I’ve been self-describing my music as “ambient” for the past few years, simply out of habit. It’s a convenient reference point for instrumental music with little or no percussion. But “ambient” is quite a loaded term. It brings up connotations of relaxing synth and guitar timbres, well drenched in ‘verb and delay, mainly used to aid concentration, focus, relaxation or Eastern practices.

I love that type of music and sure, some of the music I create could be accurately defined or categorized that way. But more and more, I feel uneasy with the term.

The music I’ve made on Recursive, and definitely the music I’m releasing on Merlin’s Voice really doesn’t fit into that mold. Some of it may be light on percussion, and yes it features synths and guitar textures that tend to be a bit wetter on FX--but it’s not exactly relaxing. There’s a certain density to it, a certain darkness that would probably distract a person trying to meditate. Listening to it now, trying to remove myself from the act of creating it, it sounds a bit more like experimental dance music.

I’ve recently come across artists with sounds similar to myself calling their music “modern classical,” which is a more accurate description, but still is not quite right. “Classical” evokes the idea of classically trained musicians, extremely proficient on their traditional instruments, and well versed in the arrangement and stylistic tendencies of everyone from Mozart to Cage.

What we’re doing is more like creating sonic textures that evoke certain moods. We’re mood merchants. The music may be relaxing, or it may be dark and noisy and aggressive—what it does is communicate a mood or a feeling. But what music doesn’t do that?

What is the correct term to describe this music? Do we really need one?

Back in the early 2000s, I was in a band that made retro-sounding electro pop. The term we all resisted at the time is the descriptive term that actually stuck – electroclash.

Perhaps time will define this ambient-ish music in the same way. For now, I’m calling it experimental mood music.