Ambient September Blog
Diary Introduction
Tap here to add text
Steve Roach
Structures From Silence (1984)
Drone, Progressive Electronic
The first ambient september I was pulled into my dorm room to listen to this album with my roommate and at the time the only other person who I could ever imagine doing this challenge. A fire alarm went off seven minutes into the album.
Thinking back I am realizing that this is the first year that I was alone during Ambient September. In 2023 I had three friends over and we watched fish videos while balsams played, in 2024 I had a party where I got tipsy on wine and walked around in 2 pairs of boxers and a white t-shirt, changing the pop songs to Aphex Twin as the metaphorical ball dropped. Here I am in 2025, I am standing by the bike rack that my hometown provides because my bike has a shifting problem. I bike hard and fast around these streets to a compilation of songs to send my farewells to august, my farewells to summer in many ways. My last song was “Gold Soundz” which is very fitting for the moment. It defined August, really.
The metaphorical ball drop. Biking I realized that this is my new year, in the sense that while not much is different the moment the clock strikes 12, something changes. I have a desire to attune myself with my most realized self. Nobody else feels that celebration, I text into groupchats that will not see it as anything more than another monday, but it is different.
I listen to Structures from Silence. It is my favorite album.
Raphael
Music to Dissapear In (1988)
Neoclassical New Age
The first day of September, I taught my girlfriend how to ride a bike. 2 hours of pushing when she would tip over turned into genuine elation seeing her pedal on her own, and make her first turn around a cul de sac. We ate Marcos Pizza and watched Impractical Jokers. I played this album while I drove her home. I kept calling it “Music to Disappear to” which she found hilarious. I’ve had many good ambient days, but this was one of the best.
I find it hard to wax poetic effectively about love. I am good at waxing poetically about desire, or unrequited emotion, or mental illness, but something about comfortable love I find it hard to express. Maybe it's too dear to me. Maybe it is in its definition. Maybe
.
New Super Mario Bros. (2006)
Fantasy, Hub World, Boss Fight, Time Limit, Side Scroller
Accompanying a week in mid may where my main socialization after I saw my girlfriend involved visiting my friends apartment to play this game with the same rotating group of four people. I do not feel like I even enjoyed playing the game that much, the best part was intentionally throwing someone off the map or running too fast so everyone else gets left behind. The game is hard too, it took us about 4 days of playing to get through it. The final bowser level made it all somewhat rewarding, at least. It is not a summer of Fortnite, like most previous summers, so you get oddball games like this. Games are better with friends, even if games like this I only kind of like.
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground (1969)
Pop Rock
Folk Rock, Art Rock, Experimental Rock
This is where the entry will sit