Resonance | Ambient Beginnings

The early pioneers who shaped what we do

I started writing ambient music in the late 90s and had somewhat of a non-traditional path. I credit two things that got me into music that was heavy on atmosphere and aesthetics. One was a virtual reality VHS series called Beyond The Minds Eye (found at your local Blockbuster in the 90s) and the other was the soundtrack to the game, Myst (and its follow-up, Riven). With Bjork also leading a path to my discovery of IDM and Warp Records artists via various collaborations and remixes, and a friend turning me on to atmospheric drum n’ bass, I settled into the nooks and crannies of ambient music as a definable name to a core thread that I admired about these different artists. I was hooked. I traced where it came from and was obsessed with tracking what people were doing to push this type of music forward. Eventually I dipped my toe in the water with my own compositions. I love it all from what some would call New Age, to the dark exploratory drones of Lustmord and Thomas Köner.

Here’s a playlist list of some of the early individuals who pioneered this music. My wife, Hollie, and I are going to be doing a series of explorations about different genres/subtypes like this throughout the year as well.

Not only does this music still hold up, in my opinion, but in the pantheon of composition it’s some of what I would consider to be the boldest modern exploration of music forms and quietly signaled a radical change in our perception of how to listen and how to write music.