This book doesn’t try to provide an in-depth analysis or a comprehensive history of the last 40 years of ambient music. Rather it provides a series of ‘provocations, observations and reflections’. Best of all is that it can be obtained as a free PDF download (see below) making it accessible so that more of us can read and consider its contents, and perhaps discuss them.

Music Beyond Airports is a collection of essays, developed from papers given at the Ambient@40 International Conference held in February 2018 at the University of Huddersfield.

As suggested by the title, the essayists don’t focus on the original Brian Eno recording but consider the development of the genre, how it has permeated our wider musical culture, and what the role of such music is today.

The pieces in the volume vary widely in terms of scope, subject, and voice, and – I think – sketch out a lot of useful topics for personal reflection and public discussion.

Here is a summary of the chapters:

David Toop: How Much World Do You Want? Ambient Listening And Its Questions
Ambrose Field: Space In The Ambience: Is Ambient Music Socially Relevant?
Ulf Holbrook: A Question Of Background: Sites Of Listening
Richard Talbot: Three Manifestations Of Spatiality In Ambient Music
Simon Cummings: The Steady State Theory: Recalibrating The Quiddity Of Ambient Music
Monty Adkins: Fragility, Noise, And Atmosphere In Ambient Music
Lisa Colton: Channelling The Ecstasy Of Hildegard Von Bingen: “O Euchari” Remixed
Justin Morey: Ambient House: “Little Fluffy Clouds” And The Sampler As Time Machine
Axel Berndt: Adaptive Game Scoring With Ambient Music

Published by The University of Huddersfield Press, the book is available as both a print edition (£30 from Gazelle Book Services and Amazon; currently only £26.70 from Wordery) and a free ebook download (PDF/EPUB/MOBI) from the Huddersfield University website