What got you into ambient?

I thought I was genious enough to invent a genre that was beatless atmospheric trance let later on I found out someone beat me to it. Ambient Trance is nowadays my favourite genre.

I discovered ambient music when I was making music on my Amiga computer in the late 80's. Man, I miss that thing.

I think it was the ambient house movement of the late 1980s/early 1990s when i first heard the likes of KLFs 'chillout' and the Orbs 'adventures beyond the underworld' as well as an odd but good compilation album called give peace a dance, volume 2: the ambient collection released in 1991.

Uhm... I always liked some of those ambientish soundscapes on some of the TV channels' "intermission cuts" or how would you call them, hehe. For example when something goes wrong and they have to stop the show to fix it. Then they bring up some "Please wait for a moment" screen which may have some atmospheric music on the background. Those kind of things.

I also liked as a kid if some children TV shows etc. happened to have some cool soundscapes. Maybe they meant me even more then than now. Some ambient pieces nowadays even remind me of my childhood somehow.

Well, I guess it truly began when I started listening to netradios like Digitally Imported's and SomaFM's ambient channels (the more upbeat ones). I could listen to them for hours. That way I found artists and you can figure out the rest.

I bought The KFL's ‘Chillout’ album in 1990 and it blew me way. As I had never heard anything like it before. The strings in ‘Wichita Lineman Was A Song I Once Heard’ still moves me to tears today.

Got heavily into The Orb. Saw them live at ‘Manchester Academy’ in April 1993 on ‘The Orb Mission’ tour. Also went to a few ‘Mega Dog’ nights, which were wicked (featuring the likes of ‘System 7’ etc). Also in 1993 saw ‘Jean Michel Jarre’ at ‘Manchester Main Road’ on his “Chronologies’ tour. Which is a bit ironic as has he dissed The Orb’s remix of ‘Oxygen’ called ‘Toxygene’. JMJ would pay for it so The Orb released it themselves. I love both versions and got to see them performed live in the same year!

Then I got well into the ‘Café del Mar’ chillout CDs. And was in ‘Ambient Heaven’ in 1994 when I final went to the “Café del Mar’ itself and watch the sunset as wonderful ambient tunes wash over me.

I have loved ambient music ever since.

It's KLF - Chill Out for me as well. I caught a glimpse of the cassette(!) cover in my local record shop & thought it was the weirdest album cover i'd seen - I couldn't figure out why somebody would put a field of sheep on the front of their album! £6.99 later I was hooked.
Was also drawn to The Orb in the early nineties (especially U.F.Orb) probably through their connection with Pink Floyd (who me & my mates was heavily into at the time).
I know a lot of ambient fans look at KLF - Chill Out as a bit of a novelty album nowadays, but it's just a classic of the genre I can still listen to it anytime & not get bored of it.

Hi
I was into Eno, a lot of 70's prog groups like Gong and Floyd that used Ambient elements, even Bowie stuff like Low, heroes etc.I also liked 80's rock bands like , spacemen 3/ Sonic Boom. As I got into techno, I became aware of more ambient offerings. I also worked as a sound engineer,so have always been interested in the music of sound.
T

without a doubt, it was Radiator.

Zoviet France - and of course John Cage!

my brother started listening to it, and i always liked bands with an ambient feel to them, so i looked up some bands and boom.

My Dad bought me Brian Eno's Ambient 1/Music For Airports for my 18th birthday, which sparked an interest in the genre. It took me ages to actually break into the genre properly though.

my interest in ambient music was sparked by a black metal band called velvet cacoon. they had a few ambient tracks and in an interview they mentioned brian eno and steve roach. first time i think i heard about them. i think aphex twin's selected ambient works vol II was the first ambient album i listened to.