Ambient Roots still growing?
Having received a fair bit of 'ambient' music for review recently, I began pondering its origins and what the word really means. Of the surroundings' is what my dictionary suggests - which brought to mind the 'night-music' sections of many works by the composer Béla Bartók, in which he conjures the sounds of scurrying, flapping and buzzing nature going about its business. He certainly captures some primal essence of this natural soundscape. Although considered a 'difficult' composer to listen to, I find his 3rd Piano Concerto, written just before his death in the mid 1940s, stimulating but accessible, and has a wonderful night-music section juxtaposed in the slow 2nd movement with a chorale-like fugal exposition of deep, tragic but spellbinding beauty.

Was Bartók one of the first in the classical genre to attempt to reproduce the ambience of nature? Certainly, but Claude Debussy's orchestral masterpiece La Mer, which evokes a variety of oceanic moods and passions, came earlier, around 1905. Debussy's ouvre is usually regarded as impressionism, offering a subjective emotional response to surroundings, rather that being a representation of them. Many budget CD labels including Naxos offer to bring Debussy's vivid and almost overwhelmingly beautiful seascapes into your living-room for around a fiver.

So if Debussy's work isn't quite true to the dictionary definition, then what about Brian Eno's Music for Airports and his other 'discreet music' LPs of the late 70s for which the term 'ambient' was originally coined? On reflection it seems that Eno was attempting to create surroundings for the listener, rather than reflect something of the surroundings, and his efforts were apparently a response in opposition to the dreadful re-constituted canned music which started seeping into public places around that time.

Eno's groundbreaking Ambient series inspired a whole catalogue of artists who expanded the concept - check out Michael Brook, Daniel Lanois and Harold Budd. And of course many of these original ambient artists have been working and developing into new worlds of sound ever since. Like Brian's brother Roger, whose band of the early 90s, Channel Light Vessel, which also included Bill Nelson of Be Bop Deluxe amongst others, has had their first album Automatic re-released and is well worth a listen because of its inventive composition and instrumentation.

Simple samples
The wider availability of sampling technology as the 1980s progressed made it far easier for natural and 'real-life' sounds to be incorporated in music, and the attraction of taking sounds 'of the surroundings' and manipulating them was obvious. In this respect, much world-fusion music is, in essence, ambient too, taking recorded material from ethno-musical sources and over- or under-laying it in a new environment whilst attempting to retain something of its original feel.

The rise of the sampler coincided with that of sequencers and the linear-editing capabilities of computer-based recording, and although this opened up many new creative possibilities, it also seemed to standardize the technique of using loops or repeated patterns as being the main way to create music. Not only are many dance/ambient music creators seemingly stuck in a mental loop, the music software creators have compounded the problem by gearing their products to conform to this narrowly defined, but obviously popular groove (or rut).

Metronomic drum loops seem great for creating hypnotic dance music, but are they so suitable for chillin'? Can you really relax to music that is constantly reminding you of the passage of time like a ticking stop-watch? Obviously many people feel they can, but I find more joy and nurture, more consciousness and less hypnosis in music that confounds and weakens the mind's bonding with time, and helps reveal the timelessness and newborn wonder behind each and every moment.

The type of music that is now widely known as ambient was developed as a partner and alternative to the dance music of the mid 80s, providing something less full-on to chill to when taking a rest from the dance floor. What a shame that a new term couldn't have been found for this sub-genre, because not only does it obscure the original ambient movement and its development, it has also strayed far from the meaning of the word ambient. That is not to say that this poorly named genre is devoid of good compositions, far from it. And also, being a burgeoning contemporary genre, it is spawning sub-categories, such as the deep and hazy ghost-ambient sonics of Tor Lundvall. His Seasons Unfold sampler CD is mercifully free of repetitive tight percussion, and casts a soporific spell with Floyd-esque vocal stylings, and soundscapes that seem to ebb and flow, as if breathing by themselves.

I'm not sure whether 'ambient chill' is a sub-category as such, but this is how Matt Coldrick describes his new release, Conscious Pilot, by Pan Electric. Collaborations with Neil Cowley (Brand New Heavies) on Rhodes piano, and the illustrious BJ Cole on pedal steel, provide a more improvisational narrative to the refined and well-balanced arrangements we come to expect from Matt's Absolute Ambient catalogue.

Many Kindred Spirit readers will be familiar with the healing work and philosophies of neo-Taoism practitioner Barefoot Doctor (Stephen Russell), though maybe you were unaware that he is also an accomplished musician? There are currently four ambient CD downloads available from his website. Two are referred to as 'Speed ambient' and are aimed at the dance floor, with 'Deep' and 'Pure' titles also available for less full-on vibes. B Doc claims that his music is intended to produce 'a palpable benign alteration in energy flow and frequency, thereby improving mood and outlook'. I doubt whether any double-blind clinical trials have been run to prove the efficacy of his music as a healing medium, as has been done with the music of Mozart, but in my communications with the Doc, and having seen and heard a little of his work, I get a good feeling about his integrity and commitment to give of his best and shower love and good vibes to all, and doubtless for many people his music will have a special quality because it is from him. In line with my previous comments regarding ambient music being born out of dance culture, I feel the Speed ambient CDs work best and are more fun because they don't attempt to shoe-horn an essentially un-relaxing musical style into the meditation room.

Another name doubtless familiar to many of you is that of Japanese-born Kitaro - a key figure in the birth of New Age music, around the same time as Eno created ambient. It's interesting to see how the two genres have intertwined since the beginning.

Kitaro's recent release, Sacred Journey of Ku-Kai, Vol.3, shows the master's touch 30 years on, and includes some really nice electric guitar solos that haven't been stripped of their wild, edgy excitement, as is often the case with the over-production of MOR new age music these days - as if passion isn't quite polite when trying to convey an air of spirituality? Bollocks to that, I say - I find it heartening that Kitaro remains unblinkered regarding mixing influences and energies, and has even worked with Megadeath guitarist, Marty Friedman, in the recent past. Although some tracks lack coherence and direction in their form, I still found this CD well worth a listen to see where the grand master is at 30 years on.

• Piano Concerto No. 3 by Béla Bartók, and La Mer by Claude Debussy are both widely available, though the Naxos versions probably provide the best value for money.
• Ambient 1: Music for Airports - Brian Eno (EG Records)
• Automatic - Channel Light Vessel (AllSaintsRecords.com)
• The Seasons Unfold (Sampler CD) - Tor Lundvall (StrangeFortune.com)
• Conscious Pilot - Pan Electric (AbsoluteAmbient.com)
• Speed Ambient 1&2 - Barefoot Doctor (BarefootDoctorWorld.com)
• Sacred Journey of Ku-Kai, Vol.3 - Kitaro (Politur/Domo Music Group - membran.net)

Sample tracks from many of these CDs are available for you to listen to at: www.newmusicreviews.co.uk