Some Dark Ambient Definitions for You

[seismic1]

I just saw this pop up on my Twitter Stream via Scott Lawlor:-

http://www.cryochamberlabel.com/2016/10/03/guide-ambient-styles/

[Maharg]

You beat me to it. Came up on my two tweeter streams as well. Great stuff from Cryochamber as always.

[Guest]

what an amazing resource - thanks so much. I have never heard of any of this stuff - labels or artists at all. I would have been targeting what I do a lot more if I had heard of any of this. Do you know how many of these artists perform live? What sort of marketing - this seems relevant for the post not long ago about marketing as these artists have a lot of sales on bandcamp

[synkrotron]

Yes, an interesting read.

It is a guide, therefore I am assuming that this could still be subjective and down to the opinions of the label. Or are we to take this as definitive?

I am half tempted to contact the label and see if they would be interested in me as an artist. I could then frame the rejection letter and put it just below my guitar on the wall behind my computer desk

[Guest]

Yes, an interesting read.

It is a guide, therefore I am assuming that this could still be subjective and down to the opinions of the label. Or are we to take this as definitive?

I am half tempted to contact the label and see if they would be interested in me as an artist. I could then frame the rejection letter and put it just below my guitar on the wall behind my computer desk

Why not contact them? I intend to - I've set up a new bandcamp site / name (the lost fisherman) and will get together a playlist album of everything that I think fits "cinematic ambient" I could have done this 15 years ago if I had been smarter and taken notice of the world around me a bit more (well, a lot more )

Here is something from way back then (1998-2000 maybe) https://soundcloud.com/greghooper/danny-boy

[synkrotron]

I've reposted Danny Boy... See if my millions of followers pick up on that ;)

Bit scary that, actually... With the vocals coming in like they do, but with your stuff still in the backgroung...


Back to that guide, I'm going to look more into what they are calling Guitar Drone Ambient. I like what Northumbria produce, from what I have heard up to now, and I'm trying to introduce more guitar into my work where possible. I've already got some guitar tracks up, but I don't think they will fit the genre as described by Cryo Chamber, and I should do fresh stuff anyway, methinks.

Kinda inspirational...

[Guest]

thanks re DannyBoy - found vocals I must have downloaded back in about 1996. I think most of that piece was done in sonic foundry soundforge and assembled in voyetra digital orchestrator pro. About to finish cooking dinner (pasta w eggplant/olives etc). Look forward to hearing your guitar tracks

Agree re inspiration - gonna use this and the call for hypnotic music from a coupe of days ago to drive some new work

[ablaut]

Some of Cryo Chamber's artists are members of this forum. At least Dronny Darko, protoU, and SiJ have submitted tracks to the previous compilation. But sadly they don't seem to be very active here.

I know that at least protoU performs live, because there is this video:

And I assume some of the other do live shows as well.

[GaryG]

It's an interesting read, but... I found a lot of the tracks kind of interchangeable, genre-wise. Maybe my ears are not tuned in to this stuff enough or something but I could put a lot of those tracks in multiple categories if pushed. The martial and post-apocalyptic ones especially.

But I've never been one for the tight pigeonholing of music so.... ignore me.

[ablaut]

As the article itself mentions:

Each style will be paired with an album from the label which seems to fit it perfectly. Take note that, sub-sub-genres become a tricky topic and it is possible to argue that an album fits in several different categories. But, if you know what you are looking for ahead of time, know what you love, and why you love it, this can make finding suitable releases much easier.

So, I see it as more of a tagging thing than a pigeonholing thing.

[Guest]

As the article itself mentions:

Each style will be paired with an album from the label which seems to fit it perfectly. Take note that, sub-sub-genres become a tricky topic and it is possible to argue that an album fits in several different categories. But, if you know what you are looking for ahead of time, know what you love, and why you love it, this can make finding suitable releases much easier.

So, I see it as more of a tagging thing than a pigeonholing thing.

for sure on the tagging - pretty much all rich media needs tagging rather than single discrete categorisation. Photography probably led the way on this eg is a classic photo of Bonnie and Clyde in front of their car about gangsters? Hairstyles of the era? Cars? Smoking?

the interesting tag for me was "cinematic ambient" - the label emphasises narrative or evocation of some concrete event or place. I have a few pieces that fit that idea but I had never thought of that tag so it helps clarify an idea I have been interested in pursuing

[Maharg]

My guess: sometimes knowing the artist and their philosophy or point of view may influence/inform genre placement as well. The work itself may not be the only factor in categorizing.

Very good point, specially with regards to philosophy.

[seismic1]

You beat me to it. Came up on my two tweeter streams as well. Great stuff from Cryochamber as always.

The late worm misses the bird #philosophyoftwitter

[AtlasKnelt]

Polar Ambient has inspired me to schedule a night off work next month so I can go camping as deep in the Bayou as I can get with my Zoom H2 so that I can make some Swampbient.....

[synkrotron]

Polar Ambient has inspired me to schedule a night off work next month so I can go camping as deep in the Bayou as I can get with my Zoom H2 so that I can make some Swampbient.....

I've been considering setting up my studio down in my shed. Got a wind chime down there and there is plenty of bird activity down there too.

Look out for my new Shedbient piece :D