Dark ambient (originally known as ambient industrial) is a subgenre of post-industrial music, that originally emerged in the mid-1980s. It draws primary influence from ambient music and is characterized by ominous, dark drones, discordant overtones and a gloomy, monumental or catacomb-inspired atmosphere. Although mostly an electronic genre, artists frequently sample traditional instruments and make use of semi-acoustic recording procedures.
Characteristics
Dark ambient often consists of evolving dissonant harmonies of drones and resonances, low frequency rumbles and machine noises, sometimes supplemented by gongs, percussive rhythms, bullroarers, distorted voices and other found sounds, often processed to the point where the original sample cannot be recognized. However, while the theme in the music tends to be "dark" in nature, some artists create more organic soundscapes. The Symphonies of the Planets series, a collection of works by Brain/Mind Research inspired by audible-frequency plasma waves recorded by the Voyager uncrewed space probes, can also be considered an organic manifestation of dark ambient.
Etymology
The term dark ambient was coined in the early 1990s by Roger Karmanik to describe the music of Raison d'être and related artists that are heavily associated with the Cold Meat Industry record label.
Origins and development
Dark ambient has its roots in the 1970s with the introduction of newer, smaller, and more affordable effects units, synthesizer and sampling technology. Early genre elements can be found on Throbbing Gristle's 1978 album D.o.A: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle, and in the soundtrack to the 1977 David Lynch film Eraserhead. Important early precursors of the genre were Tangerine Dream's early double-album Zeit (1972), which unlike most of their subsequent albums abandoned any notion of rhythm or definable melody in favour of "darkly" sinuous, occasionally disturbing sonics; and also, Affenstunde (1970) by fellow krautrock band Popol Vuh.
thumb|left|Lustmord
<!-- Dark ambient evolved partially based on several of Brian Eno's early solo albums (Another Green World - "In Dark Trees"; Music For Films - "Alternative 3"; Music For Films Director's Cut - Shell, Reactor, The Secret) and collaboration that had a distinctly dark or discordant edge, notably "An Index of Metals" (from Evening Star, 1975), a collaboration with Robert Fripp that incorporated harsh guitar feedback, the ambient pieces on the second half of David Bowie's Low (1977) and "Heroes", Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics (1980), a collaboration with Jon Hassell, and particularly the fourth installment of his ambient series, On Land (1982), which had many deeply spatial elements, often using field recordings to foreboding effect. -->
Projects like Lustmord, Nocturnal Emissions, Lab Report, and Zoviet France Additionally, ambient industrial often has strong occultist tendencies with a particular leaning toward magick as expounded by Aleister Crowley, and chaos magic, often giving the music a ritualistic flavor.
In the 2020s, artists known for producing dark ambient work include acts associated with the Cryo Chamber record label, run by Simon Heath who has been composing dark ambient music for over two decades, and Cyclic Law from France. The website "This Is Darkness" is devoted to the dark ambient genre in all its iterations.
Subgenres
Isolationism
Isolationism (also known as isolationist ambient) is a subgenre of dark ambient that was prominent in the 1990s. The term was coined by British musician Kevin Martin and first appeared in print in a September 1993 issue of The Wire magazine. He described it as a form of fractured, subdued music that "pushed away" listeners rather than comforting them. In 1994 Martin curated a compilation album, Isolationism, collecting various examples of the genre. Journalist David Segal referred to it as "ambient's sinister, antisocial cousin".
John Everall, owner of the Sentrax label, placed the origins of "Isolationist" music in early industrial groups, krautrock, ambient music and experimental composers such John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and others. As Plotkin says,