Brian Eno — Ambient 1: Music For Airports

During 2004 Virgin records began a project re-releasing some of the most important records in modern music. Virgin records was in it’s hey-day (probably the late 70s) a label and chain of record shops that was very much at the forefront of cutting edge sounds and new music. Nurse with wound even had most of the pressing of their first five albums bought up and sold by Virgin along side the more obvious punk protagonists of the time. Along with all this was Brian Eno and his series of minimalist electronic records. Perhaps the attention he received from Virgin was more down to his reputation in Roxy Music (that’s the Glam rock outfit) than any light bulb above the head moments from Richard Branson, but never the less it gave him the opportunity to expose the world to a sound and genre that has become one of the most familiar in popular music.

Eno named his new sound ambient music more as a attempt to stave off the death knell tag of Muzak from his new works than anything else. His philosophy and concepts are centred around the idea of music which does not intrude on an environment or atmosphere but augments it inducing calm and space for the listener to think. This central idea has been lost over the intervening years as the ambient term is tagged onto any electronic or dance music that isn’t "Bangin". It is however important to understand that the ambient series was not ground zero for the history of ambient music, but only the start of the conceptualisation and formalisation of the sound, philosophy and theory of ambient. Past work by numerous others including Robert Ashley, Wendy Carlos, Gavin Bryars and most importantly Harold Budd paved the way for Enos work. His belief in a collection of recordings that could be used to tailor sound to an environment continues today with almost every bar, restaurant and clothes shop attempting it’s own distinctive soundtrack designed to make us part with our money. These aberrations however distract us from the simple beauty of Enos recordings which is why I will now shut up and talk about one of them.

Music for airports was Enos first release in the ambient series. The elements that make up these four simple hymns are voice, piano and synthesizer. Most of the album is dominated by the acoustic elements rather than the swaths of synth and natural sound that has given rise to the awful new age genre. (A smelly chunk of Cheddar along side Enos fine white wine)
None of the songs have titles and each are displayed as a graphical score on the back of the CD. The lines, dots and streaks giving an indication of the musical pointillism at work. Each element placed delicately or falling slowly through the perfectly lit haze of sound, made even clearer with the re-mastering. The first track features sparse piano motifs which are repeated, slightly modified through differences in key pressure and pacing while light airy bell like electronic touches ring out between the notes. It’s long (over 16 minutes) but never once gets tedious. The gentle sway and movement is akin to small waves lapping against the soles of your feet on a beach in mid spring. Serene.  Track two features just voice, transformed into smooth tones and textures, again implying movement but no force, as if floating on air.

The third track combines the piano textures from the first track with the voice from the second to wonderful effect, slowly opening up a countryside of never ending melancholic sounds and feelings. This probably sounds like a strange reaction to music that’s designed for airports. Then again think about what happens at airports, people go places, maybe start new lives, leave family behind for the chance of new experiences. In that sense music for an airport would indeed have an element of melancholy. 
The final track reintroduces the synth, which serves a similar purpose as the voices in track two. Colour, tone, texture and atmosphere. No stand out melodies to distract you from your appreciation of the airport, or whatever location you happen to be in. Space to breath, space to think, space to live. It’s a concept so mind-blowingly fundamental that it would seem bizarre that it took till the late 1970s before it was fully acknowledged. This of course wasn’t the case, the use of sound as a life affirming environmental force has been around for possibly thousands of years. I would recommend David Toops Ocean of sound to anyone wanting to know more about this important facet of music. For the rest of you, all you have to do is listen to this and the other two Eno records in the ambient series to experience the feeling of travelling without moving.