Music can be like a bratty child: loud, obnoxious and always demanding your attention. But what if we assigned the medium a more patient role, one that would allow it to seep into our subconscious, cleanse its contents and exit before we even sensed its presence?
In 1975 Brian Eno pondered that very question while lying on a hospital bed after a near-fatal car accident. Days of listening to classical music at low volumes taught Eno about music’s potential to blend in with its environment and even create an environment of its own. The result was Discreet Music, the artist’s foray into “ambient music.” This is a series of contemporary artists who share Eno’s zeal for exploring the listener/environment relationship and who will, at the very least, provide you with hours of ideal homework music.
Ambient engineers Stars of the Lid and Eluvium have a penchant for constructing pieces that slowly drift in and out of audibility. For Stars of the Lid, the negative space is as important as the positive. The Austin-based duo utilizes a combination of classical and electronic instruments to create aching drone symphonies that reveal themselves one chord at a time, often punctuated by periods of silence. Eluvium, a.k.a. Mathew Cooper, crafts similarly symphonic works primarily out of guitar drones and tape loops. His technique of adding layer upon layer of sound gives his pieces an emotional rush seldom found in ambient music. Check out Stars of the Lid’s 2007 release And Their Refinement of the Decline and Eluvium’s overwhelming Talk Amongst the Trees.
The next two ambient artists find beauty in destruction. In 2003 William Basinski raised eyebrows with his Disintegration Loops, a two-year project that commenced when he began transferring a series of 20-year-old tapes to digital format. Portions of the music were wiped away in the process, resulting in sound loops that slowly crumble and decay as they are played. With 2006 masterpiece Harmony in Ultraviolet, Tim Hecker harnessed the sound of some long-forgotten radio station on the verge of implosion. Unlike Basinski, Hecker exercises control over his craft, and tracks like “Chimeras” even exhibit some elements of song-structure.
If you’re looking for something to ease your mind during study time or fill in the gaps of a slowly-paced conversation, these records are your ticket for going from here to sublime.
