We also talked a bit about creating an Ambient composition for our next project. The goal of the project is to create a spacious sonic landscape to encourage contemplative thought. The key to accomplishing this is to accentuate the suspension of time.

Most Pop music is driven by a rhythmic pulse. You usually know when the chorus of a song will arrive—even if you've never heard it before—because song sections tend to be a certain number of bars long, and there are many musical cues to set up expectations in the listener. These expectations are often reinforced with repetition by setting up the same expectations later in the song and rewarding those expectations with the same results.

In ambient music, the music is not "driven" by a pulse. Pieces tend to flow gracefully from section to section and movement within the piece is driven by melodic ideas or harmonic progressions. Percussion instruments can be used, of course, but their use is primarily for texture and mood, as opposed to rhythm.

Ambient pieces are often written about something. Often this is a strong emotion, an event or memory, or a place. Having a subject and a working title can help frame the piece and give you a direction to pursue. Of course, you can always change these as the piece progresses.

Listen to 2/1 by Brian Eno, from his seminal ambient album, Ambient 1/Music for Airports. Here the vocal samples seem to follow a certain order, but they flow and overlap in a seemingly random way. In Overlands, from Moby's recent album, Hotel, we get a strong sense of melodic and harmonic progression, but the timing of the chord shifts is never predictable. Note also how the sounds themselves are never static; this helps maintain the listener's interest. (or not)

Some of the "rules" we discussed for the project were:

  • Don't set the expectation of Rhythm (avoid repeating sounds more than once)
  • Do use vertical structures (chords) to create individual moments in your piece that could stand alone as interesting sounds
  • Do create contrast in your piece via interesting harmonic progressions
  • Do use slow Attacks and Releases to accentuate the suspension of time and to create slowly-evolving transitions
  • Do use a slow tempo to help create space within the music—but don't let the listener feel the tempo's pulse
  • Do use lots of time effects, especially reverb and delay, to create a sense of physical space
  • Do create a wide stereo panorama, including some sounds that move via panning or effects
  • Do use musical gestures and effects to create action and reaction (call & response) within your piece
  • Do use recorded sound effects to help set the locale of your piece
  • Do create patches that are interesting and animated (see above)

We will discuss the project further during the next class. I;ll be posting more listening examples shortly.

Assignment: Create an Ambient Sound Design piece. The piece should be between three and eight minutes long and should accentuate the suspension of time as discussed last week. Start by developing a theme and working title first. Then, design sounds that fit the concept. You may use any of the instruments we have discussed so far, including the NN-19 sampler. (You may find this helpful for playing environmental ambiences from our SFX library.) Due March 12th, 2007.