Exploring the ambient underground

When I first ventured into ambient music during the height of the COVID pandemic back in 2022 or 2023 (that entire period of time is a hazy blur for me), I found a few great ambient artists but assumed most ambient music would more or less be the same: soft, droning synth pads with a sprinkling of gentle guitar or piano. I didn’t realize at the time how diverse the genre really is. I just recently found myself on another discovery spree and doubled the size of my playlist, adding artists from a range of sub-genres from dark, brooding, moody ambient (like **God Body Disconnect), to brighter, dreamy guitar and piano-driven ambient like [The Bird’s Companion](https://open.spotify.com/album/2rfZzmBrs1VN6vDZK1HXj5?si=a895f3d1822a41b9), to ambient with an ethnic flavor (incorporating acoustic instruments like the quena…traditional flute of the Andes region of South America, of which [Robert Rich](https://open.spotify.com/album/4sOvz65HJphPPi7fa5k2bf?si=7dd03ad9a56749d9) is a stellar example). There’s also ambient that takes the form of dark choir ensembles like [Monasterium Imper](https://open.spotify.com/album/1EfDEqbIPctqolsrufApVP?si=c6e3f1998af447aa)i.**

There’s seemingly a flavor of ambient music for any taste. I’m still trying to get my latest finds sorted into the right playlists but here is what I have so far, if you’re interested in taking a dive into the world of ambient music!

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And this last one is currently a mix of ambient post-rock and some ambient drone.

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