For my first discussion of environmental texture in music, I’ll be focusing on the ambiance of natural sounds. For this installment, I’ve loosely categorized some common environmental ambient noises into subheadings, but the reality is that many tracks contain components from multiple of these categories and sometimes their elements could fit neatly into both. Just like nature itself, these sounds exist fluidly and often ambiguously, sometimes merely suggesting some vague connection to the natural world. This haziness is essential to these sounds as vehicles for feeling, the obscurity merely suggesting emotive connections that the listener must fill in themselves. This mirage manifests itself in many ways, almost always adding an air of mystery, liminality, and nostalgia to a track, both enhancing the richness of the song and the listener’s place within its context.

(If you’d like to stay up to date with my explorations of musical texture, be sure to check out the running playlist below).

Sea Texture: Happy Cycling – Boards of Canada and Beachdrifta – Rufige Kru

When it comes to mystery and liminality, there is no place like the sea. The depths feel alien; dark and cold, the ocean speaks to us in ways that we can barely comprehend. But despite our collective thalassophobia, the ocean is also oddly familiar, drawing us in, telling us stories of a time when our distant animal ancestors called it home. Boards of Canada taps into this uneasy feeling of familiarity surrounding the sea in “Happy Cycling,” where the shrieks of a gull (1:36 and throughout) accompanies a faint siren call (0:39 and throughout) and distorted drums crash like waves against dark, flowing synths (throughout). The ocean lives in this piece: evoking the rocky shore to the watery depths, the song doesn’t simply convey the sea but becomes it, enveloping the listener in salt and foam, peering at them with green glowing eyes. “Beachdrifta” runs with this mystery while upping the intensity: the track fades in with unearthly screeches and the sound of crashing waves (0:00-1:25) holding down billowing synths, until the bass drops and wicked drum n’ bass percussion comes in. Here the ocean is at full fury, a maelstrom sweeping in from far offshore until it eventually breaks against seaside towns and beaches, uprooting everything in its path. Even in the storm there is quiet, though, and “Beachdrifta” is no different, the drums dropping out and the odd ambient sounds from the beginning coming back once more as if it were the eye of a hurricane (3:20-3:55). Eventually, the storm retreats out to sea, and we are left with the haunting sounds that proclaimed its coming, promising us that it will not be the last of such chaos.

Water and Wind: Rain And Sea – Abstract Audio Systems and Sundown (Theme I) – James Primate

“Rain And Sea” picks up where “Beachdrifta” left off, adding new elements along the way: in its swirling vortex we get a glimpse into a rain shower far from shore, hearing what could be the rumblings of thunder and the hiss of rain on gently heaving waters (throughout). The ocean is just as important to the concept of this song as it was the songs in the previous section, but it adds a new perspective to the mix: that of the sky. Brooding yet airy, the ambience of the song floats like a raincloud over its rippling melodies, allowing us to see the ocean from a bird’s-eye view. In Sundown (Theme I), the rain pours and wind howls ever harder, bringing us into a world as it starts to become utterly flooded by water from the heavens, the wet trickling down through cracks and crevices until it almost penetrates its very core. This song exists as part of a soundtrack for the videogame “Rain World,” a platformer where, much as the name suggests, the protagonist must traverse a world that is deluged by water every night. The low thunder and pattering droplets (throughout) of the song are perfectly appropriate, preparing the player (and the listener) for the events to come. The focus really is on the rain here, with simple pads serving as a backdrop to the noises of the natural world, allowing the listener to connect both with the intensity of nature on display and bring in their own experiences with the natural world.

Pastoral Texture: Thatched – Bibio, LA Trance – Four Tet, and aisatsana [102] – Aphex Twin

While often mysterious and opaque, nature can sometimes seem to be speaking to us directly through the rustling of the leaves or the melody of a birdsong. Folding this natural language into their music, musicians create an additional layer of meaning in their songs that transcends the purely musical. In “Thatched,” Bibio creates a pastoral soundscape with sampled acoustic guitars and chirruping birds. It sounds like spring at its peak in a world of peace and beauty, a place where green fields and trees glow under a golden sun. Four Tet uses similar bird noises (5:00-end) in “LA Trance,” creating a distinctly electronic/ambient sound, highlighting the interplay between artificial and natural, deconstructing the notion that what is man-made must be opposed to nature. And in stark contrast to the rest of his album, Syro, Aphex Twin’s “aisatsana [102]” is beautifully calm, with the sounds of the British countryside accompanying his lush piano. It seems as if the birds in the trees are his choir, providing the perfect emotional backdrop for his gliding notes. Most importantly, while there is true joy and peace in these songs, the ambiguity of nature helps introduce a slight melancholy edge to their comfort. Nature, like life, is more complex than simple good or bad emotions, and conveying this through song opens the music to conversation with the world, allowing for complex perspectives and feelings to coexist.