- Modern Classical Music, Avant-Garde Music, early Electronic Music, Krautrock, Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock
- occasionally World Music and Folk; later artists often influenced by Industrial, House Music, Techno, Trance and other more recent genres of Electronic Music
Ambient music is usually minimalistic, attempting to stir up a certain atmosphere or imagery to the listener. The instruments used are mostly of an electronic nature such as synthesizers, samplers and drum machines. However more traditional instrumentation is also prevelant among artists.
Its understated nature and tendency to evoke positive feelings in a listener make it very popular during relaxation and as feel good inspiration. Its darker side is also useful in creating tension and underlying emotion in TV and film. Subtle unsettling scores can make all the difference in keeping your audience on edge whilst not overpowering the scene.
The origins of the music can be seen as beginning just before and after the first World War alongside art movements such as futurism which emphasized less traditional experimentation in music. One of the pioneers was composer Erik Satie, whose minimalistic atmosphere pieces were downgraded during his lifetime, but after his death became Vindicated by History as being way ahead of their time. They were a huge inspiration to ambient music. According to Wikipedia, Brian Eno actually coined the term "Ambient Music" during the 70s. He once described the music as capable of being:
"Actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener".
A statement that nicely sums up why it can be engaging for some and simply background music for others.
It may be worth noting that Eno credits Miles Davis' "He Loved Him Madly", off 1974's Get Up with It, with inspiring several of his ambient albums.
Certain subgenres of Alternative Rock draw influences from ambient music, such as Dream Pop and Slowcore/Sadcore. Drone Metal may also be considered to be influenced by ambient music, and there is an entire subgenre of Black Metal also influenced by ambient music, appropriately called "Ambient Black Metal".
Sub-genres include:
- Ambient Americana
- Ambient House
- Ambient Dub
- Ambient Trance
- Ambient Industrial
- Ambient Noise
- Ambient Noise Wall
- Ambient Techno
- Clinical Ambient
- Black Ambient
- Dark Ambient
- Drone Ambient
- Ritual Ambient
- Space Ambient
- Tribal Ambient
- Isolationalism
- Deathdream
- Lowercase
- Environmental Music (Kankyou Ongaku)
Examples of Ambient Artists/Works:
- Aphex Twin
- Selected Ambient Works 85–92 (some of the tracks)
- Selected Ambient Works Volume II
- Apoptygma Berserk:
- Exit Popularity Contest
- Autechre
- "Yulquen" on Amber
- "Paralel Suns", "Notwo", and "Outh9x" on Quaristice
- "Perlence Suns", "9013-2", and "Perlence Subrange 6-36" on Quaristice Quadrange
- Balligomingo
- Betamaxx
- Sarajevo (Concept Album based on the 1984 Winter Olympic Games, held in the then-Yugoslav city of the same name)
- Biosphere
- Substrata
- Blowupnihilist
- "Impermanence", "Dukkha", and "Masada", from Deconstructionism: The Most Sincere Form of Self Criticism
- "Quarantine", "Evidence of a Psychotic Break", "Dirge, Respite", and "A Rope Over an Abyss", from The Ghastly Paraphernalia of Our Beneficial Trade
- Objective Nothingness
- Boards of Canada (fused with IDM)
- 1998 - Music Has the Right to Children
- 2002 - Geogaddi
- 2005 - The Campfire Headphase
- 2013 - Tomorrow's Harvest
- Bohren & der Club of Gore: German jazz band who mixes ambient with metal.
- Some of David Bowie's albums fall into this for significant portions of their running time:
- Broken Iris
- BT:
- This Binary Universe
- If The Stars are Eternal, So Are You and I
- Morceau Subrosa (released simultaneously with the above album)
- Most of Burzum's non-metal material.
- C418
- Bushes and Marshmallows
- The Minecraft OST
- one
- Cabaret Voltaire:
- Dekadrone
- BN9Drone
- Carbon Based Lifeforms
- Coil
- College
- Shanghai
- Covenant
- "Cryotank Expansion", on Dreams of a Cryotank
- "Modern Ruin Part II", on Modern Ruin
- "Jag är Fullständigt Tung" on Leaving Babylon(Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition)
- Jack Dangers:
- Music for Planetarium
- Dark Ages
- Darshan Ambient
- Dilate:
- Cyclos
- Octagon
- Enigma
- MCMXC A.D.
- The Cross of Changes
- A Posteriori
- Brian Eno (the Trope Namer, if not exactly the Trope Maker)
- Another Green World
- Discreet Music
- Ambient 1: Music for Airports
- Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics (with Jon Hassell)
- Ambient 4: On Land
- Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks
- Thursday Afternoon
- The Shutov Assembly
- Neroli
- The Flashbulb
- Freaky DNA:
- "Bass Armonium"
- "Fog Stalker"
- "Iced Cubed"
- Robert Fripp:
- Let the Power Fall
- Gates of Paradise
- A Temple in the Clouds (with Jeff Fayman)
- The Future Sound Of London
- Lifeforms
- Grouper
- Tim Hecker
- Hexode
- His Name Is Alive (On the albums All the Mirrors in the House and Return to Never as well as scattered tracks on their earlier work)
- Aubrey Hodges
- Doom and Final Doom PlayStation soundtracks
- Doom 64 soundtrack
- Quake and Quake II Nintendo 64 soundtracks
- Journey Into the Dark Places Vol. 1 and 2
- The Human League
- The Dignity of Labour, Pts. 1-4
- Mark Isham
- Jean-Michel Jarre
- Juno Reactor
- Luciana (a single 61-minute dark ambient track)
- Khanate
- Leyland Kirby (also plunderphonics and harsh noise on some releases)
- The KLF
- Chill Out
- Kraftwerk's first three albums could be considered to be ambient (though sometimes also called Kraut Rock), particularly Kraftwerk 2 and Ralf und Florian. This was just Early-Installment Weirdness though, from before they arguably became the Trope Maker for electronic music.
- Laserdance:
- Ambiente
- Lazerhawk
- Dreamrider
- Le Matos (also Synthwave)
- EXODE Original Web Series Soundtrack
- Leviathan - Dark ambient on A Silhouette in Splinters.
- Life in Yellow
- Gyorgy Ligeti
- "Atmosphères", "Lux Aeterna" "Requiem", all three of which were featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Lustmord - Trope Maker of dark ambient.
- M83:
- Digital Shades, Volume 1
- DSVII
- Matmos
- Mer Shopping Missbruk for Studenter
- Midnight Syndicate
- Bryce Miller (also Synthwave)
- City Depths(2015)
- Monochrome Daydream(2019)
- Moby
- Ambient
- The ambient CDs on Hotel and Wait For Me
- 1999 - Play
- Mark Morgan:
- Moonset Music
- Mortiis was dark ambient for his first seven albums, before undergoing a Genre Shift.
- Juan Mutant
- Negative Entropy:
- City Open to the Nomad
- Spencer Nilsen
- Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time Sega CD soundtracks, select songs from both games were compiled on the CD Ecco: Songs of Time
- Nine Inch Nails
- 2008 - Ghosts I-IV
- Quake soundtrack
- Ghosts V: Together
- Ghosts VI: Locusts
- Nordra (Solo Side Project of Monika Khot from Zen Mother)
- Nordra EP
- Pylon II
- Come Diventare Un Partigiano
- Pylon III
- Nothing but Noise, a side project of Front 242 founding members Daniel B. and Dirk Bergen, along with Erwin Jadot:
- Not Bleeding Red
- Music for Muted TV 1-4
- From Berlin to Brussels
- Existence Oscillation Past,Present, and (possible) Future
- Mutanten Machine
- Formations Magnétiques et Phénomènes d'incertitude
- OGRE & Dallas Campbell
- All Hallows
- Beyond the Infinite
- All Hallows II
- Oneohtrix Point Never
- Ben Prunty:
- FTL: Faster Than Light and FTL: Advanced Edition soundtracks
- Color Sky
- REPULSIVE
- The Residents
- Ruelle
- Most of Solar Fields' discography, except for Earthshine and Random Friday, which are trance
- Steve Roden
- Erik Satie (his minimalist piano-based compositions are considered a Ur-Example of the style.
- Most albums by Klaus Schulze, former drummer of Tangerine Dream and frontman of Ash Ra Temple.
- Alex Seropian:
- Marathon soundtrack (the CD-ROM edition includes Redbook arrangements of seven select songs that can be listened to on an audio CD player)
- Nick Shutter
- SleepResearch_Facility
- Slowdive
- Smokey Emery
- Soundtracks For Invisibility Vol. I-IV
- Every Bitter Thing Sweet
- Cathedrelic (with R. Lee Dockery)
- Sunn O)))
- Tangerine Dream
- Alpha Centauri
- Zeit
- Phaedra
- Rubycon
- Ricochet
- Stratosfear
- The Seven Letters from Tibet
- Ulver on some albums.
- Vladislav Delay
- Anima
- Wardruna
- Watashi no Koko: Released an ambient album and a dark ambient album under the name Kesson Shoujo in 2007-08, then returned to the dark ambient genre for 2016's "hue drone."
- Steven Wilson (of Porcupine Tree fame) has delved into this with his Bass Communion project, which is composed of both Ambient and minimalist electronic soundscapes.
- Wings of an Angel
- Xeno & Oaklander:
- Movements
- Movements II
- Hiroshi Yoshimura
- Music for Nine Postcards
- GREEN
- Wet Land
- Soundscape vol. 1: Surround
- A・I・R (Air In Resort)
- John Zorn
- Zoviet France
- The One A.D. and Two A.D. compilations range from dancey to spacey.
