Turn On, Tune In, Drift Off: Ambient Music's Psychedelic Past

389 Pages·2022·18.343 MB·English

by  Victor Szabo

Turn On, Tune In, Drift Off

Turn On, Tune In,
Drift Off
Ambient Music’s Psychedelic Past
VICTOR SZABO
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.
© Oxford University Press 2023
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction
rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022941436
ISBN 978– 0– 19– 069931– 4 (pbk.)
ISBN 978– 0– 19– 069930– 7 (hbk.)
DOI: 10.1093/ oso/ 9780190699307.001.0001
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Paperback printed by Marquis, Canada
Hardback printed by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., United States of America
For Zephyr, who loves drone

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
PART 1 TURN ON . . .
. . . to Ambient Audio
Preface: On Ambient Audio 3
Introduction: Highs for Highbrows? How We Got from Head Music
to Ambient Music 13
PART 2 TUNE IN . . .
. . . to Ambient Music’s Psychedelic Past
1. Inside Environments’s Psychedelic “Psychological Sound” 55
Designing the Drugless High 59
Selling Recorded Minimalism as Ambient Audio 86
2. Pacifica Radio’s Music from the Hearts of Space and the Spacious
Sound of California’s New Age 101
Hearts and the Bay Area New Age Counterculture 107
Hearing Hearts’s Space Music 125
Tuning In to the New Auditory Consciousness 142
Coda: New Age Music, from the Margins to the Mainstream 158
PART 3 DRIFT OFF . . .
. . . to Ambient Music
3. Brian Eno’s Ambivalent Ambiences 169
Discreet Music 174
Interlude: In the Spirit of Satie? 201
The Ambient Series 207
Ambient Music’s Ambivalent Places of Passage 250
viii Contents
4. Ambient EDM, or Dance Music That Isn’t Dance Music! 254
Traveling without Moving through Ambient House 260
Ambient EDM’s Second Wave and the Making of a “Beatless”
Popular Genre 286
Coda: Ambient Music in the 21st Century 315
Bibliography 331
Selected Discography 349
Index 353
Acknowledgments
This book has many hearts. I thank those individuals who took the time
to share their insights and memories with me through conversations and
interviews, first and foremost Stephen and Leyla Rael Hill, whose hospitality,
generosity, and deep knowledge made an entire chapter of this book possible.
Many thanks also to Gavin Bryars, Kevin Foakes, Kevin Braheny Fortune,
Christopher Hobbs, Laraaji, Charlemagne Palestine, Steve Roach, Jonah
Sharp, Michael Stearns, and Jennifer Teibel- Ballow for providing depth and
clarity to this book’s narrative.
I thank the librarians and staff at the Special Collections of the
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Dolph Briscoe
Center for American History at the University of Texas– Austin, the Library
& Archives of the American Craft Council, and the Graduate Theological
Union Archives at the University of California—B erkeley. Thanks again to
Jennifer Teibel- Ballow, and to Jonathan Een Newton, for providing access to
and guidance through the archived materials of Syntonic Research, Inc.
I consider myself lucky to have such friendly and supportive colleagues
among the faculty and staff at Hampden- Sydney College. Thanks to them,
with special thanks to the H-S C librarians and staff who made research easy,
and to those faculty colleagues and friends in my cohort for joining me in
much- needed off-t ime revelry. I’d also like to thank those H-S C students
whose fresh perspectives on ambient and popular music fueled the writing of
this book. Warmest thanks to my cherished colleagues and friends in the H-
SC Fine Arts Department for their unwavering support, community spirit,
and commitment to having good fun along the way. I also thank the College’s
Committee on Professional Development and Dean’s Office, especially Dean
of the Faculty Mike McDermott, for generously supporting this project fi-
nancially through Summer Research Fellowships, the William W. Elliott
Professorship, and conference travel funding.
Many thanks to my editor, Norm Hirschy, for his gracious encouragement
and flexibility throughout the book- writing process. This book also benefited
greatly from the reviews provided by the anonymous readers appointed by
Oxford University Press, whom I thank for their time and thoroughness.