Music has always been about experimentation and interpretation. And improvisation. Music expresses emotion, passion, excitement, terror.

It’s part of what we are as human beings, as creators of music. We share the ability to create or absorb and understand what constitutes the notion of a “piece of music”.

And we don’t need to have any special skills for this; we interpret music in our own diverse way.

In much the same way as art, music can be interpreted by different people in many different ways. There is no right or wrong when it comes to appreciating music.

There are no guidelines or rules when it comes to appreciating a tune. However, music, by its very nature, requires some kind of structure in order for it to be called music.

Some would argue that there are genres or forms of (let’s just loosely describe it as) music that defy the recognised structure that we, and just as an example because it is the area I am most familiar with, Western music, are familiar with. The regular rhythm of beats, timing signatures, expectations of an almost mathematical predictability of sound, are what makes us instantly recognise that something is music. And we can trace these recognisable beats and rhythms all the way to ancient African tribes people. Of course, there are many other countries in the world that have their own ethnic forms of music, often with quite complex rhythm patterns.

[ambient music in background] [5 mins]

What I would like to present to you in this series of podcasts is a taste of a musical style known as Dark Ambient.