Dark ambient
Encyclopedia
Dark ambient is a subgenre of ambient music
that features foreboding, ominous, or discordant overtones. Although it had its roots in the 1970s, Dark ambient emerged in the 1980s and 1990s with the introduction of newer, smaller, and more affordable Effects units, synthesizer
and sampling
technology. Dark ambient is an unusually diverse genre, related to industrial music
, noise
, ethereal wave
, and black metal
, yet generally free from derivatives and connections to other genres or styles.
's early collaborations that had a distinctly dark or discordant edge, notably "An Index of Metals" (from Evening Star
(1975)), a collaboration with Robert Fripp
that incorporated harsh guitar feedback, the ambient pieces on the second half of David Bowie
's Low (1977) and "Heroes", Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics (1980), a collaboration with Jon Hassell
, and particularly the fourth installment of his ambient series, On Land
(1982), which had many deeply spatial elements, often utilising field recordings to foreboding effect. An important early precursor of the genre was Tangerine Dream's early double-album Zeit
, which was unlike most of their subsequent albums in abandoning any notion of rhythm or definable melody in favour of "darkly" sinuous, occasionally disturbing sonics. Burzum
is the pioneer of black metal dark ambient.
Ambient industrial projects like Coil
, Lilith
, Lustmord
, Zoviet France
, and Nocturnal Emissions
evolved out of industrial music during the 1980s, and were some of the earliest artists to create consistently "dark" ambient music. These artists make use of industrial principles such as noise and shock tactics, but wield these elements with more subtlety. Additionally, ambient industrial often has strong occultist tendencies, with a particular leaning toward magick
, as expounded by Aleister Crowley
, and chaos magic
, often giving the music a ritualistic flavor. (In fact, a sub-genre dubbed "Ritual Ambient" has evolved in recent years, exemplified by work of such groups as Herbst9 and Desiderii Marginis, amongst others.) Ambient industrial is one of several directions that post-industrial music took on after the breakup of Throbbing Gristle
in 1981. The last material that TG recorded in the studio, In the Shadow of the Sun
and Journey Through a Body
, was ambient, and pointed in the direction that several of TG's offshoots (notably Coil and CTI) would take.
Among the many artists who produce ambient industrial are Cabaret Voltaire
, S.P.K., Coil
, CTI
, Lab Report
, Lustmord
, Hafler Trio
, Nocturnal Emissions
, Zoviet France
, PGR
, Akira Yamaoka
, Thomas Köner
, Controlled Bleeding
, early Techno Animal, Robin Rimbaud
, Final
and Deutsch Nepal
. Many of these artists are eclectic
in their output, with much of it falling outside of ambient industrial. Ambient industrial often consists of evolving dissonant harmonies of drones
and resonances, low frequency rumbles and machine noises, sometimes supplemented by gongs, percussive rhythms, bullroarers, distorted voices and other found sounds
, often processed to the point where the original sample cannot be recognized. Entire works may be based on radio telescope
recordings (Arecibo Trans-Plutonian Transmissions), the babbling of newborn babies (Nocturnal Emissions Mouths of Babes), or sounds recorded through contact microphone
s on telegraph wires (e.g. Alan Lamb's Primal Image).
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, an ethereal wave
trend emerged within the dark wave movement, that tended toward moody atmospheric pieces rather than jangly minor-key rock. Ethereal wave
was mainly associated with the Projekt record label, with bands like Black Tape for a Blue Girl
composing moody ambient soundscapes.
By the mid-1990s, a large number of artists were working in ambient industrial, ambient noise, ethereal wave, illbient
, isolationism
, and other emerging "dark ambient" styles. Among these artists were Endura
, Autopsia
, Vidna Obmana
, Daniel Menche
, Deca
, Lull, Raison d'etre
, Hwyl Nofio
, Hieronymus Bosch, and Velvet Cacoon
. In the same time dark ambient vibrated into contemporary classical music
. Example of this can be project Aghiatrias
, the solo works of composer Vladimír Hirsch
, and composer Jessie Martin under the name TakeMeToTheMorgue
Generally the music tends to evoke a feeling of solitude, melancholy, confinement, and isolation. However, while the theme in the music tends to be "dark" in nature, some artists create more organic soundscapes. Examples of such productions are those of Oöphoi, Alio Die, Mathias Grassow, Tau Ceti, and Klaus Wiese
. The Symphonies of the Planets series, a collection of works by NASA
and Brain/Mind Research in which planetary electromagnetic waves are captured by the Voyager
unmanned space probes and converted into audible sound, can also be considered an organic manifestation of dark ambient.
, Junkielover, MOZ, Daniel Menche
, Kiyoshi Mizutani, Iszoloscope
, and some Merzbow
. Some, for example Iszoloscope
, also compose ambient on the side, such as his Les Gorges Des Limbes album. While the two genres cannot really compare sound wise, many labels, such as Ant-Zen
, release both ambient and noise, as well as combinations of both, taking both avant-garde
genres further.
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
that features foreboding, ominous, or discordant overtones. Although it had its roots in the 1970s, Dark ambient emerged in the 1980s and 1990s with the introduction of newer, smaller, and more affordable Effects units, synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
and sampling
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
technology. Dark ambient is an unusually diverse genre, related to industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
, noise
Noise music
Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...
, ethereal wave
Ethereal Wave
Ethereal Wave, also called ethereal darkwave in Europe and ethereal goth or simply ethereal in the US, is a term that describes a subgenre of Dark Wave music...
, and black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
, yet generally free from derivatives and connections to other genres or styles.
History
Dark ambient evolved partially based on several of Brian EnoBrian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
's early collaborations that had a distinctly dark or discordant edge, notably "An Index of Metals" (from Evening Star
Evening Star (album)
Evening Star is an album by the British ambient musicians Robert Fripp and Brian Eno. The cover is a painting by the artist Peter Schmidt....
(1975)), a collaboration with Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
that incorporated harsh guitar feedback, the ambient pieces on the second half of David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
's Low (1977) and "Heroes", Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics (1980), a collaboration with Jon Hassell
Jon Hassell
Jon Hassell is an American trumpet player and composer. He is known for his influence in the world music scene and his unusual electronic manipulation of the trumpet sound.-Life and career:...
, and particularly the fourth installment of his ambient series, On Land
On Land
Ambient 4: On Land is an album by the British ambient musician Brian Eno. It was the final edition in Eno’s ambient series, which began in 1978 with Music for Airports.-Track listing:...
(1982), which had many deeply spatial elements, often utilising field recordings to foreboding effect. An important early precursor of the genre was Tangerine Dream's early double-album Zeit
Zeit
Zeit is the third album by the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. A double LP, it was the first release featuring Peter Baumann, who joined Chris Franke and Edgar Froese.-Overview:...
, which was unlike most of their subsequent albums in abandoning any notion of rhythm or definable melody in favour of "darkly" sinuous, occasionally disturbing sonics. Burzum
Burzum
Burzum is a musical project by Varg Vikernes . It began during 1991 in Bergen, Norway and quickly became prominent within the early Norwegian black metal scene...
is the pioneer of black metal dark ambient.
Ambient industrial projects like Coil
Coil (band)
Coil were an English cross-genre, experimental music group formed in 1982 by John Balance—later credited as "Jhonn Balance"—and his partner Peter Christopherson, aka "Sleazy". The duo worked together on a series of releases before Balance chose the name Coil, which he claimed to be...
, Lilith
Lilith (group)
Lilith is a pioneer American Dark ambient music group formed by Scott Gibbons in 1986.Early self-released albums contained little or no text to suggest authorship or titles, and were rooted in homemade audio devices and modified consumer electronics...
, Lustmord
Lustmord
Brian Williams is a British electronic musician often credited for creating the dark ambient genre with albums recorded under the name Lustmord.- History :Williams started recording as Lustmord in 1980 before joining SPK in 1982...
, Zoviet France
Zoviet France
Zoviet France is a prolific music group from Newcastle upon Tyne in north east England. While often dissonant and made of industrial textures, their music also falls into the ambient music category...
, and Nocturnal Emissions
Nocturnal Emissions
Nocturnal Emissions is a sound art project that has released numerous records and CDs in music styles ranging from electro-acoustic, musique concrète, hybridised beats, sound collage, post-industrial music, ambient and noise music....
evolved out of industrial music during the 1980s, and were some of the earliest artists to create consistently "dark" ambient music. These artists make use of industrial principles such as noise and shock tactics, but wield these elements with more subtlety. Additionally, ambient industrial often has strong occultist tendencies, with a particular leaning toward magick
Magick
Magick is an Early Modern English spelling for magic, used in works such as the 1651 translation of De Occulta Philosophia, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, or Of Magick...
, as expounded by Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...
, and chaos magic
Chaos magic
Chaos magic is a school of the modern magical tradition which emphasizes the pragmatic use of belief systems and the creation of new and unorthodox methods.-General principles:...
, often giving the music a ritualistic flavor. (In fact, a sub-genre dubbed "Ritual Ambient" has evolved in recent years, exemplified by work of such groups as Herbst9 and Desiderii Marginis, amongst others.) Ambient industrial is one of several directions that post-industrial music took on after the breakup of Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle
Throbbing Gristle were an English industrial, avant-garde music and visual arts group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions...
in 1981. The last material that TG recorded in the studio, In the Shadow of the Sun
In the Shadow of the Sun (Throbbing Gristle album)
-Bibliography:* Ford, Simon . Wreckers of Civilization: The Story of COUM Transmissions & Throbbing Gristle. London: Black Dog.* Peake, Tony . Derek Jarman: A Biography. Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press....
and Journey Through a Body
Journey Through a Body
Journey Through a Body is a studio album by industrial music pioneers Throbbing Gristle. The album was recorded in Rome in March 1981 without pre-planning any songs.-Track listing:#"Medicine" - 15:22#"Catholic Sex" - 8:10#"Exotic Functions" - 4:18...
, was ambient, and pointed in the direction that several of TG's offshoots (notably Coil and CTI) would take.
Among the many artists who produce ambient industrial are Cabaret Voltaire
Cabaret Voltaire (band)
Cabaret Voltaire were a British music group from Sheffield, England.Initially composed of Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk and Chris Watson, the group was named after the Cabaret Voltaire, a nightclub in Zürich, Switzerland that was a centre for the early Dada movement.Their earliest performances...
, S.P.K., Coil
Coil (band)
Coil were an English cross-genre, experimental music group formed in 1982 by John Balance—later credited as "Jhonn Balance"—and his partner Peter Christopherson, aka "Sleazy". The duo worked together on a series of releases before Balance chose the name Coil, which he claimed to be...
, CTI
Chris and Cosey
Chris & Cosey, now performing as Carter Tutti, are a band formed in 1981, consisting of partners Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, both previously members of industrial music pioneers Throbbing Gristle.- History :...
, Lab Report
Lab Report
Lab Report was an improvisational, dark ambient, band created by Matthew Schultz, Eric Pounder and Chris Blazen in 1989. The experimental project gained notoriety as one of the earliest dark ambient musical projects stemming from the Industrial music genre....
, Lustmord
Lustmord
Brian Williams is a British electronic musician often credited for creating the dark ambient genre with albums recorded under the name Lustmord.- History :Williams started recording as Lustmord in 1980 before joining SPK in 1982...
, Hafler Trio
Hafler Trio
The Hafler Trio is a conceptual and sound art collaborative between Andrew M. McKenzie, the only permanent member, and guest musicians. The project has seen the release of numerous albums and CDs in experimental musical styles ranging from electronica, cut-up, ambient, environmental soundscape,...
, Nocturnal Emissions
Nocturnal Emissions
Nocturnal Emissions is a sound art project that has released numerous records and CDs in music styles ranging from electro-acoustic, musique concrète, hybridised beats, sound collage, post-industrial music, ambient and noise music....
, Zoviet France
Zoviet France
Zoviet France is a prolific music group from Newcastle upon Tyne in north east England. While often dissonant and made of industrial textures, their music also falls into the ambient music category...
, PGR
PGR
PGR may stand for:* the stock ticker symbol for the Progressive Corporation, an American insurance company.* Patriot Guard Riders, an American organization of motorcyclists whose members attend military funeral services to prevent protestors from interfering and to honor the fallen soldier*...
, Akira Yamaoka
Akira Yamaoka
is a video game composer, sound designer, sound director, and video game producer who worked for Konami since 1993 until his resignation in 2009. He is best known for creating the music in the Silent Hill series; he also worked as a sound director and producer on the series as well as serving as a...
, Thomas Köner
Thomas Köner
Thomas Köner is a multimedia artist whose main interest lies in combining visual and auditory experiences. He's been noted for his use of low frequencies...
, Controlled Bleeding
Controlled Bleeding
Controlled Bleeding is a prolific experimental music group based in Massapequa, New York. The group was founded by Paul Lemos, the group's only consistent member...
, early Techno Animal, Robin Rimbaud
Robin Rimbaud
Robin Rimbaud is an electronic musician who works under the name Scanner due to his use of cell phone and police scanners in live performance...
, Final
Final (band)
Final is a project of Justin Broadrick, creator of the band Godflesh, which he started when he was just 13 years old. Unlike Godflesh, Final is primarily electronic in nature, taking on a space-like, dark ambient sound....
and Deutsch Nepal
Deutsch Nepal
Deutsch Nepal is the solo industrial/dark ambient project of Swede Lina Der Baby Doll General .- Works :Under the name Deutsch Nepal, Lina has issued eight studio albums and a 7" as well as contributing to various compilations including a split CD with In Slaughter Nativesand another with The Moon...
. Many of these artists are eclectic
Eclecticism in music
Eclecticism is used to describe a composer's conscious use of styles alien to his nature, or from one or more historical styles. The term is also used pejoratively to describe music whose composer, thought to be lacking originality, appears to have freely drawn on other models .-Sources:* Kennedy,...
in their output, with much of it falling outside of ambient industrial. Ambient industrial often consists of evolving dissonant harmonies of drones
Drone (music)
In music, a drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece. The word drone is also used to refer to any part of a musical instrument that is just used to produce such an effect.-A musical effect:A drone...
and resonances, low frequency rumbles and machine noises, sometimes supplemented by gongs, percussive rhythms, bullroarers, distorted voices and other found sounds
Found art
The term found art—more commonly found object or readymade—describes art created from undisguised, but often modified, objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function...
, often processed to the point where the original sample cannot be recognized. Entire works may be based on radio telescope
Radio telescope
A radio telescope is a form of directional radio antenna used in radio astronomy. The same types of antennas are also used in tracking and collecting data from satellites and space probes...
recordings (Arecibo Trans-Plutonian Transmissions), the babbling of newborn babies (Nocturnal Emissions Mouths of Babes), or sounds recorded through contact microphone
Contact microphone
A contact microphone, otherwise known as a pickup or a piezo, is a form of microphone designed to sense audio vibrations through solid objects. Unlike normal air microphones, contact mics act as transducers which pick up vibrations and convert them into a voltage which can then be made audible...
s on telegraph wires (e.g. Alan Lamb's Primal Image).
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, an ethereal wave
Ethereal Wave
Ethereal Wave, also called ethereal darkwave in Europe and ethereal goth or simply ethereal in the US, is a term that describes a subgenre of Dark Wave music...
trend emerged within the dark wave movement, that tended toward moody atmospheric pieces rather than jangly minor-key rock. Ethereal wave
Ethereal Wave
Ethereal Wave, also called ethereal darkwave in Europe and ethereal goth or simply ethereal in the US, is a term that describes a subgenre of Dark Wave music...
was mainly associated with the Projekt record label, with bands like Black Tape for a Blue Girl
Black tape for a blue girl
Black Tape for a Blue Girl is an American Dark Wave band formed in 1986 by Projekt Records' founder Sam Rosenthal. Their music takes on elements of dark cabaret, Dark Wave, ethereal, ambient and neoclassical music. Director David Lynch...
composing moody ambient soundscapes.
By the mid-1990s, a large number of artists were working in ambient industrial, ambient noise, ethereal wave, illbient
Illbient
Illbient is a term allegedly coined by DJ Olive to describe the iconoclastic music being produced by a community of artists based in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York in 1994...
, isolationism
Isolationism (music)
Isolationism is term coined by British musician Kevin Martin, used to describe a darker breed of ambient music that came to prominence in the mid-1990s...
, and other emerging "dark ambient" styles. Among these artists were Endura
Endura (band)
Endura was a dark ambient band that was active during the 1990s. The band had only two members, Stephen Pennick and Christopher Walton...
, Autopsia
Autopsia
Autopsia is an art project dealing with music and visual production. Autopsia gathers authors of different professions in realization of multimedia projects. Its art practice began in London in the late 1970s, continued during the 80s in the art centers of former Yugoslavia. Since 1990, Autopsia...
, Vidna Obmana
Vidna Obmana
Vidna Obmana is a pseudonym used by Belgian composer and ambient musician Dirk Serries. The name Vidna Obmana, a phrase in Serbian, literally translates to "optical illusion" and was chosen by Serries because he felt it accurately described the music...
, Daniel Menche
Daniel Menche
Daniel Menche is a musician from Portland, Oregon. He has released music on labels such as Soleilmoon, Trente Oiseaux, Or Records, Alien8, Antifrost, Tesco Organisation, Blossoming Noise, f e r n s recordings Beta-lactam Ring Records, and Editions Mego...
, Deca
Deca
Deca- or deka- is a prefix in the metric system, also a numerical prefix, denoting a factor of ten. The term is derived from the Greek δέκα meaning "ten". Its symbol is the only SI prefix that uses more than one character....
, Lull, Raison d'etre
Raison d'être (band)
Raison d'être is a Swedish industrial ambient music project formed by Peter Andersson.The name of the band was taken from a sentence in a book by Carl Gustav Jung: "the individuation is the raison d’être of the self"....
, Hwyl Nofio
Hwyl Nofio
Hwyl Nofio is an experimental music group whose only permanent member is Steve Parry. Steve Parry was Hwyl Nofio (from Welsh meaning ‘emotional swimmers’) is an experimental music group whose only permanent member is Steve Parry. Steve Parry was Hwyl Nofio (from Welsh meaning ‘emotional swimmers’)...
, Hieronymus Bosch, and Velvet Cacoon
Velvet Cacoon
Velvet Cacoon was a black metal band from Portland, Oregon, USA. According to members, the band was formed in 1996, although no material was released publicly until 2002. Due to the lack of information being provided by its members, it has proved very difficult to discern what is truth and what is...
. In the same time dark ambient vibrated into contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
. Example of this can be project Aghiatrias
Aghiatrias
Aghiatrias is a Czech "integrated music" ensemble from Prague. The band consisted of composer Vladimír Hirsch and sound engineer Tom Saivon and was started in 1999 as an offshoot of their sympho-industrial band Skrol. Their music is based on an integration of contemporary classical music, dark...
, the solo works of composer Vladimír Hirsch
Vladimír Hirsch
Vladimír Hirsch is a Czech avantgarde composer, integrating industrial and dark ambient music with modern classical composition. Besides creating solo works, he is the founding member and leader of Skrol, Aghiatrias and various other projects...
, and composer Jessie Martin under the name TakeMeToTheMorgue
TakeMeToTheMorgue
TakeMeToTheMorgue is an Dark ambient Artist from Stuart, Virginia He is known for his numerous collaborations and lengthy albums.-Formation and "The Machine":...
Generally the music tends to evoke a feeling of solitude, melancholy, confinement, and isolation. However, while the theme in the music tends to be "dark" in nature, some artists create more organic soundscapes. Examples of such productions are those of Oöphoi, Alio Die, Mathias Grassow, Tau Ceti, and Klaus Wiese
Klaus Wiese
Klaus Wiese was a veteran e-musician, minimalist, and multi-instrumentalist. A master of the tibetan singing bowl, he created an extensive series of album releases using them...
. The Symphonies of the Planets series, a collection of works by NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
and Brain/Mind Research in which planetary electromagnetic waves are captured by the Voyager
Voyager program
The Voyager program is a U.S program that launched two unmanned space missions, scientific probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment of the late 1970s...
unmanned space probes and converted into audible sound, can also be considered an organic manifestation of dark ambient.
Ambient noise
It has been said that noise music is a 'relative' or 'sister' genre to dark ambient, or vice-versa. Noise is considered unpleasant and dark, as is dark ambient. Some noise artists create almost ambient soundscapes, such as AubeAube (band)
Aube is the name used by Japanese musician for his experimental noise records. He has released many CDs, LPs and cassettes since 1991, and is regarded as one of the most important noise musicians working today. He himself does not like to term his work "music," preferring the term "design": "I...
, Junkielover, MOZ, Daniel Menche
Daniel Menche
Daniel Menche is a musician from Portland, Oregon. He has released music on labels such as Soleilmoon, Trente Oiseaux, Or Records, Alien8, Antifrost, Tesco Organisation, Blossoming Noise, f e r n s recordings Beta-lactam Ring Records, and Editions Mego...
, Kiyoshi Mizutani, Iszoloscope
Iszoloscope
Iszoloscope is an industrial band from Aylmer, Quebec, currently based in Montreal. Iszoloscope's music ranges from harsh, rhythmic noise to ambient soundscapes...
, and some Merzbow
Merzbow
is the main recording name of the Japanese noise musician , born in 1956. Since 1979 he has released in excess of 350 recordings.The name "Merzbow" comes from German artist Kurt Schwitters' artwork, "Merzbau”. This was chosen to reflect Akita's dada influence and junk art aesthetic...
. Some, for example Iszoloscope
Iszoloscope
Iszoloscope is an industrial band from Aylmer, Quebec, currently based in Montreal. Iszoloscope's music ranges from harsh, rhythmic noise to ambient soundscapes...
, also compose ambient on the side, such as his Les Gorges Des Limbes album. While the two genres cannot really compare sound wise, many labels, such as Ant-Zen
Ant-Zen
Ant-Zen Audio and Visual Arts is a German independent record label founded in 1994 by Stefan Alt , who serves as the art director. Visual arts from Ant-Zen are typically bleak but astonishing landscapes, or microscopic studies of what is often overlooked...
, release both ambient and noise, as well as combinations of both, taking both avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
genres further.