Ambient Music
Ambient music is to the minimalist movement
often associated with the avant-garde genre
Minimalism and its Music
Minimalism was a movement in art, especially visual art during the 1960’s that associates doing more with less
Richard Serra said about his art, “Say little, do much.”
Minimalist Music
-Steven Reich
-“Come Out” by Steven Reich; 1965
-Ambient music is known for being unusually long
-starts of regular “come out” then speeds up, and then meshes together,two loops that are changing slightly, panning
Ambient Thinking
Time-expanded, elastic, imperceptible
Space-large or small, real or virtual, mental or physical
Energy- concentrated, minimal and relies on experience
Sound- not always ‘pleasant,’ dissonance is often where the energy is derived
Minimalist Music-Brian Eno
Known as the ‘father of ambient’
Link from popular to the avant-garde
Begins musical career in the 1970’s
Worked with John Cale from Velvet Underground, Robert Fripp from King Crimson, and wrote the ‘Prophecy Theme’ from Lynch’s Dune
Produced the Windows 95 boot-up
Brian Eno
Music for airports
Tal Coat
Lizard Point
No Rhythm there, but pulled apart that you cannot connect it
Could go on, we don’t know. Don’t know when it’s gonna end.
Ambient's Link to the EDM World
Coined as ‘Chill Out’
Tune in, turn on, and space out
Downtempo, Ambient, Illbient, etc.
Bridges the gap between music for dancing and music for listening in EDM
Further amplifies the connection to the avant-garde
Aphex Twin
aka Richard James
Ambient Works
Oval
Sometimes called ‘Glitch’
Marcus Popp is the last remaining member
This track comes from a remix of a recorded speech by post-structuralist theorist Gilles Deleuze
Phonography
Explain idea of taking a sonic photograph
Field recordings vs. phonography
Listening to a place, hearing an environment as ambient sound
New Age
Moves ambient towards the popular range
Often evades any real deeper concept
Uses lyrics, environmental sounds and ‘space’-age synths
Phonography and Field Recordings
Environmental sounds, spaces around
FR: recordings of special events, disappearing phenomeon, things we want to capture before they disappear, ie. political speech, rituals, special
events, not intended to be artistic, documentaristic
PH: not special events, artistic/musical
Sampling
what is the sample that is being used?
Think of it in a global and local context
sampling culture
Most widely accepted tool for artistic and musical creation
Has also become one of the most controversial tools and activities in the ‘Copyright Era’
Many contemporary pop artists have engaged in sampling of some kind. It is most prevalent in hip-hop, and EDM but has crossed over into many other styles
Sampling Monkiers
Concrete artists were samplers
Schaeffer, henry, Ferrari, etc. were the first DJs, cut-us artists, collaga aficionados, concrete masters
Used samples as sound colorations, expressions, and intrinsic musical qualities
Strived to evade the cultural and social representation of these sounds
Radiohead and Moby
Radiohead “Idioteque”
Borrows from semi-famous computer music professor and composer Paul Lansky
Moby “Go”
Borrows from a popular TV show theme
Pierre Henry- Messe pour le temps present
Fatboy slim and funki porcini took part on the remix of Henry’s 1967 album Michael Colombier
Released in 1997, 12 contomporary EDM artists made remix tracks of differeny movements from ‘Mass’
Messe Pour Le Temps..
What statement are these artists making by using this 30 year old (in 1997) album?
Does this provide legitimacy to these artists?
Does this album change your thoughts about Pierre Henry?
Steve Reich-Come Out
Ken ishii – remix
Part of a similar album by various EDM artists
Instead they used works by Reich over the past 40 years, ones they find most compelling
Same questions apply as the previous example with Henry
Mashups and Cutups
Mashups combine two or more songs/tracks into one
Often they use familiar sources, but not always
The combination remits a new song altogether
Sometimes called, bootlegs and bastard pop
Cut-ups are often summed with mashups
Cut-ups have taken a new form in the internet media, especially youtube communities
Cut-up art has been popular for quite a while. William S Burroughs developed a form of poetry that borrowed words and phrases to make poetry
Several popular artists have used this technique for creating lyrics [purportedly Radiohead’s Kid A]
Mock Exam
