12 thoughts on “Twenty Techniques For Generative Music, Inspired By Brian Eno”

1. It should be noted that “generative music” goes back at least to change-ringing, and arguably to wind chimes and aolean harps.

   1. Absolutely! As much as I like Eno, he has a tendency to take credit for things that people have done far before him, thinking that people don’t know any better. Not only your examples of generative music, but ambient music as well. Terry Riley, Klaus Schulze, Can, early Pink Floyd and early Tangerine Dream, are some examples of people/bands that were doing “ambient” before Eno coined a clever name for it.

      1. Let’s not forget that legendary BBC interview with Eno about 2 years ago, when he showed some trigger probabilities applied to drums in Logic. The interviewer asked him whether anybody else was doing this, to which Eno replied ‘no’.

         1. Yes, I noticed that too! As if no one else uses Logic’s Scripter plugin.
            Eno then says that he lets Scripter run while he goes off to do other things; if he hears something he doesn’t like, he changes the script until he likes it.
            The hipster approach to musical composition.

      2. I don’t think ANY of those bands would consider what they do ambient, and certainly none of their music aligns with Eno’s concept of it.

         If you or other people want to call Pink Floyd ambient, OK, just don’t pretend it’s Eno doing it!

         1. Listen to parts of “Echoes” and “Ummagumma” from Pink Floyd, or the album “Irrlicht” from Klaus Schulze, or “Zeit” from Tangerine Dream, or “Sonic Seasonings” from Walter (Wendy) Carlos, “Lux Aeterna” by Gyorgy Ligeti, “Poppy nogood and the phantom band” by Terry Riley, “Milky Way” from Weather Report, etc., etc.
            There were numerous composers doing atmospheric “ambient” music long before Eno invented a name for it. I’ve never seen one interview with him where he gives credit where credit is due. Eno has an Andy Warhol knack for self-promotion, based on very little innovation.

            1. Anti trump

               Repeating something ridiculous doesn’t help your case.

               Eno has never said he invented the style of Pink Floyd or Terry Riley or Tangerine Dream, and nobody knowledgeable about music would call any of those artists ‘ambient’ ones, anyway.

               Pink Floyd did space rock and later mainstream rock. Terry Riley is considered one of the fathers of classical minimal music. Tangerine Dream is Krautrock, Berlin School or, later, new age.

               Eno’s concept of ‘ambient music’ is very specific, and it has nothing to do with any of the artists that you’re mentioning, or any of those genres.

               It sounds like you know nothing about Eno’s concept of ambient music. If you think his music is garbage – fine! But don’t hate on him out of ignorance.

               1. It’s worth mentioning that Eno openly acknowledged the genesis of his concept as being lifted from Satie. Still, his specific approaches and definition are what made “ambient” notable, though even his processes tended to be repurposed or borrowed outright. I haven’t watched the video above but it’s common knowledge that “Frippertronics” was simply Riley’s time-lag accumulator, which Eno also wasn’t secretive about. There were diagrams for it that accompanied Discreet Music, which ended up inspiring Basinski’s foray into ambient (by the way, anybody notice how it’s cooler/hipper to be into Basinski these days than even a decade ago?) You can contrast this with Namlook’s (R.I.P.) ambient-as-a-journey framework, though he still referred to his music as “ambient” and Schulze definitely played along, and Eno also spent some time rubbing shoulders with some of Germany’s ’70s electronic pioneers. Eno comes from the world of fine art academics where concept takes precedence. If you analyze Terre Thaemlitz’ catalog her music doesn’t always reflect what she’s presenting. If you strip it from its prescribed meaning (via her writings and concept establishing tracks) most of it is only recognizable as vague “avant garde” whatever. It’s important to remember that most people who operate within the field of “avant garde” music tend to be familiar with its roots, usually to an extreme level of abstraction. Certain general terms just end up becoming the default way to communicate. “Ambient” and “noise” quickly sum up what most people do, though both are awfully vague. Most see their work as extensions of practices like process music/musique concrete/dub/ect. but don’t bother elaborating at the risk of looking pompous/pedantic (like my comment…) or having to further elaborate and alienating the consumer all together. Of course, some are perfectly content with being associated with those genres. Just some thoughts. Nothing more.

               2. Erik Satie’s “furniture music” (1917) was almost exactly the same idea as Eno’s concept of ambient music (1978).

2. I enjoyed the video and got some great new ideas.
   I’ll share a few things I do:
   Rene
   Send clock to X input and s&h or random voltage to Y input. This will cause the pattern to be ever changing. You’ll have 2 gate outs. You don’t know when either will fire but they will always be on clock.

   Keystep
   Random arp is a very simple way of getting random notes. I usually arp a major/minor chord or a scale like minor pentatonic

   Thanks

   1. I just bought a Keystep, that;’s great info thanks!

3. Eris and Startheif are correct in pointing out ambient’s genesis in Satie’s musique d’ameublement. Though Satie’s few pieces using this concept were more akin to proto Reich/Riley minimalsism. Generative techniques were pioneered by Raymond Scott with his electronium from the late 50’s onward, worth investigation if you’re not familiar. Plateaux of mirror is my favourite of the ambient series.