The History Of Dark Ambient
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- Background Music
• Klaus Schulze - Irrlicht
LustMord
• Lustmord - Heresy (1990)
Raison D'être
• The Empty Hollow Unfol...
Atrium Carceri
• Atrium Carceri - Forgo...
Brighter Death Now
• Brighter Death Now - N...
Aghast
• Hexerei im Zwielicht d...
Enemite
• Enemite - Wuyuan 2004
This is great deep dive, wonderful research. Thanks for the mention!
following both channels, does that make me weird?
WOW! Got the Cryo/Atrium approval, that really says a whole lot! 💪🏼
Cryo absolutely killing it, amazing releases, honestly some of the best I've ever heard
There's a great internet radio station, called Grey Cley Radio.
Based in the Frome area of SW UK, a hot bed of experimental audio.
24hrs a day, mostly no djs talking, experimental "music" also exclusively ambient using field recordings, synths, field recordings, mostly dark, brooding, virtually no vocals, occasional verging on noise.
Have a listen, get in touch, Bruce is always on the lookout for material to add to the rotating schedule, very friendly and approachable.
Thanks for the link. I found the website and the play button but I don't find the streaming url (to paste in my radio app). Any hints?
@@Gekneveld You can usually find it in the waterfall section when you dig into the website itself. Stream the music after you get to the waterfall section and you should find it standing out among the rest. I do this to grab URLs for foobar.
something that i dont often see talked about in the context of dark ambient music and industrial music proper is that the original score for 1974's texas chain saw massacre has textbook dark ambient and early industrial sounds. like it actually surprised me when i first heard it
Head cheese…
Legit though. That soundtrack is very ahead of its time yet not too many people talk about its significance.
Personal fav Lustmord album is “The Place Where The Black Stars Hang.”
"Metastatic Resonance" is a personal fave❤
100% agreed .
Check out his collab with Robert Rich "Stalker". Also, Coil, Peter Christopherson and John Balance. ❤
Genuinely a masterpiece, one of my favourite albums in this genre.
Found him only a couple of months back and I thought I'd heard it all but that dudes music is on another level. Dark especially...
Coil and nurse with wound
Robert Rich needs to be mentioned here- both in connection to Lustmord and of himself, some of Rich's early work provided some groundwork for the genre
Fissures is a favourite besides of Stalker
Early Tangerine Dream albums certainly played their part in the development of Dark Ambient:- Zeit, Atem, Alpha Centauri...
Tangerine Dream is basically my definition of early dark ambient, especially Rubycon and the soundtrack to "Sorcerer"
Especially Zeit!
@@kevinputry5655 Zeit is the original!
Try Irllicht by Klaus Schulze
I would add the first two Cluster albums as well.
Great call on that Eraserhead soundtrack however if you dig even deeper, there's soundtracks predating that with early examples of dark ambient. Going back to the early 1960's you've got the BBC Radiophonic Workshop whose staff created some fantastic creepy/eerie dark ambient electronic stuff. These folks had assisted composer Tristram Cary in creating his nightmarish score for a couple of the Daleks stories in early episodes of the TV show Doctor Who. And a few of the Workshops' brilliant artists Delia Derbyshire, David Vorhaus and Brian Hodgson recorded an experimental album called Electronic Sound in 1969, pressed by the production library music label Standard Music, the bulk of which was used as soundtrack material for the 70's TV show The Tomorrow People. And there's also Barry Gray who mostly did more orchestral music but occasionally created some great scary ambient tracks used in TV shows like UFO and Space: 1999. Sadly you don't hear much about them but they are pioneers that should get more recognition.
Nicely done, Thomas Koner would be up there for me
Great video man! Surprised Coil didn't get name dropped at any point but happy to see you shouted out the dark jazz branch of things.Definitely wrote a few album titles down to check out.
I’ll probably bring them up A LOT if I do a video about industrial
This is super interesting, Dark Ambient has never been a cohesive scene like other more traditional styles of music. There are no dark ambient 'bands' only artists and it makes it somewhat hard to connect the lineage, its super obscure by nature and maybe that makes it even cooler. Its mysterious
Also, Kammarheit is some of the best newer Dark Ambient imho. The album Starwheel is amazing. Also Bloodbox and Wolfskin are a couple random artists I think deserve praise.
Mick Harris' work as Lull is incredible. He also did a trilogy with Martin Bates on vocals called Murder Ballads that everyone should chrck out. Also check out Yen Pox and Blood Box.
Great video! One of my favorite older pieces of music with dark textures is Daphne Oram’s “Pulse Persephone” from 1955. She was also part of the Radiophonic Workshop that someone else mentioned.
Man, I used to listen to SO much Raisin D’être back in the early 2000’s. That, super early Mortiis (pre-Stargate), Burzum, etc. lot of great vibey dark ambient back then
Great video friend
You have a good voice to listen to as well. Very chill
excellent video Wyatt
there's boatloads of great dark ambient projects out there, i'd like to mention some of them
Lull, which was a project of Mick Harris' (ex Napalm Death drummer), put out some claustrophobic and nightmarish dark ambient albums which were extremely atmospheric and minimalist, iirc Mick started the project using only a 4-track, a sampler and a reverb pedal, albums such as Dreamt About Dreaming, Way Through Staring and Cold Summer would be my recs
Mick also has (possibly had?) another musical project called Scorn, a lot more industrial/trip hop/experimental project with a healthy dose of dark ambience thrown in
Kammarheit is another great example, you can almost think of it as another Atrium Carceri: both are swedish projects, both started off in the early 2000s, both Simon and Par now run their own dark ambient labels and both are very immersive, Asleep and Well Hidden and The Starwheel are amazing dark cold ambient records and great starting points
Par's side project Cities Last Broadcast is amazing as well, very minimalist and eerie, especially on The Humming Tapes, that album is a soundtrack to a haunting
also, Simon from Atrium Carceri has his own side project called Sable Sun which takes Atrium Carceri's sound and applies some spacy sci-fi and post-apocalyptic aesthetics
plus, Simon and Par have collaborated on a couple of occasions, one of which resulted in Miles to Midnight, an amazing atmospheric dark jazz album for the fans of Bohren und der Club of Gore
one of the newer dark ambient projects that i love is God Body Disconnect, it's on Cryo Chamber and was formed by Bruce Moallem, former drummer of the band Dripping (which played some weird-ass psychedelic brutal death metal, really wacky shiznit) but GBD is amazing as well, Dredge Portals, Sleeper's Fate, Spiral of Grief, all very cinematic and emotive dark ambient works, he also worked on the Miles to Midnight album, so there's that
and kinda to cap it off: SleepResearch_Facility, very minimal, very cold, very drony, yes I have fallen asleep to their albums but that's kinda the point
Nostromo and Deep Freeze would be my recs, just make sure you go in expecting a very passive listening experience, even more so than with other dark ambient artists
bonus honorable mention: The Unquiet Void, lovecraftian dark ambient project that is kinda hit or miss, but when it hits, it hits
The Shadow-Haunted Outside is imo his best work, one of the rare few dark ambient albums that managed to unnerve me, it's a bit harder to find, but totally worth it
so there you go, even more dank ambient to check out
P.S.: please stop telling me to drink water, I'm overhydrated as fuck, Imma bout to burst like that Wii lady
I'll have a listen to Lull. I like the minimalist approach. I perform Dark Ambient, using a smallish mixer, tape, tape loops and pedals. It's very therapeutic.
@@domm138 massive plus 1 for Kammerheit. They were my intro to the genre, superbly minimal brooding magnificence
Lustmord "Stalker" makes for great ambiance while reading sci-fi novels.
collaborator Robert Rich created many cool ambient albums
Ive been looking for dark ambient guides, thx
Me too. This is the video that I have been waiting a long time for!
Nice to hear Klaus Schulze’s Irrlicht.
Thanks for this video about the development of this style music, I didn’t know all of the artists mentioned, I’ll check them out.
I would add Harry Bertoia, his recordings are some of the first examples of dark ambient music. I think some early Kluster / Cluster stuff is pretty close to this genre too.
The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud is dark ambient with killer medieval samples
ua-cam.com/video/dRYV3WgPqLM/v-deo.html
albin julius made some really great music,,, wish he wasnt such an edgelord lol
Lustmord rules, taking field recordings in crypts is genius
Ritual ambient is my favorite dark ambient style.
Sounds cool. Any bands? Morriston in some experimental albums creates some ritual songs that sound terrible - well I mean, really ominous and dark!-
My gateway to dark ambient, in the early 90s, was Zoviet France, though I’m not sure if it counts as such. But there are some pieces on their albums “Mohnomishe” (which was actually from the 80s), or “Shadow, Thief of the Sun”, that I am pretty sure enter the orbit.
One of my fave early DARK AMBIENT examples is Gille Mellé's 1971 "THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN" soundtrack. superb album that.
Thanks for the Overview! Looking forward for checking some stuff I have missed.
For me the Journey started with SPK's Zamia Lehmanni.
I'm a bit surprised nobody noticed vidnaObmana as the musical output was immense with dozens of albums ...ranges from clinically cold to meditative warm.
Man, I love this kind of videos: whether it is about neoclassical darkwave or about dark ambient, I think this is some of the best content on your channel (and I'd love something about dungeon synth). Keep it up!
Anyway, putting Irrlicht as background music was a wise choice: that album and Zeit by Tangerine Dream might be some of the best examples of proto-dark ambient. Just listen to "After Cease to Exist" from "The Second Annual Report of Throbbing Gristle" and I argue you can immediately hear the Tangerine Dream influence (well, they were into that project anyway).
One more thing: I had the luck to see both Raison D'être and Brighter Death Now (whom I got to know through your videos about industrial) live last March in Bologna (Italy), and they put on an amazing performance. The fun thing is that I was wearing an "All the Dread Magnificence of Perversity" t-shirt similar to the one you are wearing now :)
My first exposure to this type of sound was Ligeti’s Atmospheres in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Not a synthesizer in sight but the same penetrating tension.
Yes! That's brilliant stuff. Thanks to Stanley Kubrick, if he hadn't chosen Ligeti's works, I'd have never heard of him.
No mention of Sun O))), sure drone metal but definitely pulling in dark ambience. Great video, got a lot to go find now, thanks!
earth
Awesome video.
I recently met Keiji Haino who is honestly the god of experimental music, and dark ambient is one of the many genres he is ridiculously good at.
It's such a unique style of music - you really cant listen to it passively.
I didn't know he did any Dark Ambient, which albums would you reccomend?
Check out muslimgauze from the 90’s… one of my favourites. Tribal dub/ambient/post industrial
Fenriz also had a dark ambient project called Neptune Towers.
RIP Andrea Meyer, Aghast.
Depressive silence II is my personal favorite dark ambient album. It’s like you’re in Skyrim.
Depressive silence is so good, 1 and 2 are classics.
Quest master and burzum's two prison albums rule too.
Sometimes I play the Skyrim soundtrack on UA-cam for hours!
@@RuneChan-i8jQuestMaster
You just made me check it out (I have never properly delved into Dark Ambient/Dungeon Synth) and I'm in awe. This is so beautiful.
Umm sir that is Dungeon Synth
Wow! A really great introductory dive into DA. It is seriously a vast subject when it comes to hidden little corners. If this were a Dark Ambient Iceberg you really only touched upon the top two or three tiers of that deathly cold Iceberg. Dark Ambient, Black Ambient, Death Ambient, etc have a very close relationship with the various underground Black Metal scenes of the 90s . I’d love to watch a deeper dive into the really grim obscure stuff from the lower tiers of that Iceberg with the likes the French LLN Black Ambient projects like MOEVOT, SATANICUM TENEBRAE, and the German Gloomy Minimalism of HOEDH “Hymnvs”, FLITTERING “Gloom” and KRANIVM (Italy) “Insanatorivm”.
Also when it comes to a truly seminal Dark Ambient release I’d dive into Germany’s NEKROPOLIS 1981 masterpiece “Musik Aus Dem Schattenreich” because it is arguably the first Dark Ambient LP and it predates Lustmord and the CMI label.
My favorite Ambient albums are often drony, minimal, and on the edge with Dark Ambient: Lustmord - The Place Where The Black Stars Hang (cosmic infinity) , Biosphere - Shenzhou (neoclassical sampling masterpiece), Thomas Köner discography / Sleep Research Facility - Deep Freeze (artic soundscapes), Atheus - Soundscapes and Drones
Painkiller’s drummer (Mitch Harris) has an excellent dark ambient project called Lull
Dark ambient is a genre I like making 🥰
Indeed! As soon as someone starts with it the producer get sucked into this eerie world of beautiful dark ambience.
The Magnificent Void by Steve Roach could be called Cosmic Dark Ambient, the buildup to the closeing track is very rewarding.
Dude you nailed this! Been into dark ambient since Filosofem was released. Lustmord, D'Etre, CMI and Cryo all top top class 👌 And big respect for Rome LP, another amazing act. If anyone isn't onto Cryo Chamber yet, their releases and mixes are on UA-cam and are amazing.
One of my personal favorite dark ambient albums is actually a soundtrack which reaches a little beyond synths with some oblique orchestrations, John Carpenter's "The Thing" soundtrack from 1982. The movie is scary, dreadful and chilling but to me the soundtrack album has always stood Awesomely on it's own as one of the best dark ambient albums! Also Stephen King's "The Shining" soundtrack!
Well done! That was deep and detailed. Really enjoyed it. The Quake soundtrack is the best Industrial Dark Ambient release of all time and I’ll fight anyone who disagrees.
Honestly, I would say that the first dark ambient piece of music would be the works of Arseny Avraamov, namely “symphony of industrial horns” which was released in the 1920s.
As a huge death-doom fan and in general death metal that's very atmospheric and puts you in a dark mood (as well as black metal) this video and your recs have been a huge help for me to find new artists/albums/labels to check out
If you like Bohren check out Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble and Mount Fuji Doom Jazz Corporation if you haven't already
noted
ill add them to the playlist for dark jazz
Another one id add is dale cooper quartet and the Dictaphones.
They are probably my favorite thing to ever come out of jazz.
Mt Fuji Doom Jazz Corp mentioned!!!!!
@@TERMINATOR-0002 Hell yeah I was about to comment about that band too
In the similar vein would be The Lovecraft Sextet and Free Nelson MandoomJazz
My biggest surprise is that I know a lot of the artists mentioned. Cinema is directly the best way to go when looking at the history. Before people had any idea that weirdos would buy and listen to this stuff. I still listen daily but not exclusively.
Also, Brian Eno's "Ambient 4:OnLand" is at the very least orthogonal to dark ambient. It sounds like your in Eno's backyard, at night, with all of the insects, worms and other slimy / gurgly things 🙂
Well done video, though! I recognized a lot of the artists mentioned, but learned about a few new ones as well. I had the great fortune of seeing Scorn, DVOA and Not Breathing in the mid 90s on the Invisible Records tour they did. I've _so_ many fond memories of that show :-)
Beat me to it
In a swamp, on land. Norfolk actually ..... So, kind of beyond his backyard all the way to the submerged village of Dunwich
Hell yes, the shoutout to Raison D'etre is awesome! I was musically raised on RD in the 90s and his other side projects. It's music that speaks to the deepest most existential emotions. Cold Meat ruled when it was around.
Atrium Carceri is my most fave dark ambient project along with Desiderii Marginis and Dahlia’s Tear.
Voice of Eye. First dark ambient I ever heard. I still love it.
Cryo Chamber is certainly a place to go to in search for good Dark Ambient/ Drone etc.
All of the Lovecraft themed albums are fantastic.
The best!!
All this talk of Cold Meat Industry, Lustmord and other early 90s classics reminded me of Neil Young's "Arc" EP from 1991, which almost fits with all the rest of it.
Hey man, thanks for this video, really good research. As someone who've been listening to dark ambient since the early 90's I'm humbly surprised on how little I knew about it.
Would think some corners of Bill Laswell qualify - Axiom Ambient comes to mind- some dark disturbing tracks to be found.
If you want a left field early entrant for dark ambient: the British classical composer Harrison Birtwhistle’s only electro-acoustic film score, for the underappreciated grim Sean Connery police thriller 1973 movie The Offence. It’s really something, and does for that movie what the Eraserhead score did for David Lynch.
Ah yes with the clangy sounds! Really sets the mood.
One very important release that you missed here would be Ambient 4: On Land by Brian Eno
Even tho it was far from the first in the genre (it came out in 1982), the most popular and acclaimed ambient artist dabbling in dark ambient certainly brought a lot of attention to the idea that ambient didn't necessarily need to be calm and relaxing all the time.
Outstanding album! An interesting thing about this album is that he began recording the material on it in 1978.
Enjoyed this presentation immensely. Almost as much as I loved the ‘ devil may care ‘ attitude towards facial hair. Good work fella
Some of my favs outside of those mentioned in the video: Jagath, Nordvargr, Desiderii Marginis, Halo Manash.
I love dark ambient music, i make dark ambient like music. Its one of my favorite genres. Im glad someone finally talks about this. Thanks for that.
I was introduced to "dark ambient" loosely in the late 80s, via Lustmord's _Paradise Disowned_ Pauline Oliveros's _Deep Listening_ SPK's _Zamia Lehmmani_ & COIL's _How to destroy Angels_ . But the pieces all came together when _Heresy_ by Lustmord came out in 1990. Man, that album was _dark_ . It scared the absolute crap out of us (especially those of us tripping on LSD) when we had a listening party for _Heresy_ . We all thought we might have actually called Satan up from the very pit itself playing that lol. Good times!
Heresy on acid haha omg that would be utterly terrifying. Amazing record.
Awesome vid, man!! Loving this. Totally Merzbow took a lot of cues from these early dark ambient creationists
Surprised not a mention to inade
Or loki foundation
Congratulations !! Great video by the way
This is a brilliant analysis / introduction. I clicked on this with the haxan cloak in mind. Dark Ambient has a lot with common with hauntology. But there is an extra layer of obscureness to it. Take artists like Pram, Pye Corner Audio, Mount Vernon Arts Lab or Advisory Circle.
Electronic Music has this ability to shift and change which never fails to surprise me.
From EBMs Front 242 to the musical experiments of Cabaret Voltaire. The history, evolution and intersections with so many other genres is truly fascinating. I guess one can talk for hours and still not cover even a third of the whole topic.
great video as always, The Axis of Perdition is a great band. thanks for the recs as always
Louis and Bebe Baron are a precursor to dark ambient
Zeit ,Atem, Pheadra, Rubicon, Ricochet , from Tangerine Dream, are great electronic albums from the seventies
Agreed
just random found your channel and i love the content. you seem like a cool dude
Thanks loads for this video... I thought I knew a lot about this style but you have suggest some artists I had not heard of... Job done! Really looking forward to Finding out more about Raison d'être...
Thank you for making this video. I didn't know that many of these albums existed and now I'm listening to them on repeat.
Oh man ! This is awesome interesting subject... just got in to alot more Ambient music as im in to Soundtrack Horror and find a lot of characteristics, the same ... just picked up Last Wave soundtrack, now found your channel and thank you for the great info and some great Albums / Cds to lookout for now. Gonna to love this expensive ride .... Lol👍 Got my Sub
I’ve seen Brighter Death Now and Raison D’Etre a couple months ago in Milan!
Also shoutout to mr. Corbelli. Atrax Morgue is pure death
Li vidi a Bologna a marzo! Grande show.
Also yes: shoutout to Atrax Morgue :)
Dutch label Winter Light is up there with Cryo Chamber. Plus, German band Inade is one the best bands IMO
My entry into Dark Ambient, and what could be considered the baby’s first Dark Ambient, is “Dodongo’s Cavern” by Koji Kondo.
Most of Husere Grav's work is exceptional in exploring the sonics of 'emptyness' to an astonishing level. Layered black sound with strange and illusory depths.
History of Martial Industrial when?
Really liking your recent venture into topic videos, Wyatt! Keep 'em coming.
I actually spoke with Brian Williams after a live show in october 2019. Cool guy👍
Could you do one on the history of industrial?
Trash Theory did a great intro to industrial video.
I agree with your take on Lustomord and he’s the first thing that pops into my head when I hear ambient mentioned, but I’d have definitely talked more about controlled bleeding. From a pioneering power electronic to industrial to dark ambient to new age, all while being a high school teacher, Paul Lemos is amazing. Also, Ordo Catharis Templi should have gotten a mention.
ua-cam.com/video/GkQeJw3EaWc/v-deo.htmlsi=Xx8aj5O9VmTd-Gzm
Huge props for covering this genre! 🤝👌
Great and insightful video on our beloved genre
Great video, very well researched.
Prospectus 1 and Within the Depths of Silence and Phormations by Raison d'être are my fav dark ambient albums, truly amazing atmospheres
I saw the title and couldn't click fast enough! Thank you for making these videos.
Great video!
I can strongly recommend Akira Yamaoka's work on the Silent Hill soundtracks though, best dark ambient out there imo. Very minimalist and industrial-leaning.
Electronic album from 1969 'White Noise' Electric storm in Hell in parts is absolutely Dark Ambient partly recorded in the BBC studios, comment if you agree...
That was one of the albums that came to my mind first
i admire how much knowledge you have on obscure genres such as this. stuff like this really intrigues me and its great to have some new recommendations now and to have more knowledge of the history of it. another instance that comes to mind of dark ambient mixing with pop would be Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark’s album “Architecture & Morality”. i’m also surprised you didnt mention Derniere Volonte’s album “Le Fue Sacre” though i understand its not a straight up dark ambient album.
I've never officially heard of this genre before but I'm SO glad the algorithm led me to this video. I listen to a lot of stuff the borders on Dark Ambient but had no idea there was SO much deeper variations out there. Gonna relisten and take notes.
Heard about Lustmord the First time and Love that Kind of Ambient music. It feels Like Soma FM Dronezone. Thx for making this Video. ❤
Awesome video! Please do continue with these “let’s go down the rabbit hole” type videos.
I recently discovered UBOA (and freaking love the new album), and I had wondered if it got on your radar
Excellent video, well thought out. I have just uploaded my first UA-cam video and it is a short (8 mins) dark ambient piece. Despite being into electronic music since around 1980 I'd not realised that 'dark ambient' was a seperate sub-genre. Ps. Very nice to hear Klaus Schulze (RIP) in your background - one of my favourite artists 😎
The Caretaker can be considered as dark ambient, it's a great artiste.
excellent work, amazing video from the information, research to the background music, thank you!!
My YT algorithm finally seems to be working and recommending some quality content! Subscribed!
And I just learnt that Lustmord is the artist behind some of the soundtrack on The Empty Man. One of my favourite films! Thanks for all the recommendations in your video.
Council of Nine and God Body Disconnect is also really good artists I HEAVILY recommend, esp for those ac fans
And dead melodies.
GBD records are absolutely incredible
@@RD-lo9pn ok
Simon is the best dude!
Thanks for your service 😊
Great video and lots to check out ;-)
Nope. Florian Fricke didn't cook up the beginnings of dark ambient on "Affenstunde". That album has more to do with the "kosmische music" thing that also included early Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and early Ash Ra Tempel. Klaus's "Irrlicht" (1970) is much more in the right vein. But that's not where the dark ambient aesthetic came from...
For THAT, you have to go back a few more years to Karlheinz Stockhausen and his massive work "Hymnen", for electronics (no synths there), tape, and national anthem recordings. This was mainly brewed up in 1967 at the WDR's groundbreaking electronic music studio in their Cologne HQ. And here, I'm actually referring to the Fourth Region, which is the final 30+ minute section of the work. I'm not even going to TRY and explain what listeners encounter with this; all I can say is that if you really dig creepy atmospherics, it delivers!
Then in 1968, Holger Czukay and Rolf Dammers, along with Stockhausen's assistant at the time (American composer David Johnson) went in for a little "studio piracy" at WDR and cooked up the "Canaxis" album. And yes, this was during the early, looser days of the astonishing Krautrock pioneers known as Can, which Czukay and Johnson (on the first two Can albums "Monster Movie" and "Delay 1968") were involved in. Czukay remained, Johnson went on a more "academic" direction around the time that first title came out.
Again, no synthesizers. Instead, we get something of a "stuck crossfader" result that encompasses both Can AND Stockhausen's ideas simultaneously. Very dark, bleak at times, with strangely-processed vocals...some of which were sources for "Hymnen"'s predecessor, "Telemusik" (1965).
Then in 1969, Island Records gave the world White Noise, with their first album, "An Electric Storm". DEFINITELY creepy stuff, with the long track "The Visitation" bridging psychedelia and avant-electronics, and VOCALS, heavily processed and mangled. On this album, also, you find Delia Derbyshire and some of her Unit Delta Place crew from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Finally...synths, but not the big modular Moog. Instead, what you hear lots of is the EMS VCS3, both as an instrument and processor...rather similar to what Brian Eno would be doing with Roxy Music a couple of years later.
One other Stockhausen work needs mentioning: "Mikrophonie 1" (1964). This has actual performance footage available on YT, in fact. The piece uses a HUGE gong (made by Paiste, which still has it in production, but now lists it as the "Stockhausen model") that's being "activated" by all manner of things while two more performers are sort of "examining" the results with very directional microphones. Then both mics are run thru very specific filters (Maihak W32s) and the results then get sent to a stereo mixer to manipulate level and spatial orientation.
Sounds boring and pedantic, right? Well...many years back, I would use it as "yard music" on Halloween, and it scared not only the kids, but their parents as well! I would argue that "Mikrophonie 1" is THE OG of dark ambient...right down to the fact that Mick Harris's work in Lull and Scorn used much the same apparatus some 20-25 years on. Damn, what a fantastic piece of racket!
One last one, although it isn't one of the groundbreakers EXCEPT that it directly influenced film scoring up to the present day. With Brian Lustmord and Sinan, and Graeme Revell (yep! the soundtrack dude that, frankly, Trent Reznor should worship the ground he's standing on here), the group is known as SPK, and the album is the incredibly creepy and infinitely disturbing "Leichenschrei" ("Corpse Screams" for those not down with the uptake on German).
The best way I can describe it is that it frequently sounds like the aural equivalent of a snuff film. No, I am NOT exaggerating. It came out c. 1978 or so, and 45+ years later it's not lost a damn thing! One track has distorted electronics, repeated sounds of breaking glass and a woman screaming in terror, and buried to one degree or another is this low male voice saying things such as "...make it look like an accident..." and "... don't...don't let them know...who we are..." before some earrape screech comes in and we get a "recipe" for making Molotov cocktails. Cheery stuff!
But yeah...the synth wasn't what started dark ambient, or even ambient itself. That last honor there belongs to the French composer Erik Satie, and it's a fact that Brian Eno himself acknowledged in the liner notes for "Discreet Music".
And speaking of Brian Eno, one of his collaborations with Robert Fripp needs mentioning: "An Index of Metals", from 1975's "Evening Star". Side one is beautiful. But the entirety of side two is that 27-minute work, which sounds like an homage to the starkness of endless brutalist post-WWII cityscapes. Twisted, dark harmonies predominate...layers of noise from tapes and such... it's so damn cold, you won't need air conditioning when it's playing!
So, yeah... there's a few other things out there that can vie for "earliest dark ambient". And I didn't EVEN get to Luciano Berio's "Visage" (1961), made up solely of his collaborator Cathy Berberian (from which we get the title for the amazing psychological breakdown movie "Berberian Sound Studio") intoning the word "parole" (Italian for "words") in myriad creepy ways as Berio drops ominous electronic drones and cues and tape manipulations of Berberian all over the place. Almost forgot about this one...but daaaamn, is it ever creepy!
I really do appreciate you putting in the time to comment this much to me for just one video.
@@wyattxhim Hey, no prob. The early stuff before "Discreet Music" isn't well known...which is a shame. Hell, there's one piece by Robert Ashley called "She Was a Visitor". NO electronics whatsoever, just a choral group...and it's definitely ambient and QUITE creepy. But it dates from the mid-1960s and you kinda have to know the experimental scene starting with Eno and then working backwards, tracing lineages. That's when you start coming across wonderful weirdnesses such as Alvin Lucier's "I am sitting in a room".
Interestingly, the barrier between the avant-garde and pop was seriously eroded by 1970. Even groups such as The Beatles were in on it on tracks like "I Am the Walrus" and, of course, "Revolution 9". And composers such as Stockhausen and John Cage were household names on various levels, treated like rock stars.
And then, it went all to hell between 1970 - 72. Lots of factors were in play, but the end-result was a shearing-off of ambient from the "Serious Music" academics, relegating it to pop. As a result, pieces such as Paul Lansky's "mild und leise" flew under the radar literally for decades...until Radiohead used it as the core element for "Idiotheque".
So there's plenty of early dark ambient work that predates the synthesizer...but you've got to shift "research modalities" to get past that split in the ambient timeline. Maybe frustrating and pedantic for some...but when you hear this older stuff, there's ZERO doubt about what it's part of.
Lustmord is awesome, my favourite project of him is the collaborative album "Stalker", and his latest release "Much Unseen Is Also Here" is quite amazing too
Thanks for getting me back into dark ambient with this video!
Great walkthrough of this sometimes forgotten and underappreciated corner of the music world. For me The Angelic Process - Weighing Souls With Sand comes to mind
Excellent video! Would love to hear your opinion on the current wave of videos on here of like "you're a tank driver in a nuclear wasteland" or other dystopian themed maybe cyberpunk ambient. I've been following Cryo Chamber on here a while not realizing their connection to the genre in the past. Really interesting stuff!
It's also made me realize my own music is definitely very influenced by Dark Ambient.