Dark Ambient

Dark Ambient music, which began creeping into the scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s, is essentially what happens when you let a bunch of sound artists loose in a darkened room with a few synthesizers and an idea far too profound for the rest of us to grasp. It's characterised by sprawling soundscapes that evoke dread, melancholy, or occasionally the overwhelming urge to keep the lights on at night; think ethereal drones, eerie field recordings, and the sound of a thousand existential crises. While it might not blast from the charts anytime soon, its fans quietly revel in the soundtrack to their own haunting contemplations – a bit like a gloomy rainstorm, only with fewer puddles and more philosophical overtones.