in defense of ambient music

by nick mentis

Music is impossible to fully explain, but the dictionary is compelled to try: “an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color.” I’m guessing Tony Williams didn’t read that definition and say “Now I understand what music means”, pick up drumsticks and change the flow of music forever. Music can’t be explained by a few bored scholars or even musicians for that matter. Music is artistic, not academic. The day science explains music, we’re as good as dead. One of the factors that attracts people to music is that it doesn’t need an explanation, but rather a feel.

What I am turning my attention to actually is the correlation between silence and music. Right now go listen to a CD by Brian Eno entitled Ambient 1: music for airports. This CD will demonstrate exactly what I mean by silence in music. You might be thinking “hey man, isn’t silence in music a contradiction? Music is noise, and silence is, well, silent.” You are completely right to think this, just as it is also completely right to think that there can be silence in music.

What is silence? Well silence is the absence of sound. In Brian Eno’s Ambient 1: music for airports a lot of musical elements could be considered “absent”. The pieces generally go very slowly and there is almost no climax. There are very few notes ever played and the notes that are played are held for long periods of time. Have you ever heard of the expression “the silence is deafening”? This statement makes you question what silence actually means. If there is always noise, then can there be music (which is noise), that is silent? Indulge me if you will for a moment .Music can be just as silent as a silent room because a silent room isn’t as silent as you think it is.

Let us just assume that there is noise in silence. This would mean that an ambient artist could be just as noisy as a death metal band. Music comes in all shapes and forms, but it is all noise, and some silent noise. The silence in ambient music is extreme. Just as the chaos and destruction in noise bands can be extreme. Both are noise, both are music. If a few chords are all you need to make music, is using many chords overdoing it?. Ambient music is simply peace, while free jazz is peaceful in its chaos. But then you start to think, well I find free jazz more peaceful than ambient music; in its blissful chaos I find myself at utter peace. Someone would probably also say that ambient music is chaotic in its simplicity.

This is a hard concept to grasp but it is very important in order to understand ambient music. In order to understand ambient music you have to ask yourself mind altering questions like, what defines something and nothing? Is more always better? What is wasted space? And, where is the line between unskilled musicians playing simple because they can’t play complex, and skilled musicians choosing to play simple because they can? There are many more questions that can be asked, and I am sure most of them will never have one absolute answer. One thing that is for certain though is that less can sometimes be more. Not every ambient CD is worth listening too but some just hit chords in your body that you can’t explain. The simplicity in the music makes you wish life was that simple and perfect. The simpler you make things, the more “perfect” it gets. But, sometimes we humans need chaos. Most people can’t stand simplicity because its “boring”. Here are some ambient cds if you are interested.

Aphex Twins - Selected Ambient Works, Vol. 2

Stars of the lid – The Sounds of Stars of the Lid

Tangerine dream – Zeit

Steve roach – Mystic Chords and Sacred Places (Pt. 1)

Robert rich – Somnium