The History of Rock Music - The Nineties

The History of Rock Music: 1989-1994

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( Copyright © 2009 Piero Scaruffi)

Post-ambient Music

(These are excerpts from my book "A History of Rock and Dance
Music")

Electronic Ambience, 1989-93

TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

New studio techniques and new electronic and digital instruments allowed
rock music and avantgarde music to develop new kinds of composition
and performance. Ambient and cosmic music, in particular, reached an
artistic peak. Noise was employed in a less irreverent and more calculated
manner. Electronic sounds became less alien and more humane. Sound
effects became the center of mass, not the centrifugal force. Overall, the
emphasis shifted from melody/rhythm to "sound" and "ambience". And, in
a way, this was the terminal point of a movement begun at the outset of
the 20th century to emancipate music from the dogmas of classical music.

French combo Lightwave (20) was still composing electronic tonal poems
in the spirit of the German "cosmic couriers" of the 1970s, but they added
intrepid new ideas. Serge Leroy and Christoph Harbonnier harked back to
Klaus Schulze's early works on Nachtmusik (1990), but enhanced that
cliche' with techniques borrowed from avantgarde music. Tycho Brahe
(1993), that added Paul Haslinger (ex-Tangerine Dream) and violinist
Jacques Deregnaucourt to the line-up, offered elegant, dramatic and highly
dynamic chamber-electronic music of a kind that had never been heard
before. Electronic music had matured into something both more
conventional (like a traditional instrument) and more alien (like a
supernatural harmony). Mundus Subterraneus (1995) reached new
psychological depths, while furthering their soundpainting both at the
microscopic and at the macroscopic levels. A spiderweb of metabolizing
structures, an organic blend of timbres, drones and dissonances, it blurred
the line between rationality and chaos, showing one as being the sense of
the other. The spirit of Lightwave's music recalled the allegorical,
encyclopedic minutiae of medieval treatises, an elaborate clockwork of

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The History of Rock Music - The Nineties

impossible mirages and erudite quotations. Ultimately, it was a journey

back to the roots of the human adventure.

In Germany, Uwe Schmidt's multi-faceted saga began with Lassigue

Bendthaus and unfocused electronic soundscapes such as the ones on
Render (1994). His ambient/atmospheric project Atom Heart was more
successful, particularly with Morphogenetics Fields (1994). N+'s Built
(1996), which was virtually a tribute to cosmic music, and the numerous
collaborations between Bill Laswell and Pete Namlook completed his
training in the field of lengthy, static electronic poems. But his activity
ranged from Latin music, explored by Senor Coconut Y Su Conjunto, for
example on El Gran Baile (1997), to the digital ambient/industrial jazz-
rock of Flanger, a collaboration with percussionist Bernd Friedman, on
Templates (1999). His partnership with Japanese visionary Tetsu Inoue
was particulary relevant. The third Datacide (1) album, Flowerhead
(1994), toyed with a noise-based form of ambient music that sounded like
organic matter slowly developing into an embryo. The duo recorded
ambient works under several names, notably Masters Of Psychedelic
Ambiance's MU (1995) and Second Nature's Second Nature (1995).

Tetsu Inoue, Uwe Schmidt's partner in Datacide, was even more delicate
on Ambiant Otaku (1994).

In Belgium, Vidna Obmana (2), Dirk Serries' project, practiced electronic

soundpainting on the ambient trilogy begun with Passage In Beauty
(1991), but Echoing Delight (1993) shifted the emphasis towards spiritual
and tribal evocations. This is the genre in which Serries gave his most
original and poignant works, first Spiritual Bonding (1994), a
collaboration with Steve Roach and Robert Rich, and then Crossing The
Trail (1998).

In Holland, Ron Boots's Different Stories and Twisted Tales (1993)

straddled the border between sequencer and ambient music. In Portugal
Nuno Canavarro produced one of the most atmospheric works of early
ambient music, Plux Quba (1988).

San Francisco's Kim Cascone (1) mined the border between ambient music
and musique concrete both on Heavenly Music Corporation's In A
Garden Of Eden (1993) and on PGR's The Morning Book of Serpents
(1995).

A Produce (2), Barry Craig's project, also from California, crafted Reflect
Like A Mirror (1993), an impeccable follow-up to Brian Eno's and
Harold Budd's ambient classics, as well as the majestic albeit brainy
world-music of Land Of A Thousand Trances (1994).

Happy The Man's keyboardist Kit Watkins (1) composed the austere
Thought Tones (1992) and especially Circle (1993), a suite for electronic
sounds and natural sounds.

In Canada, Delerium (3), an offshoot of Front Line Assembly, crossed

over into gothic, dance and pop music with meticulously and lushly
arranged albums such as Stone Tower (1990), Spiritual Archives (1991)
and Spheres (1994). Their associates Will (1) composed the pagan mass
Pearl Of Great Price (1991) in a similar vein.

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The History of Rock Music - The Nineties

Arizona-based Life Garden (1) sounded like the electronic version of

Popol Vuh on Caught Between The Tapestry Of Silence And Beauty
(1991).

The "organic sound sculpting" of Voice Of Eye (2), the Texas-based duo
of Bonnie McNaim and Jim Wilson, was inspired, at different levels, by
Steve Roach, Harold Budd, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Mariner Sonique
(1993), the seven Vespers (1994), imbued with medieval spirituality and
zen transcendence, and the six movements of Transmigration (1996) co-
founded the religious version of electronic world-music with Life Garden.

The most challenging and political form of ambient music was perhaps the
one invented in New York by Terre Thaemlitz, for example on Soil
(1995).

Liquid Mind (2), the project of Los Angeles-based composer Chuck Wild,
sculpted the ecstatic Ambience Minimus (1994): memorable melodies
slowed down, came to a standstill and decomposed in celestial chimes,
echoes of angels and breathing of nebulae. The neo-classical Unity
(2000), instead, let strings and woodwinds float, multiply and merge as if
an entire repertory of "adagios" was being played in slow motion and out
of sync by an orchestra of orchestras.

In a lighter mood, Richard Bone (2) was equally at ease with the surreal
synth-pop of Vox Orbita (1995) and the ambient symphony of Eternal
Now (1996).

Dutch duo Beequeen (Frans De Waard and Freek Kinkelaar) dabbled in

droning compositions inspired by ambient, cosmic and industrial music,
notably on their most austere recordings, such as Music For The Head
Ballet (1996) and Treatise (2000).

Electronic Ambient World Music, 1988-94

TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

By exploiting Steve Roach's ideas, a number of musicians scoured the

territory at the border between new-age music, ambient music and world-
music.

San Francisco's "modern primitivism" movement was best represented by

a multi-national commune that emerged with the music of Lights In A Fat
City (1), centered upon Canadian electronic composer Kenneth Newby,
British-born didjeridoo player Stephen Kent and percussionist Eddy Sayer.
Somewhere (1988) was possibly the first electronic album built around
the sound of the didjeridoo, and juxtaposed hypnotic rhythms to a madly
droning background. Sound Column (1993) was a more philosophical
work, comprising four improvisations for didjeridoo and acoustic
instruments recorded inside a huge pillar. That project evolved into Trance
Mission (12), formed by Newby and Kent with Club Foot Orchestra's
clarinetist Beth Custer and percussionist John Loose. Trance Mission
(1993), a dense maelstrom of jazz improvisation, transcendental exotica,
atmospheric electronica and tribal rhythms, took a new route to Brian

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The History of Rock Music - The Nineties

Eno's ambient trance and to Jon Hassell's fourth-world music. That

wedding of futuristic and ancestral elements was abandoned on
Meanwhile (1995), for a more facile dance-exotic fusion that evoked the
vision of the Third Ear Band mixed by a techno producer; while later
works such as Head Light (1997) veered towards an alien form of free-
jazz. Kent and harpist Barbara Imhoff (accompanied by a percussionist
and a vocalist) explored a simpler kind of electronic folk music under the
moniker Beasts Of Paradise on Gathered On The Edge (1995).

Kenneth Newby (10), a member of the Trance Mission collective, crafted

Ecology Of Souls (1993), perhaps the most accomplished fusion of
electronic music and exotic instruments of the era. Four lengthy suites
explored a magical, surreal, mythological landscape roamed by rhythmic
patterns and primordial sounds, swept by intergalactic winds and tidal
waves of cosmic radiations, while melodramatic and ethereal moments
alternated at creating a metaphysical suspense.

Germany's Enigma (2), the project of Romanian-born veteran disco

producer and electronic composer Michael Cretu (aka Curly M.C.),
elaborated a pseudo-ethnic ambient style that would be very influencial on
mainstream music. MCMXC A.D. (1990) mixed Gregorian chanting,
dance beats, new-age ecstasy and exotic fascination. The Cross Of
Changes (1994) was a tour de force of juxtapositions and layering that
roamed the world for inspiration (French chansons, African polyrhythms,
Middle-eastern cantillation, Peruvian flutes, operatic choirs, etc).

France's Deep Forest (1) were successful on Deep Forest (1992) with a
similar idea: an atmospheric potion of ethnic samples and dance beats.

Mo Boma (12), the duo of German multi-instrumentalist Carsten

Tiedemann and Iceland-born jazz bassist Skuli Sverrisson, achieved a
brilliant fusion of Brian Eno, Jon Hassell, Klaus Schulze, Weather Report
and Pat Metheny, for the age of raves on Jijimuge (1992) and especially
on the more electronic, primitive-futurist Myths Of The Near Future
(1994). The first part of a trilogy recorded in South Africa in 1993, the
latter set the foundations for the sophisticated ethno-jazz of Myths Of The
Near Future Part Two (released in 1995) and the lush, symphonic
"thickness" of Myths Of The Near Future Part Three (1996). Overall,
the trilogy represented a majestic celebration of the human race.

Australia's Eden (11), the brainchild of vocalist Sean Bowley, displayed

the combined influence of Dead Can Dance's exotic/medieval music and
Nico's ancestral folk on the madrigals of Gateway To The Mysteries
(1990), performed by a chamber ensemble (rich in ancient instruments)
and sung in lugubrious ecclesiastical tones. The macabre and decadent
ballads of Fire And Rain (1995) added Paul Machliss' electronic
arrangements.

Veteran British guitarist Mike Cooper, who had played blues in the 1960s
and jazz in the 1970s, coined "ambient electronic exotica" (reminiscent of
Jon Hassell's "fourth-world music") for guitar, electronics, samples of old
records, and field recordings from exotic countries on albums such as
Kiribati (1999), Globe Notes (2001) and Rayon Hula (2004).

Edited and updated in 2010 by Rocco Stilo

The History of Rock Music - The Nineties

Transglobal trance, 1992-94

TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

It was not avantgarde, but Britain's "transglobal dance" was a natural

consequence of the merger of electronica and world-music in the age of
raves.

TUU (2), mainly Martin Franklin's project, delivered arcane, sacred and
ethnic trance on One Thousand Years (1992), evoking both Third Ear
Band and Popol Vuh. All Our Ancestors (1995) approached chamber
music and Jon Hassell's fourth-world music, while the more electronic
Mesh (1997) was influenced by Steve Roach's sinister soundscapes.

Voices Of Kwahn offered an elegant fusion of quirky vocals and

electronic/ethnic ambience on their second album Silver Bowl
Transmission (1996).

Guitar drones

TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

An important thread for ambient music was started in Britain when the
post-shoegazing psychedelic groups began playing music anchored to
guitar drones. Seefeel (2) pioneered the idea on Quique (1993) and
Succour (1994). The combination of Sarah Peacock's stunned vocals,
Mark Clifford's minimalist guitars, Justin Fletcher's proto-rhythms and
Darren Seymour's dub bass lines dissolved the music of My Bloody
Valentine and Spacemen 3 in nebulae of abstract sound.

Drone-based symphonies became the bread and butter of most shoegazing

veterans.

Spacemen 3's guitarist Sonic Boom (Peter Kember) began a stubborn

quest for the mystical qualities of sound. His first success was with Soul
Kiss (1991), the second, ultra-ethereal album by Spectrum (1). Kember's
second success came with Experimental Audio Research (2), or E.A.R.,
the experimental trio formed with God's Kevin Martin and My Bloody
Valentine's Kevin Shields, who produced at least two innovative
recordings: the four cosmic-ambient suites of Mesmerised (1994) and the
three futuristic concertos of Millennium Music (1998).

Main (2), the new project of Loop's Robert Hampson, was an obsessive
probe into the power of drones. Over the course of a number of EPs,
Hydra (1991), Calm (1992), Dry Stone Feed (1993) and Firmament
(1993), and the album Motion Pool (1994), Hampson's style evolved from
a dark, cold, dynamic sound to a softer, static, almost mystical sound. The
two colossal tracks of Firmament II (1994) and the six multi-part suites
of Hz (1996) coined a sophisticated art of nuances that, far from being
only cacophonous and monotonous, was rich in the way that a black hole
is rich of invisible gravitational energy. Hampson's technique was perhaps
the closest a rock musician had come to repeating Karlheinz Stockhausen's
experiments of the 1960s.

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The History of Rock Music - The Nineties

Sound manipulation of acoustic sources became the focus of many artists

of this generation.

Rapoon (3), the brainchild of Zoviet France's Robin Storey, gave new
meaning to the fusion of Indian and western music on albums such as
Vernal Crossing (1993) and The Kirghiz Light (1995), exalted orgies of
samples, loops and mixing that "used" drones and rhythms rather than
"playing" drones and rhythms. He then converted to the
mystical/contemplative style of Darker By Light (1996), Easterly 6 Or 7
(1997) and The Fires Of The Borderlands (1998), that basically
reconciled his experiments with new-age music.

O.Rang (1), the new project of Talk Talk's rhythm section of Lee Harris
(percussions) and Paul Webb (now on keyboards), manipulated the sounds
of a small orchestra of friends on Herd Of Instinct (1994).

Flying Saucer Attack (2), i.e. the duo of multi-instrumentalists Dave

Pearce and Rachel Brook, were among the groups that transformed
psychedelic rock into an austere form of chamber music. The albums
Flying Saucer Attack (1993), Further (1995) and New Lands (1997)
refined a kind of shoegazing that relied increasingly on melody, yielding
delicate elegies set against a disturbing background of cosmic music, free-
jazz, Throbbing Gristle's industrial noise, LaMonte Young's droning music
or contemplative new-age music.

German guitar trio Maeror Tri (1) co-pioneered doomsday's music for
guitar-drones, although their white-noise hurricanes, particularly on the
monumental Myein (1995), recorded in 1992 and 1993, were reminiscent
of both Glenn Branca's symphonies and Throbbing Gristle's industrial
nightmares.

Ambient avantgarde, 1989-94

TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

At the turn of the century, ambient composers abounded all over the
world.

Veteran British music critic David Toop (2) aimed for Brian Eno's ambient
ecstasy via a mix of natural sounds, electronic sounds and acoustic
instruments on Buried Dreams (1994), a collaboration with Max Eastley,
basically reinventing musique concrete for the ambient generation. Screen
Ceremonies (1995) was the austere manifesto of this fusion of ethnic and
concrete music. Toop used real buildings as well as imaginary buildings as
sources of inspiration, conceiving them as sentient organisms, notably for
the 26-minute eco-suite Smell of Human Life, off Museum Of Fruit
(1999).

Belgian composer Benjamin Lew (1) crafted Le Parfum Du Raki (1993)

for an ensemble of electronic, ethnic and acoustic instruments.

Alio Die (2), the project of Italian composer Stefano Musso, assembled
electronic pieces such as Sit Tibi Terra Levis (1991) that continued
Harold Budd's program of angelic music. In Suspended Feathers (1995)

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The History of Rock Music - The Nineties

tiny instances of natural sounds appear in calm soft soundscapes and

create disorienting shifting perspectives, the sonic equivalent of a camera
that slowly moves around the landscape. The drone symphony Password
for Entheogenic Experience (1997) evolves in time instead of space, as
the initial pastoral setting gets stretched and dilated into a dreamy
mournful adagio and then modulated into the geometry of a baroque fugue
and then channeled into the austere macabre grandeur of a requiem.

British audio-visual technician Andrew Lagowski launched both the dark

ambient project of Legion, that released False Dawn (1992) for found
sounds and white noise, and especially Leviathan (1996), a six-movement
symphony of exoteric electronica, and the project SETI, at the border
between techno, ambient and dub.

German electronic musician Pete Namlook (Peter Kuhlmann), one of the

most prolific musicians of all times (not a compliment), focused on the
untapped potential of analog synthesizers, often developing or extending
the instruments in his own laboratory. Most of his 200+ recordings were
collaborations with influential artists of his time, and many were repeated
collaborations (i.e., with sequels): Silence (1992) with Dr Atmo, The
Dark Side Of The Moog (1994) with Klaus Schulze, Psychonavigation
(1994) with Bill Laswell, Jet Chamber (1995) with Atom Heart, etc.
Namlook's own music, the series that started with Air (1993), endorsed
one or a combination of the following: German "kosmische musik", Brian
Eno's "discreet" music, free-jazz and/or Eastern classical music.

After familiarizing himself with the soft, slowly-decaying gong drones of

Teimo (1992), German composer Thomas Koner (1) penned the drone-
based ambient music of Permafrost (1993). These pieces laid the
foundations for hour-long compositions such as Daikan (2001), the zenith
of his icy ambience, and Une Topographie Sonore (2003), that obsessively
explores a magical and ethereal soundscape of natural sounds and eerie
drones.

Australian composer Paul Schutze (15) was inspired by Brian Eno's

ambient music, Miles Davis' jazz-rock and Pierre Henry's musique
concrete for the one-hour collage of Deus Ex Machina (1989) and for the
claustrophobic Topology Of A Phantom City, off New Maps Of Hell
(1992), perhaps the best formulation of his "chaotic minimalism", a
psychological puzzle of dissonance, trance, jazz, psychedelia, tribal frenzy,
raga and ambient melodrama. The same urban neurosis tore The Rapture
Of Metals (1993) apart, and disfigured Apart (1995), an imposing
summary of his techniques, particularly the cryptic and sinister suite Sleep.
Nine Songs From The Garden Of Welcome Lies (1997) employed
organs instead of synthesizers to improvise soundscapes halfway between
Monet's abstract impressionism and Tibetan mantras.

Indiana-based ambient guitarist Jeff Pearce employed layers and layers of

electronically-processed guitar melodies to compose The Hidden Rift
(1996).

New York-based pianist Ruben Garcia (1) opted for a more emotional
version of Harold Budd's ambient piano minimalism in Eleven Moons, off
Room Full of Easels (1996).

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The History of Rock Music - The Nineties

Alaska resident John Luther Adams composed static music in the

minimalist tradition but scored for chamber orchestras. Thus his colossal
In The White Silence (1998), The Light That Fills the World (2000) and
The Immeasurable Space of Tones (2001) for violin, vibraphone, piano,
keyboard and contrabass.

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Edited and updated in 2010 by Rocco Stilo