Ambient music, in its various forms (dark, lo-fi, meditation etc.) is both a niche genre and a plethoric musical trend, as evidenced by the mass of albums and tracks on Bandcamp and all the platforms (and I contribute to them, of course).
I wonder if this exponential growth is due to the fact that it's relatively easy to compose and produce ambient music compared with other musical genres (jazz, rock, classical, etc.). Most ambient music is produced by solo musicians (although there are a few bands). All you need a minima is a midi keyboard, a computer, a few plug-ins and a DAW - no need for renting a rehearsal and professional recording studio. Ambient music is a genre for “home musicians”, with set-ups that can be very small. It is also characterized by a certain number of formal features - drones, stretched pads, long reverb, arpeggios - which, most of the time, do not require great instrumental dexterity, or even advanced harmonic knowledge, unlike jazz or classical music, for example...
Is ambient the musical genre par excellence for non-musicians? There's nothing pejorative about that: Brian Eno has said it over and over again...
Doesn't one reason for this exponential production also lie in the “utilitarian” nature of ambient music today, listened to as a backdrop for meditation, relaxation, yoga or even falling asleep? Could it be that ambient music reveals a tired, anxious, insomniac society, or one dreaming of spiritual escapism and “mindfulness”?
And finally, while this quantitative explosion of ambient music is of course positive, with more and more people practicing and enjoying it, doesn't it also have perverse effects, making creative breakthroughs and innovations more difficult, both because of the difficulty for them to gain visibility and because of the inertia and habituation effect of a predominantly standardized production?
Just a few questions I ask myself as I reflect on my own musical practice....
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