Three manifestations of spatiality in ambient music

Abstract

Joanna Demers noted that “we are accustomed to thinking that electronic music, even more than non-electronic music, is concerned with space”.1 I believe this is particularly true in the case of ambient music. In this chapter, I will examine three ways in which space is manifested within the genre. In doing so, I will specifically focus my attention on Brian Eno’s album Ambient 4: On Land. This is for two main reasons. Firstly, as a recording it mapped a new set of possibilities for the way ambient music could be both made and heard. The second is rather more personal, Ambient 4: On Land had a huge impact on me and ultimately inspired me to make my own music, something I continue to do nearly 40 years later. Robert Morgan observed that “anyone familiar with the philosophical and theoretical literature dealing with music must be struck by the persistence with which spatial terminology and categories appear”.2 Morgan contends that we are unable to discuss music without recourse to spatial terms, particularly when examining pitch, where “one finds it necessary to rely upon such spatially orientated oppositions as ‘up and down’, ‘high and low’, ‘small and large’ (in regard to intervallic ‘distances’) and so on. Space then [...] apparently forms an inseparable part of the musical experience”.3 Although it is worth noting that Morgan’s focus is on western art music, much of what he says is equally relevant to ambient music. However, there are important differences between foregrounded music and ambient music, the latter of