ambient music
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On Moby’s Slow Motion Ambient
Electronic music producer Moby’s Ambient 23 collection contains some compelling pieces that are evocative and reward close listening. The tracks alternate between synthesizer-based electronic washes of sound and austere piano pieces built upon a few still tones. One of my favorites of the former type is “amb 23-11.” Structurally the music is a I-vi-V progression, Continue reading
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Ways Of Tonal Evolutions
(Image: Casey Horner) Listening to contemporary ambient music I notice that much of it is constructed from broad washes of sound, or what could be called tonal drones. Drones are sustained pitches that establish a mood, not a direction; they conjure a stasis, not forward movement. For many electronic music producers working in ambient’s orbit, Continue reading
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On Musical Yakisugi: Taylor Dupree’s “rem” (2022)
Within contemporary ambient music’s often texturally generic world, the work of Taylor Dupree carves a distinctive sound. Dupree is a master of assembling tableaus of small, delicate sounds suffused with noise to convey the aura of aged materials. The music conjures Yakisugi, the Japanese method of wood preservation through burning. The best of Dupree’s music excels Continue reading
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After Ambient
“If you listen to a Beyoncé record through a wall it’s not exhausting, it’s warm.” Brian Eno If you make electronic music and are into generalizing, you know that there are two broad sub-categories of style into which your music might be placed. There’s dance music, which is usually music with some kind of beat. Continue reading
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On The Music Making Of Jon Hopkins
“My general view is just to have absolutely no planning in place at all and just to let my instinct kind of run wild a bit.” – Jon Hopkins Lately I’ve been enjoying the music of English composer Jon Hopkins. His recording Immunity (2013), shortlisted for last year’s Mercury Prize, is a tour de force Continue reading
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