Who Listens to Dark Ambient Music?
Written By Casey Douglass
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"Who listens to dark
ambient music?" is a question that I’ve come across a good many times
while browsing the web. Another variation is “What kind of person
listens to dark ambient music?” often by someone who listens to ten
seconds of a track than promptly spits out their incredulity dummy as
they fail to click with it. I can’t answer for anybody else, but I
have spent some time reflecting on my own reasons below.
If someone asks me what dark ambient music is, I tend to describe it as resembling the score to a horror movie, but that glosses over the more peaceful or sci-fi varieties. Dark ambient is a kind of music that touches uncomfortable feelings and features harsh, often cold soundscapes, that bring you out of your safe mental space and into something more melancholy or challenging. As far as I am concerned anyway. As far as why I listen to it, read on.
The first thing that
comes to mind is the variety of dark ambient out there, and that’s
if you ignore the larger parent genre of ambient music. One dark
ambient artist might use the kinds of drones and bassy rumbles that
might accompany the summoning of Satan himself, another might use
field recordings of cars passing in the rain and birdsong, mingling
in a little melancholy piano for added effect. Yet another might revel in creating
massive fuzzy walls of noise that trick the ear into conjuring other
sounds deep within the staticy mass. It is always a great pleasure to
find a new artist, or to hear a new release from an existing artist,
that makes you sit back and go “Wow!”
With the mentioning of
Satan in the previous paragraph, I suppose I'd better address the
perception of dark ambient listeners. There are certain genres of
music that just bring out the hysterical in some people, people who might think that heavy metal
fans are Satan worshippers, all rave music lovers are druggies etc. Dark
ambient is very dark, and I have no doubt that there will be some
Satanists listening to it, along with a whole heap of Atheists,
Buddhists, Pagans and whatever-ists. Personally, I don’t mind the
fact that people might be shocked by the darkness contained in a dark
ambient track. I’m a horror writer after all, it adds to my cachet.
I also don’t particularly care how people view the things that I
enjoy, be it the music I listen to, the books I read or the TV series
I watch.
Speaking of writing,
dark ambient is a tremendous tool for a horror writer to find some
inspiration. Even the most directed of tracks (e.g. something called
“journey into the forgotten temple”) can send me on a totally
different tangent, maybe into space, hell or a strange reality of bog
creatures. If you are a writer of fiction that has even the smallest
amount of darkness to it, it would be well worth your while
investigating dark ambient as a genre. I’ll mention a range of
artists at the end of this piece.
While we are delving
into the mind, dark ambient serves another purpose for me, and that
is one of catharsis and relaxation. I have suffered with Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder for decades, an anxiety condition that floors me
at times. I also have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, an illness that
leaves me exhausted 24/7. Most days are a teeth clenched struggle for
me, even with various therapeutic approaches in play such as CBT, ACT
and mindfulness. When everything is turning to shit around me,
tension building in my neck and shoulders, heart hammering; listening
to a bit of dark ambient while resting on my bed gives me a mental
holiday when few other things will. This gives the stress response in
my body time to ease off, lets the anxious thoughts drift away, and
very often, gives me a little sleep too. When I was younger, I
dabbled with the New Agey types or relaxation music, whale song,
birds and that kind of thing. It was okay but nothing great. I did
notice that I clicked more with ones that had darker undertones. Phil
Thornton’s Shaman is one that comes to mind: wolf howls and
drum beats the order of the day. When I discovered dark ambient, it
was like “This! Holy shit this!”. For the record, the first dark
ambient I knowingly heard was one of Atrium Caceri’s early albums.
So there we have it, my
reasons at least, for why someone might listen to dark ambient music.
There are countless other reasons, I have no doubt, but these are the
main ones for me. I’d love to hear the reasons someone else might
have too, so if you are reading this and feel compelled, feel free to
comment or just find me on social media and say hello. Oh, and before
I go, here is a small collection of dark ambient artists you might
like to check out. Many of them will have a Bandcamp page where you
can freely stream some, or all, of their tracks. Others might be on
Soundcloud or even YouTube. Wherever you look, if the website has the
feature, like YouTube, pay attention to other suggested videos or
sounds if any are recommended beside what you are watching, you never
know where it will take you.
Okay, here are a few
artists that you might like to check out: Atrium Carceri, CryoChamber (a dark ambient music label), Hoshin, Randal Collier-Ford,
Terra Sancta, Lustmord, Cities Last Broadcast, Creation VI, protoU.
Dronny Darko and Zalys.
Thank you for reading.
