Music for Airports

Infobox Album | Name = Ambient 1: Music For Airports
Type = Album
Artist = Brian Eno


Released = March 1978
Recorded = London & Cologne, 1978
Genre = Electronic music Ambient Experimental
Length = 48:32
Label = EG, Polydor Virgin, GRT
Producer = Brian Eno
Reviews = * Allmusic Rating|5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:ulaxqj1bojta link]
* Pitchfork Media (9.2/10) [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/17480/Brian_Eno_Discreet_Music_Ambient_1_Music_for_Airports_A link]
* PopMatters (Positive) [http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/e/enobrian-ambient1.shtml link]
* "Spin" Rating|4|10Weisbard & Marks, 1995. p.129]

|Last album = "Before and after Science" (1977)
This album = "Music For Airports" (1978)
Next album = "Music For Films" (1978)

"Ambient 1: Music for Airports" (1978) is an Ambient music album by Brian Eno.

Overview

This was the first of four albums released on Eno's own, then new, Ambient label to actually carry the name "ambient" - 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" [ [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/MFA-txt.html Brian Eno, September 1978, from the liner notes of Music for Airports] ] .

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. [ [http://www.usatoday.com/travel/columnist/baskas/2008-03-12-airport-theme-songs_N.htm Harriet Baskas, Better branding through music: Original airport theme songs, USA Today, 12-March-2008] ]

It was installed at the Marine Air Terminal of New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

Track listing

The track labelling is the 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.
# "1/1" : Acoustic & electric piano; synthesizer. – 16:30
# "2/1" : Vocals only. – 8:20
# "1/2" : Vocals; acoustic piano. – 11:30
# "2/2" : Synthesizer only. – 6:00 (9:38 in the "Working Backwards" box edition, 1983)

The tracks length is different in the CD edition:
# "1/1" : 17:21
# "2/1" : 8:54
# "1/2" : 12:07
# "2/2" : 9:38

The music

See "Miscellanea" for citations.
All tracks were composed by Eno except "1/1", which was composed by Eno, former Soft Machine drummer 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 due to 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:

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:

"2/2", the synth piece, was performed with an ARP 2600.

Credits

* Various instruments, 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

Versions

Miscellaneous

* "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 [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082756/ IMDB link] .
Two time-lapse animated GIFS from the production - [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/images/mistmem1.gif(133K)] , [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/images/mistmem2.gif(270K)] .
This title was later repackaged with his "Thursday Afternoon" video as "14 Video Paintings", RykoDisc, (HNDVD 1508) [http://www.rykodisc.com/catalog/dump/rykoalbums_1677.asp Ryko link]
* "I Travel", a Simple Minds' song from their 1980 album Empires and Dance arguably refers to this album in the verse " [http://www.simpleminds.org/sm/songs/rtrc/it1.htm Airports playing Brian Eno] ".
* Music from the album has been covered by:
** Bang on a Can - Music For Airports Live, 1997, Point-Music (314 536 847-2) [http://www.rubli.net/_beepdiscog/HT_FILES/html/82039.htm 1] , [http://www.rubli.net/_beepdiscog/HT_FILES/html/87223.htm 2] , [http://www.bangonacan.org/ 3]
** Makyo - "2/1 (Night Flight Mix)", on the double compilation CD "Minimalism: More Or Less", 1998, Law & Auder (LA05CD) [http://www.discogs.com/release/335 4] , [http://www.discogs.com/artist/Makyo 5] .
* The first track is used in the PBS special "The Creation of the Universe" ( [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0204224/ IMDB link] ). Eno is the sole music credit, and he also wrote original music for the documentary.
* Part of the first track featured in the 1986 erotic drama 9½ Weeks.
* The Dutch comedy group Jiskefet has used the track 1/2 quite extensively. All their petshop sketches ('De Dierenwinkel', broadcasted weekly on Dutch national TV in the 1990s) ended with 1/2 being played.
* In 2005, an extract was used in an advertisement for Orange.
* 2/1 was featured in a NOVA episode called The Miracle of Life

ee also

* "Ambient 2/The Plateaux of Mirror"
* "Ambient 3/Day of Radiance"
* "Ambient 4/On Land"

Notes

References

*cite book
last= Weisbard
first= Eric
coauthors= Craig Marks
title= Spin Alternative Record Guide
publisher= Vintage Books
year= 1995
isbn= 0679755748

External links

* [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/MFA-txt.html Liner notes of initial American release]
* [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/artpress01.html Interview, "Artpress", Sep 2001]
* [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/keyb81.html Interview, "Keyboard Wizards", Winter 1985]
* [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/reha88.html Interview, "Reality Hackers", Winter 1988]
* [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/downbeat79.htm Eno lecture, "New Music New York", 1979]
* [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/wire98c.html "The Wire", Stansted Airport "BoaC" performance, June 1998]