Ambient is a term used to describe music that generally occupies the peripheral, existing somewhere outside the focus of a listeners’ primary attention.1 Composers use conceptual methods and techniques to escape from traditional musical conventions, resulting in a blurred sense of time and structure. Brian Eno suggests that an ambient work ‘must be as ignorable as it is interesting.’2 This helps a piece to blend in with an environment, accommodating different levels of listening. My composition uses a combination of field recordings (various metal objects, animals, instruments and voice samples) layered with string instruments. I started by time stretching samples, a process which extends small segments of audio into drones and textures. I then used EQ and reverb to layer a different note over each of the samples. I adjusted attack and release envelopes to help combine the samples with strings, finally rendering to audio. The result of this processing was 7 audio files, each containing a different sample and note (the 7 notes create a chord ranging 3 octaves, if played together).

I followed a similar model to Brian Eno’s ‘Music for Airports 2/1’ when approaching this piece. I assigned an arbitrary prime number to every looped segment of audio, which served to determine the time in seconds between repetitions. Using prime numbers meant there would be a greater variation in how sounds overlapped and interacted, before a cycle became apparent / started over. I decided to set duration in seconds to help remove any sense of a grid, as this seemed to fit my definition of ambient more closely.

Fig. 1 – Brian Eno 2/1 score and the resulting pattern of clips in the Ableton Live set.

After the arrangement was complete, I applied further processing to allow greater use of the stereo field and spread out the sounds. I added a send channel with a delay and reverb along with two sends using Utility for width, one panned hard left and the other right - making use of the positioning tab on the M4L Convolution Reverb. I tried to spread out the voices evenly to add some space and depth. Finally, I tried to capture the dynamic of the recorded environment ‘DPA – Freyas Stand’ by automating the volume of the composition, according to the movement of waves in the recording. In an attempt to use the recording indirectly, I removed the audio after making the volume adjustments. The uneven size of the audio creates a complex arrangement of layers and overlapping textures. Combined with the rolling movement of the waves, the piece feels like it is alive and breathing. This implied movement helps a listener drift along with the feeling of the waves, in and out of focus, creating a natural, ambient landscape.