The Ambient Music Conference

Why is everybody listening to ambient music these days? Beatless music, or music with almost inaudible percussion or beats, seems to be one of the hidden champions these days. It finds its audience all across the spectrum of age, gender, race and ability.

Ambient music has a clearly soothing and healing quality – but also oozes into all sorts of other genres, styles and artistic movements: its roots and offshoots range from Minimal Music to Krautrock, from Gamelan to Soundscape Composition, from radiophonic composition to noise music, from film music to neoclassic, from hauntology to lofi hip hop beats to relax/study to.

Ambient is a truly planetary genre of music – with an endless range of local traditions and highly diverse scenes. Is ambient even becoming the dominant model for popular music production in the 21st century, replacing the backbeat of rock'n'roll, the percussive patterns and loops of EDM, and taking its place alongside hip-hop and R'n'B? Is the ambient music genre simply tailor-made for perfect playlist adaptability, workplace mood regulation, and spotifycore? A few decades ago, listening to this genre was considered embarrassing, or at the very least, clichéd by many: today, it is a widespread preference of countless artists, music lovers and streaming platforms across the globe.

This international conference is the first of the 21st century to examine ambient music through the lens of local scenes, aesthetic practices, and cultural contexts worldwide.

Over 30 leading and early career scholars and performers from 17 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas will present research papers, audio papers, and performances. It is a starting point for developing an academic handbook and a special issue of Seismograf.

Organizer: Ulrik Schmidt (RUC) & Holger Schulze (KU) in Collaboration with the Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen.