frank zappa said...

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture"."

Helpful as that is, I think Zappa was right in one sense, but not quite in the way its usually taken. Art is about synthesizing and reinterpreting experience, not about being formally literal. It should not be taken that he meant that you cannot dance about architecture and that writing about music is equally as futile. I don't think that's what he was trying to get across. That's flat wrong. Frank Zappa could not have been that simple-minded. Could he? In as much as one may make music about the experience of being in the Artic, one may dance an interpretation of architecture, with equal validity. Writing is not intended as a substitute for the actual music it is about. It is intended as a further way in to deeper understanding and more richly experiencing the music. Zappa was telling us not to mistake interpretation of art done in one form for the art that exists in another form.

Although I use reviews too, I keep in mind what Marcel Duchamp said: "I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste. "

'Ambient' does not necessarily have to mean pleasant music-like noises - it can and should be comprehensive enough to include the widest range of human experience possible - as jazz and other musics allow. 'Ambient-ness' lies mostly in the intentions of the music and not fully in the components of the sounds. If the sound is organized at all and not
specifically intended to demand your full attention, its intentions follow a ( (possible) loose ) rule of ambient music. Harsh, machine-like, rhythm-less pounding noise can be 'ambient' as much as soothing, drifting drones combined with artificial bird sounds. Probably will never sell as well though... (relatively speaking)

Fight the real oppressor and throw off your painful shackles of exclusion before ambient music is caused to ossify into a narrow formula like Bluegrass and embrace the concept of what our golden boys Broads of Canasta have insisted is that "Music Has the Right To Children"! (Be they even Red Headed Stepchildren with no manners and obvious gastric disorders)

Remember The Fountain's doppleganger!