Variables and Intensities

A wide range of experience exists between conscious listening and unconscious hearing.

Music, for the most part, is intended to dominate attention.  To the extent that this occurs, perceptual experience is reduced by varying degrees as listening awareness is concentrated on pulse and force.

Consider sound as an art form; rich auditory imagery is the primary element and focus of imaginative listening, and thus is given ascendancy over others.  The role of rhythm, percussion, melodic "hooks" and so forth is reduced or eliminated altogether, as it negates or contributes little to the total effect of atmospheric images in dynamic motion.

The result is not simply a different form of music, but becomes, in fact, a different way of listening.

Not Hearing, Not Listening, Not Music

Fragments of music pass through consciousness throughout the waking hours.

Sometimes these fragments linger after encountering a piece of music, and other times they simply arise spontaneously out of memory.

Consider whether this is a positive or negative effect, whether it is a pleasant diversion or a distraction, a disturbance of concentration, focus, and consciousness generally.  Certainly it is a common effect, and not abnormal in its commonality, but neither is it necessarily desirable.

An interesting secondary effect of the peculiar transformation ambient compositions discussed here is that the listener does not experience these "ear-worm" auditory perceptions while listening to them. They apparently disappear immediately, as if unhooked or detached from the listener's awareness, and the compositions do not take this form later, after listening.

It is a different way of encountering musical sounds altogether, reflecting prolonged efforts in the way of experimentation, contemplative discipline and aesthetic observation.

Heightened Awareness

Acutely developed senses detect subtle variations in the external world, including those reflecting nuance of mood.

As music for ceremony and ritual of various forms increases a sense of community, so music designed to enhance contemplative states may heighten perception and elevate consciousness.

Between the Lines

As sensory images, sounds may be metaphoric, and so symbolic.

Symbols and metaphors conveyed non-verbally will be associated with universal meanings in many cases, and these archetypes-- in the case of sounds suggesting flight, for example, or depth, or solitude-- bring to mind concepts associated with such things as freedom, mystery, the serene and the sinister, the obscure or uncanny, the pastoral and the seasonal.

Music moves and is moved by culture and the imagination, and the transformational ambient sketches discussed here are designed to immerse the listener in an atmospheric hour for the refreshment and renewal of the mind's eye.

Patina

Sounds are associated with sensory experiences, and this is especially true of those found in variations of musical combinations. 

Certain sounds are considered warm, cool, light, dark, rough, smooth, and so on.  As descriptive terms they are generally agreed-upon metaphors; one hearing a "sour note" will recognize it as such.  In the case of those who experience the neurological processes of synesthesia, sound and color may be experienced as a mingled perception, or a sensation in which the two are bound together in varying degrees.

In fabricating tones and patterns to combine in a sound design, it is interesting to consider what sounds a specific natural or architectural form might suggest, what patterns its symmetry bring to mind, and what musical characteristics might be associated with the particular shade and angle of light falling upon the scene that will evoke a sense of presence that endows the piece with spirit.

Simple, Involuntary Nervous Movements

Foot shaking and the like.  Fidgety, repetitive, rhythmic patterns.  Nervous energy, perhaps.  Restlessness.  Do these things result from external sound patterns?  Are they carried on after those patterns are removed?

Interesting questions.

Rhythm, melody, and percussion are expected in music.  It may be these things are essential to most listeners, and that music not dominated by these does not qualify as "music" at all, but is then, maybe, something like a "tone poem" or a sort of atmosphere established with sound.

That's up to the judgement of the listener, certainly.

From the album Elevation: