Psybient
Psybient (short for psychedelic ambient) is a style of electronic music that contains elements of psychedelic trance, ambient, downtempo, dub, ethnic, and "new age" music. It is also known as ambient goa, psychill, psydub.
Birth: 1980 Bloom: 1994
Psybient differs from psytrance by its slower tempo and less defined rhythm. Often ambient elements impose on a slow rhythmic base (not necessary beat, often it is synth or live recorded samples with characteristic «swimming» sound), but they are properly filtered and processed by effects in order to achieve more psychedelic sound.
Psybient is not just electronic music; psybient artists often use instruments of different nations around the world, archaic vocal techniques and elements of meditative singing. Often electronic music is combined with ethnics and modern instruments, including ritual and archaic motives, cosmic synth sounds and overtone music. Psybient is usually played in chill out rooms, because psybient music isn`t danceable, it`s mostly meditative or relaxing. One of particular subtypes of psybient is «ritual psybient» that characterized by its rhythm, ethnic and meditative elements with the minimal usage of electronics. This kind of psybient is used for collective meditations and ritual practices, as well as background music for yoga and Qigong practices.
The most notable and peculiar representatives of this style are the Shpongle project by Simon Posford and Younger Brother, Ott, the Israeli project Shulman, German Entheogenic, Russian Koan and Astropilot, Ukrainian Zymosis.
Umbrellate style: Ambient
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