Ambient Music as Sonic Ambiance: Space, Atmosphere, and Sound

Abstract

The terms 'ambiance' and 'atmosphere' are often used interchangeably to describe affective states of space that engage the senses, yet their implications for music have only recently become a focus of scholarly attention. Sound plays a central role within the practical production of ambiance, shaping how spaces are felt, experienced, and imagined. From this perspective, the genre of ambient music, originally conceived as background music, can be understood as a deliberate practice of filling environments with particular moods. This article contributes to this emerging conversation by advancing an original tripartite conceptual model that brings the concept of sonic ambiance into dialogue with soundscape and atmosphere, offering a framework for understanding ambient music as a spatial, affective, and embodied mode of sonic world-making rather than as a closed musical genre. The analysis suggests that the experience of sonic ambiance requires bodies to be enveloped within a sound field, to adapt to its presence, and to be drawn into its affective captivation. In this sense, ambient music is not merely background sound but an auditory mode of shaping spatial experience, generating collective feelings, and fostering environments of tranquility and absorption.