Who invented ambient music?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 8 чер 2024
- A lot of people think @BrianEnoOfficial invented ambient music, but is this true? When Eno released "Ambient 1: Music for Airports" in 1978, he was standing on the shoulders of people like John Cage, Terry Riley, Pauline Oliveros, and Raymond Scott.
Critics called Ambient 1 "boring" and "self-indulgent," but nowadays it's considered "genre-breaking" and a "landmark." What do people think about it today?
Do you think this album is music? Or an imitation of music?
-----
Join Club Weird for exclusive access to members-only content:
/ @makeweirdmusic
Make Weird Music exists to encourage musicians and music enthusiasts to expand their creative horizons through interviews, educational content, and sharing of artistic music. If that resonates with you, then check out our website: makeweirdmusic.com/
Please consider donating to the cause by liking/following/subscribing and submitting content, ideas, money, buying a t-shirt, or even hooking us up with some weird musician contacts! makeweirdmusic.com/shop
We're on all the social medias:
/ makeweirdmusic
/ makeweirdmusic
/ makeweirdmusic
![Takashi Kokubo (小久保隆) - Oasis Of The Wind II ～ A Story Of Forest And Water ～ (1993) [Full Album]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rWEI9y6PElo/mqdefault.jpg)
![Takashi Kokubo (小久保隆) - Oasis Of The Wind II ～ A Story Of Forest And Water ～ (1993) [Full Album]](/img/tr.png)
Ambient 1: Music For Airports is absolutely music. I listen to it many nights before going to sleep. It’s ethereal and relaxing, but not sad. If there’s ever a funeral or memorial for me, I want this played on a loop.
Real-life tape loops at your funeral? Brave man!
I think it is an amazing album, and this thoughtful video really explores why (and why not) that's so. For me, Music for Airports is like someone uncovering a skylight and bathing the room in filtered light. Still, my favorite from this period is Music for Films. Perhaps it's too busy to be called ambient. But it is a whole set of miniature worlds, some pastoral, some swampy, and some quite alien.
Thanks, Bob. I'll check that out.
Tony Scott's groundbreaking 1964 album 'Music for Zen Meditation' is sometimes referred to as jazz, because he was a jazz clarinetist and sometimes as the first New Age recording, although the term New Age as applied to music wouldn't come along till years later. I've always thought of it as ambient music and in fact, it has some sonic similarities to Music for Airports. Tangerine Dream's 1972 album 'Zeit' is sometimes considered one of the first 'dark ambient' albums. 'Zeit', probably more than any other album, got me to listen to music in a totally new way and led me into an exploration of ambient music (and other forms of experimental music) which led me to Eno's albums.
I concur “Music for Zen” then “Zeit” then Eno. I had those albums in that order.
Thanks, Spliff. I'll have to check it out.
Recognize the name Brian Eno because of the Shimmer Reverb effect, but have never listened to any his music before (I think). Guess I should give his albums a listen now. 😀
Video games was the medium that first introduced me to ambient music, and sometimes, I have one of those games running, just for the music. And as someone who's suffering from tinnitus, total silence is not something that I get to enjoy, so I'm glad this kind of music and/or soundscape exists, to help ease the ringing.
In fact, I like them so much, I started making ambient music in VCV myself, after I stumbled upon the software in 2021. As a hobby musician (for now), I made them for myself, but I share the recordings I've made on my channel and the patches on PatchStorage for free, so others get to listen to them or play with the patches as well.
Guess I have people like Brian Eno to thank, for making Ambient music a thing. Also, thank you, for making this video! 😄
Definitely give him a listen. His early stuff is very poppy, now he primarily does ambient stuff
You completely overlooked Wendy Carlos’ 1972 album Sonic Seasonings.
Not just me! I had several people review the script, too, including some real ambient music nerds. We can't include everything, but her name did not come up. Will look into it. Thanks!
If the wind was music it would sound like this, OR more accurately if the wind could cut a record, this would be its debut album.
I have 11 various types of windchimes around my yard, and different areas for sitting and enjoythe environment. My frieds ALL comment that being outdoors at my house is an experience the delight in. Music is in the air. There's no structure , but a loose "rhythm " of random notes ringing, droning, gonging...eminating. This album reminds me of the joy of sitting outside with the sound of the chimes, the wind, the leaves, tall grass, and birds making noise (music). Love it.
The older I get, the more I understand wind chimes
The marvelous “cover” of Music for Airports by Bang on a Can puts a lot of meat on its bones. I think you will be pleasantly surprised if you have not heard it already.
Bang on a can. I remember them. I will check that out thanks
Fascinating! Listening now
I'm not sure which fascinates me more; that people are listening to this music now...or that we were listening to it back then. I'm just glad there are people like you who have worked out their kundabuffer enough to be able to allow this transformative music to enter into your kesjian body, and recreate itself in your erudite creations as yet ambient, or from my meager sorting.
I had Evening Star among my collection, and would dissolve outworn notions of self while high on No Pussyfooting, over at Warren's. Fripp had me, however, at Erudite Eyes, and I frankly prefer your version. Listening forward! Peace and love. db
Thank you, Mr. Wondrous! And thank you for your club weird support.
i like eric satie's point: it'S not supposed to be actively listened to, but passively, adding to the whole of the experience of whatever one is doing at the moment. like david lynch'S subliminal sub-bass adding flavor to scenes without necessarily being perceived/actively listened to by the audience... :)
Yeah, I like it much better when I'm not listening. But Satie's stuff is great even when you're listening.
As a Brian Eno fan in the 70s I bought this album and subsequent albums in the series when these were first released on vinyl, and then again on cassette, on CD, and now listen on Spotify. There are times that these albums are the only music I need. Brian Eno explained the music's purpose and intent very well. I got it then and I get it now, even more so. Thanks for covering the album.
Thanks for watching, Chris!
When I first heard this and Brians other Ambient music back in the 70's. I would listen to it over morning coffee and reading the news paper because it was so relaxing and it didn't demand your attention. Then over the years I bought all of his Ambient music and Robert Fripp's soundscapes. Now there are two specific times I like to listen to it. If I'm traveling by train or car in the countryside it's very enjoyable to listen and enjoy the scenery, The other, my favorite, is turn down the lights turn on my lava lamp, salt light and candles have your favorite drink and listen. It is so relaxing and I can clear my mind and actually focus on the music. To me I'm 100% focussed on the music! As simple as it it I love it as much as some of the most complex music such as Fracture! Thanks for posting!
Thanks, Dave! Really appreciate your perspective
I LOVE this record and all of the subsequent albums. I agree with Eno's goals as written and I think he achieved them brilliantly. Under the ear of intentional scrutiny they may frustrate the attentive listener who is searching for a hook, or a rhythm, a riff, or a structure. But when you get-it, accept it, and relax with it,...the LP becomes a lovely, calm, backdrop to life as such. I wish more airports offered the calm of this here LP. For the listener who simply must always give this music intentional scrutiny, then the music on this record becomes the perfect template to learn how to create their own ambient music. Personally, I think Eno may have been channeling a bit of György Sándor Ligeti . Thanks for sharing. Thanks for provoking me to spin some ambient musik this AM.
Thanks for watching and for your consistently thoughtful comments!
There is a whole genre defined now as "Drone", that has been going on steadily in micro labels, for the past 15 years. I've been buying quite a lot of CDs from such labels, in the past 10 years 😅. Check out releases from the recent Quiet Details label, for instance. Dronarivm, is also a label that is clearly in that genre, as Slaapwel Records, two labels i really love. But, if i had to go back to the origins of "ambient music", i would also include a few of Vangelis' tracks from the 70s. But, a few years before Eno did any of his ambient albums (which i really like too), there was already Wendy Carlos' "Sonic Seasonings" double album… Really ahead of its time, released on vinyl in 1972 (i found a copy in Paris, in 1976).
Is this like SunnO and that stuff?
Is Frippertronics/soundscapes ambient? Witness Fripp and Eno's Wind on Water. It's all about space and beauty. Music is the space between sounds.
I think it wouldn't really fit Brian Enos definition of any attention level, since Fripp as far as I recall intends for frippertronics/soundscapes to have a degree of active listening and "participation" on the part of the audience to some extent. Though it would fit if you go by a more practical definition of how it sounds and feels to listen to.
@@TheMadalucard Great points. Considering their work together, however, I'm sure there's a venn diagram overlap. :)
I really do love Eno's Ambient work, including "Music for Airports". I doesn't matter to me what label someone puts on it.
That's because you are an open-minded person, Eric. :)
I found this album after liking Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Vol 1 & 2. After having that context, I really enjoyed Brian Eno’s album.
What the heck is that music playing in the outro? I want more 🔥
Haha, glad you liked that outro music, Aterix. That's a "techo party mix" of my song "Three Legged Dog." Unfortunately, my friend John (the bassist on that track) only did some of the song that way. That's all I've got.
Let's not forget the work of Beaver & Krause, or Wendy Carlos' Sonic Seasonings. Those guys were doing ambient in the 60's and 70's.
It was hard to fit in all the precursors, but we got a few of the right ones in. Thanks, PGM
He just put out a new album. And as usual Eno doesn't disappoint. Ambient but with vocals. He has done this before but this album seems to flow a little different
I'll check it out. Thanks Kev
Some of the best music ever made, especially 1/1, which I long to hear in an actual airport. Less is more!
I've heard from a couple people who heard it in an airport. Pretty cool. Thanks, Scott.
Interesting observations about ambient music. Keeps me sane while working.
Ambient music is great for that, isn't it? Thanks, Richard
I always kind of thought of No Pussyfooting as the first ambient album.
Neu! Were also a big influence on Eno's ambient stuff i reckon
“Stimulus Progression #5” by Musak is or was on UA-cam. That title sounds like a Fripp/Eno type of title. The Musak was Definately music and songs with catchy Melodies etc but if you slow it down and wash it out with reverb it does sound somewhat ambient. I file ambient under “movie soundtracks”, I ask, can music be ambient ? Wind chimes? Water fountains ? Great thoughtful video. Thanks.
Music can definitely be ambient. "Everything" is a frequency. :)
@@MakeWeirdMusic this is true frequencies everywhere all the time. Another interesting thing about “Music for Airports” is it’s to be heard involuntarily like elevator music. The overly polite an unassuming nature of this type of music is interesting to me. Meant to be heard but not listened to but could be listened to and enjoyed to a certain extent but still remain non engaging. Easy Listening music is something I always avoided but lately I’ve been exploring it and I have learned something about composition and arrangements. You opened up an interesting topic. It’s like the shadow side of weird music, ie mundane music.
Well, if it's not normal, it's weird. :) Anything not normal is game for this channel. And it's okay if it's normal, as long as it's super authentic.
@@MakeWeirdMusic I was on hold with a state government agency, the hold music was so degraded and lofi just a hum and a hiss with some popping sounds and some occasional whirring sounds with periodic swells of what could be called tones behind the noise. I was completely hooked. I played it through a blue tooth speaker, I wish I recorded it. It was beyond ambient, I had the next level music in my hand and I let it slip away. Super duper authentic.
I find Ambient 1/1 to be a beautiful piece, both calming and moving at times.
It's the most breathtaking of all the pieces on this album, I think.
I dug the cultural importance of the time of the release.....I was there
Lucky! Were you in NY?
Great overview! A little surprised you didn't touch on 'drone' music as it is kind of the cousin of ambient. And 'drone' music may have a much longer history to explore too. It would be cool to make a companion video about 'drone' music.
My wife mentioned that to me before the video went live, but I'd already filmed everything. Great point. There's a lot to include in a short video.
@@MakeWeirdMusic you do a great job of staying on topic and on point.
Thank you
I have suggested Eno to The Daily Doug several times. To the best of my knowledge he never has reviewed.
Also, shout out to Naive American flautist Carlos Natal. Look him up if you like ambient music.
Do you mean Carlos Nakai? I saw him live here in arizona.
I don't know the daily doug. Is he the "composer reacts to XYZ" guy?
My favorite early examples of ambient music would have to be those first four Tangerine Dream albums
I gotta dig into their stuff. Thanks, Paul.
While not being “ambient”, I suspect the early Fripp/Eno Frippertronic work led Brian to look at previous similar work which then resulted in his “ambient” soundscapes. As mentioned, tape loops were used in the late 50s, and several bands such as Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, and Zappa’s Mother’s dabbled with loops and “musique concrete” approaches in their early days. The merger of these techniques with the goal of Muzak - to provide inoffensive background music to occupy aural space was significant. At about the same time Brian Eno stared this, Mike Rutledge left Soft Machine to make “library music”, which had a similar role as Muzak’s “Elevatot” music. Karl Jenkins also did some of that. Some people get very anxious with silence, and some kind of aural filler is soothing for them.
Yes, I'll need to either read more interviews, or have Brian on the channel to ask him myself! :)
I prefer Eno's earlier albums, some of which contained their own precursors to his later full-blown ambient works: in particular there are the instrumental tracks on Another Green World and the title track of Discreet Music (both from 1975, three years prior to Music For Airports). And I really like Music For Films, released at the same time as Airports but reverting to the mode of adding just enough elements of melody and rhythm to the sound textures to make them interesting. I respect the pure ambient stuff on an intellectual level (the concept of "boring on purpose"), but I never find myself playing it. Not sure if you've covered them at all in previous videos, but I would recommend to any "weird music" fan to immerse themselves in Eno's early catalog, particularly Here Come The Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), Another Green World and Before And After Science, and then go back to the first two Roxy Music albums -- mostly far from ambient, but such wonderful offbeat stuff.
I love the early Eno albums too.
It's hard to believe the guy who did all that fun poppy music was the guy who went into ambient music. I know everyone is multi-faceted, but I wonder if it was as unpredictable as Radiohead's move to Kid A :)
@@MakeWeirdMusic even those poppy songs were Weird. I think Fripp had some influence. Was “No Pussyfooting” the same year as “Another Green World” ? I think it was 75. And he did that album with Cluster which also probably lead to the ambient music. Eno always had a pop sensibility which paid off in the producers chair.
The albums Brian Eno made with Harold Budd are more interesting ("The Pearl" and "The plateaux of mirror").
Yes, but those albums will get way fewer clicks haha. Thanks, Arvo
Listen to Oranssi Pazuzu, any of latest two albums, this band is of this world
Will check it out
nobody knows this but this album have a very powerful healing properties...is healing music .. no joke
I believe it, Magdiel!
It's a seminal work in my experience, but I understand how it can frustrate some people. Irrespective of the first deliberate use of the term for composition, Eno's definition, at least, might exclude much of what people take as ambient, some of it among Eno's own work, insofar as a lot of what is termed "ambient" is not necessarily ignorable and/or interesting, each person's perception and taste varying. So by Eno's definition, not even Music For Airports is ambient for some because it's only as frustratingly intrusive, apparently, as it is ignorable. I just happen to really love it.
I think his peak version of like work is Thursday Afternoon, which uses the same technique but extends one composition over a longer period of time and adds the element of increasing the clusters to affect a very gradual change of appearance, like the slow moving digital painting he included in the original precisely for that purpose: You can leave the room and return, say, a quarter of the hour later, and it has changed, but active listening reveals only the slowest transformation. I once lived in a flat outside the window of which birds would gather and join in whenever I played it, and even by the end it's still nothing if not mellow.
I'm glad the music is so divisive and gives us so much to consider. Thanks, Davidly!
I would say the basic concept of ambient music was performed within the context of rock music, although not by itself. Or perhaps a precursor. Pink Floyd used long “ambient” soundscapes, particularly live, but contained within songs. Parts of Atom Heart Mother and Echoes, for example, and even as late as ‘77 and Dogs. They weren’t entirely something that could be in the background, but it wasn’t far removed either.
That's true. I never thought of things like the intro to Close to the Edge as "ambient," but I suppose it is.
@@MakeWeirdMusic Parts of the middle too, just before the “I Get Up, I Get Down” part begins. Also parts of Awaken, or the keyboard portions of The Remembering before the minimoog comes in.
They are always really cool parts of the songs, often extended a bit live, and I could see how they would very easily lead to longer pieces that focus on just those types of parts.
Check out Andrew Birds echolocation series. Beautiful ambient music with some soothing melodies.
I love Andrew Bird!
I need the name for the background music. It sounds gorgeous.
It's a song I never released. I've considered re-recording it. Glad you liked it, 8man
It's totally music! and beautiful too. It's just that it doesn't conform to how many people are used to hearing music. There is no verse/chorus structure, no toe tapping beat and no whistleable melodies. I think if it doesn't have any of those things some people are unable to connect with it.
Exactly!
I live that album!
It's super cool! Glad to hear it, Jenny!
Ah, i love music for airports. I listen to It at work all the time
Just the first album or all the ambient ones?
@@MakeWeirdMusic well, all of them are good, i also really love His stuff with the Frippman himself specially the Evening star
Have you heard the cover of the entire Music for Airports album by Bang on a Can? Hearing it performed provides an interesting perspective on your question.
I have not, but I've already had a few people suggest it. Very cool idea. Will check it out.
Beat me to it! It is great.
John Cage 4'33" maybe. Though you don't need a record, just a stopwatch 🤔
It is certainly music. I think ambient music can often go beyond conventional structures because it is less concerned with having a point or a direction. By beyond, I mean that it can create a disassociative state that is about the listener instead of the musician. Like other forms of immersive art, it can allow the audience to change their consciousness. We have all heard conventional music that is well structured and played but is also bland and ineffectual. But effective ambient music creates and environment for the listener to become contemplative, relaxed, and deeply connected to the sound. If you doubt that connection, try having someone interrupt a 17 minute ambient piece. It can feel like something has been ripped from your hands. I think most of the artists you mentioned had wonderful things to contribute, but the origins of ambient music may be primordial. Some of those sound effects you mentioned, like water in a creek or birdsong, were first. If you have ever heard the whistling of the wind, the howling of wolves or the singing of loons, you've heard the oldest ambient music.
Agreed, Bret. Thanks for watching
I would say that Erik Satie is the godfather of ambient music. He referred to it as "wallpaper music."
He was a genius!
Erik Satie had too much talent to make only "wallpaper music" of what we now call Ambient. There is always some kind of tune or melody in the music and that's what made it beautiful.
Yes, Satie was far beyond ambient. Ambient is just one outcome of his broad portfolio.
@@arvopart1950 There can be tune or melody in ambient music as well. I meant this as a compliment. For me ambient is as much the dynamic and the mood created. 🙂
@@MakeWeirdMusic Agreed. As I replied previously, I meant this in the most complimentary terms. 🙂
I like to listen to it loud.
Me too, Greg.
I don't know how I'm just now finding out that Robert Wyatt played on this, maybe I need to read liner notes more closely. Anyway, I'm definitely more inspired by Oliveros' take on "deep listening" than I am something that just is just meant to be ignored. I've found through my love of composers like Ryuichi Sakamoto and Fennesz that deep listening to ambient music can be incredibly emotionally rewarding. I've been inspired enough by them to make my own ua-cam.com/video/iba8is8mitw/v-deo.html
Man, I gotta talk about Sakamoto. What a brilliant composer. Thanks, Corey!
What music is ambient depends on your environment. A Merzbow album is ambient if you're working a jackhammer.
That's actually a really interesting point. Would Music for Airports be "ambient" if it was played in a construction site?
Music for Airports is rock'n'roll compared to Neroli, also by Eno.
Hah. I gotta hear that one. Thanks, Manuel
@@MakeWeirdMusic You are welcome.
I just think it's neat.
I agree, Juan. Thanks
What’s the difference between ambient and drone? Also what do you think of Natural snow buildings?
Good question, durf. I'm hardly an expert. But drone stuff is something I didn't even consider when I came up with this video.
Never heard of Natural Snow Buildings. Reading their wikipedia page now. Interesting.
@@MakeWeirdMusic In modern Drone you have two bands, Bull of Heaven and Natural Snow Buildings. Bull of Heaven 'outside of the real calm drone pieces and stoner math rock drams, is a meme band that us zip files to make theoretically the longest album in existence, very important band in Drone though.
Natural Snow Buildings on the other hand are these incredible musical storytellers, doing these long pschodelic folk pieces that have drone, industrial, and minimilst composition. All of my friends into "boring hipster music" love them, including me. If you do a video on Drone, even if you dont mentnion them, I hope I've at least a made someone aware of an amazing band that has reached heights beyond their own genera. "The Winter Ray" and "Song for Laurie Bird" are the two best things they have ever made.
sorry for not responding sooner, cheers.