Article by Raphael Alecto & David Rosales
Amidst the scleroticization of much of the dominant forms of music today (and their “underground” alternatives), creative artists are often led to seek pathways of expression outside of the established norms; this necessarily becomes a cyclical movement, since in many cases the niches they carve out for themselves are flooded by others who, lacking a deeper understanding of what has been discovered, turn to reproducing its superficial aspects, which soon become the tropes of yet another stagnant genre. This certainly applies to the now overcrowed genre of “dark ambient”, despite many unique and promising possibilities that it entails in principle. Bypassing the conventional methods of music, artists exploring this style use a variety of techniques, such as sampling and the manipulation of noises, that allow for a greater freedom and expressive potential than most styles can offer. With these selections, we intend to highlight some notable achievements within this vast and diverse domain, providing some noteworthy recommendations to guide the unfamiliar.
Klaus Schulze – Irrlicht (1972)
Any discussion of ambient music must necessarily include the name of Klaus Schulze, whether that be termed ‘dark’ or otherwise. It is a great pity that every time his name is brought up, the most analogue methods used in his time and era are discussed more than the products that came from such efforts. Not only is this music pioneering in that the sounds and techniques used were new, but it sounds fresh in our ears as nothing that has come afterward has even attempted the same degree of profound adventurousness that can only be the result of patiently developing ideas and taking them where they will in a logical progression. If you are to tap into the secret of early Klaus Schulze, before his music standardized bit by bit until he was producing as boring a piece of music as everyone else, you must listen to Irrlicht with a memory of the stages it goes through. As will be seen even within the exemplary selections of this list, later ambient projects limited themselves to simply drone without a theme, without aim, at best giving you interesting moments and strong scene-flashes. Go no further and learn from the insights found in this masterpiece, surpassed only, perhaps, by the album that followed it. – David Rosales
Merzbow – Solonoise (1982)
Technically, this is a work of “Noise”, but seeing as this genre got started by trying to explore progressions of textures in slideshows of impressionistic savagery, a discerning ear grown accustomed to the crude and often incisive material herein used will see nothing but an unparalleled work of ambient. To begin doing this, one must either develop an aesthetic pleasure for the sounds themselves –an inner exercise in sound-material transmutation– or see in this particular affront to musical convention energy and patterns for what they are, beyond the dressing they take. Do not doubt that what you can find here are less than thought-out progressions which, while improvised, have a musical sense of order and juxtaposition. The freedom to use what is normally considered ‘noise’ to put these pieces together gave the artist unprecedented freedom to explore the widest variety of textures in quality, intensity and source (a third dimension which is not free in music conventionally named). Later experiments by Merzbow narrow in scope, but have remained nonetheless freer in thought than the all the projects that have since been inspired by it, with the notable exception of the pure and heavily aware, Texas-based Mania and a handful of similar acts that were able to squeeze creative progressions of great richness out of an efficiently streamlined approach that went beyond the now too-typical and small-minded feedback abuse. – David Rosales
Dead Can Dance – The Serpent’s Egg (1988)
Dead Can Dance is the pop-darling of ambient lovers. At least those who can swallow more conventional lengths and limited use of structure or progression, not to be confused with a minimalism of means. The music here is rich within the conventionally accepted pool of sounds, and they are used to powerful, heart-wrenching effect. It would not be too difficult to say that, for the listener in search of a mystic adventure beyond validated sense-perceptions agreed upon by the common denominator of minds on our planet, The Serpent’s Egg is this band’s most accomplished album insofar as it more strongly maintains an open door into the realm of daydream. The feeling here ranges from a trans-medieval echoes to settings bordering the darksome fairy realm, home to the predatorial shape-shifters of the night and the twilight. The pieces in this album are pop-music reenactments of memories of rituals to the actual gods of this earth, those who once walked among us and only increased in power after the death of the flesh, those only too happy to disappear from human consciousness after the invention of the abstract God of the trinity that had the world persecuting, torturing and burning all the dregs of society under the delusion that these were the acolytes of the old and only too real gods. This is the beautiful myth, the archaic and seductive lie woven in these entrancing escapades in a reaching-out with trembling hands that rustles the veil. The familiarity of the pieces brings the unknown in shapes and forms that appeal to our mundane hearts, they make the genuinely awesome, awful and awe-worthy both palatable and digestible. Dream and, only then, awaken to the world of colored lights and soft pleasures. – David Rosales
Endvra – Black Eden (1996)
Now, this here is a very interesting dark ambient work product of the Dead Can Dance pop-revolution of the genre which managed to provide a key to those eager to find in this kind of music not keys but tools to crack open their minds. The music is not powerful enough to draw listeners in, and, in this respect, it may be judged inferior to the works previously discussed. Then we also have the incredibly decreased depth of the work that comes from the trade-off that the pop-music approach brings: the music is more accessible and requires less time and mind-power to take in, but it comes at the price of content volume and weight. Nevertheless, the listener who would actively engage in an exercise of focus will be drawn into a carefully rehearsed journey in which clear images are summoned by the atmospheric sounds and situational allusions. Those actually paying attention will be able to clearly discern the story of transmogrification told by the album. Those few who manage to click in with the music vibe to an organic level, where the music is actually reverberating against the instinctual reptile brain in communion with it, may actually go through the alchemical stages that this music is intended to facilitate so that the delicious taste of transmogrification towards the end of the album’s journey. Pervading, physical terror is requisite; and so is the conquering of it by the candidate. The final track is a coming back into our world. It is the signal telling you the door has closed, the revelry has passed, and the celebrants giving you an opportunity to taste the pleasures of the gathering have gone. – David Rosales
Black Mountain Transmiter – Black Goat of the Woods (2009)
When creating ambient music, one must decide whether to focus on the richness of texture and sound, in which the scene and imagery suggested may be more abstract but the experience is sensorially rich, or to concentrate strongly on suggesting vivid pictorial sequences. Black Mountain Transmitter stands out from among the crowd by taking the second approach in this particular album. Taking after Endura’s best work, and certainly rivaling the sheer weight of its content, Black Goat of the Woods holds a delicate balance between the sturdiness of its composition (in its loose and more creative definition) and its reliance on action-sequence. Combinations of sounds are used with enough uniqueness and situational awareness as to suggest a vague but discernible image, while the textures produced thence are deliciously elongated, distorted and stepped into so that we find ourselves stepping into the image within the image, as if walking into a mirror. Differently stated, this album presents themes as acts in a play, but then develops them musically. The stations it goes through are like vivid, organic paintings. The pathways between them are fluid, interdimensional wormholes. Personally, I favor this album over any other on this list for its managing to collect and take hints from all previously mentioned schools of ambient conceptualization, collaging them into a work of sheer concentration and clarity. Unlike most other “ritual art” that is only useeful in context, this album is actually incredibly enjoyable and intense on its own. Put your whole body and mind into it and you’ll find yourself somewhere else. – David Rosales
Lustmord – Paradise Disowned (1986)
A reference in this genre, Lustmord have approached the sinister with both reverence and audacity throughout a long and uncommonly successful career for this type of music. Making use of a variety of tools at their disposal, from minimalist drones and a plethora of effects to chants and acoustic instruments, Lustmord lay down an atmosphere clearly intended to “shock” the diurnal and mundane shell of consciousness to expose it to the vaster seas within. Such an enterprise still makes use of familiar methods for which most listeners have defenses, as some of these textures might remind one of the usual trappings of horror film soundtracks. There is also a frequent recourse to the juxtaposition of elements of usually contrasting connotations and emotional resonances in most contexts, in order to hint at an underlying order where such oppositions are harmonized. This implies that, unlike many of the later bands that took inspiration from these early works, Lustmord isn’t content with reproducing a given idea like a lingering still life, tactically introducing new suggestions along the longer tracks so that a more comprehensive vision can emerge. Lacking yet the focus of subsequent works but abounding in creative vigour, this outing is diverse enough to encompass both a surprising rhythm-based track and short pieces representative of what became codified as typical dark ambient or “industrial” music. Listeners who opt for a more casual approach will still savour a rich palette of lasting spectral impressions, but the most rewarded are naturally those who follow the album’s premise to the end. – Raphael Alecto
Raison D’Être – The Empty Hollow Unfolds (2000)
We have here a band that has been developing its sound through a considerable career and extensive output that is representative of this genre’s essential and even stereotypical preoccupations. Although noticeably entranced by the spaces they create, Raison D’Être manages to avoid the common error of aimless rumination on a single theme to cover for the lack of anything substantial to state; a vision at the core of this enterprise grants these tracks a sense of direction that might be initially elusive due to their sparseness and pace. A series of contrasting textures and sounds are skillfully employed with precise intuition to match the ideas at play, exemplifying the expressive possibilities of sampled sounds if used purposefully. The resulting landscapes are dense without losing themselves in the impact of their texture, providing instead a movement from an insight to another, the clarity of which is granted by a meticulous work both in the construction of these layers of sounds and their production. As with any journey of this kind, an awareness of decay and mortality is viscerally present, not as an aesthetic whim but as a requisite for the revelations that can only spring from there. – Raphael Alecto
Arktau Eos – Mirrorion (2006)
A representative of a more recent strain of dark ambient turning its efforts mainly on the music’s potential use for trance-inducing states and similar contexts. This band creates one of the better examples of this style through both compelling soundscapes and a cohesion that binds them, the effect being akin to an underlying, mysterious ether from which different apparitions are carved before vanishing to reveal a new form. The experience is similar to an initiatory crossing of a corridor where each door reveals a new symbol or provation whose vital information is to be assimilated as an integral part of the whole. These short tracks emerge as often violent and fugacious irruptions into the listener’s consciousness, each new presence seeking to imprint its influence on the mind of the initiate. An inadequate approach to this would inevitably result in a gallery of images that might hold some immediate power but not much significance as a whole, which this band avoids through a compositional care that goes beyond producing momentaneous thrills and mesmeric sensations. Despite some less successful aesthetic choices along the way, this work nevertheless proves satisfying in what it sets out to do and rises above most of the similar ventures by projects of the same intentions. – Raphael Alecto
