Brian Eno was quoted to have once said:

“Ambient music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.”

This month we bring you a beautiful mix of atmospheric, electronic and instrumental works that are hardly ignorable and strikingly ambient. Each composition bravely explores few musical ideas, spaces and concepts, often influenced by landscape and the universe. They invite us as listeners to sit and really listen, to savour, to challenge, to entrance, to entice for as little as 6 minutes to 18 minutes. We encourage you to listen for slow unfolding patterns and harmony, repetition, explorations of colour and fluctuations of texture and density we float away with this stimulating hour of ambience.

SOUNDCLOUD

Hear something that catches your attention? To find out more about a musical work, click on the track name in the playlist and then again on ‘view track’. To find out more about a particular composer, click on their name in the ‘Details’ section below.

DETAILS

1. Jaslyn Robertson, Venus Express
   for electronics.  Performed by the composer.
   
2. Angus Davison, Karst Music
   for electronics.
   
3. David John Lang, Cocoon
   for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and vibraphone. Performed by Melanie Walters (flute), Anna Coleman (clarinet), Lester Wong (violin), Jonathan Hall (cello), Nic Bennett (piano) and Jack de la Lande (vibraphone).
4. Olivia Bettina Davies, in Delta
   for guitar. Samples recorded by the composer.
   
5. Madeleine Cocolas, I Can See You Whisper
   for piano and electronics.
   
6. Hilary Kleinig, For Those Who’ve Come Across the Seas
   for string quartet & smartphone choir. Performed by Zephyr Quartet: Belinda Gehlert & Emily Tulloch (violins), Jason Thomas (viola), Hilary Kleinig (cello), with audience played smartphone choir.
   

We’d love to hear about your listening experience! Share your thoughts or send messages of support to our featured composers and performers in the comment box below. We also encourage you to click through to Soundcloud  to like, comment and subscribe to Making Waves as well as the composers, performers, and presenters featured.

The Ambient Waves playlist will be featured until 1 November, 2017. All previous playlists from 2015 to present are available in our blog archives for the life of the project, so please do explore the website for previously featured sounds.

Image credit: Mark Wolf