Ambient Music

Ambient music is a musical genre in which sound is more important than notes. It is generally identifiable as being broadly atmospheric and environmental in nature.

Brian Eno is generally credited with coining the term ambient music in the mid-1970s to refer to music that, as he stated, can be either actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener and that exists on the cusp between melody and texture. Eno, who describes himself as a non-musician, termed his experiments in sound as treatments rather than as traditional performances. Eno used the word ambient to describe music that creates an atmosphere that puts the listener into a different state of mind; having chosen the word based on the Latin term ambire, to surround.

Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.

Brian Eno
Music for Airports liner notes,
September 1978

Brian Eno interviewed about ambient music and Music for Airports

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Music for Airports
Brian Eno

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Wind on Wind
Robert Fripp & Brian Eno

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Evening Star
Robert Fripp & Brian Eno

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Late October
Harold Budd & Brian Eno