Program #8, June 22 2000: What is ambient music anyway?

Zillions of albums later, I'm still trying to figure it out. The idea this evening was to touch a great number of sides of the elephant -- concentrating on pieces that have been termed "ambient" in some way, but which don't fit the stereotypical ambient sound in some (or many) ways -- and try to figure out just what "ambient" means. I think the best conclusion I was able to come up with was a kind of quasi-Wittgensteinian judgment that ambient music essentially is music that seems ambient to somebody. But as long as the music is good, who really cares what we call it... right?

Hour Artist Title Date Performers Album Label Number
(Click hyperlinks for special notes, to see more about artists, connect to record labels, and more!)
12m Einstürzende Neubauten Wüste 1992   Tabula Rasa Mute 61458-2
Wendy Carlos Summer from Sonic Seasonings 1971   Sonic Seasonings EastSide Digital ESD 81372
Aphex Twin <piece #11, 1st disc> 1994   Selected Ambient Works vol. 2 Warner Brothers  
James Tenney Ergodos I 1963   A Chance Operation: The John Cage Tribute Koch International Classics 3-7238-2 Y6x2
Autechre Drane 1995   Peel Session Nothing INTDM-95039
1a Pauline Oliveros Epigraphs in the Time of AIDS 1997 Deep Listening Band, et al. Suspended Music Periplum P 0010
John Zorn Dark River 1995 Jim Pugliese Redbird Tzadik TZ 7008
Brian Eno (arr. Evan Ziporyn) 2-2 from Music for Airports 1998 Bang On A Can All-Stars Music for Airports Point 314 536 847-2
2a Alvin Curran Songs and Views of the Magnetic Garden 1973   Songs and Views of the Magnetic Garden Catalyst 09026-61823-2
If you find anything above to be unclear or incorrect, please contact me with feedback.