How I Became Exposed to Ambient Music

Some of you have asked me to relay my personal story, and tell you all how I got into ambient music to begin with.  I will now grant that request.  Though my memory can be imprecise at times, I still have a fair piecing of events and preferences that eventually led to my formal fascination with the genre.

In the beginning, my early childhood was nothing more than a series of incomprehensible and very hazy occurrences.  I can vaguely remember shapes, places, and feelings, as well as much of the unusual music that my father listened to regularly.  The earliest song I can remember, which is still one of my favorites, and permeates many of my old childhood hazes, is called 'Symphony of the Forest' by Kitaro, a prominent New Age artist.

While not ambient by any real form of the definition, this song, and the album that it comes from, come awfully close at times.  Ironic, too, that this album was released the same year I was born.

From my father's collection of albums from artists like Kitaro, XTC, Tears for Fears, and even Thomas Dolby, I find a main root of my musical interests.  However, another main root comes from a very different source.  That source is nothing less than the world of video games; more specifically, the PC and the Nintendo 64.

The first game I ever played with any music that could be called ambient was The Legend of Zelda; Ocarina of Time.  Now it is not my intention to summarize the entire game, as that would take a very long time, (and there are many other places that do it better than I ever could), but those familiar with the game will most likely know all of the major songs by heart, such as 'Saria's Song' and the 'Hyrule Field Theme'.  However, most of the dungeons in the game have very minimalistic songs that do nothing more than set the mood.  When I was young, I was mesmerized by the song that plays when you enter the Deku Tree, as well as the song in the Ice Caves.

Other game soundtracks on the N64 influenced me as well, including, but not limited to Glover, Perfect Dark, and to a greater extent, Doom 64.  This makes sense because video games in general rely heavily on music that sets the mood and the background, rather than the foreground.

On the PC side, the games that stand out the most are StarCraft, for the main game music, Diablo 2, for its entire soundtrack, and Half Life, for most of its music as well.  Later games would also have an influence, but not as much as the games above that I spent my childhood on.

All this set the base for my fascination for ambient music, among other factors, but before the latter 2000s, I was not generally interested in music at all.  I owned no albums, and had no digital collection of any kind.  That all changed when I was introduced to the online world of Flash animations.  From the moment I was introduced to sites like Albino Blacksheep and Newgrounds, my life was changed forever.

Now, most of the content I observed on these sites were less than kid-friendly, since Flash animators typically animate for a more (or less, in certain points of view) mature audiences, but there were many specific animations that sparked my interest in ambient music by using songs from the more well-known artists in the genre.  In that regard, I basically owe my current musical standings to a man named David Firth.

For the uninitiated, David Firth is the artist who created the 'Salad Fingers' series, and is typically known to create animations that are disturbing and creepy.  To an extent, people who say that about his work are correct, and Salad Fingers is no exception, but if you look, and more importantly, listen closer to the series, especially the later episodes, you'll find what actually amounts to an interesting setting and character study.  The series is certainly not for all audiences, and much of the imagery is disgusting, but the atmosphere that it creates is, at least in my opinion, unsurpassed in the world of Flash animations.  The theme music that most of the episodes play is a song called 'Beware the Friendly Stranger' by electronica duo Boards of Canada, who make music that encompasses a wide variety of electronic genres, including ambient.

The series also features music from large names in the ambient genre, like Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, Lustmord, and others.  It was basically the stepping stone I took to enter the world of electronic music, starting with orders from the above artists.

Lastly, it was Newgrounds as a whole that finalized my interest in the genre.  I've never had a lot of money to actually buy albums with, so most of my music back in the day came from the Newgrounds Audio Portal.  This massive collection of completely free and free-to-use music was my life-line, and helped me to ultimately discover what my favorite genres were.  I would sift through their collections daily, looking for gems in the rough sea of amateur musicians, and looking for songs that shone in the haze of mediocrity.  Eventually, I did find some true talent, and their interests combined with my own eventually led me to all of my favorite professional artists today.  To demonstrate, allow me to show you the first truly good ambient song I ever came across on the Audio Portal:

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/109072



At that point, I was finally hooked, and past the point of no return.  Eventually, I would start producing ambient music of my own, which can be found here.  I would order CDs from artists, the likes of which I've mentioned in my last post, and I would download music from netlabels such as BFW Recordings and Earth Mantra.

None of this would have happened, by the way, without the development of my own musical tastes, the proliferation of information and media through the Internet, and my own sense of discovery and exploration.  May the rest of you find gems in your interests like I have.