Editing Ambient music (section)

== History ==
===Etymology===
The English word ''ambient'' is derived from [[Latin]] ''ambientem'' ([[nominative]] ''ambiens'') which means "surrounding, encircling, to go around, go about", which in turn comes from ''amb''- "around" (which ultimately derives from [[PIE root]] ''*ambhi''- "around").<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=Ambient+|title=ambient (adj.) |work=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]]|access-date= February 21, 2025}}</ref>

===Origins===
[[File:Erik Satie en 1909.PNG|thumb|150px|[[Erik Satie]] is acknowledged as an important precursor to modern ambient music and an influence on Brian Eno.]]
As an early 20th-century French composer, [[Erik Satie]] used such [[Dadaist]]-inspired explorations to create an early form of ambient/[[background music]] that he labeled "[[furniture music]]" (''Musique d'ameublement''). This he described as being the sort of music that could be played during a dinner to create a background atmosphere for that activity, rather than serving as the focus of attention.<ref name="Jarrett">{{cite book|title=Sound Tracks: A Musical ABC, Volumes 1–3 |url=https://archive.org/details/soundtracksmusic00jarr |url-access=registration |last=Jarrett|first= Michael|year=1998|publisher=Temple University Press|page=1973|isbn=978-1-56639-641-7}}</ref>

In his own words, Satie sought to create "a music...which will be part of the noises of the environment, will take them into consideration. I think of it as melodious, softening the noises of the knives and forks at dinner, not dominating them, not imposing itself. It would fill up those heavy silences that sometime fall between friends dining together. It would spare them the trouble of paying attention to their own banal remarks. And at the same time it would neutralize the [[noise pollution|street noises]] which so indiscreetly enter into the play of conversation. To make such music would be to respond to a need."<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://slashseconds.org/issues/001/001/articles/11_psuchin/index.php|title=/seconds.|website=slashseconds.org|access-date=2016-04-05|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304113254/http://www.slashseconds.org/issues/001/001/articles/11_psuchin/index.php|archive-date=2016-03-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://music.hyperreal.org/epsilon/info/melchior.html|title=Epsilon: Ambient Music, Beginnings and Implications, by Chris Melchior|website=music.hyperreal.org|access-date=2016-04-05|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305024415/http://music.hyperreal.org/epsilon/info/melchior.html|archive-date=2016-03-05}}</ref>

In 1948, French composer & engineer, Pierre Schaeffer coined the term [[musique concrète]]. This experimental style of music used recordings of natural sounds that were then modified, manipulated or effected to create a composition.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Musique concrète {{!}} musical composition technique|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/musique-concrete|access-date=2020-12-07|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> Shaeffer's techniques of using [[tape loop]]s and splicing are considered to be the precursor to modern day [[Sampling (music)|sampling]].

In 1952, [[John Cage]] released his famous three-[[movement (music)|movement]] composition<ref>Kostelanetz 2003, 69–71,&nbsp;86,&nbsp;105,&nbsp;198,&nbsp;218,&nbsp;231.</ref> ''[[4'33]]'' which is a performance of complete silence for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. The piece is intended to capture the ambient sounds of the venue/location of the performance and have that be the music played.<ref name="npr">{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2000/05/08/1073885/4-33|title=The Story Of '4'33"'
|website=[[Npr]]|last=Hermes|first=Will|date=May 8, 2000|access-date=March 11, 2020}}</ref> Cage has been cited by seminal artists such as Brian Eno as influence.<ref name="npr" />

===1960s===
In the 1960s, many music groups experimented with unusual methods, with some of them creating what would later be called ambient music.

In the summer of 1962, composers [[Ramón Sender (composer)|Ramon Sender]] and [[Morton Subotnick]] founded [[San Francisco Tape Music Center|The San Francisco Tape Music Center]] which functioned both as an electronic music studio and concert venue.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/174500759|title=The San Francisco Tape Music Center : 1960s counterculture and the avant-garde|date=2008|publisher=University of California Press|others=Bernstein, David W., 1951–|isbn=978-0-520-24892-2|location=Berkeley|oclc=174500759}}</ref> Other composers working with tape recorders became members and collaborators including [[Pauline Oliveros]], [[Terry Riley]] and [[Steve Reich]]. Their compositions, among others, contributed to the development of [[minimal music]] (also called minimalism), which shares many similar concepts to ambient music such as repetitive patterns or pulses, steady drones, and consonant harmony.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Johnson|first=Timothy A.|date=1994|title=Minimalism: Aesthetic, Style, or Technique?|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/742508|journal=The Musical Quarterly|volume=78|issue=4|pages=742–773|doi=10.1093/mq/78.4.742|jstor=742508|issn=0027-4631}}</ref>

Many records were released in Europe and the United States of America between the mid-1960s and the mid-1990s that established the conventions of the ambient genre in the anglophone popular music market.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/td96k274j|title=Ambient Music as Popular Genre: Historiography, Interpretation, Critique|date=2015-04-22|website=University of Virginia Library|last=Szabo|first=Victor|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200210140757/https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/td96k274j|archive-date=2020-02-10}}</ref> Some 1960s records with ambient elements include ''[[Music for Yoga Meditation and Other Joys]]'' and ''[[Music for Zen Meditation]]'' by [[Tony Scott (musician)|Tony Scott]], ''[[Soothing Sounds for Baby]]'' by [[Raymond Scott]], and the first record of the [[Environments (album series)|''environments'' album series]] by [[Irv Teibel]].

In the late 1960s, French composer [[Éliane Radigue]] composed several pieces by processing tape loops from the feedback between two tape recorders and a microphone.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rodgers|first=Tara|url=http://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/2189/Pink-NoisesWomen-on-Electronic-Music-and-Sound|title=Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music and Sound|date=2010|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-4661-6|language=en|doi=10.1215/9780822394150}}</ref> In the 1970s, she then went on to compose similar music almost exclusively with an [[ARP 2500|ARP 2500 synthesiser]], and her long, slow compositions have often been compared to [[drone music]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1127969966|title=Intermediary spaces = Espaces Intermédiaires|others=Radigue, Eliane, Eckhardt, Julia.|year = 2019|isbn=978-90-826495-5-0|location=Brussels|oclc=1127969966}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|title=A Portrait of Eliane Radigue (2009)|url=https://vimeo.com/8983993|language=en|access-date=2020-12-09}}</ref> In 1969, the group [[COUM Transmissions]] were performing sonic experiments in British art schools.<ref>Eliot Bates, "[https://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=etd_mas_theses Ambient Music]", MA thesis (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University, 1997, pg.19)</ref> [[Pearls Before Swine (band)|Pearls Before Swine]]'s 1968 album ''[[Balaklava (album)|Balaklava]]'' features the sounds of [[birdsong in music|birdsong]] and ocean noise, which were to become tropes of ambient music."<ref name="Wire">{{cite magazine |title=100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening) |magazine=[[The Wire (magazine)|The Wire]] |issue=175 |date=September 1998}}</ref>

===1970s===
Developing in the 1970s, ambient music stemmed from the [[Experimental music|experimental]] and [[synthesizer]]-oriented styles of the period.

Between 1974 and 1976, American composer [[Laurie Spiegel]] created her seminal work ''The Expanding Universe'', created on a computer-analog hybrid system called GROOVE.<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Walls|first=Seth Colter|title=An Electronic-Music Classic Reborn|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/an-electronic-music-classic-reborn|access-date=2020-12-09|magazine=The New Yorker|date=17 September 2012|language=en-us}}</ref> In 1977, her composition, ''Music of the Spheres'' was included on Voyager 1 and 2's [[Voyager Golden Record|Golden Record]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Voyager – Sounds on the Golden Record|url=https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/sounds/|access-date=2020-12-09|website=voyager.jpl.nasa.gov|language=en}}</ref>

In April 1975, [[Suzanne Ciani]] gave two performances on her [[Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments|Buchla synthesizer]] – one at the WBAI Free music store and one at [[Phill Niblock|Phil Niblock's]] loft.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2014-04-03|title=INTERVIEW: Suzanne Ciani On... Her Buchla Beginnings, Talking Dishwashers and Why No One Got Electronic Music In the '70s|url=http://www.self-titledmag.com/interview-suzanne-ciani-on-her-buchla-beginnings-talking-dishwashers-and-why-no-one-got-electronic-music-in-the-70s/|access-date=2020-12-09|website=self-titled|language=en-US}}</ref> These performances were released on an archival album in 2016 entitled ''Buchla Concerts 1975''. According to the record label, these concerts were part live presentation, part grant application and part educational demonstration.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Buchla Concerts 1975|url=https://www.finderskeepersrecords.com/shop/suzanne-ciani-buchla-concerts-1975/|access-date=2020-12-09|website=Finders Keepers Records|language=en}}</ref>

However, it was not until Brian Eno coined the term in the mid-70s that ambient music was defined as a genre. Eno went on to record 1975's ''[[Discreet Music]]'' with this in mind, suggesting that it be listened to at "comparatively low levels, even to the extent that it frequently falls below the threshold of audibility",<ref name=":0" /> referring to Satie's quote about his ''musique d'ameublement''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tamm|first=Eric|title=Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound.|publisher=Da Capo Press|year=1995|isbn=0-306-80649-5}}</ref>

Other contemporaneous musicians creating ambient-style music at the time included Jamaican [[dub music]]ians such as [[King Tubby]],<ref name="eem">{{cite book |title=Electronic and Experimental Music: Technology, Music, and Culture |last=Holmes |first=Thom |year=2008 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0203929599 |page=403 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hCthQ-bec-QC |access-date=1 April 2013}}</ref> Japanese [[electronic music]] composers such as [[Isao Tomita]]<ref name="weekender">[http://www.tokyoweekender.com/2013/01/isao-tomita-qa/ Q&A with Isao Tomita] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170424002033/http://www.tokyoweekender.com/2013/01/isao-tomita-qa/ |date=2017-04-24 }}, ''[[Tokyo Weekender]]''</ref><ref name="vice">[https://www.vice.com/en/article/isao-tomita-obituary/ Isao Tomita, an Early Major Japanese Electronic Composer, Is Dead] , ''[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]]''</ref> and [[Ryuichi Sakamoto]] as well as the [[psychoacoustics|psychoacoustic]] soundscapes of [[Irv Teibel]]'s ''[[Environments (album series)|Environments]]'' series, and German experimental bands such as [[Popol Vuh (German band)|Popol Vuh]], [[Cluster (band)|Cluster]], [[Kraftwerk]], [[Harmonia (band)|Harmonia]], [[Ash Ra Tempel]] and [[Tangerine Dream]]. Mike Orme of ''[[Stylus Magazine]]'' describes the work of [[Kosmische Musik|Berlin school]] musicians as "laying the groundwork" for ambient.<ref name="Orme">{{cite web |last1=Orme |first1=Mike |title=The Bluffer's Guide: The Berlin School |url=http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/bluffer/the-berlin-school.html |website=Stylus Magazine |access-date=17 June 2022 |date=7 December 2006 |archive-date=16 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216204735/http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/bluffer/the-berlin-school.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The impact the rise of the synthesizer in modern music had on ambient as a genre cannot be overstated; as Ralf Hutter of early electronic pioneers [[Kraftwerk]] said in a 1977 ''Billboard'' interview: "Electronics is beyond nations and colors...with electronics everything is possible. The only limit is with the composer".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ambientmusicguide.com/pages/history.php|title=AmbientMusicGuide.com – A history of ambient|website=Ambientmusicguide.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313104100/http://ambientmusicguide.com/pages/history.php|archive-date=2016-03-13|url-status=dead|access-date=2016-04-05}}</ref>  The [[Yellow Magic Orchestra]] developed a distinct style of ambient [[electronic music]] that would later be developed into [[ambient house]] music.<ref>{{AllMusic |class=artist |id=p5886 |label=Yellow Magic Orchestra |access-date=2011-05-25 }}</ref>

==== Brian Eno ====
[[File:Brian_Eno_-_TopPop_1974_11.png|thumb|Brian Eno (pictured in 1974) is credited with coining the term "ambient music".]]
[[File:Minimoog Voyager XL, owned by Brian Eno.jpg|thumb|Minimoog Voyager XL, owned by Brian Eno]]
The English producer [[Brian Eno]] is credited with coining the term "ambient music" in the mid-1970s. He said other artists had been creating similar music, but that "I just gave it a name. Which is exactly what it needed ... By naming something you create a difference. You say that this is now real. Names are very important."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jan/17/brian-eno-interview-paul-morley|title=On gospel, Abba and the death of the record: an audience with Brian Eno {{!}} Interview|last=Morley|first=Paul|date=2010-01-17|website=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=2018-10-21}}</ref> He used the term to describe music that is different from forms of canned music like [[Muzak]].<ref name=enotvf>{{Cite web|url=https://thevinylfactory.com/features/the-essential-guide-to-brian-eno-in-10-records/|title=The essential guide to Brian Eno in 10 records|first=Chris|last=May|website=Thevinylfactory.com|date=12 April 2016|access-date=5 September 2020}}</ref>

In the liner notes for his 1978 album [[Ambient 1: Music for Airports|''Ambient 1:'' ''Music for Airports'']], Eno wrote:<ref name=":2" />
 
{{Blockquote|text=Whereas the extant canned music companies proceed from the basis of regularizing environments by blanketing their acoustic and atmospheric idiosyncrasies, Ambient Music is intended to enhance these. Whereas conventional background music is produced by stripping away all sense of doubt and uncertainty (and thus all genuine interest) from the music, Ambient Music retains these qualities. And whereas their intention is to "brighten" the environment by adding stimulus to it (thus supposedly alleviating the tedium of routine tasks and leveling out the natural ups and downs of the body rhythms) Ambient Music is intended to induce calm and a space to think. 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.|sign=|source=}}

Eno, who describes himself as a "non-musician", termed his experiments "treatments" rather than traditional performances.<ref name=":2">Brian Eno, [ ''Music for Airports'' liner notes], September 1978</ref><ref name="potter2002">{{cite book |title=Four Musical Minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass |last=Potter |first=Keith |year=2002 |edition= rev. pbk from 2000 hbk |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-01501-1 |pages=[ 91] }} (Quoting Brian Eno saying "La Monte Young is the daddy of us all" with endnote 113 p. [ 349] referencing it as "Quoted in Palmer, ''A Father Figure for the Avant-Garde'', p. 49".)</ref>

===1980s===
In the late 70s, new-age musician [[Laraaji]] began busking in New York parks and sidewalks, including Washington Square Park. It was there that Brian Eno heard Laraaji playing and asked him if he'd like to record an album. [[Ambient 3: Day of Radiance|''Day of Radiance'']] released in 1980, was the third album in Eno's Ambient series. Although Laraaji had already recorded a number of albums, this one gave him international recognition.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Beaumont-Thomas|first=Ben|date=2014-07-08|title=Laraaji: the Brian Eno of laughter|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jul/08/laraaji-brian-eno-of-laughter|website=The Guardian}}</ref> Unlike other albums in the series, ''Day of Radiance'' featured mostly acoustic instruments instead of electronics.

In the mid-1980s, the possibilities to create a sonic landscape increased through the use of [[Sampling (music)|sampling]].  By the late 1980s, there was a steep increase in the incorporation of the computer in the writing and recording process of records. The sixteen-bit Macintosh platform with built-in sound and comparable IBM models would find themselves in studios and homes of musicians and record makers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Webster |first1=Peter |title=Historical Perspectives on Technology and Music |journal=Music Educators Journal |date=September 2002 |volume= 89 |issue= 1 |pages= 38–43, 54|doi=10.2307/3399883 |jstor=3399883 |s2cid=143483610 }}</ref> However, many artists were still working with analogue synthesizers and acoustic instruments to produce ambient works.

In 1983, [[Midori Takada]] recorded her first solo LP ''Through the Looking Glass'' in two days. She performed all parts on the album, with diverse instrumentation including percussion, marimba, gong, reed organ, bells, ocarina, vibraphone, piano and glass Coca-Cola bottles.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-03-24|title=Ambient pioneer Midori Takada: 'Everything on this earth has a sound'|url=http://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/mar/24/midori-takada-interview-through-the-looking-glass-reissue|access-date=2020-12-12|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> Between 1988 and 1993, [[Éliane Radigue]] produced three hour-long works on the [[ARP 2500]] which were subsequently issued together as ''La Trilogie De La Mort''.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Éliane Radigue|url=https://www.thewire.co.uk/issues/260|journal=The Wire|volume=260|pages=26|first = Dan|last = Warburton|date = October 2005}}</ref>

Also in 1988, founding member and director of the [[San Francisco Tape Music Center|San Francisco Tape Music Centre]], [[Pauline Oliveros]] coined the term "''deep listening''" after she recorded an album inside a huge underground cistern in Washington which has a 45-second reverberation time. The concept of Deep Listening then went on to become "an aesthetic based upon principles of improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation".<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ankeny|first=Jason|title=Pauline Oliveros Artist Biography|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/pauline-oliveros-mn0000522041/biography|website=All Music}}</ref>

===1990s===
By the early 1990s, artists such as [[the Orb]], [[Aphex Twin]], [[Seefeel]], the [[Irresistible Force (production identity)|Irresistible Force]], [[Biosphere (musician)|Biosphere]], and the [[Higher Intelligence Agency]] gained commercial success and were being referred to by the [[popular music]] press as [[ambient house]], [[ambient techno]], [[Intelligent dance music|IDM]] or simply "ambient". The term [[Chill out (music)|chillout]] emerged from British [[MDMA|ecstasy]] culture which was originally applied in relaxed downtempo "chillout rooms" outside of the main dance floor where ambient, dub and downtempo beats were played to ease the [[Psychedelic Experience|tripping]] mind.<ref name="altered">Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House, Matthew Collin, 1997, Serpent's Tail {{ISBN|1-85242-377-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia | year = 2002 | encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture | publisher = Routledge | location = London | editor1-first = Peter | editor1-last = Childs | editor2-first = Mike | editor2-last = Storry | title = Ambient music | page = 22 }}</ref>

British artists such as Aphex Twin (specifically: ''[[Selected Ambient Works Volume II]]'', 1994), [[Global Communication]] (''[[76:14]]'', 1994), [[The Future Sound of London]] (''[[Lifeforms (The Future Sound of London album)|Lifeforms]]'', 1994, ''[[ISDN (album)|ISDN]]'', 1994), [[Black Dog Productions|the Black Dog]] (''[[Temple of Transparent Balls]]'', 1993), [[Autechre]] (''[[Incunabula (album)|Incunabula]]'', 1993, ''[[Amber (Autechre album)|Amber]]'', 1994), [[Boards of Canada]], and [[The KLF]]'s ''[[Chill Out (KLF album)|Chill Out]]'', (1990), all took a part in popularising and diversifying ambient music where it was used as a calming respite from the intensity of the [[rave#United Kingdom|hardcore]] and [[techno]] popular at that time.<ref name="altered" /> Other global ambient artists from the 1990s include American composers [[Stars of the Lid]] (who released 5 albums during this decade), and Japanese artist [[Susumu Yokota]] whose album ''Sakura'' (1999) featured what Pitchfork magazine called "dreamy, processed guitar as a distinctive sound tool".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Susumu Yokota: Sakura|url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/8874-sakura/|access-date=2021-01-05|website=Pitchfork|language=en}}</ref> 

===2000s===
In the early 2000s, [[trance music]] was an offshoot of some [[psychedelic ambient]] productions. Established in France in 2001, [[Ultimae]] has become the go-to label for space ambient, and they included artists such as [[Carbon Based Lifeforms]]. A number of [[Klang (Stockhausen)|Stockhausen]]'s later compositions (not all of them electronic music) feature ambient space music as their theme: The so-called "[[The Urantia Book|Urantia]]" subcycle of ''[[Klang (Stockhausen)|Klang]]'' (Sound, 2006–2007), extending from its thirteenth "hour", ''[[Klang (Stockhausen)#Thirteenth Hour: Cosmic Pulses|Cosmic Pulses]]'' to its twenty-first "hour" ''[[Klang (Stockhausen)#Twenty-first Hour: Paradies|Paradies]]''.<ref>Clements, Andrew. "Review: Proms 20 & 21: Stockhausen Day Royal Albert Hall, London 4/5", ''[[The Guardian]]''. August 4, 2008.</ref> 

In the early 2000s, DJs in [[Ibiza]]'s [[Café Del Mar]] began creating ambient house mixes that drew on jazz, classical, Hispanic, and [[New age music|New Age]] sources. Consequently, the popular understanding of "chill-out music" shifted away from "ambient" and into its own distinct genre.<ref name="dmm">{{cite book |title=Dance Music Manual: Tools, Toys, and Techniques |last=Snoman |first=Rick |year=2013 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1136115745 |pages=88, 340–342 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c_mm_hkmp_YC |access-date=17 May 2014}}</ref> In 2009, a genre called "[[chillwave]]" was invented by the satirical blog Hipster Runoff for music that could already be described with existing labels such as [[dream pop]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/features/article/2010s-chillwave-best-coast-washed-out-neon-indian/|title=How Chillwave's Brief Moment in the Sun Cast a Long Shadow Over the 2010s|first=Larry|last=Fitzmaurice|website=Pitchfork|date=14 October 2019}}</ref> Producer [[Wolfgang Voigt]] co-runs the German label [[Kompakt]], which has released installments of the influential ambient techno compilation series ''Pop Ambient'' annually since 2001.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Colly |first1=Joe |title=Pop Ambient 2009 |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12864-pop-ambient-2009/ |website=Pitchfork |access-date=22 May 2021}}</ref>

In February 2008, [[Atlas Sound]] debuted with the album ''[[Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel]]'', which featured ambient pieces.<ref name="p4k19">{{cite web |last1=Fitzmaurice |first1=Larry |title=How Chillwave's Brief Moment in the Sun Cast a Long Shadow Over the 2010s |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/article/2010s-chillwave-best-coast-washed-out-neon-indian/ |website=Pitchfork |date=October 14, 2019}}</ref> [[Animal Collective]]'s ''[[Merriweather Post Pavilion (album)|Merriweather Post Pavilion]]'' was an album released in January 2009 that was particularly influential for its ambient sounds and repetitive melodies.<ref name="Eady2014">{{cite web|last1=Eady|first1=Ashley|title=Chillwave: Has The Next "Big Thing" Arrived?|url=http://wrvu.org/chillwave-has-the-next-big-thing-arrived/|website=WRVU Nashville|date=February 14, 2014}}</ref>

===2010s–present===
====YouTube====
[[File:Mindfulness Meditation - Art4Good.jpg|thumb|Ambient music can be a tool for [[stress reduction]], [[mindfulness]] and meditation.]]
From the early 2010s to present, ambient music gained widespread recognition on [[YouTube]], with uploaded pieces, usually ranging from one to eight hours long, getting over millions of hits. Ambient videos assist online listeners with [[yoga]], [[Education|study]], [[sleep]] (see [[music and sleep]]), [[massage]], [[meditation]] and gaining [[optimism]], inspiration, and creating peaceful atmosphere in their rooms or other environments. Such videos may be titled "relaxing music".<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Yehuda | first1 = Nechama | year = 2011 | title = Music and Stress | journal = The Journal of Adult Development | volume = 18 | issue = 2| pages = 85–94 | doi=10.1007/s10804-010-9117-4| s2cid = 45335464 }}</ref>

Many uploaded ambient videos may also be influenced by [[biomusic]] where they feature [[Natural sounds|sounds of nature]], though the sounds would be modified with [[reverb]]s and [[Delay (audio effect)|delay units]] to make spacey versions of the sounds as part of the ambience. Such natural sounds oftentimes include those of a [[beach]], [[rainforest]], [[thunderstorm]] and [[rainfall]], among others, with [[List of animal sounds|vocalizations of animals]] such as [[bird songs]] being used as well. Pieces containing [[binaural beats]] are common and popular uploads as well, which provide [[music therapy]] and [[stress management]] for the listener.<ref>How Music Works by David Byrne, McSweeney's, 2012.</ref><ref name="nyt_ambience">{{cite news |last1=Brooke |first1=Eliza |title=The Soothing, Digital Rooms of YouTube |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/16/style/ambience-videos-asmr-youtube.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211228/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/16/style/ambience-videos-asmr-youtube.html |archive-date=2021-12-28 |url-access=limited |website=The New York Times |date=16 February 2021 |access-date=23 October 2021 |ref=nyt_ambience}}{{cbignore}}</ref>{{efn|One notable exception is [[the Caretaker (musician)|the Caretaker]]'s ''[[Everywhere at the End of Time]]'', an ambient series of albums featuring over 22 millions views as of {{Date}}. It is widely considered to evoke strong negative emotions due to its musical representation of [[Alzheimer's disease]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/23/style/tiktok-caretaker-challenge-dementia.html |title=Why Are TikTok Teens Listening to an Album About Dementia? |date=23 October 2020 |access-date=21 April 2021 |website=[[The New York Times]] |last=Ezra |first=Marcus |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210408232712/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/23/style/tiktok-caretaker-challenge-dementia.html |archive-date=8 April 2021 |url-status=live |url-access=limited }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://ra.co/reviews/23649 |title=The Caretaker – ''Everywhere At The End Of Time (Stage 6)'' Album Review |date=12 April 2019 |access-date=31 March 2021 |website=[[Resident Advisor]] |last=Ryce |first=Andrew |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413213656/https://residentadvisor.net/reviews/23649 |archive-date=13 April 2019 |url-status=unfit }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://thequietus.com/articles/29098-the-caretaker-tiktok-everywhere-at-the-end-of-time-interview |title=''Everywhere At The End Of Time'' Becomes TikTok Challenge (Leyland James Kirby gives us his reaction) |date=19 October 2020 |access-date=6 April 2021 |website=[[The Quietus]] |last=Clarke |first=Patrick |url-status=live |archive-date=14 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714034114/https://thequietus.com/articles/29098-the-caretaker-tiktok-everywhere-at-the-end-of-time-interview }}</ref>}}

====Digital releases====
[[iTunes]] and [[Spotify]] have [[digital radio]] stations that feature ambient music, which are mostly produced by [[independent label]]s.<ref name="Mark Prendergast 2003"/>

Acclaimed ambient music of this era (according to ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]'' magazine) include works by [[Max Richter]], [[Julianna Barwick]], [[Grouper (musician)|Grouper]], [[William Basinski]], [[Oneohtrix Point Never]], and [[the Caretaker (musician)|the Caretaker]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9948-the-50-best-ambient-albums-of-all-time/?page=2|title=The 50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time – Page 2|website=Pitchfork.com|date=26 September 2016 |access-date=5 September 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9948-the-50-best-ambient-albums-of-all-time/?page=3|title=The 50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time – Page 3|website=Pitchfork.com|date=26 September 2016 |access-date=5 September 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9948-the-50-best-ambient-albums-of-all-time/?page=4|title=The 50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time – Page 4|website=Pitchfork.com|date=26 September 2016 |access-date=5 September 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9948-the-50-best-ambient-albums-of-all-time/?page=5|title=The 50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time – Page 5|website=Pitchfork.com|date=26 September 2016 |access-date=5 September 2020}}</ref> In 2011, American composer Liz Harris recording as [[Grouper (musician)|Grouper]] released the album ''AIA: Alien Observer'', listed by Pitchfork at number 21 on their "50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time".<ref name="pitchfork.com">{{Cite web|title=The 50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time – Page 3|url=https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9948-the-50-best-ambient-albums-of-all-time/?page=3|access-date=2021-01-05|website=Pitchfork| date=26 September 2016 |language=en}}</ref> In 2011, Julianna Barwick released her first full-length album ''The Magic Place''. Heavily influenced by her childhood experiences in a church choir, Barwick loops her wordless vocals into ethereal soundscapes.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Julianna Barwick {{!}} Biography & History|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/julianna-barwick-mn0002418851/biography|access-date=2021-01-05|website=AllMusic|language=en}}</ref> It was listed at number 30 on Pitchfork's 50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time.<ref name="pitchfork.com"/> After several self-released albums, Buchla composer, producer and performer [[Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith]] was signed to independent record label Western Vinyl in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith|url=http://kaitlynaureliasmith.com/js_artist/kaitlyn-aurelia-smith/|access-date=2021-01-05|language=en-US}}</ref> 

In 2016, she released her second official album ''EARS''. It paired the [[Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments|Buchla synthesizer]] with traditional instruments and her compositions were compared to [[Laurie Spiegel]] and [[Alice Coltrane]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith's Existential Synthesizer Music|url=https://pitchfork.com/features/rising/9834-kaitlyn-aurelia-smiths-existential-synthesizer-music/|access-date=2021-01-05|website=Pitchfork|date=15 March 2016 |language=en}}</ref> Kaitlyn has also collaborated with other well-known Buchla performer, [[Suzanne Ciani]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani collaborate on Sunergy for RVNG|url=https://www.residentadvisor.net/news/35384|access-date=2021-01-05|website=Resident Advisor}}</ref> ''[[Long Ambients 1: Calm. Sleep.]]'' was released by American [[electronica]] musician [[Moby]] in 2016, as a free download.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.littlepinerestaurant.com/ |title=Little Pine Restaurant |publisher=[[Little Pine (restaurant)|Little Pine]] |accessdate=February 25, 2016}}</ref><ref name="info">{{cite web |url=http://moby.com/la1/ |title=Long Ambients1: Calm. Sleep. by Moby |publisher=Moby.com |accessdate=February 25, 2016 |author=Moby |authorlink=Moby}}</ref> In March 2019, Moby released a follow-up ambient album, ''[[Long Ambients 2]]''. [[Iggy Pop]]'s 2019 album ''[[Free (Iggy Pop album)|Free]]'' features ambient soundscapes.<ref name="rs">{{cite news |last1=Blistein |first1=Jon |title=Iggy Pop Previews New Album With Meditative Title-Track 'Free' |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/iggy-pop-new-album-free-860520/ |accessdate=5 December 2019 |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=18 July 2019}}</ref> [[Mallsoft]], a subgenre of [[vaporwave]], features various ambient influences, with artists such as [[Cat System Corp.]] and Groceries exploring ambient sounds typical of malls and grocery stores.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/the-mall-nostalgia-and-the-loss-of-innocence-an-interview-with-corp |title=The Mall, Nostalgia, and the Loss of Innocence: An Interview With 猫 シ Corp. |date=8 March 2017 |access-date=11 April 2022 |website=[[Bandcamp Daily]] |last=Chandler |first=Simon |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200303080310/https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/the-mall-nostalgia-and-the-loss-of-innocence-an-interview-with-corp |archive-date=3 March 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>