Minimal/Ambient Music

Isaac’s Guide to Simple/Ambient Music

I’ve been searching for interesting music online for about three years now, and in that time I’ve listened to thousands of songs by hundreds of artists in dozens of genres.  In particular, one genre that caught my attention and held it to this day is what I’d call simplistic or ambient music, that is music with few elements that refrains from overwhelming the listener with noisy chaos.  Sure, energy-filled songs can be enjoyable, but sometimes I’d prefer to listen to a mellower melody.  In order to keep this guide organized, I’m going to bring up artists one at a time, looking at an example of one of their songs before moving to the next artist.

Gold Panda

What I really enjoy about Panda’s work is that he uses many exotic instruments and sound effects, yet his songs are somehow distinctive and recognizable.  The focus of his work tends to be to convey a specific concept or emotion, and after few listens all of the subtleties of the songs start to make sense.  While his work is sometimes quite abstract, the emotions conveyed are direct.

“Marriage”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmuMgXN-ca8]

This song starts off with a simple chiptune melody accompanied by ringing sounds, percussion, and steady bassline.  A bit further into the song, it starts to utilize an unfamiliar Asian instrument and makes heavy use of small subtle sound effects like bells and ringing noises.  This slow building and then unfolding of small little details allows for a powerful effect on the listener, it attempts to capture the beauty in everyday life.  The additions of everyday sounds like the sound of papers rustling and the sound of a plane taking off add to this effect even further.  Finally, the piano melody gives the piece a bit of a nostalgia and sadness.  If I were to assign a scenario to this song, It’d be of an old married couple looking back at their life in the city.

Tycho

Tycho’s style is different from Panda’s; he tends to create more general rather than specific songs.  Tycho’s many songs also sound much more similar to each other, something that’s not necessarily a bad thing in this case.  His style of creating ambient soundscapes rather than trying to write about specific emotions makes for open, airy music reminiscent of a large ocean, caves or  outer space.

“Human Condition”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VyXv8HeAIY]

The track opens with a slow moving, predictable bassline that cycles through the same four pitches for the rest of the song; this creates a sort of foundation for the rest of the piece.  Equally predictable is the slow, whispering percussion, which stays constant until the introduction aggressive snare drum introduced later in the piece.  The occasional variation in the main synthesizer that remains predictable during the introduction gives the piece direction and keep it from dragging without killing the relaxed mood.  The record scratches and vocal whispers give the piece variety as well without distracting from the main motives.  Finally, the track concludes by dissolving into the sound of rain falling while varying the melody to end the previous repetition entirely.

Aphex Twin

Aphex Twin has been making electronic music for 28 years, and his older techniques can shine through in his music.  Rather than base his music around the poppy synthesizers the above artists sculpt their work around, Twin prefers to go for a more minimalistic and rough approach, utilizing dark themes and somber chord progression.  Twin also goes as far as occasionally including shock elements to his work to strengthen the tone, from the vulvar language used as satire to a face hidden in a logarithmic spectrographic representation of the frequencies in  “Windowlicker.”

“Tha”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGC90fmf8gw]

One of Twin’s lighter songs, (relative to his other work), “Tha is incredibly simple.  The fast paced percussive background stays identical for the entire song, and a simple synthesizer melody fades in and out along with distorted conversation.  Through it’s simple nature, “Tha” succeeds in capturing the weightlessness of sleep and dreams.

While ambient music certainly isn’t for everyone, I personally really like the genre ability to somehow conjure up vivid images and emotions by using very few elements.