Ambient in the 1990s: Unsung Classics of the Genre from Tetsu Inoue, Global Communication, and the trio of Jonah Sharp, Mixmaster Morris & Haruomi Hosono

The 1990s were a transformative decade for ambient music, a genre whose name had been coined a mere 15-odd years earlier by Brian Eno with the release of Discreet Music, Music for Airports and his series of collaborations with Laraaji, Harold Budd, Daniel Lanois and others.

For our purposes, when we want to push the limits of the system and immerse ourselves in sound, 1990s ambient recordings are often a go-to. In that decade, ambient music converged with the nascent rave scene when multi-room events allowed for genre-specific selectors, whether jungle, happy house, techno or so-called chill-out music. The latter drew DJs who catered to the petered-out after 3 a.m. set looking for a break, whether to make out, rest or get lost in candy-flipping bliss.

As the late Jamie Tiller of Music from Memory told writer Andy Beta in 2021 in a conversation for Bandcamp, chill-out rooms “never really seemed to have succeeded as an actual club’s chill out-room.” Tiller discussing the then-new compilation Virtual Dreams: Ambient Explorations In The House & Techno Age, 1993​-​1997. “The music was always leaking from the main room. Or the chill-out room was just filled with people who were simply too high, trying to sober up or looking for somewhere to pass out. It seemed to work better as a pre- or post-club experience at home.”

That meant, however, that music designed for contemplative listening was mastered to be played very, very loud. And since a lot of 1990s ambient music was composed on MIDI-connected digital synths, digitally-encoded compact discs were an excellent format for the job.

We’ve highlighted great 1990s ambient music in the past, including tips on Future Sound of London, Dream Dolphin, the great Excursions in Ambience series, Ultramarine, Stars of the Lid and many more. Still, the volume of ambient records released from 1990-’99 is overwhelming, even if far fewer were released on the “then-obsolete” vinyl during that period, when major labels were doing their best to kill the format. As such, a lot of ambient vinyl is hard to find and/or afford. The good news? Labels like Music from Memory and re:discovery are tapping the wellspring and issuing some of the best on wax for the first time. Too, if you’ve got a CD player, a lot of this stuff is very, very inexpensive right now.

Below: A handful of ambient records from 1990s to add to your shopping cart of choice.

Mixmaster Morris, Jonah Sharp and Haruomi Hosono – Quiet Logic

Recently issued on vinyl for the first time by WDWTFWW Records, Quiet Logic is a WTF meeting-of-the-minds: British chillout-room king Mixmaster Morris, Jonah Sharp aka Spacetime Continuum, and YMO-cofounder/composer Haruomi Hosono. Originally released on Hosono’s Daisyworld Discs in 1998, Quiet Logic defies easy description. Unlike Eno’s idea of ambient as background music, Quiet Logic begs to be heard with undivided attention, loudness and maybe a little boost of the bass knob. Opening track “Waraitake” is epic in every sense of the word; it’s 13:36 minute shimmer with glassine treble tones, impatient midrange squiggles and blurts and more trunk-rattling low-end rumble than you’d expect. Brilliant and essential — and we’re selling it in our shop.

Tetsu Inoue – World Receiver

Nobody ever said that ambient music had to be relaxing. The great dark ambient producer Lustmord, for example, built his own subgenre on the idea that the music can add layers of oozing menace to any environment. The mysterious Japanese ambient/glitch/noise producer Tetsu Inoue’s World Receiver delivers on its title, as the artist uses ambient sounds drawn from public spaces to add texture to its seven pieces, each of which extends beyond eight minutes. One of the most important ambient musicians of the 1990s, Inoue tore through the decade, working with artists including Bill Laswell, Pete Namlook, Carl Stone, Terre Thaemlitz, Jonah Sharp and others and released more than two dozen albums. Then, abruptly, Inoue stopped. He hasn’t released music since 2007.

Global Communication – 76:14

Released in 1994 by the team of DJ-producers Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard, 76:14 is a breathtaking journey, one that captures the essence of glistening 1990s cyberspace soundtracks. Mixing a John Carpenter-esque sense of synthetic danger, between-track whispers that will freak you out if you’re tripping, and echoed, cathedral-like drama, washes of midrange hiss and bouts of beat-based spasms, all 76:14 minutes of 76:14 are worthy of deep, focused listening. Notes by the group explained the logic behind titling the songs with their numerical lengths. “Use your imagination. Numbers are chosen to identity separate tracks because ‘names’ tend to bias the listener by pre-defining images, places and feelings. This gives the listener the freedom of imagination to derive whatever he/she wishes from the music.”

Yoshiaki Ochi – Natural Sonic

Until someone reissues the incredible — and incredibly rare — Yoshiaki Ochi collaboration with Dream Dolphin, Earth Music Cafe, this spacious, percussive 1990 album will have to do. Ochi is featured on Light in the Attic’s collection, Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980 – 1990, but the first of four albums he released between 1990 and 2002 are fascinating, dynamic ambient documents. Voices fade in and out, tapped wood blocks click and clack. On “Beat the Water,” Ochi does just that, in rhythm.

Various Artists – A Brief History of Ambient, Volume 1

We can’t recommend this ambient collection highly enough, especially considering the current price for used copies. Part of Virgin Records’ Ambient Series, the CD-only bunch of compilations contain so many essential ambient works that to call it “A Brief History” is to diminish its offerings. The first volume came out in 1993, followed by three more through 1994, each tackling different themes and scenes. On that Vol. 1, the two discs include more than two-and-a-half hours of essential works by 30-odd artists including Harold Budd, Brian Eno, Amorphous Androgynous, Laraaji, Michael Brook, Sheila Chandra, Ashra, Jon Hassell, Faust and more. The other volumes are just as great.