Isolationism (music)

Isolationism
Stylistic origins	Ambient music Elektronische Musik Industrial music Krautrock Musique concrète
Cultural origins	Early 1990s, Europe
Typical instruments	Samplers
Mainstream popularity	Low
Other topics
Dark ambient - Ambient music artists - List of electronic music genres

Isolationism is a style of dark ambient music prominent in the 1990s. The term was coined by British musician Kevin Martin. Journalist David Segal referred to it as "ambient's sinister, antisocial cousin".

Origins

The term "Isolationalism", as a music genre, first appeared in print in a September 1993 issue of The Wire magazine, describing a form of fractured, subdued music that "pushed away" listeners. The author of the article was British musician Kevin Martin, then known for his projects GOD and Techno Animal. John Everall, owner of the Sentrax label, places the origins of "Isolationist" music in early industrial groups, krautrock, ambient music and experimental composers such John Cage, non-experimental composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, and others.

James Plotkin identifies Brian Eno's ambient works as the greatest influence on the isolationist scene, along with European experimental music such as Illusion of Safety. As Plotkin says,

I really didn't know what was meant by Isolationism [...], because it encompassed this broad spectrum of music that ranged from Ambient to avant garde music to even something more aggressive -- like the Japanese Noise scene. [...] Isolationism was a Virgin compilation and it needed a marketing angle. And [compiler] Kevin Martin was definitely responsible for exposing a really large amount of people to music that would otherwise have gone unnoticed, so I guess it's not all bad.

External links

• Chill: the new ambient

Bibliography

• Plotkin, James (2009). "Invisible Jukebox," interview with Phil Freeman. The Wire, 300, 22-25.
• Segal, David (1995). Isolationism: Going Somewhere Vast. Alternative Press, 81, 35-37.
• The Wire 20 (2002). The Wire, 225, 42-51.