Daniel Davis has proposed an interesting project, the Multiple Artist Ambient Project, at his blog, Carl Sagan’s Ghost:
Brian Eno’s idea of ambient music was birthed from a Zaireeka-like experience: while sick in the hospital, he could hear music being played softly from down the hall. When mixed in with the noises of the surroundings, the music took on an ambient quality – it couldn’t be fully listened to, and yet it couldn’t be ignored.
I say we complete the circle and record a multiple-artist album in multiple parts that are meant to be played simultaneously in a mix-and-match fashion up to the listener’s preference.
If you’re interested in a project like this, contact Davis via ddavis ( at) carlsagansghost.com.
I could see this being expanded to a sort of ambient In C, but where anyone could publish an addition to the work by releasing audio that conforms to certain rules (Creative Commons licensed, should work with previously released contributions, etc.)
If you’ve got other ideas, leave a comment below!
Image: -RobW-
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Tags: ambient music
9 Responses to “MAAP: The Multiple Artist Ambient Project”
Please Wait
I did this in 2004 with my CD "Fluidities". It was a double CD with every other track by me and various artists (Saul Stokes, Tetsu Inoue, Ian Boddy, and more). All the tracks were in A minor or C, and 6 minutes long. You could play the two CDs simultaneously on randome play and get 12 hours of music.
It was released by the Foundry in association with Hypnos, and you check it out here:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jonathanhughes
Thanks for getting word out. Things are coming together, and I'll have more information available soon.
Basically, we'll have a core group of artists picking a key, BPM, length, and other factors, with each artist recording a part for the over all composition. However, if more artists outside of this core group also contributed their own parts, thus allowing the project to grow organically, I think it would be very cool. It could turn into some kind of ever-evolving collective where people are mixing and matching parts while writing and recording new things.
"if more artists outside of this core group also contributed their own parts"
Ahh, but that's the problem isn't it?
We have DJ's, we have remixers, we have ambient mashup "artists."
Can't sing? Try autotuning it.
Too bad no one bothered to learn and practice music.
Now all they can do is manipulate and as an excuse for it all, call it artistic creation.
Button pushers who let technology perform and take credit as if it's talent.
Learn to friggin write, play and perform, then IF you're actually talented, you too can be a star.
One of the millions and millions of stars that exist in our cosmos today….
Bilbo, I don't think that would be in the spirit of Brian Eno at all…
Eno has dedicated his life to making music that comes from machines, hasn't he? I mean, he chooses certain elements and lets the machine make the music, doesn't he? I mean, that's rather crude terms… but he does say himself that people that aren't really musicians desiring to make "music" can now do what they want with the little knowledge they have due to technology?
These contributors may not be gifted with musical or instrumental skills, but I'm certain Brian Eno would never discourage them. … Musicians are lazy. Why shouldn't the ones desiring to be musicians be equally lazy?
I've always thought the term 'artist' as a sort of honorarium bestowed upon someone for the quality of their work, rather than as a formal qualification giving someone the exclusive right to try.
I've always thought the term 'artist' as a sort of honorarium bestowed upon someone for the quality of their work, rather than as a formal qualification giving someone the exclusive right to try.
Of course, it must be extremely frustrating having to do the equivalent of reciting an exquisitely wrought poem in, say, a football stadium and one can't be heard and everyone's looking in the other direction and singing out-of-tune to boot. But artistic quality and popularity have always been somewhat separate ambitions…
I use the word 'artist' like this:
artist = someone who creates art
What is art? Who knows.
Bilbo – it sounds like you are very much against the use of technology in music, and especially the idea that it somehow allows non-musicians to cheat their way into the music industry.
That's all well and good, but you haven't made clear why that has anything to do with Davis's project.
Are you suggesting that a collaborative ambient project is going to attract musical hucksters that want to be stars?