If there's any question that is bound to throw me for a loop (aside from "What's your favorite book?"), it's this one. I love when people ask it, because it means that they are at least faking a mild interest in my life, but at the same time I hate when people ask it because it means that they expect some sort of answer besides, "How the F&@$ should I know?"

My musical tastes run from one end of the spectrum to the other, and that means that you'll find in my collection everything from 60s classic rock to 21st-century electronica, 80s pop to 90s one-hit wonders, soundtracks from multi-million copy video games to obscure basement-label releases that no one has ever heard of because they only recorded a single four-song EP twenty-eight years ago. I guess it's fair to say that I have a lot of moods.

But I will say this: if there's one category that rules my shelves more than any other, it would be...well crap, it isn't really one category so much as it is a fusion of categories that I consider under one enormous umbrella of "shit Areala enjoys listening to an awful lot." We'll call it, for lack of a better way for me to describe it, "dark ambient".

Now "dark ambient" is itself a genre of music (Wikipedia tells me so) but there's plenty of stuff I listen to that wouldn't quite make the cut as far as being officially DA. So understand that when I'm talking about my personal tastes in this music, it could be dark without being ambient, it could be ambient without being dark, and sometimes it might just be neither dark nor ambient but I enjoy listening to it anyway. Confused? Good, so am I.

If I'm going to start talking about this stuff, it's probably best to start with an artist and composer who truly is considered to be dark ambient, and that is none other than Akira Yamaoka. Yamaoka wasn't the first DA artist I heard, but he was the one I most readily identified with and found myself seeking out. I own six of his "Silent Hill" soundtracks, and they really set the stage for my personal exploration into this genre. While I enjoy all of them, the music from Silent Hill 2 and 3 are probably the best starting points for anyone who wants to experience Yamaoka's genius for the first time. The Silent Hill 1 soundtrack for the PS1 is far more industrial than ambient, and it requires a very specific mindset to enjoy it without the game to assist. SH2 and SH3 are much more accessible, especially SH3 with the introduction of Mary Elizabeth McGlynn's haunting, ethereal lyrics that have become a mainstay of the series. Yamaoka's music (generally matched with videos of Silent Hill gameplay) can be found all over YouTube, so feel free to go exploring.

My first real experience with ambient music came from a musician named Steve Roach. A radio program called "Hearts of Space" plays every Sunday night here in the US. It's been running for more than twenty-five years, and producer Stephen Hill has created more than nine hundred different programs of varying themes and styles involving "space music". My first encounter with HOS was back in the 1990s when I heard it playing on our local NPR station and I was introduced to Steve Roach via a track from his album "The Magnificent Void." Roach's compositions tend to be very long (he has a few albums that are 70+ minutes of music but only have 2-3 tracks on them), but they are wonderful to listen to after a long, grinding day. Here's a portion of one track from the album "Structures From Silence" on Youtube.

Putting a techno/industrial spin on things, a co-worker of mine introduced me to a band called Informatik in the early 2000s. I purchased their album "Nymphomatik" shortly thereafter and while it's neither quiet nor contemplative (unless you do your best thinking while in the middle of a club surrounded by people dancing like maniacs), there's a strange character of beauty that surrounds their mixtures of synth and voice. One of their most popular hits is "A Matter of Time," so

Moving back more towards ambient, I'd be utterly remiss in my duties if I didn't mention Brian Eno. He's pretty much been at the forefront of the movement since the 1970s and has arguably done more for experimental music than any other single artist since (consider him The Beatles of the ambient scene). It isn't dark, but it's certainly thought-provoking. "Ambient 1: Music For Airports" is four tracks of serenity that you can flow into and out of as you like. It's something I enjoy playing as I write.

Edge of Dawn is next on my list, and while their sound isn't easy to describe, it's very easy to understand (more dark than ambient). Racing fans might have heard them in 2007's "Project Gotham Racing 4" on the 360, contributing the track "Elegance." Everything I've heard from them manages to resonate with me in personal ways, and I can understand the stories their songs are trying to tell, even if I have no direct experience with them. Their album "Enjoy The Fall" is a true work of art, and if I was permitted to make my own soundtrack to Cormac McCarthy's "The Road", then "Beauty Lies Within" would play over the closing credits. EoD has samples of all their music at their home page, which is in both German and English, at http://edgeofdawn.de/audio.htm.

"Lovesliescrushing" is another band I just recently discovered on a large goth compilation from Projekt. Ethereal vocals mix with gorgeous synth work to create a dreamscape of sound that manages to fill the space you're in while leaving it feel empty at the same time. It's a very delicate balance, but by God, they pull it off and I've been hooked ever since. The song "Your Eyes Immaculate" was my introduction to them, and

I'm guessing most everybody here has heard of Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor. Reznor is known for penning and performing some of the roughest industrial stuff to achieve radio play in the 90s, but there's another side to Trent musically, and that's best heard through his 2008 release of "Ghosts I-IV", a gorgeous CD set of nothing but ambient soundwork produced in collaboration with several other artists. Some of it is as quiet as a summer's evening, some of it is as choppy and turbulent as ocean waters, some of it is a cacaphony reminiscent of a tornado, but all of its 36 tracks are incredible. Reznor is happy to let anybody download Ghosts I for free at the album's website, so there's no reason not to give it a listen. For those of you who saw "The Social Network", you heard more of Trent's more toned-down work: he and Atticus Ross contributed the soundtrack for the film. Amazon.com sells the whole album in MP3 format for $5.99 or the CD for two bucks more; considering it won both a Golden Globe and an Oscar, this is a steal.

I could go on and on about other bands: Vangelis, David Arkenstone, ASP, Blind Divine, Pilori, Pink Floyd frontman David Gilmour's project The Orb, Sopor Aeternus, Die Form...the list goes on and on. But maybe those are best left for a "Part II", or your own explorations into this style of music. I hope you like what you find.