{"id":33012,"date":"2026-03-17T11:11:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xceed.me\/blog\/?p=33012"},"modified":"2026-03-17T11:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:11:18","slug":"introduction-to-ambient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xceed.me\/blog\/en\/introduction-to-ambient\/","title":{"rendered":"More than just furniture music, this is ambient"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The name speaks for itself, really. Where does your head go when you hear the word &#8216;ambient&#8217;? It\u2019s not a hard guess, really. If <\/span>you&#8217;re not the type who lands directly<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/aphextwin.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Aphex Twin<\/a><\/strong>, you&#8217;re most likely thinking about whatever is surrounding you, usually in that background kind of way. It\u2019s a word we throw around to describe the &#8216;feel&#8217; of a room without trying to sound too pretentious, even if the French-style pronunciation of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ambience<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has become the trendy way to say it lately.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And now, it goes without saying that such a mundane concept has become something of a seminal music form. Without meaning to undermine the term at all, it\u2019s rather fascinating that something never really meant to be noticed has become just as interesting as it is ignorable; a fine reflection from the philosophy of Ambient music pioneer <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/brianeno\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Brian Eno<\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"748\" src=\"https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/22154631\/IMG_0744.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-33136\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/22154631\/IMG_0744.webp 1000w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/22154631\/IMG_0744-360x269.webp 360w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/22154631\/IMG_0744-680x509.webp 680w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/22154631\/IMG_0744-300x225.webp 300w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/22154631\/IMG_0744-500x374.webp 500w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/22154631\/IMG_0744-200x150.webp 200w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/22154631\/IMG_0744-260x195.webp 260w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/22154631\/IMG_0744-380x284.webp 380w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/22154631\/IMG_0744-800x598.webp 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Brian Eno in his studio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To fully understand Ambient as a music style, one must realise there&#8217;s an intention that&#8217;s much more visceral than factual, making it hard to properly grasp the concept through explanation alone. Without boring you with overly dramatic insights, it&#8217;s easier to briefly touch on its instinctive character<\/span>;<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the way it was born as an abstract sound that was supposed to shift the entire atmosphere around you, officially made to occupy space without you fully realising it. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a result of <strong>Erik Satie<\/strong> being a victim of a restaurant&#8217;s very loud music, he not only prompted the idea of music that merely contributed to an atmosphere, but he coined the term &#8220;furniture music&#8221; back in the day, insisting its purpose was to blend in. Pressing on the fact that the moment it stood out, it wasn&#8217;t doing its job right<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, Ambient music\u2019s ancestry stretches further back than the term itself, when a loose collective of electronic experimenters,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/tangerinedreamq\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> <strong>Tangerine Dream<\/strong><\/a>, <strong>Klaus Schulze<\/strong>, and <strong>Cluster<\/strong>, drifted into a sound later dubbed <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kosmische Musik<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. A form of music which shied away from <strong>psychedelic and avant-garde rock<\/strong> of the time, leaning into long, synthesiser passages, cosmic drones, endless repetition and a freedom in experimentation which formed what was essentially the world\u2019s first ambient subgenre. Even though no one thought to name it at the time, it was a synonym to ambient before ambient <\/span>even became a thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13183529\/Tangerine_Dream_1980something_12882520393.jpg\" alt=\"Dark, atmospheric live electronic performance, with three musicians surrounded by synthesizers and analog equipment, lit by minimal warm lighting against a deep black background.\" class=\"wp-image-33066\" width=\"690\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13183529\/Tangerine_Dream_1980something_12882520393.jpg 640w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13183529\/Tangerine_Dream_1980something_12882520393-360x247.jpg 360w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13183529\/Tangerine_Dream_1980something_12882520393-380x261.jpg 380w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 690px) 100vw, 690px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Tangerine Dream 1980<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Henceforth, what began as this cosmic escapism in Germany eventually took on a different emotional weight once it reached Britain in the 70&#8217;s<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. You can imagine the way post-industrial landscapes felt at the time, the headache of grey cities, hand in hand with an everlasting economic turmoil and industrial strikes. <\/span>Well, it would be strange if that didn&#8217;t<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> plant a certain decline into one&#8217;s optimism. Still and all, the<strong> affordable synthesisers<\/strong> <\/span>became an influential tool in response to<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> all that, granting<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">fertile ground for music that would not contribute to one\u2019s evasion, but would soothe it, <\/span>countering<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the noise of outside life with something invisibly radical. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>&#8220;There were synthesisers in the 50&#8217;s and 60&#8217;s, but they were so expensive that only scientists or academics got to use them. So, nothing very much of interest happened in electronic music. It wasn&#8217;t until the equipment was cheap enough for fairly ordinary people to use it that really interesting ideas started happening,&#8221; <\/em>Eno elaborates in an <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vVrbxl3wRf8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">interview with Dave Heffernan<\/a><\/strong>, about his transition from Rock to Ambient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13180830\/brian-eno-conny-plank-1024x683-1.jpg\" alt=\"Brian Eno, Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Conny Park gathered around a large analog mixing desk in a recording studio, adjusting controls and collaborating during a vintage studio session.\" class=\"wp-image-33063\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13180830\/brian-eno-conny-plank-1024x683-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13180830\/brian-eno-conny-plank-1024x683-1-360x240.jpg 360w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13180830\/brian-eno-conny-plank-1024x683-1-680x454.jpg 680w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13180830\/brian-eno-conny-plank-1024x683-1-380x253.jpg 380w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13180830\/brian-eno-conny-plank-1024x683-1-800x534.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Brian Eno, Dieter Moebius, Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Conny Plank in Plank&#8217;s studio, 1977 by Christa Fast<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Turning a blind eye to the mainstream that felt all too scratching, <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brian Eno was the one to capture this shift better than anyone, pulling Satie\u2019s<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">philosophy into the then-modern age. <\/span>However, he wanted to offer the listener an ambiguous relationship with the sound, giving them the choice to use it as background or foreground music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>O<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nce Eno got his hands on these synths, tape loops, and studios that allowed sound to behave in unfamiliar ways, we believe the foundation <\/span>had taken place<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In no manner allowing the pressure of pleasing the average ear, he released <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vNwYtllyt3Q\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Music for Airports<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, an album treating music as air and its consumption as something rather benign.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This sort of music often resides on<strong> sustained tones and slow movement<\/strong>, and an experimentation with subtle shifts in soundscapes that evolved without demanding any attention, and slightly<strong> alienated the traditional idea<\/strong> of what music was meant to be. At some point or another, the genre undoubtedly came into its own, ultimately garnering more interest than initially imagined. Its sedative and experimental rhythm brought conclusions to music so strangely intriguing that the influence rippled beyond its borders, diving into the worlds of cinema, techno and electronic music.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"707\" src=\"https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13180736\/494835622_18288360694247862_7166426032783893112_n-1024x707.jpg\" alt=\"Black-and-white photo of a Jon Hassell playing trumpet in a studio setting, surrounded by synthesizers, keyboards, and mixing equipment, blending live instrumentation with electronic music production.\" class=\"wp-image-33062\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13180736\/494835622_18288360694247862_7166426032783893112_n-1024x707.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13180736\/494835622_18288360694247862_7166426032783893112_n-360x249.jpg 360w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13180736\/494835622_18288360694247862_7166426032783893112_n-680x470.jpg 680w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13180736\/494835622_18288360694247862_7166426032783893112_n-380x262.jpg 380w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13180736\/494835622_18288360694247862_7166426032783893112_n-800x553.jpg 800w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13180736\/494835622_18288360694247862_7166426032783893112_n.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Jon Hassell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>M<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">usicians have teased these qualities into different territories. Emerged during the same period as Eno on his own accord, <strong>Jon Hassell<\/strong>&#8216;s &#8220;Fourth World&#8221; trumpet also had its fair share, blending ethnic microtones with electronic drift on his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WjG0vIskpGs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em><strong>Possible Musics<\/strong><\/em><\/a> piece (<\/span>a production that encourages active listening in theory, yet somehow triggers a total disconnection from your actual surroundings<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">)<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elsewhere, <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">you can observe figures like <strong>Hiroshi Yoshimura<\/strong> and <strong>Steve Roach<\/strong> who softened the genre into meditative space ambient: built from gentle synth lines and slow harmonic movement, often carrying an understated optimism, like small sound narratives of hope that hint more towards love. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although soothing as the sound was, it seems Ambient was never destined to remain comforting<\/span>.<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Others, slightly more disturbed, eventually ventured into shadowy corners of the scene to forge the sound of dark ambient &#8211; or industrial ambient, according to some. This mystified deconstruction of the idea, best observed in the work of the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cryochamber.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cryo Chamber<\/a><\/strong> label, has allowed darker thoughts to wander through discordant overtones and ominous, catacomb-inspired atmospheres, often leaning into a cinematic edge<\/span>, laying groundwork for its close relationship with film sound design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"676\" src=\"https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13181210\/Hiroshi_Yoshimura.webp\" alt=\"Black-and-white photo of Hiroshi Yoshimura playing a keyboard in his home studio, surrounded by vintage synthesizers, tape machines, and audio equipment used for ambient music production.\" class=\"wp-image-33064\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13181210\/Hiroshi_Yoshimura.webp 1024w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13181210\/Hiroshi_Yoshimura-360x238.webp 360w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13181210\/Hiroshi_Yoshimura-680x449.webp 680w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13181210\/Hiroshi_Yoshimura-380x251.webp 380w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13181210\/Hiroshi_Yoshimura-800x528.webp 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Hiroshi Yoshimura<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Producers like <\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/thomaskoner.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Thomas K\u00f6ner<\/a><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> then stretched minimalism into icy isolationist tracks like <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rQ5Vl0UeKjM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Permafrost<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, with their submerged drones evoking another level of darkness in the genre. While <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/instaphex\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Aphex Twin<\/a><\/strong>, notably known in the ambient scene for his <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Xw5AiRVqfqk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Selected Ambient Works 85-92<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span>, also eventually <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">merged the genre with club culture via ambient techno (and even followed up on the airport theme, creating the commissioned-then-rejected piece <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZdEhDOlfFiA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Aphex Airlines<\/a><\/em><\/strong> with the kind of hollow, jarring space energy that represents the feeling of wandering a terminal at 3 am).<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paving the way for true artisans like <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/burial.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Buria<\/a>l<\/strong>, who took the idea of ambient and engineered it into the frames of UK garage, in a way that felt mesmerisingly calculated and intentional, settling future garage as another subgenre within the ever-growing mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More recently, artists like <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/romeo.poirier\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Rom\u00e9o Poirie<\/a>r<\/strong> have fractured the very idea of this ambience through granular field recordings and microscopic repetition, turning environmental sound into something bizarre and hypnotic. Here, the style of ambient is no longer smooth or continuous, but fragmented with texture, hovering over the idea of experimental sound collage. As suggests the work of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/andrewpekler\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Andrew Pekler<\/a><\/strong>. He shifts the meaning of time and realism in pieces such as <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/andrewpekler.bandcamp.com\/album\/khao-sok-extension\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Khao Sok<\/a><\/em> <\/strong>and <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/andrewpekler.bandcamp.com\/album\/sounds-from-phantom-islands\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sounds of Phantom Islands<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by stretching and puzzling up chopped field recordings, eventually making a completely surrealist piece of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"538\" src=\"https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13184754\/arbitrary_Live-Listening-Room-3_Andrew-Pekler_Standards-1024x538.jpg\" alt=\"Live electronic performance in an intimate setting, with a musician seated at a table manipulating modular synthesizers and mixing equipment, surrounded by a quiet, attentive audience.\" class=\"wp-image-33069\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13184754\/arbitrary_Live-Listening-Room-3_Andrew-Pekler_Standards-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13184754\/arbitrary_Live-Listening-Room-3_Andrew-Pekler_Standards-360x189.jpg 360w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13184754\/arbitrary_Live-Listening-Room-3_Andrew-Pekler_Standards-680x357.jpg 680w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13184754\/arbitrary_Live-Listening-Room-3_Andrew-Pekler_Standards-380x200.jpg 380w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13184754\/arbitrary_Live-Listening-Room-3_Andrew-Pekler_Standards-800x420.jpg 800w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13184754\/arbitrary_Live-Listening-Room-3_Andrew-Pekler_Standards-1160x609.jpg 1160w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/13184754\/arbitrary_Live-Listening-Room-3_Andrew-Pekler_Standards.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Andrew Pekler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This constant splintering suggests, or more proves, that ambient music has long moved on from being just a background utility (unless we\u2019re talking about those two-hour YouTube videos quite literally meant for sleeping), and has found itself mirroring our internal states instead. Unavoidably so, during ambient music&#8217;s journey, our digital lives have become more overwhelming, and it seems the music has followed suit by moving away from the polite &#8220;furniture music&#8221; of the past and toward something much more psychological and just as disturbed as we Gen Z&#8217;s have become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you delve into the endless sea of branch-outs, you&#8217;ll find someone like <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/malib9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Malibu<\/a><\/strong>, a figure in the modern electronic music landscape, who&#8217;s translated our screenager&#8217;s distress into a kind of emotive, ethereal drift that feels incredibly intimate, which clearly stems from ambient. Or on the flip side, the boundaries are pushed into a much grittier, urbanised register by many artists like <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/kavarimusic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kavari<\/a><\/strong>, particularly on her <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/kavarimusic.bandcamp.com\/album\/rumination-at-the-abattoir\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Rumination At The Abattoir<\/a><\/strong><\/em> piece. You can feel her sound folding together heavy noise and industrial ambient with occasional lurches into club music, which end up feeling quite restless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/14133109\/maxresdefault-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Kabari performing a live set behind Pioneer decks, layered with mirrored visuals and abstract digital graphics, creating a futuristic, immersive electronic music atmosphere.\" class=\"wp-image-33077\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/14133109\/maxresdefault-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/14133109\/maxresdefault-360x203.jpg 360w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/14133109\/maxresdefault-680x383.jpg 680w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/14133109\/maxresdefault-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/14133109\/maxresdefault-800x450.jpg 800w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/14133109\/maxresdefault-1160x653.jpg 1160w, https:\/\/images.xceed.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/14133109\/maxresdefault.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Kavari, Pound and Yam DJ set<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s admirable how this new generation isn\u2019t afraid to pull the &#8216;ignorable&#8217; into the light, creating work that is strikingly beautiful and, at times, intentionally jarring. We\u2019re even seeing this play out as a communal ritual with festivals like <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/berlin-atonal.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Berlin Atonal<\/a><\/strong> or <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/barcelona.mutek.org\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">MUTEK<\/a><\/strong>, which have transformed ambient into a shared experience, with a strange irony in it. We&#8217;ve come to the point where hundreds of strangers lie together on the concrete floor of some random power station, gathered in the dark to music that was once defined by its ability to go unnoticed. But as we realise time and time again, the world is full of surprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Quite obviously, <strong>ambient music<\/strong> is elastic (to say the least) and goes far beyond the latter. It is still the &#8216;furniture&#8217; Satie envisioned, but it\u2019s now furniture for a far more curious (and may I repeat, disturbed) world. It has taught us a new way to interact with sound, to not disparage silence, and to embrace a form of creativity which has, and still is, revolutionising the way music is being created today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The name speaks for itself, really. Where does your head go when you hear the word &#8216;ambient&#8217;? It\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[201,123],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"category-music","9":"cs-entry","10":"cs-video-wrap"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ 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