UDC 78
DOI: 10.36871/hon.202501092
Authors
Pavel V. Lopatin,
Kemerovo State Institute of Culture, Kemerovo, Russian Federation
Abstract
The article is devoted to ambient, which is considered in the historical context of its creation and development. The study of the evolution of ambient is preceded by an analysis of the development of technologies in the field of working with sound, combined with avant-garde ideas and techniques of composition, which led to the birth of new genres and styles. Therefore, the author draws attention to the inextricable connection between the fact of the ambient’s appearance in the musical and historical process of the XXth century and the trends of electroacoustic, concrete music and minimalism with rehearsal technique. The correspondence of ambient music with certain trends of jazz and rock music, with ethnic motifs, as well as its completely organic use as a soundtrack, becomes equally relevant. The specifics of the formation of ambient music as an independent style and genre in close connection with other directions have logically led to a variety of its subspecies and subgenres during its heyday, mixing the features of academic and non-academic music. The author raises questions about the definition of ambient, the terminology and the systematics of its numerous branches, pointing out the need to study this interesting phenomenon of music of the XXth – early XXIst century. The article concludes that the artistic and aesthetic potential of ambient has not yet been exhausted as a result of the ongoing counter-movement between pop and academic traditions, which are converging largely due to electroacoustic music, and that it is a promising direction and a concept that claims to be interdisciplinary.
Keywords
ambient, minimalism, electroacoustic music, concrete music, sound recording, noise, sound transformation, genre, style
