The Plateaux of Mirror

Infobox Album | Name = Ambient 2/The Plateaux of Mirror
Type = Album
Artist = Harold Budd and Brian Eno


Released = April 1980
Recorded = Grant Avenue Studio, 1979
Genre = Ambient
Length = 39:30
Label = EG Records
Producer = Brian Eno
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:bvex97u7krdt link]
*PopMatters (Negative) [http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/e/enobrian-ambient2.shtml link]
* Pitchfork Media 8.4/10 [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/17480/Brian_Eno_Discreet_Music_Ambient_1_Music_for_Airports_A link]
Last album = "The Pavilion of Dreams"
(1978)
This album = The Plateaux of Mirror
(1980) | Next album = "The Pearl"
(1984)
Misc = Extra chronology 2
Artist = Brian Eno
Type = album
Last album = "After the Heat" (1978)
This album = "Ambient 2: The Plateaux Of Mirror" (1980)
Next album = "" (1980)

"Ambient 2/The Plateaux of Mirror" is a 1980 album by ambient musicians Harold Budd and Brian Eno. This is the second installment of Eno's "Ambient" series which began in 1978 with "Music for Airports".

Overview

For citations, see "External links".
Eno produced Budd's 1978 album The Pavilion of Dreams after British composer Gavin Bryars introduced the pair, which led to their collaboration on this album.

Eno said of Budd that he indulged in "live improvisation on The Plateaux Of Mirror ... I would set up a sound, he would improvise to it, and occasionally I would add something: but it was mainly him performing in a sound-world I had created".

Speaking about how Budd discovered new ways of playing on the album simply by bouncing ideas off each other, Eno has also commented "... with him I used to set up quite complicated treatments and then he would go out and play the piano. And you would hear him discovering, as he played, how to manipulate this treatment. How to make it ring and resonate. Which notes work particularly well on it. Which register of the piano. What speed to play at, of course, because some treatments just cloud out if they have too much information in them".

The music

The bulk of the instrumentation is Harold Budd on acoustic piano with treatments by Brian Eno. "The Plateaux of Mirror" and "Wind in Lonely Fences" are performed on electric piano. Budd composed "Not Yet Remembered" in California, with a melodic line intended for vocals, and mailed the composition to Eno in New York. Eno then reversed the melodic phrase, recorded it and played it to Budd for the first time over the telephone. The basic theme of "The Chill Air" was repeated on "Their Memories," a piece on Budd and Eno's 1984 release "The Pearl". While the theme is recognisable by its melody line, the treatments by Eno are more pronounced.

Tracks 2, 4, 7, 8 and 10 are mostly piano-oriented, with little in the way of heavy electronic tinkering by Eno; track 1, also piano-based, has some light synth treatments towards the latter half. Tracks 3 and 9 feature syncopation, mostly in the form of light chimes, while track 6 has wordless vocal-style effects accompanying the piano. Track 5's piano is backed with some warm synths, the most uptempo composition on the album.

Because the album was recorded on analog equipment, the listener can hear the hiss of the tapes Eno used for his treated sounds in several of the tracks.

Track listing

#"First Light" – 6:59
#"Steal Away" – 1:29
#"The Plateaux of Mirror" – 4:10
#"Above Chiangmai" – 2:49
#"An Arc of Doves" – 6:22
#"Not Yet Remembered" – 3:50
#"The Chill Air" – 2:13
#"Among Fields of Crystal" – 3:24
#"Wind in Lonely Fences" – 3:57
#"Failing Light" – 4:17

Credits

* Piano & Electric Piano: Harold Budd
* Other Instruments, Treatments: Brian Eno
* All compositions Brian Eno & Harold Budd except "Steal Away" by Harold Budd & Eugene Bowen
* Production & Cover art: Brian Eno
* Recording location: Grant Avenue Studio, Old Rugged Cross, Hamilton, Ontario
* Thanks: Bob and Danny Lanois at Grant Avenue Studio; Eugene Bowen at the Old Rugged Cross; Roddy Hui

Release details

External links

* [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/mojo98a.html Interview; "MOJO" 55, June 1998]
* [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/audio93a.html Interview; "Audio", March 1993]
* [http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive_rock_discography_CD.asp?cd_id=12411 Review; "ProgArchives"] rating|4.29|5

ee also

* "Ambient 1/Music for Airports"
* "Ambient 3/Day of Radiance"
* "Ambient 4/On Land"
* Electronic music
Brian Eno