Well, it's a bit of a mystery to me exactly why I do the music
that I do. I just feel completely driven to make these electronic
landscapes, probably in some sort of attempt to recreate an idealized world.
The music that I do is atmospheric and tints the local ambience to sustain
certain moods, so it's something more to absorb and listen deeply.
- Vir Unis: ambient/electronic artist
MY MUSIC IS A MIX OF REAL AND
SURREAL SOUNDS, RECORDED IN A PARTLY IMPROVISED WAY. IN THE PAST WITH
COCTEAU TWINS, THE SOUND WAS A MIX OF GUITARS, PIANO, BASS AND DRUMS,
WITH SPACE & EFFECTS. THE STYLE OF COCTEAU TWINS IS HARD TO DEFINE AS
THE SOUND IS A GENRE IN ITSELF! SIX WORDS TO DESCRIBE IT-ATMOSPHERIC POP
WITH NICE GIRLY VOICE.
- Simon Raymonde: Bella Union Label and Ex-Cocteau Twin
With my work as Scanner I implicate myself in processes of
surveillance, engendering access to both technology and language and the
power games of voyeurism. I like to scavenge the range of the electronic
communications highways which provide me with the raw materials for my
aural collages of electronic music and 'found' conversations. Pulling
sounds from the aether and from the environment and processing brings me
closer to what I feel is a sense of 'reality' and hopefully teaches myself
and others more about the spaces we inhabit and why.
- Robin Rimbaud: s c a n n e r
I'd call it techno. Sometimes I do dance music, sometimes fairly
conventionally structured pop songs. I also do very spooky soundtrack type
music that's not really like anyone else.
This is usually enough to put people off.
- Nigel Ayers: of Nocturnal Emissions
My name is Dino Pacifici and I am a Canadian born musician . I began
musical studies when I was 5 years old and never looked back. My music
spans the spectrum if I can say that... I usually compose music without any
prior thought i.e., I go into my studio , turn on the gear, start with
nothing usually end up with something though, I don't know what the music
will be like until it's finished... it is usually spontaneous and
improvisational in nature... Only one project was pre-planned and that was
Urban Oasis, my "smooth jazz for guitar"cd that I released in 1996... Like
most other musicians would probably say, I am a musician because I love
what I do and it's all I know...
- Dino Pacifici: Music-Language of the Spirit
I think the best description of my music came from an e-mail I received
late last year. It said "your music is too weird for the Windham Hill
crowd, but not weird enough for the dark ambient crowd"! However, since
this question is about how *I* would describe my music, I would say that it
is instrumental music that is a blend of ambient and space music, with
occassional hints of chamber music melodicism.
- Jeff Pearce: ambient guitarist
I'm Larry Kucharz My work is about form. It is about sound and silence used
as volumes in acoustical space.
- lk: (audiochrom)
I wouldn't attempt to describe it. My
music will find its way to those for whom it is intended. Their are greater
powers at work. My description of my music would only be valid for me.
- Richard Bone: ambient/ electronic artist
I am just trying to make music that reflects some of the mysteries of life.
It doesn't fit neatly into any categories, but it usually moves slowly, has
many atmospheric elements, and tries to maintain an emotional and spritual
honesty while avoiding the ironic distance that seems to mark our modern
mindset. Some of my albums are slow and meditative, some are rhythmic and
sensual, some are dark and moody, some sound almost like pop music. They
all share a common element of searching and questioning.
- Robert Rich:Soundscape Productions / Amoeba Music
I find this one of the most difficult things to sumarise and I never think
i'm terribly good at it. But it's something i have to do quite often. I
always think that the people whose names are most known are particularly
good at it. One of the strange things about human interactions is that
people almost always beleive that you are who you say you are, regardless of
the evidence provided by their ears/eyes/intellect. OK,so here we go:
"Hi , I'm Martin Franklin, I'm a freelance musician. I use music technology
with various kinds of community groups to give people access to empowerment
through creative music-making. I write music for theatre and video work and
also record my own music under the collective name Tuu. I'm try to use the
music as a means of expressing spiritual dimensions of being and
consciousness through using a combination of ancient acoustic percussion
with electronics and processing. Further information about my music and CDs
is available on my website, which can be found
at: http://www.cix.co.uk/~mfranklin.
Do I get the job?"
- Martin Franklin: of Tuu
I am an abstract painter who sometimes works with sounds. My goal is to
build worlds into which people can disappear for a while and experience a
different reality. To me, there is no difference between creating visual
worlds or sound worlds. If you like to look at abstract expressionist art,
and are intrigued by the concept of music analogous to that art, then maybe
you would be interested in my music.
- M. Griffin: Hypnos Recordings
This is not an easy question for us, which is why we have so many canned
bits of text ... When we actually come up with verbage that does the job,
it's precious!
"The Ambient Temple of Imagination is loose collective dedicated to
activating the world's imagination through experimentation, employing the
public ceremonial exploration of magick and sound. The ATOI transmission is
a continuation of the 'ultimate conspiracy': to transmit information
intended to prepare humanity for its role as global and galactic
consciousness. ATOI intends to inject a virus into the music industry that
will tranform it, over the next 20 years,into something new--a scientific
expression, using technology to alter consciousness, evolving out of a
dependence on chemicals and business into an awareness of vibration and
sound."
It's worth pointing out that we use the word "ambient" to indicate not
sleepytime music but free sound constructs--or what I think of as
neo-psychedelia: psychedelia divorced from the forms, symbols, and stigmas
of the past. As Richard says, "It's music that blows your mind to infinity;
it comes from nowhere and goes nowhere. It has no beginning and no end.
It's like sound that comes through that's non-classifiable. It's an enigma.
It just exists and can't be labeled."
- Seofon: member/producer with Ambient Temple
of Imagination and The
Archipelago
Design the sound and package, maybe.
- Akifumi Nakajima: Aube
Tricky question, I always feel it's quite difficult and complex describing
your own music to someone new to the work.
The beauty of music is, to my opinion, that it's so universal in language
that I try to avoid labeling my music too much into a category it might
mislead the listener.
Conceptually, I also keep it quite minimal to a degree where it remains
open and clear for any interpretation.
Let's just say I prefer to have it labeled as 'atmospheric', whether it's
rhythmic or pure calm and serene.
- Vidna Obmana: ambient/electronic artist
A most dreaded question! Why I do what I do is easier to explain: I must.
The creative compulsion is akin to that of the gnawing rat - in the absence
of gnawing the teeth grow backwards into the head, at least according to
legend. I suppose also I would like to one day make albums like those
affecting me so profoundly at various points in the past - those conjuring
of and immersive in another world, a replacement for place and time, and
perhaps slightly altering of this world; if one of my albums can do for
other listeners what these past albums have done for me - offering both
refuge outside of my world and a defining perspective into it - I will have
been on the right path. But what? Much depends upon the context of the
conversation and the background of the interlocutor, but generally over the
last year my habit - especially with those unfamiliar with the more
marginal realms of music - is to first answer "psychedelic electronic
music," then explain the method and instruments by which the music is made,
and then note that it probably blends in some way all of the varieties of
music in which I am interested. All of which, really, is completely
useless in elucidating what I do, and to those who continue to reflect such
responses with perplexity, I say as a last resort: "listen and tell me."
Music is only structured noise, after all, and one person's Jethro Tull is
another's Ash Ra Tempel.
- Thermal: Boxman (hako otoko) label
It is very difficult for me to come up with one blanket description of
my musical endeavours, both because I work in different styles and
because I want to tailor my descriptions to whomever I am talking with
at the time. So a more interesting description must wait for that e
music cocktail ice breaker! I describe myself first as a composer or
organizer of musical (and more generally, audio) ideas; secondly as a
musician who attempts to realize those compositional concepts, and
lastly as a person who does this largely (but not exclusively) in the
electronic medium. Pompous enough?! How about someone who makes music
for himself and feels compelled to share it with others...
- M. Bentley: the foundry
What Jen and I try to do is just be real, hopefully we get better at it with every song. I like a
lot of different stuff, but I enjoy making surreal-yet-serene soundscapes, calm atmospheres
that ask questions of their own, etc. Though I usually have a theme in mind, I really rely on
Jen to be the voice, in more ways than one. What Jennifer brings to the table is her delivery
of the human experience, really singing from the deep-down parts, the real stuff down there,
the happiness and sadness, the things you discover and the things you wish maybe you hadn't
discovered (growing often hurts, but it's worth it). In short, we just try to express what we
think and feel through music, much like anyone else trying to communicate what is going on
inside them.
As to why we do it, simple: We just can't imagine _not_ doing it. It's not really a choice ...
it's just something that burns inside, this little voice that sort of alternates between a scream
and a whisper, saying "let me out."
- John Michael Zorko: AdAstra Records
I have to do this all the time, it seems that many people still
haven't heard of many of the kinds of music I listen to or have
become actively involved in. Even after all this time I find it's
hard to describe music to someone without them hearing it first, and
its become increasingly difficult when I turn to the music I make, I
mean I kind of have to describe two normally different kinds of music
and then explain how they come together, plus people seem to expect
everything to fit into nice neat little boxes, I don't seem to fit
into many of the boxes that people expect.
Anyway, the short answer is ambient music from a gamelan music
perspective, or atmospheric sounds from a South East Asia view. If
they want more details then I try to probe them as to what kind of
styles of music they are familiar with using that as a launching
point to move them towards what I do. In the end I usually just give
up and point them towards my website and say go have a listen for
yourself. :)
- Loren Nerell: Ethno-musicologist
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