Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody. It uses textural layers of sound that can reward both passive and active listening and encourage a sense of calm or contemplation. The genre is said to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual", or "unobtrusive" quality. Nature soundscapes may be included, and the sounds of acoustic instruments such as the piano, strings and flute may be emulated through a synthesizer.
Daniel Roland Lanois is a Canadian record producer and musician.
The Grammy Award for Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album is presented to recording artists for quality albums in the new-age music genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".
Laraaji is an American multi-instrumentalist specializing in piano, zither and mbira. His albums include the 1980 release Ambient 3: Day of Radiance, produced by Brian Eno as part of his Ambient series.
Paul Brownlee McCandless Jr. is an American multi-instrumentalist and founding member of the American jazz group Oregon. He is one of the few jazz oboists. He also plays bass clarinet, English horn, flute and soprano saxophone.
David Darling was an American cellist and composer. In 2010, he won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album. He performed and recorded with Bobby McFerrin, Paul Winter Consort, Ralph Towner and Spyro Gyra and released many solo albums. Among these were 15 recordings for ECM.
Darlene Koldenhoven is an American musician. Darlene won a Grammy Award for her singing.
Peter Kater is a German-born American pianist, composer and Grammy Award winner.
Ryan Farish is an American composer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentist. Hailing from Norfolk, Virginia, and based in Los Angeles, California, Ryan is known for his downtempo electronica, chillout, and uplifting dance music. His sound is a combination of anthemic melodies layered with organic downtempo grooves along with a collection of releases that infuse dance rhythms with uplifting themes. Ryan established his self-owned record label in 2008, RYTONE Entertainment, as a home to his own releases as well as those of other collaborative artists.
"Hard Habit to Break" is a song written by Steve Kipner and John Lewis Parker, produced and arranged by David Foster and recorded by the group Chicago for their 1984 album Chicago 17, with Bill Champlin and Peter Cetera sharing lead vocals. Released as the second single from the album, it reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was prevented from charting higher by "Caribbean Queen" by Billy Ocean and "I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder. "Hard Habit to Break" also peaked at No. 3 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The lyrics of the song appear to describe a man having a hard time getting over a significant other getting away after he took her for granted and she left him for someone else. Overseas it peaked at No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart.
Eduardo José Cabra Martínez, better known by his stage name "Visitante Calle 13", "Visitante", or more recently, "Cabra" is a Puerto Rican producer, musician, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. He rose to fame due to the Puerto Rican band Calle 13, which he co-founded with his step brother René Pérez Joglar ("Residente").
Zone Music Reporter is a website tracking New Age, world, and instrumental music. The site features weekly playlist, monthly airplay charts, and album reviews. Premium services are also offered to artists and their management compiling custom airplay reports for that artist.
Boogie is a rhythm and blues genre of electronic dance music with close ties to the post-disco style, that first emerged in the United States during the late 1970s to mid-1980s. The sound of boogie is defined by bridging acoustic and electronic musical instruments with emphasis on vocals and miscellaneous effects. It later evolved into electro and house music.
Jeff Pearce is an Indiana-based ambient/new age musician. He has been called "one of the top two electronic guitarists of all time" by Allmusic, while reviewer John Diliberto wrote in Billboard magazine that Pearce is "one of the best" guitarists to follow the solo electric guitarist concept. Pearce started playing guitar at age 13 and discovered the music of Brian Eno and Harold Budd while in college.
Sherry Finzer is an American flutist and composer based in Phoenix, Arizona. A national award-winning musician known for her contributions in the genre of flute and New Age music, Finzer is known predominantly as a soloist, but in recent years has formed the supergroup Trialogue with guitarist Darin Mahoney and percussionist Will Clipman. She performs extensively with local, national and international musicians, encompassing a variety of musical styles, including new-age, Latin, flamenco, classical, pop and jazz. Finzer tours worldwide as a Guo Flute and Pearl Flute Performing Artist, as well as in support of her album releases for the Heart Dance Records label, which she founded in 2006. Heart Dance Records represents 80+ artists in the New Age, Ambient, Acoustic, Electronic and Chill genres, as well as the radio promotions and PR company Higher Level Media.
Omar Enrique Alfanno Velásquez is a Panamanian singer-songwriter of Latin music who is most active in the salsa and merengue genres.
Ocean of Sound is a 1996 compilation album compiled and produced by English musician and author David Toop. The two-disc, cross-licensed "various artists" compilation contains 32 tracks culled from a variety of musical sources, including dub, exotica, free jazz, and field recordings. Toop compiled the recordings to serve as both a historical survey of ambient music and an aural companion to his 1995 book Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds.
Peter Wade Keusch, more commonly known as Peter Wade, is a record producer, recording engineer, mixer, songwriter and A&R. His artist development projects include MNDR, Party Nails and numerous songwriters and producers signed to his record label WonderSound and publishing company 120 Music. Wade's production and writing credits include Kid Ink, Jennifer Lopez, Martin Solveig, Kylie Minogue, and Flume.
Flow is an American New Age music group consisting of pianist/vocalist Fiona Joy from Australia, guitarist Lawrence Blatt, trumpeter and flugelhornist Jeff Oster, and guitarist Will Ackerman, all from the United States. The band's name is an anagram of the initials of their names.
Jeff Oster is a Grammy-nominated American musician who specializes in trumpet and flugelhorn in the New Age music genre. He is a member of the four-piece band Flow. Oster's style has been described as "Miles Davis meets Pink Floyd." He is three-time winner of the Independent Music Awards and ten-time winner of the Zone Music Reporter Awards. He was featured on the Laura Sullivan's Grammy-winning album Love's River. Flow's debut album reached number 4 on the Billboard New Age Albums Chart in 2017.
