..Dark Ambient

Dark ambient is a subgenre of ambient music which emerged in the 1980s and 1990s with the introduction of new synthesizer and sampling technology in the electronic music genre and other technical advances in music. Dark ambient is a very diverse genre; it is often closely linked with industrial music, noise, ethereal wave, and sometimes even black metal, yet can be free from any derivatives and connections to other genres or styles. The term is generally used as a catch-all for any form of ambient music that has dark, foreboding, ominous, or discordant overtones.

Overview

The genre did not have a single pioneering musician or persons who invented the term or genre, it somewhat evolved on its own, similar to that of the IDM genre. The roots of dark ambient can be seen in several of Brian Eno's early collaborations that had a distinctly dark or discordant edge, notably "An Index of Metals" (from Evening Star (1975)), a collaboration with Robert Fripp that incorporated harsh guitar feedback, the ambient pieces on the second half of David Bowie's Low (1977), and Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics (1980), a collaboration with Jon Hassell.
Ambient industrial projects like Coil, Lilith, Lustmord, Zoviet France, and Nocturnal Emissions evolved out of industrial music during the 1980s, and were some of the earliest artists to create consistently "dark" ambient music. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, an ethereal wave trend emerged within the dark wave movement, that tended toward moody atmospheric pieces rather than jangly minor-key rock. Ethereal wave was mainly associated with the Projekt record label, with bands like Black Tape for a Blue Girl doing music that ranged into moody ambient soundscapes.
By the mid-1990s, a large number of artists were working in ambient industrial, ambient noise, ethereal wave, illbient, isolationism, and other emerging "dark ambient" styles. Among these artists were Autopsia, Vidna Obmana, Daniel Menche, Lull, Raison d'etre, Nefelheim and Shinjuku Thief. In the same time dark ambient vibrated into contemporary classical music. Example of this can be project Aghiatrias or solo works of composer Vladimír Hirsch.
Generally the music tends to evoke a feeling of solitude, melancholy, confinement, and isolation. However, while the theme in the music tends to be "dark" in nature, some artists create organic soundscapes which don't prey on misanthropic tendencies. Examples of such productions are those of Oöphoi, Tau Ceti, and Klaus Wiese.

Related styles

Ambient industrial

Ambient industrial is a Post-industrial music genre.
Ambient industrial makes use of Industrial principles such as use of anti-music, extra-musical elements and shock tactics, but wields these elements with more subtlety. Additionally, ambient industrial often has strong occultist tendencies, with a particular leaning toward Chaos Magick (the image of the Black Sun is one that comes up repeatedly in post-Industrial music), often giving the music a highly ritualistic flavor.
Ambient industrial is one of several directions that post-Industrial music took on after the breakup of Throbbing Gristle (the founders of Industrial as an art movement) in 1981 ended the Industrial period proper. Indeed, the last material that TG recorded, at least in the studio, Journey Through a Body and In the Shadow of the Sun, was ambient industrial work and pointed to the direction that several of TG's offshoots (most notably Coil and CTI) would take.
Among the many artists who work in this area are Coil, CTI, Lustmord, Hafler Trio, Nocturnal Emissions, Zoviet France, PGR, Akira Yamaoka, Thomas Köner, Controlled Bleeding, early Techno Animal, Robin Rimbaud, Final and Deutsch Nepal. It is important to note, however, that many of these artists are very eclectic in their output, with much of it falling outside of ambient industrial.
A "typical" ambient industrial work (if there is a such thing) might consist of evolving dissonant harmonies of metallic drones and resonances, extreme low frequency rumbles and machine noises, perhaps supplemented by gongs, percussive rhythms, bullroarers, distorted voices and/or anything else the artist might care to sample (often processed to the point where the original sample is no longer recognizable). Entire works may be based on radio telescope recordings (Arecibo Trans-Plutonian Transmissions), the babbling of newborn babies (Nocturnal Emissions Mouths of Babes), or sounds recorded through contact microphones on telegraph wires (Alan Lamb's Primal Image).

Ambient noise

Noise music is often regarded as a 'relative' or 'sister' genre to dark ambient, or vice-versa. Noise is considered unpleasant and dark, as is dark ambient. Some noise artists create almost ambient soundscapes, such as Aube, Junkielover, MOZ, Daniel Menche, Kiyoshi Mizutani, Iszoloscope, and some Merzbow. Some, for example Iszoloscope, also compose ambient on the side, such as his Les Gorges Des Limbes album. While the two genres can't really compare sound wise, many labels, such as Ant-Zen, release both ambient and noise, as well as combinations of both, taking both avant-garde genres further.

Musique concrete

Musique concrète (French; literally, "concrete music"), is a style of avant-garde music that relies on natural environmental sounds and other non-musical noises to create music.
Much like electroacoustic music, musique concrète has been subject to conflicting perceptions about its character. The term is often understood as a practice of simply making music out of "real world" sounds, or sounds other than those made by musical instruments. Rather, it is a wider attempt to afford a new way of musical production and expression. Traditionally, classical or serious music begins as an abstraction, as musical notation on paper or other medium, which is then produced into audible music. Musique concrète strives to begin with the "concrete" sounds, experiment with them, and abstract them into musical compositions.

Black ambient

Black Ambient is a musickal forma and direction that is at oft times most difficult to define, a job made harder by those that would profess to be a part of this particular milieu associated by the sparsest of characteristics.
In general, it can be said that Black Ambient has some association with both, although not limited to, the Dark Ambient and the Black Metal genres. Dark Ambient is referred here as a limitation however, given that many, if not most, of the artists that perform in this style, are limited by a sense of idyllic romanticism and nostalgia which is not overtly otherwise evident within Black Ambient. The Black Metal associations, while some would prefer them to be overt, are merely more so along the lines that there is some brethren spirit and ethos therein, present in some of the occurring and prevalent themas, artwork, and imagery (provided that such is presented regardless). It is not uncommon however for the scenario to occur of Black Ambient artists having no involvement whatsoever in the Black Metal scene, though there are of course numerous examples where this is the case.
Black Ambient is by many of its adherents consciously presented as infused with magickal auras – the design herein being that musick (and the “k” being a sign of this magickal association) is not there for the myopic state of being merely entertainment, but a means via which the consciousness of the individual may be effected into an alchemical transformation to achieve certain goals. Some artists publicly profess that they seek to create and further a catalytic change, and wish to inspire people to perform acts of an occult and practical nature. Some artists do present within their works currents that can be defined broadly as being Sinister and Satanic, although much the same as Black Metal these days, the actual conviction of some is to be questioned at the best of times, especially when the ever prevalent banality of LaVey-in “Satanism” is provided as inspiration.
Black Ambient releases are characteristically produced with a heavy and foreboding atmosphere – and at best they may sound to the listener at times chaotic and unformed, though such should be understood as often the intent, consciously fused or not, by the artists. Broadly, Black Ambient can also be considered as being a form of anti-music. Generally also the packaging of Black Ambient releases is, with some parallel to that of Black Metal, meagre and dark, and often are handmade by the artists themselves in limited edition. It is also not unheard of for a release to be numbered as being of a certain amount produced, with a far lesser amount actually being created (i.e. a certain project has mentioned that one of their releases was to be of an edition of 150 copies, however only 40 were actually distributed).
Musickally, Black Ambient is limitless and formless – that meaning that Black Ambient can technically be anything and everything from freeform evocations of chaos, to industrialised rhythms and all between. It can employ instruments as necessary – bass, guitars, drums – and can even utilise vocals and lyrics. It can, on the other hand, use nothing more than atmospheric sounds or individual methodologies. The main characteristic is a heavy and foreboding atmosphere, a heaving and deep distortion and dark remorseless ambience. The direction and inspiration here is not that of the personal and despondent of Dark Ambient, but the chaotic magickian evincing and presencing the Abyss, the Dark Gods and indeed the Earth Bound Messenger whenever possible via whatever means necessary.
Source
http://en.wikipedia.org/