Making Ambient Music With Cherry Audio Synths

Does New Age Ambient even exist?

Here things become a bit tricky – and pretty much controversial.

When going through all – well, not all, but a lot – of the stuff that´s written about New Age, New Age Music and New Age Ambient two little nonsense “one-liner” from my younger days came into my mind:

 

“What kind of an apple is a butterfly?”

and

“Question: What´s the difference between a raven?

Answer: Both legs are equally long, especially the left one.”

 

OK, seriously now.

Sometimes “New Age” and “Ambient” are used as if they were synonyms. Sometimes it is said that New Age is not a music genre at all – not even music, as some people are telling us. And what´s more, quite a lot of artists who are said to produce New Age music (not only New Age Ambient) refuse to be called New Age artists.

 

So, from the perspective of a composer, producer, or whatever you call yourself, is there anything useful to be gleaned from this mess and fog of views and opinions?

 

Interesting enough, the answer is “yes”. But we must leave the realm of “musical science”. My approach to understanding what to do when a customer (or I myself) wants me to make a piece of “New Age Ambient” is the following:

 

From a New Age perspective, making Ambient music is one of a couple of ways to evoke the wanted feelings.

and

From an Ambient Music perspective, using New Age approaches is one of a couple of ways to get to the sounds I want.

And talking about feelings, about emotion, the following little graphic may help a bit as well:

The book with legions of examples and step-by-step instructions (all kinds of ambient music) is going to be published around the end of May. Subscribe to the newsletter to get informed.

Cheers and peace!

Rolf