Ambient

'Ambient' is a blanket term which has been used to describe a broad range of music, from Brian Eno's experimental compositions of the late 1970s to the experimental electronica of the 1990s and beyond. Toop (cited in Cooper) describes the Ambient label as a 'glue term' that sticks to whatever it is thrown at^[1]. Brian Eno argues that ambient music must be ''as ignorable as it is listenable, designed as a tool for creating an environment as much as an intense listening experience'^[2]. These properties made ambient music well-suited to the early 1990s rave 'chill-out' room.

Taking drugs or dancing all night at clubs, kids needed a place to come down. Thus the Chill-out room was born, where the ears(and mind) were stimulated while the feet were given a rest^[3].

The Orb are credited as the pioneers of this new wave of 1990s ambient music. The group first showcased their peculiar musical collages, which later became known as 'Ambient House', when asked to DJ in the chill-out room at Paul Oakenfold's Land Of Oz show at London's Heaven night club. The Orb's transformation of Eno's new-age ambient music of the 1970s to the 'vital post-club soundtrack' of 1990s perfectly 'mirrored and stimulated the chemically stuttered lost-and-found and lost it again time-distorted synapses of the acid house kids'^[4].

The Orb's debut release A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld, (1989) mixed a variety of noises and samples to create a recording, according to Rollingstone, that proves it was musically possible to be 'space-age electric, avant garde, classical, romantic and funny and anything else you wanted all at the same time'.

This recording was followed by the 1991 debut double album, The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld, which features the seminal club song 'Little Fluffy Clouds'. The group, aided by radio airplay, enjoyed widespread success - with their third album entering the English charts at #1. The band has always centred around Alex Paterson and has had several major line-up changes. By 1993 The Orb was able to perform live at concerts and festivals without compromising their style. These experimental improvised versions of the bands' songs appeared on a live 1993 double album Live 93'.

Other groups that have popularised and developed this style include the KLF (Kopyright Liberation Front) and the Aphex Twins. Jimmy Cauty, one of the founding members of KLF, was also a member in the first incarnation of The Orb.