POP SCENE
Ambient
MOOD-ENHANCING SOUNDS TO SOOTHE OUR FEVERED BROWS
STEVE O'BRIEN
David Sylvian left synth-pop to work with experimental artists such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Robert Fripp and Can’s Holger Czukay
What is it?
Some might say that ambient has little right being in a pop magazine. Pop, they’d argue, is all about formula, rules and the shimmering beauty of a taut, three-minute nugget that’s destined to work either your feet or your heart. Ambient, on the other hand, is about spaciousness and atmosphere more than melodies and rhythm, music that’s meant to evoke a mood, music that you can daydream or meditate to.
Yet some of pop’s most accomplished tunesmiths have sidelined into ambient. Who’d have thought that one of the men behind Virginia Plain – we’re talking Brian Eno here – would, just six years later in Ambient 1: Music For Airports, create an album so minimalist, so slight, that it baffled most critics. Rolling Stone magazine wrote, presumably with a quizzical look on its face: “There’s a good deal of high craftsmanship here, but to find it, you’ve got to thwart the music’s intent by concentrating.”