Hey and welcome back to the newsletter for your ears! This month I'm going to talk about Ambient. Yes, this Listening-oriented newsletter is going to talk about Ambient, what a shocker. Really one of the reasons this project exists is to lift the heavy association of Ambient and Listening a little, but I'm a sucker for some ambiance and it was always going to be a major theme of this project in one way or another.
Anyway, thanks for returning to read this, I hope you were entertained by the last one. A little reminder, that as you receive this email, the show is streaming over on Mouthfull Radio, so if you have a free ear, do go over and listen, or listen back later, the archive upload is usually up no later than a day after the show. There's also a small error I have to correct. In all the announcements from last month I said that new editions would be streaming/posted every first Thursday of the month. In fact it's every four weeks, which has to do with the way Mouthfull schedule their shows. I'm going to leave the posts up, because it's not like someone's going to mark it in their calendars. So the next post will be coming to you on the 29th of May.
Introduction to the Ambiverse
I've called this post 'A Journey through the Ambiverse' because I don't want to just talk about Ambient as a genre but more as a movement, whose traces can be found in an endless array of musical directions.
So I guess a good first question to answer would be: What is the Ambiverse? Ambiverse is the name of a US-based pop-punk band. But I'm going to borrow their name to mean the microcosm of (sub)genres that cross over with ambient. I came up with it while organising my digital music collection, during a time where I was listening to lots of excessively soft music. There's nothing really fundamental about this name I just thought it was a catchy name. I don't want this piece to become too nitty gritty with genres and get too philosophical about it, however there will be some talk about it, so if you're strictly genre agnostic, then consider this a content warning.
Second Genre
Anyway, why am I writing about this in the first place? It's not as if we have a dire need for more names for music. Although as I mentioned before, I like to name things, maybe my brain just works (better) like that. However, I think it points to one thing: Ambient is everywhere and is seeping in to more and more other music, that may otherwise not have had that connection. Maybe this is because we all have the desire to chill, to have that calming influence in our lives.
And maybe it hints at an interesting phenomenon that affects Ambient more than many other genres: It's a good 'second genre'. Not so many people are just in to Ambient, but a whole lot of people will also listen to Ambient, and I think that puts it in to a unique position. And this seems to also be reflected in music being produced. It's a good counterweight to the energy of lots of other music as well as life itself. It's agreeable and easy to like, not because it's simple or cheap, but because it nurtures that part of us that longs to chill. I catch myself depending more and more upon that counterweight. For example after listening to half a day of energetically upbeat music, I feel the desire to switch to something soothing, as if to hold my ears in balance. Of course it's not always like that and the last thing I want to imply with this is that Ambient is just that, because by all means is it its own fundamental thing.
Nature’s Music
The more I think about it, the more fundamental it seems actually. After all one can argue that it is the most natural form of music, taking a lot of its inspiration directly from the sounds that nature itself produces.
The first ambient I got really in to was Takashi Kokubo's Ion Series. It's a ten part series (1992-1996) of ambient albums, that blend natural sounds with synthetic sounds in a very organic way, each with their own unique theme. Maybe the artist sensed that subconscious connection to natural sounds, as he originally intended this work for city dwellers, specifically office workers, who will rarely have had the opportunity to listen to the pure sounds of the natural world. It's very worth listening to them all, though you might need some time.
Since discovering Kokubo's work back then, I have gotten ever more in to the genre, first exploring other (classic) Japanese artists, then moving on to more contemporary Ambient, some of which could be heard in the first part of last months' show.
To Be Continued…
To bring it all back to the title of this months post, over the last years and especially the last months I've become more and more conscious of not only the influences that Ambient has had in other music, but also the importance that atmosphere, calmness and naturalness plays in a lot of music. And I've noticed how much I'm drawn to atmosphere and ambiance in any music. So rather than give it all away now I'm going to turn this into a reoccuring column in this newsletter called 'Through the Ambiverse', where each edition I will dive in to a different part of the Ambiverse. I will start the series this month by featuring some ‘raw’ ambient, from which subsequent editions will branch out.
On The Radio
For the first hour of this edition's show I have picked mainly Ambient Folk, inspired by an afternoon I was sitting under a beautiful tree in the sun listening to Erik Kramer's 2023 album 'Where the fish are as fine as the color of colors'. I remember everything feeling fantastically peaceful in that moment, so I wanted to reproduce this feeling with a playlist you can listen to on the show. Expect guitar-heavy softness, dreamy vocals and a good dose of serenity for a comfortable nap under the play of leaves in the wind.
This album by Chicago native Erik Kramer is full of beautiful snippets, field recordings, ramblings that weave into a kind of quilt of sound. It’s wistful and simple and heavily naturalistic, making you forget even for a moment our industrial lives to remember we are out of the earth.
I also want to highlight Virginia Astley's 'Hope In A Darkened Heart' from 1986, whose track 'A Summer Long Since Passed' opens up the show. You might notice the distinct signature of master Ryuichi Sakamoto, who produced this album. It's a beautifully unique album, which fuses European and Japanese musical influences. Very rural and taking inspiration from classical as well as folklore.
The second hour is filled with a little more upbeat, but really equally organic music. Some Trip Hop, Jazz, Acid Jazz, Broken Beat and other titbits. There's one of my (late to the party) discoveries from late last year; 'Real Luv' by Qendresa from 'Midnight Request Line'.
Another very worthy mention is Stone Alliance's 'Creepin' on their self-titled album from 1976. 'Creepin' is one of the softer tracks off the album and most of the other tracks are pretty epic and energetic Jazz-Funk. I remember listening to Sweetie Pie at the end of some Broken Beat set and being blown away. That's the track with the 'most conventional groove', the rest of the album remains pretty freestyle.
Another pressing recommendation along the same tracks is 'Gears' by Johnny 'Hammond' Smith from 1975. A real down to earth Jazz-Funk jam. Reminiscent of Bobbi Humphrey with a similar authenticity as far as the groove-poetry goes. I just keep on recommending this album, because I think it's soooo good. No other adjectives needed.
Continuing in line with my fascination for Argentinian Rock, I also play 'Promesas Sobre El Bidet' by Charlie Garcia from 1984's 'Piano Bar'. Soundwise there's definitely a strong bond to Spinetta, whose track 'Cementerio Club' I played last time around, although that one does sound very different, coming from a slightly different era (1973).
The show is finished off by my forever-goosebumps track 'desire machine' from spirit blue's first release. Never grow tired of this one.
Thanks so much for reading and listening. I hope this has been at least mildly interesting! If you have any thoughts to share you can reach out publicly via the comment section or send me a dm. Putting together the show is a lot of fun I will admit and it’s nice just letting myself get inspired while travelling. May your May be a good one and may you relish in nature’s refuge!
Soft regards,
Edward