Dark Experimental
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Dark Experimental is a broad zone of shadowed sound art: drones, ritual electronics, tape decay, occult ambience, processed voice, low-frequency rumble and unstable song fragments. It is defined less by one technique than by mood and method: experimental structure used to create dread, trance, mystery or psychic unease. The music can be quiet or violent, but it usually favors slow revelation, hidden detail and atmosphere over conventional song payoff.
History
The style grew out of post-industrial, dark ambient, gothic experimental and cassette-culture networks in the 1980s. Coil, Nurse With Wound, Current 93, Lustmord and Zoviet France expanded industrial's confrontational tactics into more atmospheric, ritual and surreal forms. Later artists connected the language to drone, modern composition, horror scoring, electroacoustic music and underground electronics.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- The Wire coverage of post-industrial experimental music
- Discogs dark ambient and noise style pages
- artist catalogs for Coil, Nurse With Wound and Lustmord
- Pitchfork reviews of modern dark experimental releases