Dark ambient is a genre of ambient music with a focus on obscure and experimental sounds. Harsh, alien soundscapes are typical of the genre, with many comparisons being made to noise music. A defining contrast to noise is the near lack of percussion and rhythm in dark ambient works.

Brian Eno is often mentioned a founded of dark ambience. His work has spanned several genres, including ambient and the avant-garde. Over his career he also worked with many artists such as U2, Coldplay and David Bowe. He is also responsible for “The Microsoft Sound,” the short sound clip played during startup of the Windows 95 operating system.

A number of mainstream musicians have made forays into dark ambient as well, including Nine Inch Nails’ “Ghosts” releases and a number of tracks from Aphex Twin’s “Selected Ambient Works.” Other noteworthy and influential artists include Einstuerzende Neubauten, Coil, Mortiis and Der Blutharsch.

Dark ambient emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. Among the significant bands at the time were Coil and Zoviet France. Sweden’s Cold Meat Industry, set up in 1987, is a label specializing in the genre and has since played an important role in its rise.

Advances in music equipment over the years have had a great influence on many of the genre’s artists. Since its creation, it has mainly been an electronic subgenre, though some artists also use organic and acoustic sound sources as well. Hardware and software samplers are used to process and edit field recordings and samples of various types. Effects processors add artificial reverb, one of the most common effects used in the genre, along with other effects.

Recent years have seen dark ambient expand musically to form various crossover subgenres such as ambient industrial, ambient noise and “black ambient” (ambient black metal).