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AmbientMusicGuide.com started life in 1992 as a reference book manuscript. In 2001 it became a website, in retrospect one of my better life choices. The years of accumulated grief from shopping it around unsympathetic publishers soon disappeared as the site gained a following and allowed me to grow and revise content as the years passed. Today it is one part of my broader passion for music which also encompasses live DJ'ing, radio shows and writing for magazines. It is non-commercial and fully independent - my aim has always been to educate and turn people on to good music. The focus is on reviews of a selection of essential contemporary ambient, instrumental and downtempo albums available on CD spanning the 1960’s through to the present day. It's worth remembering that the arrival of the compact disc in the 1980's truly liberated the ambient zone. Quiet passages can be heard in pristine sound quality and free of crackles and hiss; sound effects and deep bass are reproduced in all their dynamic glory; and with a length of up to 80 minutes the format is ideal for extended compositions and uninterrupted listening. In the 21st century that's starting to change again: the advent of digital downloads via the web threatens to redefine the actual concept of the album itself, with customers often free to pick and choose what individual tracks they want to own. For now, however, the album format - whether on CD or in digital download form - remains the prime vehicle of artistic expression in the ambient and downtempo worlds and is this site's exclusive focus. "Ambient" is a broad church, and let me stress that this guide is not comprehensive. In the early 90's when I began this project it started in that direction but within a few years I realised the impossibility of the task, whether laboured over by one writer or ten. An attempt at comprehensiveness is fraught with problems. With music that is so wilfully eclectic, just how far do you extend into jazz? Into rock? Into dance music? Instead, this guide concentrates on a selective but wide range of releases on CD that I've heard, played on radio and written about over the past 25 years. Points are further illustrated with quotes from interviews done by both myself and other sources. Some readers will no doubt find omissions of "essential" recordings they feel should have been included; others may disagree with certain inclusions. By all means drop me an email and share your opinion; I still have so much to learn. What I hope you WILL find here is scope and breadth, and in addition to simple recommendations I've also provided a deeper, historical perspective on a number of the most significant and influential artists. Finally, while keeping in mind that I believe a single definition of ambient to be useless, it seems wise to state some of the common features of the recordings I've reviewed. In these pages you'll find music distinguished by some or all of the following traits:
If this guide leads you down even just one musical path previously unexplored, I feel it has succeeded. That path will hopefully lead you down many more. In it's melding, crossing and subverting of genres the ambient and downtempo universe is mind-bogglingly vast. And with the advent of global on-line CD retailing and audio downloads such music is now easy to buy wherever you live on the planet. American composer Philip Glass once said that “one of the most exciting things you could do is discover the art of your own time”. In these pages there is much to discover, and much that is artful. All you need is ears and an open mind....
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