Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It is often "peaceful" sounding and lacks composition, beat, and/or structured melody. It uses textural layers of sound that can reward both passive and active listening and encourage a sense of calm or contemplation. The genre is said to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual", or "unobtrusive" quality. Nature soundscapes may be included, and the sounds of acoustic instruments such as the piano, strings and flute may be emulated through a synthesizer.
Selected Ambient Works Volume II is a studio album by the British electronic music artist and producer Aphex Twin. It was released on 7 March 1994 through Warp Records. Billed as a follow-up to James' debut Selected Ambient Works 85–92, the album differs in sound by being largely beatless ambient music. James said that it was inspired by lucid dreaming, and likened the music to "standing in a power station on acid."
Xiu Xiu is an American experimental rock band, formed in 2002 by singer-songwriter Jamie Stewart in San Jose, California. Currently, the line-up consists of multi-instrumentalists Stewart, Angela Seo, and percussionist David Kendrick. The band's name comes from the Chinese film Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, which has influenced the sound of their music, according to Stewart.
Oval is an electronic music group founded in Germany in 1991 by Markus Popp, Sebastian Oschatz, Frank Metzger and Holger Lindmüller. The group pioneered glitch music, writing on CDs to damage them and produce music with the resulting fragments. The project has been a solo venture by Popp since the departure of other members in 1995.
Alpha Wave Movement is the electronic music project of Gregory T. Kyryluk. Alpha Wave Movement's musical style can be considered ambient, new-age, some space rock, the classic 1970s period German style electronic music otherwise known as Berlin school as well as the ambient aesthetics of Brian Eno, and Steve Roach. Releases such A Distant Signal and Terra have more ambient space elements than other Alpha Wave Movement releases. Beyond Silence has more space rock elements and has a more rhythmic feel in their overall music compositions. In 2007 Alpha Wave Movement released The Mystic & The Machine, a musical exploration of 1970's era romantic progressive rock performed on synthesizers with the addition of UK musician Steve Hillman on electric guitar. The influences of Genesis, Ozric Tentacles, and Camel are quite obvious and intended and shows yet another side of Alpha Wave Movement's composition. Alpha Wave Movement's music is semi electronic-based, utilizing digital synthesizers and MIDI to create its sonic explorations. Aside from the music influences nature and natural landscapes are a continuous source of inspiration for compositions. Alpha Wave Movement has performed at the Ambient Ping Canada and at the Gathering Room USA. Alpha Wave Movement has released music on the Dutch label Groove Unlimited, Silent Records (USA), Waveform Records (USA), Spiralight (USA), Anodize (USA) and on the private label Harmonic Resonance Recordings. Alpha Wave Movement's other projects include Thought Guild, Open Canvas, Subtle Shift, Biome and a solo release as Gregory Kyryluk. The latest release from Alpha Wave Movement is entitled "Soniq Variants"(2011). The release is based conceptually on the use of Ensoniq synthesizers solely for the compositions. Ensoniq was an American manufacturer that spearheaded early affordable synthesizer workstation's the first of which was the ESQ-1 in 1986. Music on this release was composed primarily on the ESQ-1, VFX-SD, SQ-R and a DP4 all of which were made by Ensoniq. Additional use of a Novation synthesizer was also incorporated to add some timbral texture. The year 2012 arrived with a new electronic music project by Gregory Kyryluk under the alias of Subtle Shift. This new project dives head into the ambient dub waterways. Featuring a more sublime percussive foundation, environmental soundscapes. Drawn on the influences of the Detroit and European creative pioneering spirits such as Rod Modell and Yagya, GAS as well as incorporating 1970s electro aesthetics. To date there are four full-length releases by Subtle Shift on the Anodize and Harmonic Resonance Recording labels. In 2014 the electronica world fusion project Open Canvas had a track from the Waveform Records release "Indumani" featured in the internationally popular gothic horror show True Blood. The Open Canvas track "Ojopati" was featured in the final season episode 3.
Axel Willner is a Swedish electronic music producer and DJ from Stockholm and currently based in Berlin, best known for his releases as The Field, blending micro-samples of pop songs into atmospheric minimal techno.
Kyle Bobby Dunn is a Canadian composer, arranger, and live performer of modern compositional and guitar based drone music. He has performed in live and exclusive outdoor settings, including Banff National Park, since 2000 and has released music on various international recording labels.
Does It Look Like I'm Here? is a 2010 album from the band Emeralds. It contains a mix of tracks previously released as 7-inch singles and new material. Pitchfork placed it at number 36 on its list of "The Top 50 Albums of 2010", and number 139 on its list of "The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s".
Leon Vynehall is a British artist and producer. He released his second album Rare, Forever on 30 April 2021 via Ninja Tune.
Alec Jeffery Koone, better known by his former stage name Balam Acab, is an American electronic musician and producer originally from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
No Stairway is the debut studio album of Glassine, the musical project of Danny Greenwald, first released online and later issued on cassette worldwide by the label Patient Sounds, in April and August 2015, respectively. The title is a reference to a line from the 1992 film Wayne's World. The album garnered significant attention from music journalists for its compositional and production technique. In two Guitar Center stores, Greenwald tapped people playing instruments on his iPhone, and used snippets of these low-quality trackings as loops or synth patches, playing some of them through effects pedals or 4-track machines. The "dystopian" environment of Guitar Center shops and his desire to record something without a budget while in New York City is what inspired his idea to use samples of recordings of people playing instruments and build compositions out of them. On Fact's year-end list of best Bandcamp releases, No Stairway came in at number 19.
Polygondwanaland is the twelfth studio album by Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. The album was released under a BY-ND Creative Commons license—the band uploaded the master tapes online for anyone to freely use. The fourth of five albums released by the band in 2017, it was released on 17 November 2017.
UkabazUmorezU, translated in English to "slow and steady wins the race," is the fifth studio album by Japanese musician Sugai Ken and his first LP for the New York-based independent label RVNG Intl. Continuing the ambient electroacoustic style of Ken's previous albums, UkabazUmorezU is a set of musical representations of Japanese folk traditions and "artificial" versions of passageways in the Kanagawa Prefecture during the nighttime. It was released on October 20, 2017 to favorable critical reviews.
Safe in the Hands of Love is the third studio album by American experimental electronic music artist Yves Tumor. It was released on September 5, 2018 by Warp Records.
Antidawn is an EP by British electronic musician Burial, released 6 January 2022 via Hyperdub.
Trip9love is the third studio album by English singer-songwriter Tirzah. It was surprise-released digitally on 5 September 2023, and released physically on 17 November, by Domino Recording Company. The album was produced by Mica Levi.
Solar Bridge is a studio album by the American drone trio Emeralds. The album was released through Hanson Records on June 16, 2008. The album was completely improvised, and recorded digitally in July 2007 at a home studio in Westlake, Ohio. Critics have described the album's genres as drone, ambient, and kosmische. The album runs for 26 minutes and is split into two tracks which consist of "meditative" drones made of two synths and a guitar. Solar Bridge was the first Emeralds album to be released on vinyl and CD, and received positive reviews from AllMusic, Pitchfork, and Tiny Mix Tapes.
Natural Wonder Beauty Concept is a 2023 collaborative album between American experimental musician Ana Roxanne and Ecuadorian electronic musician DJ Python. It has received positive reviews from critics.
~~~ is the debut release from American experimental musician Ana Roxanne. It has received positive reviews from critics.
Joseph Kamaru, better known as KMRU, is an ambient musician. He was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and later relocated to Berlin, Germany.
