Isolationism

Ambient · 1993 · also known as Isolationist Ambient, Ambient Isolationism

Isolationism is a British label from 1994, forged around a Virgin compilation: hostile ambient music drawn from the margins of metal, industrial and dub, built on frozen drones, empty spaces and a refusal of new age comfort. Thomas Koner and Lull, the project of Mick Harris, stand as its two poles. The word itself barely survived, but the sensibility it named has spread through all of today's dark ambient music. It rejected the soothing intent of most ambient music outright, treating silence and stasis as ends in themselves rather than as a backdrop for relaxation, and that refusal is what later dark ambient inherited most directly.

16 reference tracks

1. Thomas Koner: Permafrost (1993)
2. Main: Rail (1994)
3. Scorn: Silver Rain Fell (1995)
4. Thomas Koner: Nuuk (1997)
5. Lull: Thoughts (1998)
6. Zoviet France: Daisy Gun (1994)
7. Techno Animal: Self Strangulation (1994)
8. Paul Schutze: Hallucinations (1994)
9. Labradford: Air Lubricated Free Axis Trainer (1994)
10. Thomas Koner: Kanon (1994)
11. Thomas Köner: Meta Incognita
12. Thomas Köner: Novaya Zemlya 3
13. Thomas Köner: Teimo (Schluss)
14. Thomas Köner: Nieve Penitentes 1
15. Thomas Köner: Teimo
16. Thomas Köner: Nieve Penitentes 3

At a glance

• First appeared: around 1993
• Machines: Gongs, Magnétophone à bande, Réverbération numérique
• The sound: Drones sub gelés, Gongs traités (Köner), Réverbérations infinies, Studio comme chambre froide
• Labels: Virgin, Mille Plateaux, Sub Rosa, Sentrax, Barooni
• Key artists: Thomas Köner, Lull, Final, Zoviet France (parenté)

Producing Isolationism

Isolationism has no tempo and fewer events than even dark ambient: this music installs a frozen landscape where nothing happens, change measured in minutes rather than seconds. Work without a grid, in real time, in three to five minute blocks, with the only motion coming from a slow low pass filter sweep or a reverb whose size grows, no audible LFO, since any perceptible modulation is too fast. Rhythm is replaced by the ten second attack of a slowed gong or the barely perceptible swell of a mass of sub bass, drawn from feedback and tape noise but stretched until it freezes. The bass is a static sub between 25 and 40 Hz, a pure sine with a higher drone moving by a few cents over minutes. Source gongs, tape hiss and decaying digital reverb, avoid anything warm.

The full production course, in French: tempo, drums, bass, sounds, arrangement, mix, plugins and machines, and a step by step start.

Frequently asked

What is Isolationism?

Isolationism is a British label from 1994, forged around a Virgin compilation: hostile ambient music drawn from the margins of metal, industrial and dub, built on frozen drones, empty spaces and a refusal of new age comfort. Thomas Koner and Lull, the project of Mick Harris, stand as its two…

Who are the key Isolationism artists?

Thomas Köner, Lull, Final, Zoviet France (parenté).

In the same family

• Ambient
• Dark Ambient
• Dungeon Synth
• Drone
• Lowercase
• Ambient Dub
• Illbient
• New Age
• IDM
• Braindance
• Glitch

Listen to Isolationism in the atlas · Cette page en français