Last month I was driving through Pittsburgh and remembered when I first became aware of ambient music as a specific genre. It was the summer of 1990 and I was working in the Burgh between my freshman and sophomore years of college. In those days, before the infinite scroll of social media on cell phones, we read magazines and listened to the radio to discover new stuff. One night after a late shift, I was twisting through the terrestrial radio dial and came across some interestingly ethereal music on WYEP, a public radio station that played the legendary show Echoes overnight during the week. Echoes features a wide variety of musical styles, from avant garde jazz to space music to psychedelic art rock, but (and especially in those days) it would have been generally considered a “new age” program.
Growing up in a very small town and attending a small college in the hills of western PA, my cultural exposure was pretty limited. Our gateways to popular culture were limited to rock radio stations, a few rock magazines that were sold at the local newsstand, and MTV, which didn’t even reach our town until at least 1986. Hearing an entire radio show dedicated to instrumental and atmospheric “soundtrack” music was both intriguing and exciting. Something in the sounds really resonated with me, especially during mild summer nights with the windows open and the sounds of nature layered into the mix.
The featured album on that episode of Echoes was The City by Vangelis. Although The City wasn’t a soundtrack, Vangelis had been most known for compositions for movies like Chariots of Fire and Bladerunner. Within days I purchased a cassette copy of The City, and fell in love with its opening track “Dawn”, to the extent that I still listen to that particular song on most mornings while I prepare for a new day. This opened the door to a lifelong love for ambient music and all of the lineage and sub genres that have evolved since the early years of the genre that was born in the 1970s and blossomed in the 1980s.
Sifting through these memories prompted me to consider my top five favorite ambient songs of all time.
An Ending (Ascent) – Brian Eno (1984)
No top list of ambient music can be complete without including the godfather of the genre, Brian Eno, who is included twice in my personal top five tracks of all time. His Ambient 1/Music for Airports (1977) album is often considered the beginning of the modern ambient music genre. While I have a deep appreciation for all of Eno’s ambient work, no track touches me quite like “An Ending (Ascent)” from the 1984 Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks album that was created for a rare documentary called Apollo, later retitled For All Mankind about the first Apollo moon landing. It’s a collaboration with producer Daniel Lanois and Brian’s brother, Roger. If you love it as much as I do, you might want to check out this hour long version. In the meantime, here’s the album track.
The Maps They Held – Gray Acres (2017)
A quick glance at this list should make it obvious that my golden era for ambient music that resonates is the late 1980s, but that era shares a lot of my listening time with a new wave of ambient music artists who came onto the scene during the 2010s. My hands down favorite overall artist from this new wave is Hotel Neon, a trio based out of Philadelphia. Ironically, the track stands out most for me from the members of Hotel Neon is “The Maps They Held” by Gray Acres, a side project by Michael and Andrew Tasselmyer, who make up two-thirds of the band. There is plenty of Hotel Neon related music on my ambient playlists, but this track is the one that draws my attention each time it floats by my ears. It inspires me to pause what I’m doing and spend a few moments enjoying the simple moment.
Gentle, The Night – Jonn Serrie (1988)
I remember walking through Tower Records in Nashville, TN sometime around 1995 when a CD cover caught my attention. It was And the Stars Go With You by Jonn Serrie, a space music legend who has created many works for planetariums over the decades. The album cover has a “sci-fi” portrayal of a few deep blue planets set against the blackness of space. It “looked” like it could be the soundtrack to a relaxing evening where I could let my mind drift off to other worlds, so with limited access to information about ambient music and no way to preview the album, I decided to take chance. It’s been a go to album for me since that day. “Gentle, The Night” opens the album and sounds to me exactly as the title suggests.
Late October – Harold Budd and Brian Eno (1984)
I was introduced to the partnership between composer and pianist Harold Budd, ambient master Brian Eno, and record producer Daniel Lanois about ten years after The Pearl was released, and I haven’t stop listening to this gorgeous masterpiece ever since. Eno and Lanois may be more well known as two of the greatest rock producers of all time, working with U2, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, and many more. Harold Budd has produced an extensive and prolific career of solo compositions and collaborations with other artists. But for my taste, their greatest work is the eleven song, 43 minute collection of drifting minimalist piano melodies over electronic ambient soundscapes called The Pearl. “Late October”, the first track on the album, has inspired my annual “Pearl Season” where I listen to the album several times a week during the months of September and October.
Dawn – Vangelis (1990)
This opening track from The City defines what I love about ambient, ethereal, atmospheric, and instrumental music. Slow droning pads emerge out of percussive chords that are struck at the top of the track and between the evolving moods. The pads sit softly underneath a synthesizer melody that is washed with reverb and delay, slowly stretching the notes into the future. It’s a balanced mix of long ambient chords, soothing melodies, and dreamy effects.