Insectarium
insectarium is the dark ambient soundscape project created by Joel Hinkle.
Influenced by dark ambient, drone, world, ritual, and industrial, each track is meant to take the listener on a journey. His music can be found in collaborations, compilations, and several documentary films
Joel started with a little 4-track and recorded in the hallway of his home. 'On Dark Days' was his first ambient album. He didn't have much to work with back then, but it has some good moments. 'Frozen' started showing what the future has to offer and was a decent hit on mp3.com years ago. It is still one of his favorites. As time progressed, Joel has gotten some more equipment to use which has increased the quality and variation of his music.
Influences include Brian Eno, Coph Nia, raison d'etre, Projekt, Cold Meat Industry, Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Didgeridoo, dark ambient, tribal, noise, drumming, and David Lynch movies.
Joel finds that environments, even ones that are dark and uneasing, become more comfortable through repetition. He enjoys echoes because they tend to lead one into comfortable trance-like states of mind.
For Joel, dark ambient music is an examination of thoughts, ideas, or environments that we refuse to face or explore. Darkness is in our lives and we live our lives trying to ignore or hide these unacceptable feelings. His music tries to embrace the things we would normally refuse to think about.