If you had played me Eno's first few albums and then this one and told me they were by the same artist, I wouldn't have believed you. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Each piece finds its own way to glide along, painting a backdrop for the listener to fill. "Music for Airports employs the phasing of tape loops of different length in some tracks, where, for example, in "1/1", a single piano melody is repeated and at different times other instruments will fade in and out in a complex, evolving pattern due to the phenomenon of phasing: at some point these instrumental sounds will clump together, at some points, be spread apart. If you emptied your mind, “1/1” is what it might sound like. To get the most out of Ambient 1: Music for Airports, it’s important to understand the concept behind it. You may need to buy a few copies until you hit the right one. At one point an album of harp music was playing, very quietly, in his room. Modern Contemporary. It was released by Polydor Records in 1978. Eno’s intention to never see the pieces repeat themselves is probably a key reason why Music for Airports doesn’t sound at all human. Before there was a style of music called "ambient" -- with offshoots reaching into classical, world, and "new age" musics, as well as electronica and a variety of dance-based sub-genres -- the phrase "ambient music" was largely connected to Brian Eno.Eno, known in part for his work with groups like Roxy Music, Talking Heads, and U2, has also produced a significant catalog of his own music. 6: Music (Meanings), https://doi.org/10.1017/S147857221700024X, http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/specials/2016-ambient-house-feature/, http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/rvonland.html, http://web.archive.org/web/20130121072521/http://www.musicforrealairports.com/live/index.php, www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/brian-eno-towards-an-understanding-of-pop-past-and-present, http://mnmlssg.blogspot.com/2010/06/music-by-real-people-for-real-people-in.html, www.factmag.com/2010/07/14/the-black-dog-music-for-real-airports/, http://thequietus.com/articles/04326-the-black-dog-music-for-real-airports-album-review, www.residentadvisor.net/review-view.aspx?id=7404, http://pitchfork.com/features/resonant-frequency/5879-resonant-frequency-17/, The Sexual Politics of Victorian Musical Aesthetics, To the millennium: music as twentieth-century commodity, The Evolution of American Airport Chapels: Local Negotiations in Religiously Pluralistic Contexts, Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation, Becoming a national composer: critical reception toc.1925, Music in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: Drama, Gramophone, and the Beginnings of Tamil Cinema, Defining Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Music. Sign up for our newsletter. Some of his albums are relatively conventional collections of songs, but others are more experimental in approach and sound, including several which might be termed "ambient.". The funny thing about ambient music is that — at least in theory — the less affecting it is, the more successful it is, and in this sense Ambient 1: Music for Airports is a very fine album. The imagery of airports hints at stress, panic, and anxiety, with passengers rushing to catch flights and lines of people lingering at baggage claims. The work has enough variety to keep senses drifting, although it never quite envelopes me entirely. Label: Virgin Japan - VJD-28038,Editions EG - VJD-28038 • Series: Ambient (2) - 1,British Rock History On CD Vol.1 E'G • Format: CD Album, Promo, Reissue • Country: Japan • … @gandhiandy . The swelling vocals in “1/2” and “2/1” are particularly interesting, looping at different frequencies to create an interplay that in places sounds harmonious and angelic and in others atonal, verging on sinister.