How Did You Discover Ambient?

[| broken harbour |]

Back in 2005 or so I was going through a big Steven Wilson binge, started with Porcupine Tree in 2003, and by 2005 I was looking into his other projects. I discovered Bass Communion, and I fell in love with the music, his ‘now playing’ lists always pointed me into ambient as well, so after discovering Stars of the Lid, Boards of Canada, Murcof, etc… I started looking into more ambient stuff, then I found Steve Roach, VidnaObmana and a few other guys…. Ambient has been my favorite ever since. Ambient came along in an important time in my life too, where I was really tiring of ‘normal’ music, it filled a musical void that I didn’t know was there at the time.

When I look back, I realize I always loved ambient, many film soundtracks I loved growing up were basically ambient, like the OST from Blade Runner. I just didn't realize there was a name or a genre associated with that type of sound.

[seismic1]

..........Then in 1982 stopped listening to music until about 1997..............

Ouch :eek:

I couldn't imagine 15 years without listening to music. Actually, I couldn't imagine a month without it.

[theirteethtopoints]

As a teenager I remember making a very rough cassette recording of the sound of a highway from beneath an overpass. At the time I had never heard the words 'ambient music' or 'experimental music' or 'field recording' but in retrospect I guess this was probably the onset of my interest in the subject. It wasn't until some years later that I discovered ambient as a proper musical genre. I don't remember what my first exposure to proper ambient was, but I do remember that Throbbing Gristle and other early industrial acts played a huge role in expanding my musical horizons when I was younger. (I'm showing my age here...)

[blackivan]

I think it was hearing Tangerines Dreams Zeit played on the John Peel radio show, he played the double album all the way through and i was hooked, though i did also like early tape experiments by Terry Riley and La Monte Young :-)

[shaun rylands]

thats a hard one to narrow down .......i was brought up in a household where my mam liked country , my dad liked easy listening jazzy stuff and my older brother liked the motown sound and all i really new was the stuff on top of the pops . i guess this was in the mid to late 70s . Then i heard jarres oxygene somewere and i thought WOW ! whats this sound ? . i,d never heard synths before and this was all futuristic sci-fi sounding . it was about this time i also heard jeff waynes war of the worlds . although not ambient it had those strange sci-fi synth sounds and this led me to listening to more and more synth based artists which in turn led me to the more ambient artists . it was hearing Vangelis in the early 80s that really set me on the path to where i am musically now .

[AmoebiKathedral]

Like the thread!
I started listening to it back when mp3.com was really big, before the whole napster thing even blew up.
I ran into it genre searching around Industrial and other dark music varieties.

[RJT]

My liking of Ambient music originated with Industrial music.. More specifically, Trent Reznor.. More so him, than his band Nine Inch Nails. Some of the space airy stuff that he creates always captivated me. Then, one day while watching 'rig rundown' from Premier Guitar.. I discovered Steven Wilson.. But I still at that point had not heard his music.. While browsing Sweetwater Music for some plugins and such.. I stumbled across 'EastWest Studio: Steven Wilson GHOSTWRITER'. I ended up at their website and watched Stevens walkthrough of a demo track he created.. That's what finally interested me enough to listen to him and some of the bands he has started and been in.. Ultimately, leading me to listen to other artists.. And, here I am.. One month later.. Still in my honeymoon phase with the genre.. But finally have found the musical void that has been missing.

[ache]

I can't speak for the rest of ache but I remember when I myself got into ambient music.

It was about three years ago when me and some friends were watching an interesting movie called 'Paranoid Park'. The movie itself was alright but I will never forget it because it changed my life completely. The movie fit with the music very well and overall everything leading up to me hearing this song made it a perfect moment.

The songs starts at 2:35

This scene came on

and I heard the song. Right then and there I had to get up and search for the soundtrack for the movie and discovered the song was Song One by Ethan Rose and spent a while searching for the whole album. I listened to it when I fell asleep probably every night for a month straight until I eventually expanded to other artists and eventually started making it myself. I highly suggest listening to Ceiling Songs by Ethan Rose and that album will always make me feel very nostalgic.

[shadoe42]

Probably my first exposure to ambient type stuff was via soundtracks....specifically most like Tangerine Dream's Legend soundtrack which led to me other TD stuff and the rest is as they say history. And I have always had wide and varied tastes in music and love to explore styles so it was bound to happen eventually. From TD I branched out to other ambient and electronic composers and just went from there.

[Mac of BIOnighT]

other TD stuff

I haven't been able to say it for such a long time, and I think it's good to keep traditions alive, so here we go: "It's not ambient, it's Berlin School!" - ah, now I feel better ;-P
Shadoe42, are you the same very fine fellow and excellent musician I'm making a record with, perhaps?

[shadoe42]

Hi MAC! yes I even "outed" us in my intro thread And you are correct much of it is Berlin School... but I decided long ago that labels rarely are one size fits all Hence why I call a lot of my stuff quasi Ambient.

[Mac of BIOnighT]

Hence why I call a lot of my stuff quasi Ambient.

I've gone one step beyond, I call a lot of my stuff "stuff" ;-P

[davedorgan]

Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd's Ummagumma in high school. A friend turned me onto Eno's Ambient albums freshman year in college. Then I took an Electronic Music class at UW-Madison. Learned on the original wall sized Moog. Learned tape loops, splicing - all the analog stuff. Kraftwerk, Jarre, Reich came in around then, too. Jack Dejohnette, Mahavishnu Orchestra, etc... were a big influence around that time, too.

[JMPW]

I was first introduced to ambient by stumbling upon (then unknown to me) Brian Eno's "Music for Airports," CD in a chain bookstore. Not very original, but it's the truth.

I first became interested in ambient, when I began recording my own sounds and playing "math rock" with a few friends in high school.

I dedicated myself to ambient after my first few meetings with Lucy, but that's another matter entirely.

[Osau]

I think listening to SAW by Aphex was my first exposure to music that had the label 'Ambient'

I really got into ambient when I later heard and bought 76:14 by Global Communication, that was my favourite record for a long time