Ambience

n. The special atmosphere or mood created by a particular environment.

I was imagining the other day what it would be like to have a bare, empty exhibition room, and to then fill it with the sound of crashing waves, running water and constant dripping. Or perhaps the rustle of leaves as wind filters amongst them, or the rhythmic scraping of somebody planing a piece of wood.

I would probably want to couple these sounds with some form of synthesised melody, just to create more of a structure to the piece, but I just thought it would be brilliant to create this parallel space to the outside world. Outside it may be noisy from traffic, cold or rainy, but only a few steps away, inside this room it could be something completely different.

Well in the same week I found myself reading in The Wire magazine about ambient music.

For many, ambient music was a back lash against the 'in ya face', obviously powerful effects of rock and pop music. Whereas rock music uses loud guitars, thumping drums and soaring, sing-along choruses to grab your attention, ambient music relied on constant but subtle sounds to gradually alter your emotions. You may perhaps ignore them at first as they compete with other background noise, but eventually they take hold within your subconscious and drastically alter how you feel.

When we think of ambient music, we think about sound-scapes, electronic textures and layers of subtle groove and repetition but it can also take a more recognisable form.

Think how many pop songs by artists such as Girls Aloud, Will Young and Coldplay seem to just be constantly making themselves know to us yet never being fully listened to or acknowledged? How many times have you been driving along with the radio on, perhaps tapping your finger along to the beat but not actually knowing or caring what the song was? Its just there in the background having a subtle effect deep in you subconscious.

The point I'm drawing from this is that if we rate how great a piece of music is from its instant effect it has on us, its capability to move us or excite us, then we are completely ignoring a whole wave of powerful music made by great songwriters and musicians that are just as moving and just as emotive, but approach us in a completely different way.