At its core, Ambient is a sensibility — a way of perceiving or sensing the world around us. As a sensibility, it gives us a heightened awareness of our physical and cultural surroundings; as a contemporary music genre, the name may be new, but the music has old, even ancient roots, arising from the discovery that slow tempos, repeated patterns, hypnotic rhythms, and resonant enclosures can alter our sense of time, and transform our experience of space.
The 20th century saw the invention of electronic music, along with technical advances in communication, travel, sound recording, and music distribution—all of which sparked unprecedented exposure to non-western folk, classical, and tribal music from indigenous cultures around the world. In 1987, the European and North American music industry—determined to avoid the confusion and criticism that accompanied the choice of "New Age" for an earlier emerging genre—opted for simplicity and called the entire non-western traditional category "World Music."
In time the World Music genre expanded to include ethnic fusions, crossovers, and hybrids, and the ethereal sounds of Tribal Electronic and World Ambient. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, we journey over the high desert mesas, wind-blown dunes, and endless plains of the Ethno-Ambient soundscape, on a program called "AMBIENT TRAVELER 4."
Music is by LAYNE REDMOND & TOMMY BRUNGES, BYRON METCALF & ARI URBAN, SUZANNE TENG & GILBERT LEVY, MARLA LEIGH, STEPHAN MICUS, and ANOUSHKA SHANKAR.
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