Darkambient Dimensions: 14 Albums To Blow Your Mind

02/29/2000 9:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Bryan Reesman

"What is darkambient?" you might ask after staring at this feature's title for a few moments. Not just another media term to define what often can't be defined, darkambient occupies a unique corner of the music world. It is an imaginative, cinematic, mesmerizing sub-genre more concerned with feeding the head than the feet. And contrary to the new-age stereotypes which some might foist on it, at its best darkambient is anything but boring.

Predominantly instrumental and electro-acoustic in nature--paralleling the ambient sounds pioneered by the likes of Brian Eno in the 1970s--darkambient shirks conventional music constructs. There are rarely movements, as in classical, or verse-chorus tradeoffs, as in rock. While it mirrors the improvisational flow of jazz, darkambient music tends to focus more on exploring a central theme in each piece and expounding upon it in different ways. Melody and rhythm are often discernible, but usually in a more repetitious and/ or abstract fashion than is generally found in more conventional styles. Although synthesizers are the most common instrument used, other instruments and sounds--both organic and electronic--can be implemented in pure or processed forms. Ultimately, darkambient composers aim to create a visceral stream of sound.

Projekt Records founder Sam Rosenthal was the first person to use the term back in 1993, spelling it "darkAmbient" in his company's Darkwave mailorder catalog. He remarks that darkambient "is dark, shifting soundscapes" and "has little thematic content--i.e. melody or rhythm--and is more the sound of the insides of a large industrial warehouse," referencing Morthond's This Crying Age as a supreme example of the style.

Similarly, musician/ composer J.A. Deane, in the liner notes for his Nomad album, commented to writer John Corbett that "I find the idea of more linear song-form and rules of musical composition aren't necessarily appropriate for this kind of music. I'm interested in things that don't take you through a linear experience--more like states. Like when you look at a painting or a piece of sculpture: the piece itself doesn't change over time, but your perspective on it may."

With these thoughts in mind, here are 14 albums that make essential darkambient listening:

ASHLEY/ STORY, A Desperate Serenity (Multimood) -- Dwight Ashley and Tim Story have made only two albums together (this one in 1991 and Drop in 1997), but they immediately established themselves as electronic visionaries. Serenity takes familiar sounds--romantic piano, creepy drones, majestic synths, dissonant feedback--and swirls them into a new dimension. The results are radiant, mysterious, and sometimes unsettling. Ashley and Story truly find beauty in darkness but also express a wide range of emotions, from hope to desolation. If only more film composers took advantage of music like this rather than the overused symphonic scores which dominate celluloid soundtracks!

HAROLD BUDD, Lovely Thunder (Editions EG) -- This 1986 Budd outing was darkambient before the term was invented. Budd (who collaborated with Brian Eno on the romantic tone poems of The Pearl ) brings his trademark minimalism into a darker setting. Gracefully playing simple arpeggios or chords, creating patterns which he subtly breaks, the enigmatic composer has fleshed out some wonderful atmospheres. "The Gunfighter" prefaces a showdown with eerie keyboards, while the delicate beauty of "Ice Floes In Eden" is disturbed by intermittent organ bursts. The album's piece de resistance is the 21-minute epic "Gypsy Violin," a haunting freefall of ghostly drones, ominous keyboards, and beautiful, spiraling synth violin.

J.A. DEANE, Nomad (Les Disques Victo) -- Composer Deane is a multi-instrumentalist (trumpet, percussion, pedal steel guitar, bass, and electronics) who has played with such disparate musicians as John Zorn and Ike & Tina Turner. But it's obvious that the six years he spent working with Fourth World composer/ trombonist Jon Hassell influenced the use of samples that permeates Nomad. The seven epic works collected here were all composed to choreography created by dancer and frequent Deane inspiration Colleen Mulvihill, and they include the foreboding ambient clouds of "Last Supper," an ethereal reworking of Leonard Cohen's "Priests," and the Middle Eastern-inspired psychedelia of "Thread Of Life."

JEFF GREINKE, Timbral Planes (Linden Music) -- First released in 1987, this CD is a magnum opus of mood, tone, and texture. Frequently influenced by his background in meteorology and the weather patterns in his hometown of Seattle, Greinke has consistently produced superior albums like Changing Skies, Lost Terrain, and Big Weather, but Timbral Planes is his masterpiece. The imaginative composer explores murky, fluid atmospheres ("Slow Fall," "Glacial Return"), edgy, sinister soundscapes ("Rift"), and exotic ethno-ambient compositions ("In Cages," "River's Edge") that are unlike anything you've ever heard. It's even more powerful when you're submerged beneath headphones, just ready to drift off to sleep. FYI: Greinke recently released a collaborative album with Sky Cries Mary singer Anisa Romero titled Hana on the composer's own First World Music label; he also continues to release solo albums, collaborate with jazz experimentalists Land, and play with ex-Nirvana man Krist Novoselic in Sweet 75.

LUSTMORD, The Place Where The Black Stars Hang (Side Effects/ Soleilmoon) -- By day, Brian Williams does sound design work for Hollywood film composer (and former SPK member) Graeme Revell, and has worked on films such as The Crow and Strange Days. By night, he reverts to his darkambient alter-ego, Lustmord. Throughout his long career, Williams has been intrigued by low-end frequencies, and they certainly dominate this surreal sonic sojourn, which sounds like it was recorded in the farthest reaches of outer space. "Section 2: Aldebaran Of The Hyades" features eerily mesmerizing "breathing" sounds that may trigger flashbacks to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. (While it's not specified in the liner notes, some deep space recordings may have been mixed into these tracks.) This is not an album one casually listens to, for its dark minimalism will slowly ooze from your speakers and invade your living space.

DANIEL MENCHE, Screaming Caress (Side Effects/ Soleilmoon) -- The liner notes state that this album "was created purely from somatic sounds fabricated through the use and abuse of the body, particularly the skin, larynx, chest, lungs, heart and fist," with additional abuse inflicted upon "crude electronics" and objects like stones, wood, bells, and some technology. The brilliant sonic makeup of Screaming Caress cannot be denied; "Fist Full Of Hell" resembles a thunderous tornado, "She's A Slaughterhouse" evokes images of a dingy boiler room, and the latter half of "Drinking Her Bite Tonight" sounds like a UFO landing outside your house. With sharp, jarring volume contrasts, this is not music for the faint of heart; for all we know, it could be the soundtrack to Hell itself.

O YUKI CONJUGATE, Undercurrents (In Dark Water) (Staalplaat/ Soleilmoon) -- A most appropriate title, given that these beguiling Brits seem to forge a connection to our ancient past, summoning up images of life before man, a time when we were but a drop in the primordial ooze of life. In other words, they're aural time travelers. A sense of mystery and beauty pervades these 13 ethno-ambient compositions, which utilize synths, drums, wind instruments, and piano. They possess a kinetic flow that mirrors the motion of life itself, from the visible (water currents or wind swells) to the microscopic (cellular migration). Think of Undercurrents as a Koyaanisqatsi-style soundtrack for the imagination.

RAISON D'ETRE, Collective Archives (Cold Meat Industry) -- This two-CD compendium of little-heard tracks and alternate remixes features some of the best works by Peter Andersson, the one-man entity calling himself Raison D'Etre, boasting gloomy soundscapes that beckon eerily to the listener. Though Andersson claims not to be influenced by religion, an unsettling feeling bubbles to the surface that we may be exploring the Gothic side of Catholicism here. Perhaps this reflects an unconscious inner turmoil, or maybe Andersson simply has a great sense of drama. Regardless, Collective Archives features all the classic Raison D'Etre staples: ghostly synths, tolling bells, military-style percussion, and sacred chants given a dark twist. Andersson has also recorded music under the names Necrophorus and Atomine Elektrine.

JORGE REYES, Bajo El Sol Jaguar (Lejos Del Paraiso) -- This Mexican musician uses modern keyboard technology while fashioning his own take on his country's ancient past with pre-Hispanic instruments, including everything from drums to aerophones to body percussion. Unlike many of the albums discussed here, Reyes's work is very rhythmic and ambient in an earthy, acoustic fashion. But by layering sounds in the studio, he creates blends not found in the natural world, almost as if the different sonic elements were winding through large catacombs. "El Ensonamiento" exemplifies this, its delicate, sparse piano floating across a beautifully lush stream of flute, ocarina, and rainstick. And the pulsating "La Danza De La Culebra" is like the soundtrack to a creepy fever dream.

ROBERT RICH, A Troubled Resting Place (Fathom/ Hearts Of Space) -- Over a career that now spans nearly two decades, Californian composer Rich has created some of the best organic ambient music out there by incorporating the alternate tuning system of just intonation and his knowledge of other cultures. This compilation features many of his darkest ambient moods. The recurring elements in Rich's work--spacey pedal steel guitar, exotic percussion, bamboo flutes, and otherworldly synths--are all like characters in a universe constructed by the composer himself. And they all tell different stories, from the alien visitation of "The Simorgh Sleeps On Velvet Tongues" to the apocalyptic vision of "Black Skies."

SUSPENDED MEMORIES, Forgotten Gods (Fathom/ Hearts Of Space) -- This "supergroup" consisting of prolific ambient guru Steve Roach, pre-Hispanic experimentalist Jorge Reyes, and avant-garde guitarist Suso Saiz brings together sensibilities from the American Southwest, Mexico, and Spain, respectively. Within the primal beats, deep drones, and ambient guitar work of Forgotten Gods lies not only a musical merger of the minds that transcends language barriers but also a direct link-up to our collective unconscious. This tribal triumvirate are invoking rituals long forgotten and some of their own making; for proof, listen to the vaporous winds and gentle drum rhythms that saturate "Mutual Tribes" and subtly build up before melting into an alliance of droning didgeridoos.

VARIOUS ARTISTS, Death Odors (Slaughter Productions) -- Yeah, I know, really morbid title. But this is some of the best darkambient music you'll ever hear. It's also one of the hardest compilations to find, so happy hunting! Unorthodox audio sculptors like Raison D'Etre, Megaptera, Alio Die, Runes Order, and Archon Satani unleash evil, droning soundscapes which would be perfect for horror film soundtracks. Death Odors is a tonal and textural journey that will rewire your mental circuitry.

VARIOUS ARTISTS, The Promises Of Silence (Projekt) -- What better way to discover the sounds of darkambience than through a strong compilation such as this one? Black Tape For A Blue Girl, Saffron Wood, Jeff Greinke, Vidna Obmana, Alio Die, Ashley/ Story, and many more contribute entrancing aural environments, experimenting with varied approaches--everything from vocal manipulations to percussive tapestries--and achieving fascinating results. At 79 minutes, the CD is jam-packed with ethereal excellence.

VOICE OF EYE, Mariner Sonique Cyclotron Industries) -- These experimental Texans are highly unusual because their music, while sounding very electronic, is solely composed of "natural" elements: percussion, flute, guitars, homemade instruments, and, yes, a few samples. No synths or keyboards are used; instead, the acoustic sounds are processed to obtain an otherworldly feeling. One critic once described this album as the soundtrack to a surreal riverboat ride, and with its tribal rhythms and phantasmagorical atmospheres, one could easily envision it as a sonic backdrop for, say, Apocalypse Now. It's worth noting that two of the tracks here were composed for a "post-apocalyptic production of King Lear." An ambitious piece of organic psychedelia, Mariner Sonique conjures up a brilliant hallucinogenic haze. Voice Of Eye have also recorded collaborations with Arizona-based ensemble Life Garden.

Most of these albums are available through specialty retail and Internet stores, but you can also track them down at www.firstworldmusic.com, www.hos.com, www.middlepillar.com, www.multimood.com, www.projekt.com, www.soleilmoon.com, and www.waysidemusic.com.