Ambient Music - 1990s: Developments

1990s: Developments

By the early 1990s artists such as The Orb, Aphex Twin, Seefeel, the Irresistible Force, Geir Jenssen's Biosphere, and the Higher Intelligence Agency were being referred to by the popular music press as ambient house, ambient techno, IDM or simply "ambient" according to the liner notes of Brian Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports:

So-called 'Chillout' began as a term deriving from British ecstasy culture which was originally applied in relaxed downtempo 'chillout rooms' outside of the main dance floor where ambient, dub and downtempo beats were played to ease the tripping mind.

The London scene artists, such as Aphex Twin (specifically: Selected Ambient Works Volume II, 1994), Global Communication (76:14, 1994), FSOL The Future Sound of London (Lifeforms, ISDN), The Black Dog (Temple of Transparent Balls, 1993), Autechre (Incunabula, 1993, Amber), Boards of Canada, and The KLF's seminal Chill Out, 1990, all took a part in popularising and diversifying ambient music where it was used as a calming respite from the intensity of the hardcore and techno popular at that time.

Later in the period much experimental electronica (particularly sound artists such as Pole, Mika Vainio, Ryoji Ikeda, Christian Fennesz, Aphex Twin and Autechre) expanded the themes of 'ambient' along the lines of earlier 1970s ambient music & dub but with increasingly abstracted sample-based textures and digital electronics that ultimately began to converge with minimalist compositions and music concrete.

Digital era musicians and sound artists, including Brian Eno are notable in their attempts to create 'sonic sculptures' which interact with the physical architecture of the listening space using advanced electronic installations.

Literally 'ambient' field recordings are a specialism of the Touch Music label. Forerunner of this species in Poland is Brunette Models (since 1995). The electroacoustic influence can be heard in the contemporary work of Polish artist Jacaszek (since 2008).

Glitch music is a major subset of this work produced by (mainly German) labels such Mille Plateaux (Clicks & Cuts Series, 2000).

Some dubstep producers, notably Burial and Kites (Bristol ambient dubstep) have nostalgically referenced the sonic 'post-rave' ambience of the nineties era.