CLASSIC AMBIENT RECORDINGS: The 2001 Survey
It was a huge amount of work, but here at last are the results of the latest survey to determine the favorite and most popular ambient recordings of all time. Since Jack the Tab and "Sasha E." collaborated on the previous survey here at Hyperreal, in May of 1999, tons of new ambient recordings have been released, with many of them already showing up on this list. Although ambient music has not necessarily become a more commercially viable genre in the past three years, the fans and composers who keep this unique music a living, breathing art form have certainly increased their presence on the internet, with many more sites devoted to individual artists and the growth of discussion groups devoted to ambient and its various sub-genres. "Classic" ambient recordings are more easily obtained via the net, anyway; most retail record stores carry precious few titles from the genre. The best stores will at least have an "Electronic Music" section where some of the discs may be found, and many artists, like Steve Roach and Robert Rich, seem to be filed under "New Age" in chain stores such as Borders. This, of course, is a subject of endless debate among ambient listeners: how does one truly define "ambient," and where is the boundary between ambient and new age music? Ambient fans tend to be passionate creatures, and achieving a consensus is difficult, if not impossible. One Hyperreal member remarked that ambient is more a "state of mind" than an actual genre; another amusingly stated in a post, "I don't know how to define it, but I know it when I hear it." What one hears in this music is clearly a matter of individual perception.
The best ambient music allows you to immerse yourself in a particular sonic world or "field of sound," and if your psyche is tuned into those "frequencies," you may well experience the sort of rapture that the greatest music always aims to achieve. Ambient can take you to distant landscapes, remote reaches of space, or even to secret, unexpected memory-scapes that have been locked away inside your mind for years. This mysterious, often hypnotic music truly has that ability. Ambient "godfather" Brian Eno's definition of the form, when his manifesto accompanying MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS first appeared in the late '70s, essayed that ambient music should work as effective background music (ideal for reading, writing, taking a bath, etc.), but it should also have the ability to reward close listening (if one chooses to do so) by offering the type of sonic layering and musical complexity that would keep a listener coming back for more. Most would agree that to be truly successful, an ambient work should place the listener in a wide field of sound where they can experience many interesting little sonic details, or perhaps just a few prominent, continuous (but compelling) ones. There are drips, blips, waves and drones, frequently at the same time. The effect can be all-encompassing, or merely "in the background"; it's the listener's choice.
