What a brilliant essay. I've rarely heard someone address that intrinsic ambiguity which is baked into the very concept of ambient music in such a profound way. Will share/link in my newsletter soon.
this was such a good essay! beautifully written. this is what i’ve tried to tell people who’ve asked what ambient music is but i’ve never been able to describe it properly. now i can share this with them!
Yes I think it really needs to be said as Ray puts it - you just can’t capture the whole thing in a sentence, for those who dismiss Ambient music as whale or elevator music. It’s so much more than this…
I hope LaMonte Young will also be recognized as a foundational explorer of drone, ambient music, and deep listening as spiritual practice.
“The trouble with most of the music of the past is that man has tried to make the sounds do what he wants them to do. If we are really interested in learning about sounds, it seems to me that we should allow the sounds to be sounds instead of trying to force them to do things that are mainly pertinent to human existence.
If we try to enslave some of the sound and force them to obey our will, they become useless. We can learn nothing or little from them because they will simply reflect our own ideas. If, however, we go to the sounds as they exist and try to experience them for what they are – that is, a different kind of existence – then we may be able to learn something new.” - La Monte Young
This is a gorgeous and thought-provoking essay - "And this, perhaps, is what has been lost in the industrial model. The sense that we are making something together. That our listening is not passive consumption but a form of presence." You've left me with a lot to think about!
great essay, very thoughtful. I've been thinking of Ambient as 'anti-content' - something that honours the act of listening rather than endless content filler & attention metrics. Even if it's absorbed and used in the late capitalist logic of streaming economics. The kernel of value us that this is ultimately aesthetic music, made (largely) by attentive humans, searching in the near-quiet, restful spaces for meaning and resonance.
What a brilliant essay. I've rarely heard someone address that intrinsic ambiguity which is baked into the very concept of ambient music in such a profound way. Will share/link in my newsletter soon.
Thanks @Stephan Kunze that means an awful lot to us! Best let the writer know - FYI @Ray Robinson
this was such a good essay! beautifully written. this is what i’ve tried to tell people who’ve asked what ambient music is but i’ve never been able to describe it properly. now i can share this with them!
Yes I think it really needs to be said as Ray puts it - you just can’t capture the whole thing in a sentence, for those who dismiss Ambient music as whale or elevator music. It’s so much more than this…
Deep, thoughtful, thought-provoking. Thank you.
I hope LaMonte Young will also be recognized as a foundational explorer of drone, ambient music, and deep listening as spiritual practice.
“The trouble with most of the music of the past is that man has tried to make the sounds do what he wants them to do. If we are really interested in learning about sounds, it seems to me that we should allow the sounds to be sounds instead of trying to force them to do things that are mainly pertinent to human existence.
If we try to enslave some of the sound and force them to obey our will, they become useless. We can learn nothing or little from them because they will simply reflect our own ideas. If, however, we go to the sounds as they exist and try to experience them for what they are – that is, a different kind of existence – then we may be able to learn something new.” - La Monte Young
This is a gorgeous and thought-provoking essay - "And this, perhaps, is what has been lost in the industrial model. The sense that we are making something together. That our listening is not passive consumption but a form of presence." You've left me with a lot to think about!
great essay, very thoughtful. I've been thinking of Ambient as 'anti-content' - something that honours the act of listening rather than endless content filler & attention metrics. Even if it's absorbed and used in the late capitalist logic of streaming economics. The kernel of value us that this is ultimately aesthetic music, made (largely) by attentive humans, searching in the near-quiet, restful spaces for meaning and resonance.
Thanks for writing this beautiful essay, and our relationship with music. "The music carries our fatigue and our longing for pause.".