Ambient techno

Ambient techno (sometimes also called intelligent techno) is an offshoot of techno and ambient music that united the atmospheric textures of ambient music with the melodic and rhythmic elements of techno and electro. It was pioneered by electronic artists such as Carl Craig, Aphex Twin, The Orb, Pete Namlook and Biosphere.
Characteristics.
AllMusic states that ambient techno blended the "soaring, layered, aquatic atmospheres of beatless and experimental ambient" with techno's "well-produced, thin-sounding electronics; minor-key melodies and alien-sounding samples." Artists returned to the instruments of the Detroit techno and Chicago house scenes, including analogue synthesizers, the Roland TB-303 bass machine, and the TR-909 drum machine, while also drawing on ambient and chillout elements. The style would be associated with labels such as Warp, Apollo, GPR, and Beyond, with releases focusing more on albums than 12-inch singles.
Ambient techno departed from the communal, dance-oriented sound heard at raves and instead saw popularity as a form of "electronic listening music." Critic Simon Reynolds characterized the style as a "post-rave genre" and "a digital update of nineteenth century programme music," comparing it to "the aqua-mysticism and forest idylls of Claude Debussy." "Artforum" noted the genre's similarities with new age: "swaddling the listener in a womblike sound bath, it means retreat from the environment, relief from the stresses of urban existence."
History.
The 1984 album "E2-E4" by German musician Manuel Göttsching was an early influence on ambient techno works by Carl Craig, the Black Dog, and The Orb. The Orb's 1991 album "Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld" would influence subsequent dub-influenced ambient techno. Aphex Twin's 1991 recording "Analogue Bubblebath" would also signal a shift toward meditative, ambient-leaning techno. Producer Pete Namlook released a prodigious amount of music in the genre, starting the label Fax and becoming a "spiritual leader" of the movement. Other prominent artists in the style included Irresistible Force and Future Sound of London. According to AllMusic, early classics of the style included albums such as the Orb's "U.F.Orb" (1992), Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works 85-92" (1992), Ultramarine's "Every Man and Woman Is a Star" (1991), and Biosphere's "Microgravity" (1991).
The release of Warp's "Artificial Intelligence" compilation in 1992 helped to establish the genre and featured artists such Aphex Twin and B12 under aliases, Autechre, Richie Hawtin, and the Orb's Alex Paterson. During the 1990s, compilation series such as "Chill Out or Die" explored ambient techno and house. In reaction against the more "cozy" features of the genre, some artists would move toward a darker sound heard on releases such as Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works Volume II" (1994) and projects by other "ambient noir-ists" such as Seefeel and David Toop & Max Eastley, with Virgin's 1994 compilation "Isolationism" serving as a summary of this tendency. In 1995, producer Wolfgang Voigt began releasing influential ambient techno projects as Gas, bringing together lush and expansive atmospheres with 4/4 minimal techno beats.