Dark Ambient — Deep Atmospheric Drone Music

Dark ambient comes out of the late-70s industrial scene and the early-90s isolationist movement around labels like Cold Spring and Cyclic Law. Lustmord (Brian Williams) is generally credited as the founder, and his work scoring Hellraiser and Underworld pushed the genre into wider awareness. The core sound is deep sub drones and processed field recordings, with slow-evolving textures and no rhythmic content.

Dark ambient is one of the few genres I can write to without it bleeding into the prose. Music with rhythm pulls writing into its rhythm; dark ambient has none, so it just hovers in the background. Cell phones face-down, headphones on.