What is Ambient Music? Exploring the Atmospheric Realms of Electronic Music

Since its official birth in the late 70s, ambient music has become a popular and influential genre of electronic music. As its name suggests, ambient music usually revolves around how sound and ambiance are distributed across the sonic space. It is a fascinating and multifaceted genre, as it does not follow strict rules, require rhythm, or demand structure. Instead, it focuses on atmosphere, tone, texture, and timbre, leaving artists much room to experiment across a multitude of sonic dimensions.

Artists usually combine digital and analog instruments with atmospheric elements, such as synth pads, with noise, synth sounds, and various effects. However, after blending with the genres of house and techno, ambient music has developed in multiple directions. For this reason, it has become challenging to define tracks in a clear, one-dimensional way without needing further labels to describe them accurately. Thus, while some artists incorporate drum patterns from other electronic music genres into their productions, others focus on melody and harmony alone.

The term ‘ambient music’ was coined by US-American artist Brian Eno, whose album “Ambient 1: Music for Airports” (1978) encompasses many vital elements of the genre. However, its history goes back to the early 20th century and works of composers connected to the Dadaist movement. Among them was Erik Sati, a musician who intended to create background music that naturally blends with the sounds produced in diverse settings, such as dinners.

The genre continued to develop in an experimental direction through the immense contributions of Pierre Schaeffer, who invented the compositional style ‘musique concrète.’ Schaeffer’s background as a professional engineer and composer without formal education allowed him to approach music in new, abstract ways. Working in radio broadcasting gave him access to hundreds of sound recordings. Once selected, he would process the raw material via various techniques and assemble it in collage style. Because of his innovative approach to music production, he is considered a sampling pioneer and an essential figure in the history of electronic music.

During the late 1950s and 1960s, artists witnessed the introduction of synthesizers into the world of music. Synthesizers had an immense impact on music production, allowing musicians to experiment with sound in previously unheard-of ways. Such innovations allowed for the development of new styles, including new-age music, a genre associated with relaxation and meditation. The first official new-age recording was released by Tony Scott in 1964, who worked with synthesizers, analog instruments, and other tools to create vast, immersive soundscapes. Another project worth mentioning is ‘environments,’ a series of releases produced by Irv Teibel that consists of natural sounds, including waves, birds, thunderstorms, and rain. Teibel’s works popularized so-called field recordings, which are often incorporated into ambient tracks.

With time, synthesizers became an established aspect of music production, ultimately resulting in Brian Eno’s works and the birth of ambient music as a genre category. Throughout his career, Eno has worked with various artists who are now considered pioneers of the genre, including NYC-based musician Laraaji.

Yet, as its history shows, ambient music cannot be reduced to one or two places in the world, as individuals from various countries have contributed to its development. One place the genre established itself is Japan, where artists like Midori Takada combined diverse musical, technical, and cultural elements into ambient projects.

Ambient music began gaining popularity and commercial success during the 1980s and 1990s. In Europe and the United States, artists like Aphex Twin or the Orb stood out for producing multifaceted tracks inspired by their predecessors. Around the same time, more and more people began getting involved in rave culture. Ambient music quickly found its way into the scene, allowing ravers to unwind from the otherwise harsher sounds of techno and its subgenres. Such intersections eventually led to the introduction of new genres, including ambient house, ambient drum and bass, or ambient techno, which are more rhythmically structured.

Today, ambient music is often used as an umbrella term for anything that sounds somewhat atmospheric, airy, and sonically immersive. It is sometimes conflated with meditation music or binaural music, which have become quite popular on YouTube and streaming platforms. Thanks to the introduction of DAWs and VSTs, it has also become much easier for artists to produce tracks falling under the ambient umbrella. This way, the genre’s essential elements have become present in many other musical categories, including pop, as well as soundtracks for movies, video games, and even art galleries and art performances.