Dark ambient, originally called ambient industrial, is a type of post-industrial music that began in the mid-1980s. It is mainly influenced by ambient music and uses sounds that feel dark, scary, and heavy. These sounds include long, low tones, unpleasant noises, and a mood that feels gloomy or like it could be found in a cave or old building. While most dark ambient music is made using electronic tools, some artists also use sounds from real instruments and record in ways that mix electronic and acoustic methods.

Characteristics

Dark ambient music often includes slow-changing, clashing sounds made by drones and vibrations, low-pitched rumbles, and machine noises. It may also include sounds from gongs, rhythmic beats, bullroarers, distorted voices, and other recorded sounds. These sounds are often changed so much that the original source is no longer recognizable. For example, some pieces use recordings from radio telescopes, like Arecibo's Trans-Plutonian Transmissions, sounds from newborn babies, like in Nocturnal Emissions' Mouths of Babes, or sounds captured by microphones placed on telegraph wires, such as in Alan Lamb's Primal Image.

This type of music usually creates feelings of loneliness, sadness, being trapped, darkness, and being alone. According to Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music, dark ambient often evokes ideas of the end of the world, the end of civilizations, and strong feelings of being isolated even in a society that connects people. While the theme of the music is often described as "dark," some artists create more natural and organic soundscapes. For example, the Symphonies of the Planets series, a collection of works by Brain/Mind Research inspired by sounds of plasma waves recorded by the Voyager space probes, can also be considered an example of organic dark ambient music.

Etymology

The term "dark ambient" was created in the early 1990s by Roger Karmanik. He used it to describe the music of Raison d'être and other artists. These artists are connected to the Cold Meat Industry record label.

Origins and development

Dark ambient music began in the 1970s with the development of new, smaller, and more affordable tools like synthesizers, samplers, and effects units. Early examples of the genre appear on Throbbing Gristle's 1978 album D.o.A: The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle and in the 1977 film Eraserhead by David Lynch. Important early influences include Tangerine Dream's 1972 double-album Zeit, which focused on smooth yet unsettling sounds without clear rhythm or melody, and Affenstunde (1970) by the krautrock band Popol Vuh.

In the 1980s, artists such as Lustmord, Nocturnal Emissions, Lab Report, and Zoviet France emerged from industrial music and became some of the first to create consistent dark ambient music. These artists used industrial techniques like noise and sudden, shocking sounds but applied them more subtly. Ambient industrial music often includes themes related to mysticism, such as ideas about magic from Aleister Crowley and chaos magic, which give the music a ritual-like quality.

The 1989 album Deep Listening by composer Pauline Oliveros, created with Stuart Dempster and Panaiotis, and the 1987 album Zamia Lehmanni: Songs of Byzantine Flowers by the Australian group SPK are also credited with influencing the growth of dark ambient.

In the 2020s, artists such as those linked to the Cryo Chamber record label, led by Simon Heath, and the French group Cyclic Law are known for creating dark ambient music. The website "This Is Darkness" is dedicated to exploring all forms of the dark ambient genre.

Subgenres

Isolationism is a type of dark ambient music that became popular in the 1990s. The term was created by British musician Kevin Martin. It first appeared in a September 1993 issue of The Wire magazine. Martin described Isolationism as music that was broken and quiet, and it often felt distant to listeners instead of calming them. In 1994, Martin gathered examples of this genre into a compilation album called Isolationism. Journalist David Segal called it "a darker, more distant relative of ambient music."

John Everall, who owned the Sentrax label, said the roots of Isolationist music can be found in early industrial groups, krautrock, ambient music, and the work of experimental composers like John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. James Plotkin noted that Brian Eno’s ambient music influenced the Isolationist scene, as did American experimental bands such as Illusion of Safety.