Links to relevant websites and streaming radio stations
In its purest form, beatless ambient music contains:
no rhythm
no melody
no lyrics
no vocals
Since most musical genres contain at least one of these elements, beatless ambient music is therefore a very special and unusual genre.
I have been interested in beatless ambient music since about 1999, and have enjoyed collecting many albums of this genre. In 2002, I started learning to play the acoustic guitar, and in 2004, I began experimenting with my guitar to create my own beatless ambient music, under the name of Slowspace. I released my debut album, The Eternal Realm, in July 2005, and I have also created several other tracks which are available on my SoundClick page.
Good introductions to ambient/space music in general can be found here and here.
A more specific introduction to beatless ambient music can be found in the album booklet text of The Eternal Realm.
I believe that most beatless ambient music can be put into one of three categories: pleasant, thought-provoking, and challenging. Below are my definitions of these categories, with some good examples of each one.
This style is the easiest to enjoy, and probably the most popular. With a strong musical basis (often using minor chords), beautiful washes of chords and plenty of variety, it's very relaxing to listen to, and there are no disagreeable aspects which anyone could object to (even people who aren't fans of beatless ambient music).
Thom Brennan is one of the leading artists in this style, and he offers dozens of free MP3s on his SoundClick music page for streaming.
This style can require a bit more effort to enjoy, like a weird abstract painting. The musical content is less strong, or consists of more unusual chords such as diminished or augmented. The music may have less variety than the previous style, and strange non-musical effects are sometimes used. Listeners should be patient and willing to take some time to understand this style, before they can fully appreciate its unusual soundscapes.
Darkest Before Dawn is a particular favourite of mine. I'm amazed that "this incredible recording was created entirely on one most heavily processed guitar, live" ... "though it doesn't have much resemblance to any ordinary guitar sounds". Just take a listen to the audio sample above – I think you'll be surprised that a guitar can create such a smooth, deep, vast sound.
Definitely not for casual listeners! This style is the least musical of the three, and very few people would claim to find it truly "enjoyable". It could be considered an experimental art form, pushing the boundaries of the possibilities of sound. The style usually feels very dark and unearthly, but not actually evil. Instead, it often suggests landscapes of desolation or barrenness, and I admire artists who have the skill to create such fantastically alien soundworlds. Even avid fans of beatless ambient music would usually have only a few albums of this style in their collection, and would only listen to them occasionally, when feeling in the mood to challenge their imagination with extreme forms of sound.
Mathias Grassow, Jim Cole & Klaus Wiese – Beneath Zero
Dead Weather Machine is an especially unusual album, since it was created entirely using audio recordings of an ancient Dimplex Tango2 electric fan heater which was completed choked with dust and beginning to break down! "...imagine being as small as a piece of dust, trekking through some enormous, dying mechanical landscape, the sounds of world-sized storms swirling all around you. A microscopic entity, floating for ages through the channels and chambers of an enormous, dying machine, a machine that makes the weather for an entire world. A machine that is slowly dying." [quoted from Manifold Records] Visit this page for more info.
For people who appreciate the aural atmospheres of beatless ambient music, but find the rhythmless nature too unstructured, there is a similar musical genre which includes various kinds of tribal drumming. Check out the tracks below for some good examples:
A master of the tribal ambient genre is Steve Roach, who has been releasing albums for twenty years. He has created some wonderful explorations into rhythmic soundworlds, and some albums worth checking out include:
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