for Tron.
I've been thinking for a while that I should listen to more of Eno's ambient music. I know the poppier albums he's put out, and some of his work as a producer, but I've never gotten into the ambient stuff, and there seems to be an enormous amount of it out there. What's a good starting point? DOes it matter?
Philip Glass, ambient? Yeeks. Would you call Steve Reich ambient? Wait, you're discussing Phillip Glass, two L's. Must be somebody else.
I could be wrong. What would you call "Tubular Bells"?
Wasn't "tubular bells" Gary Oldman? (pardon my ignorance)
You're getting closer, anyway..
Tubular Bells was not by Philip Glass. Nor Phillip Glass, Steve Reich, nor even Gary Oldman. I did not say that ambient music does not exist. Merely that Philip Glass is not it.
I'm sure you're right. This was yet another fried-out, overzealous attempt to expand the music cf beyond folk music and P2P (Napster) discussion. Now-- would you care to discuss some ambient artists, then? For ambient artists on NPR radio, I think "Hearts of Space" and "Echoes" might be a reference.. anyone care to correct or disagree with me? Better yet, anything to add to that?
Sigh. I'm sure dbratman is right, too. This will teach me to post without researching; my brain doesn't handle name-matching (or even genre-identificiation, for that matter) very reliably. Tubular Bells --- composed by Mike Oldfield. (who has worked with the Galician group Luar na Lubre, that's how I thought I knew the name) I'm sorry for not mentioning the ambient CDs in my collection; I have a few, including a compliation called "PATH" which I love a lot. A couple of Tangerine Dream, too.
Yeah, Tangerine Dream is nice from what little I've heard of them-- not sure if they are on the stricter sense of New Age, or have done more with melody, as Ray Lynch did with albums past his first recording.. can't remember the name of it.
"Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" by Mozart is, technically, ambient music, if defined as "music designed not to be listened to very closely."
Nice. You could say the same thing about a lot of classical chamber music, really. Obviously, most of us wouldn't call Eine Kleine Nachtmusik "ambient." I think the reason for that is that it's _hard_ not to listen to it closely. Interesting things and catchy melodies keep happening, and drawing your ear back to it. Most of the music we call ambient is hard _to_ listen to closely.
Really? I just love to get lost in it, really.. I can listen to it quite actively, or I can turn it way down low and fall asleep to it. Maybe that's just me.
re: 12 - No, most chamber music is designed to be listened to very closely indeed. It's possible to treat it as if it were ambient music, but it wasn't written for that purpose. Mozart's serenades, of which Eine Kleine is one, _were_ written for that purpose. It's possible to listen to them closely and with attention, and they reward the effort, but that's not what they were written for. I'm distinguishing between intent and effect here. If you judge by effect only, almost all music is ambient - and simultaneously almost all is not ambient. If you judge by intent, however, a distinction can be made.
I understand the distinction you're making. I'm probably just flubbing my music history. I had thought that most chamber music from Mozart's day was originally written as background music for parties, much as Eine Kleine Nachtmusik was.
re: 15 - Works like Mozart's "Haydn Quartets" (so-called because they're dedicated to him) were definitely not intended as background listening. Nor was all the "background music" chamber music, either. Eine Kleine was originally intended for string quartet and continuo, though it's now usually played by string orchestra, but there are similar Mozart serenades for full orchestra.
resp:8 Hearts of Space has a wonderful website at http://www.hos.com You can listen to samples of archived programs via streaming audio, and consider subscribing for complete access to the archives. The site also lists NPR stations carrying the program, CDs available, and more. The site is well-designed and very pleasing to the eye. The Echoes webpage is at http://www.echoes.org The program could be considered somewhat similiar in spirit to Hearts of Space, although it does not play strictly atmospheric music. Space music is part of the programming, although the playlist is much broader than that.
Hi, why u don't try "Lustmord".. it's cool ambient music
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