- Ambient 1: Music for Airports
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Ambient 1: Music for Airports 
Studio album by Brian Eno Released 1978 Recorded London/Cologne, 1978 Genre Electronic, ambient, experimental Length 48:32 Label EG, Polydor, Virgin, GRT Producer Brian Eno Brian Eno chronology Before and After Science
(1977)Ambient 1: Music for Airports
(1978)Music for Films
(1978)Professional ratings Review scores Source Rating Allmusic 
[1]Pitchfork Media (9.2/10) [2] PopMatters (Positive) [3] Rolling Stone 
[4]Spin 
[5]Ambient 1: Music for Airports is an ambient album by Brian Eno released in 1978.
Contents
Overview
Music for Airports was the first of four albums released in Eno's "Ambient" series, a term which he coined to differentiate his minimalistic approach to the album's material and "the products of the various purveyors of canned music".[6]
Notice of similarly quiet, unobtrusive music had been given on albums such as Evening Star, Discreet Music, Music for Films and Harold Budd's The Pavilion of Dreams (which he produced), but in this album it was given precedence as a full-blown concept.
The music was designed to be continuously looped as a sound installation, with the intent to defuse the tense, anxious atmosphere of an airport terminal. Eno conceived this idea while being stuck at Cologne Bonn Airport in Germany in the mid 70s. He had to spend several hours there and was extremely annoyed by the uninspired sound atmosphere.[7]
It was installed at the Marine Air Terminal of New York’s LaGuardia Airport.[citation needed]
The music
All tracks were composed by Eno except "1/1", which was composed by Eno, former Soft Machine drummer and vocalist Robert Wyatt, and Rhett Davies.
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 because of the phenomenon of phasing: at some point these instrumental sounds will clump together, at some points, be spread apart.
Talking about the first piece, Eno has said:
“ ... I found this very short section of tape where two pianos, unbeknownst to each other, played melodic lines that interlocked in an interesting way. To make a piece of music out of it, I cut that part out, made a stereo loop on the 24-track, then I discovered I liked it best at half speed, so the instruments sounded very soft, and the whole movement was very slow.[8] ” The two tracks containing the wordless "aaaaah"-style vocals intermingle four tracks which loop back on themselves and constantly interact with each other in new ways. Subtle changes in timing occur, adding to the timbre of the pieces.
Eno explains of the vocal-only piece:
“ One of the notes repeats every 23 seconds. It is, in fact, a long loop running around a series of tubular aluminum chairs in Conny Plank's studio. The next lowest loop repeats every 25 seconds or something like that. The third one every 29 seconds or something. What I mean is they all repeat in cycles that are called incommensurable — they are not likely to come back into sync again. Your experience of the piece, of course, is a moment in time, there. So as the piece progresses, what you hear are the various clusterings and configurations of these six basic elements. The basic elements in that particular piece never change. They stay the same. But the piece does appear to have quite a lot of variety. ” "2/2", the synth piece, was performed with an ARP 2600.
Track listing
All tracks composed by Brian Eno.
No. Title Length 1. "1/1" (Acoustic and electric piano; synthesizer.) 16:30 2. "2/1" (Vocals; synthesizer.) 8:20 3. "1/2" (Vocals; acoustic piano.) 11:30 4. "2/2" (Synthesizer only. Lasts 9:38 in the "Working Backwards" box edition (1983).) 6:00 The track labeling is this way it is because of the album's first release (1978) as an LP, and so the first track means "first track, first side", and so on.
The CD pressing adds thirty seconds of silence after every song, including one after "2/2" has completed.
The album's back cover features four abstract graphic notation images, one for each track.
Credits
- Synthesizer, piano, cover art, production – Brian Eno
- Vocals – Christa Fast, Christine Gomez, Inge Zeininger
- Acoustic piano – Robert Wyatt
- Engineering – Dave Hutchins ("2/1", "1/2"), Conny Plank ("2/2"), Rhett Davies ("1/1") and Eno
- Recording location:
- Tracks 1-3 : London
- Track 4 : Plank's Studio, Cologne
Release history
Country Label Cat. No. Media Release Date US Polydor AMB 001 LP 1978 France Polydor 2310 647 LP 1978 Canada GRT 9167-9835 LP 1978 Italy Polydor 2310 647 LP 1978 US Editions EG EGS 201 LP 1981 UK Editions EG EGED 17 LP 1983 UK Editions EG, Virgin EEGCD 17 CD Aug 1990 US Editions EG EEGCD 17 CD Aug 1990 UK Virgin Records ENOCD 6,
7243 8 66495 2 2CD 2004 Usage
- "Mistaken Memories of Mediaeval Manhattan" is a 1981, 47-minute ambient video created by Eno which uses music from both the albums On Land (cat # HEN 2134) and this album.IMDB link This title was later repackaged with his Thursday Afternoon video as "14 Video Paintings", RykoDisc, (HNDVD 1508). Ryko link
- Music from the album has been covered by:
- The first track is used in the PBS special The Creation of the Universe (IMDB link). Eno is the sole music credit, and he also wrote original music for the documentary.
- "1/1" is frequently used as background music on the U.S. public radio program This American Life.
- "1/1" features prominently in the opening scene of the 2009 motion picture The Lovely Bones.
See also
Notes
- ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r82988
- ^ Pitchfork: Album Reviews: Brian Eno / Harold Budd: Discreet Music / Ambient 1: Music for Airports / Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror / Ambient 4: On Land
- ^ Brian Eno: Ambient 1: Music for Airports [reissue] < PopMatters
- ^ The new Rolling Stone album guide - Google Books
- ^ Weisbard & Marks, 1995. p.129
- ^ Brian Eno, September 1978, from the liner notes of Music for Airports
- ^ Harriet Baskas, Better branding through music: Original airport theme songs, USA Today, 12-March-2008
- ^ Downbeat - PRO SESSION - The Studio As Compositional Tool
References
- Weisbard, Eric; Craig Marks (1995). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
External links
- Liner notes of initial American release
- Interview, Artpress, Sep 2001
- Interview, Keyboard Wizards, Winter 1985
- Interview, Reality Hackers, Winter 1988
- Eno lecture, New Music New York, 1979
- The Wire, Stansted Airport BoaC performance, June 1998
Categories:- Brian Eno albums
- 1978 albums
- Albums produced by Brian Eno
- E.G. Records albums
- Concept albums
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