An Ambient Manifesto

Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 10:18:14 +0100
From: Rowland Atkinson 
Subject: (amb) An Ambient Manifesto

There is a need not to go over the same musical terrain too often - familiarity breeds discontent, exploration is the key. In short, have as big a collection as possible and play each title occasionally.

Ambient is a democratic medium. Technology has made its production open to all while a proliferation of electronic media make transmission over large distances and to large numbers relatively easy to achieve. This, of course, presupposes access to essentially Western and/or wealthy playback and relay media.

Ambient is boring, mundane and commonplace. If you want to bore your friends and surprise them with insanely experimental titles that they cannot believe can be actually interpreted as music play ambient music.

Ambient is exciting and revitalising, occaisionally even a spiritual or revelatory experience; a rediscovery of the familiar made unfamiliar.

The source material of ambient is all around us as well as through traditional instruments.

Ambient is music you can share with your parents even if you don't want to. "What is that nice music you were playing earlier?" In short, what other form of music can fuel drug induced states as well as being wallpaper music for dinner parties?

Being 'into' Ambient can be a pain, record shop staff look bemused or annoyed that they haven't heard of that title or 'group'. Be careful of shirty staff who find these titles affornting to their cool value and expect to be told that they have heard of it or know where they can get it even if they don't have a clue!

Always remember that whenever you ask on lists - where can I get X or what is X like? - you will find that it is deleted and often 'the best thing that that artist ever did'.

Ambient music cannot be defined. However, this does not mean that Pink Floyd are masters of the genre. Ultimately ambience is where you find it, to quote one of its exponents.

Ambient music forms absolutely no coherent geographical or socially locatable subculture. Where are your friends into the same music, how often do you go to parties where ambient is played? Don't forget that email music lists are surrogate friends and that you are really a sad friendless freak who seeks to ostracise her/himself from his/her friends, family and partner - - they didn't call that compilation series Isolationism for nothing.