The Sound of Music: Daniel Avery and The Club’s Twilight Zone

For a long time, there wasn’t a very direct bridge between the soundscapes of ambient music and the world of underground techno — until Daniel Avery built it.

The Sound of Music breaks down how every little noise ― that instrument, that sample, that oh-so-significant pause ― makes a song special.

Written by Adithya Srinivas

In the subgenre-laden landscape of electronic music, the mixing and overlapping of styles is far from a novel concept. For decades, underground club DJs have built their reputations on their ability to keep the party alive through their unique styles and energies. This arms race has birthed everything from techno, glitch, and dubstep to disco, vocal house, and glamorous EDM — all of which have been mixed and remixed to continue the cycle of innovation. However, one thing you’ll rarely see or hear between the dancefloors of Berlin and Ibiza are ambient artists trying to bring the roof down at hour 37 of that weekend’s bender.

Of course, ambient giants like Brian Eno have toured and played to huge crowds, but the fundamental purpose of the ambient space is to create formless auditory experiences, enjoyed mostly through headphones and home speaker systems. As an exact inverse, there are plenty of people who listen to techno casually during the day, but the genre’s home is very much in the hearts of clubs. So in all the many different ways electronic music has been pulled stylistically over the years, the oxymoronic combination of ambient and techno just wasn’t one that was pursued by up-and-coming DJs.

That is, until Daniel Avery took the leap with his 2018 project, Song For Alpha. Avery’s sophomore album, and the follow up to his critically acclaimed UK techno/acid house debut Drone Logic, Song For Alpha took the ambient-techno mash-up concept and proved that it could be greater than the sum of its parts. Pulling it off required much more than slapping bone-rattling techno bass lines under an Aphex Twin track, and it’s Daniel Avery’s meticulous attention to detail that allowed him to branch out from his techno roots and create a sphere between solo stargazing soundtracks and the depths of bunker raves.

Song for Alpha’s auditory spectrum ebbs and flows between its ambient and techno extremes with incredible precision. Right in the middle is the track “Sensation,” which builds from a simple drum beat that feels as though it should lead into the even deeper bass rumbles of a typical techno cut. Instead, as cymbals slowly layer over each other, a massive, shapeless, and all-encompassing synth leads crescendo to dominate the mix and the listener. What was once a low-key dance song suddenly feels existential, all while never ceasing to continue the underlying rhythm that drives the track forward.

In a similar vein, album closer “Quick Eternity” features an airy, arrhythmic, and distant yet loud synth lead, one that persists over a relentless xylophone, snare, and kick drum foundation, altogether transcending listeners’ solitary rave into the depths of space.

The ethereal and heavenly sounds Avery uses behind the majority of tracks are also what headline the more purely ambient pieces. Opener “First Light” features much the same synth lead as “Sensation” while isolating the sound, giving it the light-bringing nature its track name implies. Towards the end of the tracklist, “Embers” features a heavily-distorted version of this same synth, creating an unstable ambient environment that feels as though it should be beautiful, but is instead eerie and introspective as the lead melodies waver in and out of tune.

Techno-focused songs were certainly not an afterthought either. Avery includes “Diminuendo,” a track that begins with a throbbing, unabating kick and bass beat, before introducing a synth akin to a dystopian nuclear war siren. A barrage of snares, clap samples, and cymbals layer continuously, resulting in a mix of pure dance energy. However, where other techno DJs might add more synth and percussion to raise the tension even higher, Avery splits the track by fading to a busy mess of ambient distortion, only to cold-drop the listener right back into the beat without warning.

“Glitter” is another techno-focused cut: this one featuring an evil and grimy bass synth lead, more high-hats, and fire-alarm accents layered over angelic and formless harmonies. The auditory juxtaposition featured in even these most steadfast techno tracks only confirms the potential the ambient/techno combination has – potential that Daniel Avery continues to realize.

2020 saw the release of Avery’s third album, Love + Light, which the Brit used to further master the intersection he pioneered with Song For Alpha. Ambient songs “London Fog,” “Katana,” and “Depth Wish” push the envelope on how far Avery is willing to go in exploring rhythmless soundscapes. Yet, they stand perfectly side by side with the rumbling and hard-hitting bangers of “Dusting For Smoke,” “Dream Distortion,” and “Darlinnn,” with fusions like “Infinite Future” and “Searing Light, Forward Motion” nestled in between. While at its surface Love + Light is more of the same musical concepts, the DJ puts on an electronic songwriting, production, and mixing clinic.

Avery recognized the qualities that each genre possesses and used them to heighten the techno album experience. He added emotional lows, introspective interludes, and thoughtful depth to what many people consider to be ‘just dance music.’ Techno albums are usually unrelenting banger after banger, meant to be cut up and remixed into a live set for huge crowds to enjoy without a care in the world — a far cry from a lone listener with their favorite pair of headphones.

So while Avery’s ability to combine ambient and techno is impressive from a technical and musical standpoint, it also offers him a very practical advantage: tempering the energy of his most high-octane tracks back and forth to give his wordless albums a gripping narrative arc. What results is a discography that could just as easily set fire to the lawless halls of the Berghain as it could support the lost-in-thought moments of long evening drives. On top of his reputation as a relentlessly touring live act, Daniel Avery has cemented himself as one of the previous decade’s most essential DJs by creating one of electronic music’s most distinctive and limit-defying dimensions: The Twilight Zone.

ANALYSISAfterglow ATXMarch 9, 2021adithya srinivas, daniel avery