Sounds
6 sounds24 subgenres59 tags
Electronic music has spent a century freeing sound: first from the need to come from a traditional instrument, then from conventional pitch and rhythm, finally from the usual form of a composition. The thread runs from musique concrète to hypnotic techno, and back again: techno gave experimental music the body, the beat and shared time; drone and spectral music gave techno a way to think of rhythm as harmony, resonance and perception.
These are not one genre, and the line between them is not a family tree. They share a handful of problems, and that is what we listen for.
Five ideas
- Sound as matter
- From musique concrète to Mika Vainio, sound is no longer just a note or a chord: it is a physical thing to cut, filter, distort, play back and transform.Pierre Schaeffer · Delia Derbyshire · Ø · Pan Sonic
- Frequency as harmony
- From La Monte Young and Éliane Radigue to spectral music, harmony comes from the relations between frequencies, from resonance and beating.The Well-Tuned Piano · Trilogie de la Mort · Les Espaces Acoustiques · The Sacrificial Code
- Repetition as time
- From minimalism to techno, the loop is more than a rhythmic device: it changes how time is perceived, makes trance possible and lets the smallest change be heard.Terry Riley · Steve Reich · Gas · Function · Voices From The Lake
- The machine
- Industrial music brings out the material, aggressive side of the machine; techno uses its precision; digital minimalism explores its repetition and abstraction.Cabaret Voltaire · Throbbing Gristle · Regis · Emptyset
- Space as composition
- From the reverb of dub to the sound cathedrals of Kali Malone, by way of dark ambient, space is not what surrounds the sound: it is part of the work.Basic Channel · Thomas Köner · Raime · Kali Malone
A record gets in when at least two of these hold, and a small circuit (micro-labels, short runs, little promotion) counts as one. Every record page says which, under Why it's here. How we choose.
Six sounds
From the most atmospheric to the heaviest. Every record and signal on the site is filed under one of them, and within it under one of four subgenres and at most four tags. A sound gets its own page from its 5th record; until then, its records are in Records.
- Ambient Sound as spectrum, resonance, space and duration.Frequency as harmonySpace as composition 23 records · 27 artists ambient dronedark ambientindustrial ambientelectroacoustic
- IDM Broken rhythm, deconstruction and electronic composition.The machineSound as matter 6 records · 5 artists idmglitch & microsoundbreakcoremodular synthesis
- Techno Machine, repetition and trance, the beat as an architecture of time.Repetition as timeThe machine 34 records · 35 artists ambient technodub technohypnotic technodetroit electro
- Experimental The border territory.Sound as matterThe machine 12 records · 24 artists abstract technomutant technodeconstructed cluboutsider bass
- Industrial The machine, feedback and the physical weight of sound as a language.The machineSound as matter 4 records · 6 artists · page from 5 industrialpost-industrialindustrial technoebm
- Noise Sound pushed to its limits.Sound as matterFrequency as harmony 3 records · 2 artists · page from 5 harsh noiserhythmic noisenoise ambientpower electronics
A century in eight steps
- 1900–1940Luigi Russolo, Edgard Varèse, John CageNoise becomes music: any sound can be musical material.
- 1940–1959Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry, Halim El-Dabh, Daphne OramRecorded sound becomes material: the studio stops documenting music and starts composing it.
- 1950–1970Delia Derbyshire, Daphne Oram, Bebe Barron, Else Marie Pade, Wendy CarlosSynthesis: timbre can be composed as precisely as a melody.
- 1960–1980La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Pauline Oliveros, Éliane RadigueMinimalism and drone: music can change without the notes changing, by changing how we hear them.
- 1970–1990Gérard Grisey, Tristan Murail, Maryanne Amacher, Alvin LucierSpectral music: harmony can grow from the inside of a single sound.
- 1975–1990Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, Coil, SPKIndustrial: repetition can be a threat, and sound can be physical before it is melodic.
- 1985–2000Detroit techno, Basic Channel, Gas, Aphex Twin, Mika VainioTechno, dub and digital minimalism: a repeated pattern can become an environment, a trance, an architecture.
- 2000–Sarah Davachi, Caterina Barbieri, Kali Malone, Raime, Vatican Shadow, EmptysetNew convergences: the history of electronic music becomes an archive of techniques to combine freely.
Women composers are not a footnote to this story: Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire, Éliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros and Maryanne Amacher shaped its methods, often with far less recognition than their male colleagues.
Tags
Tags cut across the sounds: acid can be techno or industrial, a drone can be ambient or noise. A record or a signal gets at most four, from these lists.
Qualities & atmospheres
cinematicdarkdesolateetherealexperimentalglacialhypnoticmeditativemelancholicmonumentalnocturnalnordicpsychedelicspectral
Techniques & media
collageelectronicfield recordinglo-fimicrotonalmodulartape
Genres & styles
acidambientambient technoavant-gardebreakbeatbreakcorecoldwavedark ambientdarkwavedeath industrialdeep housedetroitdowntempodronedubdub technodubstepebmelectroelectroacousticglitchgrimeharsh noiseidmindustrialindustrial dubmicrosoundminimalminimal synthminimal technomodern classicalmusique concrètenoisepower electronicsritualtechnotribaluk garage