What defines an "Ambient" sounding song to you?

[mikernaut]

Also BT's "all that makes us human continues" is rather lovely IMO.

 

[guitarfan85]

Is ambience music?

Or is music ambient?

If music is ambience then all types of music is therefore ambient then, no? but then is all ambience, music? I think not.

Then that means country music is ambient.

I will have to reiterate my original post again, I should have clarified what I meant. I mean specifically ambient "metal" music; so what is it other than distorted guitars, bass, drums and a boatload of reverb, delay, and echoed synth sounds? And if "ambient metal" is just that, then I think the term "ambient" is just too general and broad to tack on and term it a specific genre. The term is used way too loosely, IMO. They may as well just call it "reverb metal"

Alot of musicians use it to sound well versed, cultured in music. Kinda like how the "djent kids" claim their music has "jazz elements" (when I find that most actually don't have any true jazz elements), just to sound smart.

 

[ghost2II2]

Ambient "sounds" are sounds, but to me this is not music. Its more like a track. Video games have ambient sound tracks, and this is exactly what that sounds like. Just my opinion i don't mean to dis anyone.

I like ambient sounds but I wouldn't strictly listen to ambient sounds for the sake of it. Also I'm not really a fan of electronic music.

I do think though, that the keyboard/synth can create a great and distinguished atmosphere in a lot of music. For example (Im using my phone so I can't post links of examples), but bands like soilwork, any song of theirs from the predators portrait or natural born chaos album has alot of atmosphere created by the keyboard, to me, the keyboard is ambient sound. And Soilwork would be nowhere near considered an "ambient" band.

Mozart himself defined that "music is melody, melody is music". So to me, strictly ambient and atmospheric sounds is not music. Again, I'm not bashing anyone here, I just can't get into it. I can get into ambient metal though

Just because you don't consider this "music" can't "get into it" or are incapable or distinguishing a very clear melody in this, that does not change the fact that it very much is ambient music. Yes, it is atmospheric. Yes, it is minimalistic. The careers of Philip Glass and Steve Reich where built on this type of minimalistic approach. Or, what about Gyorgy Ligeti's Lux Aeterna. I suppose that's not music either, right?

There is a very clear, obvious, minimalistic ostinato melody ebbing and flowing underneath it all. Not bashing you, but to say this isn't "music" simply because it doesn't fit into your criteria of what you are looking for is a pretty ignorant statement to make. Too ignorant for Mozart quotes to save you. Just my opinion.

 

[darren]

There's a HUGE difference between "atmospheric sounds" and "ambient music".

Metal with lots of droning guitars and synths drenched with reverb I would describe as atmospheric metal, not ambient.

Ambient music is by definition mimalistic in both sound and compositional structure, and not necessarily atmospheric.

 

[AugmentedFourth]

Is ambience music?

Or is music ambient?

Both.

I think I like darren's take the best. Ambient music is necessarily indistinct in rhythm and structure. Take for example the initial mention of Brian Eno's "1/1." There are rhythms, but they come in little packets, little bursts that are ultimately serialized in their timing. Thus the song has no macroscopic structure of any kind or a rhythmic meter.

Metal music basically always has rhythms and/or structure. I'm not saying it's not possible to have ambient metal though, in fact I'm sure there's at least one Sunn O))) song that has achieved ambient metal.

 

[guitarfan85]

Just because you don't consider this "music" can't "get into it" or are incapable or distinguishing a very clear melody in this, that does not change the fact that it very much is ambient music. Yes, it is atmospheric. Yes, it is minimalistic. The careers of Philip Glass and Steve Reich where built on this type of minimalistic approach. Or, what about Gyorgy Ligeti's Lux Aeterna. I suppose that's not music either, right?

There is a very clear, obvious, minimalistic ostinato melody ebbing and flowing underneath it all. Not bashing you, but to say this isn't "music" simply because it doesn't fit into your criteria of what you are looking for is a pretty ignorant statement to make. Too ignorant for Mozart quotes to save you. Just my opinion.

I wasn't speaking for all ambient music because I haven't heard much. I was referring to the track that I quoted in my reply specifically, and I guess I figured that was whatnost ambient tracks are like....

I just listened to Brian eno - music for airports. (Only for several minutes), and I have to say that it did not sound like video game ambient noises. It sounded interesting enough for me to go back and give a more thorough listen.

But to reinstate for the third or fourth time now, in case you didn't read it, that I meant to specify about my curiosity of "ambient METAL".

 

[Veldar]

Move along, nothing to see here.

 

[Zalbu]

I don't really think metal can be ambient, only have ambient elements. Ambient to me is electronic music like Aphex Twin and Carbon Based Lifeforms which is almost the complete opposite of what metal is generally associated with. Metal is aggressive and rhythmic, ambient is "floating" and melodic.

Brian Eno said "Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting". Ambient is often used as background music and something like a Veil Of Maya album doesn't really fulfill that purpose.

The closest thing you can come to ambient with instruments used in metal without going full-out drone is IMO post-rock like God Is An Astronaut, and even then they rely a lot on synths and stuff to create the floating soundscapes.

 

[wankerness]

Listen to Isis's albums Oceanic and Panopticon and if you enjoy them listen to some other post metal or even post rock bands like Mogwai.

Man, there is nothing ambient about those at all, there's a ton of sound going on at all times and very clear direction to the songs.

My problem with ambient stems from that it's very hard to tell who knows what they're doing and who doesn't. You often can't even tell until the end of the track whether it was written by someone with talent or someone who was just hitting long notes on his synthesizer that sounded pretty. Obviously there's plenty of good stuff in the genre, but it more than any other subgenre is extremely difficult for me to find things that hook me and differentiate artists.

Bonobo and BT mentioned on the previous page are both really good, but the vast majority of their music has way too much driving force to it and consistent sound to be considered ambient.

 

[abandonist]

It's like pornography. I don't define it, but I know it when I hear it.

We've reached Peak Bullshit on most tacked on metal themes since recording is so easy now.

 

[GunpointMetal]

I think WorC (guitarist from Uneven Structure) did a great "ambient metal" EP. To me it actually does kind of fit Eno's description in that is as forgettable as it is intriguing to listen to. If you want to, you can pay attention and hear waves of things undulating behind loop-like riffing, or you can just leave it on unobtrusively in the background and its pleasant to hear.

When The Day Forms | Auré Pereira

 

[Veldar]

Man, there is nothing ambient about those at all, there's a ton of sound going on at all times and very clear direction to the songs.

Whoops I kind of misread the OP, but I find this interesting, can metal even be ambient?

 

[The Mirror]

Pretty much anything the Icelanders are putting out nowadays.

Namely, Sigur Rós and Sólstafir.

I mean come on, Jónsi is playing his guitar with a violin bow. It doesn't get more ambient than that.

 

[vilk]

I love the Rosetta album The Galilean Satellites which is a 2 disc album with one being sludge and the other being ambient music, and then when you play them at the same time they go together

 

[wankerness]

Whoops I kind of misread the OP, but I find this interesting, can metal even be ambient?

Maybe some sunn O)))) songs would qualify, but generally no. Basically ambient has to lack a sense of rhythm and that is almost never the case with metal since they almost always have drummers and guitar/bass playing.

 

[wankerness]

Pretty much anything the Icelanders are putting out nowadays.

Namely, Sigur Rós and Sólstafir.

I mean come on, Jónsi is playing his guitar with a violin bow. It doesn't get more ambient than that.

I think you have a very different understanding of the word "ambient"

 

[wankerness]

I love the Rosetta album The Galilean Satellites which is a 2 disc album with one being sludge and the other being ambient music, and then when you play them at the same time they go together

I haven't heard that, is the second disc really ambient? I know that the Neurosis - Times of Grace/Tribes of Neurot - Grace thing was like that and the tribes of neurot album by itself really was ambient.

 

[vilk]

Yes, the entire second cd is just ambient tracks. You should really, really check out a version of that album with both cds on top of each other. Highly recommend it.