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Ambient 1: Music for Airports
Studio album by Brian Eno
Released	March 1978
Recorded	1978
Studio	London and Cologne
Genre	Ambient minimalist electronic
Length	42:20
Label	E.G. Polydor PVC
Producer	Brian Eno
Brian Eno chronology
Before and After Science (1977) Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978) Music for Films (1978)

Ambient 1: Music for Airports is the sixth studio album by English musician Brian Eno, released in March 1978 by Polydor Records. It is the first of Eno's albums released under the label of ambient music, a genre of music intended to "induce calm and a space to think" while remaining "as ignorable as it is interesting". While not Eno's earliest entry in the style, it is credited with coining the term.

The album consists of four compositions created by layering tape loops of differing lengths, and was designed to be continuously looped as a sound installation, with the intent of defusing the anxious atmosphere of an airport terminal. Eno defined his approach in opposition to "canned" Muzak and easy listening practices. The album was the first of four albums released in Eno's Ambient series, which concluded with 1981's Ambient 4: On Land.

In 2004, Rolling Stone credited the album with defining the ambient genre. In 2016, Pitchfork ranked it the greatest ambient album of all time.

Background and concept

Eno became interested in ambience when he suffered an automobile accident that sent him to the hospital in the mid-1970s. His friend Judy Nylon visited Eno in the hospital and left an album playing quietly before leaving. The sound blended with the rain outside the room and, unable to get up and adjust the volume, Eno allowed it to create an ambience aligned with his fluctuating attention. The album Discreet Music (1975), per Eno's own judgement, was his first foray into ambient music.

After spending several hours waiting for a flight at Germany's Cologne Bonn Airport and becoming annoyed by its uninspired atmosphere, Eno conceived an album of music "designed for airports". He intended for the album to still function within various other situations. Ambient music was then a "relatively modest field", "more a concept than a genre", and mostly created against the context of dominant muzak practices. Eno's concept was distinct from elevator music and easy listening's "derivative" background noise approach, and was instead to be used as a means of creating space for thought. In the album's liner notes, Eno explained:

Whereas conventional background music is produced by stripping away all sense of doubt and uncertainty (and thus all genuine interest) from the music, Ambient Music retains these qualities. And whereas their intention is to `brighten' the environment by adding stimulus to it (thus supposedly alleviating the tedium of routine tasks and levelling out the natural ups and downs of the body rhythms) Ambient Music is intended to induce calm and a space to think. Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.

Eno later named the Ray Conniff Singers and the "Borgesian idea" of a self-generated "world in reverse" which is centered around music as inspirations during this period.

Recording and composition

All tracks were composed by Eno except "1/1", which was co-composed by Eno with former Soft Machine drummer and vocalist Robert Wyatt and with producer Rhett Davies.

Music for Airports makes use of spliced tape loops. Recalling its creation, Eno said it was "conceived as deliberately austere and unemotional" and "was essentially made by machines". He began work during the creation of David Bowie's Low. With regards to their instrumentation, dynamic range, timbre, harmony, tonality and texture, the tracks are confining and feature a "contained repertory of pitches, gestural shapes, and motivic content that lasts throughout its entirety". Variations of timbre are seen when comparing the tracks, such as the warm "1/1" contrasting with the cold and dark "1/2". They are without backing rhythms and instead irregular repetition.

He has stated a connection to death. Not wanting it to be "all bright and cheerful", Eno, a self-proclaimed "nervous flyer", considered the feelings that arise from being at an airport, including the supposed mortality salience and hoped the album would bring solace: "Really, it’s music to resign you to the possibility of death". John L. Waters described the album as a "logical progression from the work of the experimental and systems-based 'serious' musicians (John White, Gavin Bryars, Christopher Hobbs, Michael Parsons, Michael Nyman) that Eno recorded and championed for his label Obscure". David Stubbs noted similarities to the work of Erik Satie.

"1/1", features piano loops performed in an arrhythmic manner – piano being the dominant instrument throughout the album. The track arose from two pianists improvising whereby neither could clearly hear the other, leading to separate yet complementary melodies being played. Various motifs, played in a fitful manner, are featured. Philosopher of art John Lysaker, while discussing the album's general sense of aimless direction, noted that "1/1" "holds together no better (and no worse) than a cloud". The music throughout is down-tempo, without "distinct melodic or harmonic development no highs or lows". "1/1" is the only track to feature a melody.

"2/1" and "1/2" make use of vocal loops; the former designed to have them fluctuate in synchrony. The disparate lengths of "2/1" were the result of each singer's differing capabilities. He modified the tape recordings offhandedly to loops, desiring "a silence at least twice as long as the sound" and "complicated rather than simple relationships". "And then I started all the loops running, and let them configure in the way they chose to configure". Music professor Victor Szabo described the track as "ghostly", writing that the "non-vibrato" tape loops are "uncannily lifeless": "Through such compositional techniques and affective-expressive codes, ‘2/1’ intimates human absence more overtly than any other track".

"2/2" was performed with an ARP 2600 synthesiser. Brian Eno described how this piece was recorded:

The second piece on the second side of Music for Airports was done with an ARP 2600. It's a beautiful sound, I think, and one that I couldn't have got from any other synthesizer that I know of. The thing that makes it so luscious is that it's slowed down, and it has three kinds of echo on it.

Release

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Christgau's Record Guide	B
Mojo
Pitchfork	9.2/10 (2004) 10/10 (2024)
Record Collector
Rolling Stone (2004)
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Slant Magazine
Spin Alternative Record Guide	4/10
Uncut	10/10

The first album of ambient music to become popular – and later recognised as the "first deliberately 'ambient' recording" – it was initially dismissed by critics, audiences and some of Eno's peers alike, bewildering some of the former. It only became more favoured by the 1990s, having "entered the modern musical canon".

Blandness was a very common critique in the initial reviews, a possible by-product of its unvarying and populist conception, wrote Szabo. In a 1979 review for Rolling Stone, Michael Bloom found Ambient 1 self-indulgent and lacking focus. "There's a good deal of high craftsmanship here," Bloom said. "But to find it, you've got to thwart the music's intent by concentrating." In another contemporary review for The Village Voice, critic Robert Christgau wrote that "these four swatches of modestly 'ambient' minimalism have real charms as general-purpose calmatives. But I must also report that they've fared unevenly against specific backgrounds." He later called it "a bore". Writing for The Globe and Mail, around the time of its release, Alan Niester categorized the album as alien, calling it "background grunge" that was best suited for "dish-doing bed-making". In a 1979 interview with Eno for Musician, critic Lester Bangs described Music for Airports as having "a crystalline, sun-light-through windowpane quality that makes it somewhat mesmerising even as you half-listen to it," and recounted a personal experience in which the album induced him into a dream state featuring Charles Mingus.

PopMatters journalist John Davidson was enthusiastic in a retrospective review, deeming Music for Airports a masterpiece whose value "can only be appreciated by listening to it in a variety of moods and settings. Then you are likely struck by how the music allows your mind the space to breathe", Davidson wrote, "and in doing so, adapts itself to your mood". AllMusic reviewer Linda Kohanov stated that "like a fine painting, these evolving soundscapes don't require constant involvement on the part of the listener yet the music also rewards close attention with a sonic richness absent in standard types of background or easy listening music." Sasha Frere-Jones wrote that, by strength of its compositions, Music for Airports fails to facilitate an easily disregarded listening experience: "the album is too beautiful to ignore". Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine described the effect of the compositions as "sheer weightlessness." Q described it as "soothing and sublime, a useful album when you're feeling particularly delicate." In a positive review, Pitchfork's Grayson Haver Currin wrote that "to hear Music for Airports as more than a background balm, these four tracks remain wondrous and transformative, able to rearrange the air in a room."

Legacy

Ambient 1 was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Chuck Eddy from Spin later named it the fourth most essential ambient album. In September 2016, Pitchfork named the record the best ambient album of all time.

The album has been recognized as a seminal and influential release, an icon of the genre and Eno's discography. J. D. Considine wrote in The Rolling Stone Album Guide that the record defined the ambient aesthetic while providing a name for the genre. Chris Richards of The Washington Post wrote that it "taught an entire generation of musicians to consider music as a texture". Reflecting on the album, Jon Caramanica called it the best of Eno's work which shortly followed Roxy Music. Due in part to Music for Airports, perception of Eno's career shifted and he became aligned with highly influential minimalist composers: Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Terry Riley, and La Monte Young. Artists such as Pauline Oliveros, Riley and Harold Budd would expand on Eno's style of ambient music, which would feature prominently on his following albums; Music for Airports acted as a genesis for Eno and collaborators exploring the style, such as in the numbered Ambient series (1978–82). His conception would soon become more mallable and less reliant upon locations.

Over the years, the album has sold over 200,000 copies, making it one of his best-selling solo albums.

Installation and covers

The album has been installed and performed in at least five airports; it has been met with resistance from some travellers and workers, who deem it disruptive. Clinics and hospitals have used the albums to soothe patients. In 1998, Bang on a Can performed the album live, favouring a "technicolour style". Discussing their performance, Eno described it as the ensemble "trying to act like machines, but they don't sound like machines at all, they sound like people and it's quite touching when that appears". He felt the rendition's emotive quality was the result of the supposed human element; it moved him to tears, he said, and others he knew – such as Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson – had similar reactions. Critics echoed Eno's praise, including that of the rendition's superiority.

In 2010, The Black Dog, by means of their ninth studio album, Music for Real Airports, issued a "musical rebuttal", chastising the perceived dehumanisation of airports and Eno's supposed intention of "lull customers".

Track listing

The track labelling refers to 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 30 seconds of silence after every track, including "2/2".

The album's back cover features four abstract graphic notation images, one for each track, representing their structure and instrumentation.

Personnel

• Brian Eno – synthesiser, electric piano, vocals
• Christa Fast – vocals ("2/1", "1/2")
• Christine Gomez – vocals ("2/1", "1/2")
• Inge Zeininger – vocals ("2/1", "1/2")
• Robert Wyatt – acoustic piano ("1/1", "1/2")

Recording

• Brian Eno – producer, engineer
• Dave Hutchins – engineer ("2/1", "1/2")
• Conny Plank – engineer ("2/2"),
• Rhett Davies – engineer ("1/1")

Design

• Brian Eno – cover art

Recording Location

• London ("1/1", "1/2", "2/1")
• Plank's Studio, Cologne ("2/2")

Release history

Certifications

Usage

• Mistaken Memories of Mediaeval Manhattan is a 1981, 47-minute ambient video created by Eno which uses music from both the albums Ambient 4: On Land and this album. This title was later included with his Thursday Afternoon video on the Rykodisc DVD compilation 14 Video Paintings.
• Music from the album has been covered by:
  • Makyo — "2/1 (Night Flight Mix)", on the double compilation CD Minimalism: More Or Less, 1998, Law & Auder (LA05CD)
  • nalptenalp, "Re: 1/1" (2020), which is a reconstruction of "1/1".
• Arrangements of the album performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars were made into a video filmed and edited by Frank Scheffer, entitled Music For Airports / In The Ocean
• The first track is used in the PBS special The Creation of the Universe. 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 US public radio program This American Life.
• "1/1" is used as background music in the 1986 film 9½ Weeks.
• "1/1" features prominently in the opening scene of the 2009 motion picture The Lovely Bones.
• Excerpts of Ambient 1 appear in Robert Hughes' documentary on Modern Art The Shock of the New, episode 4 Trouble in Utopia.
• Prior to the first hosted live broadcast of Apple's Beats 1 internet radio station, music from the album was played on the service's audio stream.

See also

• Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror
• Ambient 3: Day of Radiance
• Ambient 4: On Land

Notes

1. Eno, Brian (1978). Ambient 1: Music for Airports (liner notes). Brian Eno. PVC Records. PVC 7908 (AMB 001). Retrieved 23 October 2020.
2. LeBlanc, Larry (2018). "In the Hot Seat with Larry LeBlanc: Brian Eno, musician, artist, producer, thinker". Celebrity Access.
3. ^ Considine 2004, p. 279.
4. ^ Sherburne, Phillip. "The 50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time". Pitchfork. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
5. Synthhead (5 January 2016). "Brian Eno Tells The Origin Story For Ambient Music". Synthtopia. Retrieved 11 May 2018.
6. ^ Lysaker, John (2017). "Turning Listening Inside Out: Brian Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports". The Journal of Speculative Philosophy. 31 (1): 155–176. doi:10.5325/jspecphil.31.1.0155. JSTOR 10.5325/jspecphil.31.1.0155. S2CID 152129690.
7. ^ "Ambient 1: Music for Airports". Mixmag. June 2013.
8. Eddy, Chuck (August 2011). "Essentials – Spurning Melody, Rhythm, and Lyrics, Ambient Is Music's Quiet Revolution". Spin. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
9. ^ Szabo, Victor (2017). "Unsettling Brian Eno's Music for Airports". Twentieth-Century Music. 14 (2): 305–333. doi:10.1017/S147857221700024X. ISSN 1478-5722. S2CID 191536723.
10. O'Brien, Glenn (June 1978). "Eno at the Edge of Rock". Interview. Vol. 8, no. 6. Retrieved 24 December 2019 – via Rock's Backpages.
11. Baskas, Harriet (12 March 2008). "Better branding through music: Original airport theme songs". USA Today. Archived from the original on 16 March 2008. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
12. ^ Albiez & Pattie 2016, p. 98-99.
13. ^ Caramanica, Jon (25 November 2004). "Brian Eno: Ambient 1: Music for Airports". Rolling Stone. No. 962. p. 94.
14. Johnson, Phil (26 April 1998). "Ambient: Now that's what I call music for airports". The Independent.
15. H. Lisius, Peter (March 2010). "Music for Airports". Notes. 66 (3).
16. Eno, Brian (1978). Ambient 1: Music for Airports - Liner Notes.
17. ^ Gill, Andy (June 1998). "Brian Eno: To Infinity and Beyond". Mojo.
18. Gill, Andy (November 1993). "Brian Eno: Towards An Understanding of Pop Past and Present". Q.
19. Perry, Richard (27 September 1998). "Lunar Serenade". Ottawa Citizen.
20. ^ Barnes, Mike (March 2009). "Brian Eno". Mojo.
21. ^ Hewett, Ivan (5 January 2016). "How Brian Eno created a quiet revolution in music". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
22. Adkins, Monty; Cummings, Simon, eds. (2019). Music Beyond Airports - Appraising Ambient Music. University of Huddersfield Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-86218-161-8.
23. Lysaker 2018, p. 1.
24. ^ Roquet, Paul (1 February 2016). Ambient Media. University of Minnesota Press. pp. 4, 55. doi:10.5749/minnesota/9780816692446.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-8166-9244-6.
25. Rose, Cynthia (1979). "Oblique Strategies". Harper's Bazaar.
26. ^ L. Walters, John (30 April 1998). "Music: Flying Away on Muzak". The Independent. Archived from the original on 12 July 2021. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
27. Stubbs, David (12 March 1994). "Aphex Twin: 'Phex And Drugs And Rock'N'Roll". Melody Maker.
28. Sullivan, Jim (11 June 1979). "Brian Eno pulls coup with background music". Bangor Daily News.
29. Albiez & Pattie 2016, p. 38.
30. Pareles, Jon (29 April 2020). "Brian Eno's 15 Essential Ambient Works". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
31. ^ Sun, Cecilia (2007). "Resisting the airport: Bang on a can performs Brian Eno". Musicology Australia. 29 (1): 135–159. doi:10.1080/08145857.2007.10416592. ISSN 0814-5857. S2CID 191980585.
32. Eno, Brian (1996). "Generative Music". inmotionmagazine.com. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
33. "How Brian Eno Created "Ambient 1: Music For Airports"". reverbmachine.com. 11 July 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
34. Tannenbaum, Rob (1985). "John Cage & Brian Eno: A Meeting of Sound Minds". Musician.
35. Aikin, Jim. "Brian Eno: Keyboard Wizards, Winter 1985".
36. ^ Kohanov, Linda. "Ambient 1: Music for Airports – Brian Eno". AllMusic. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
37. Christgau 1981.
38. Barnes, Mike (October 2004). "Brian Eno: Discreet Music / Music for Airports / On Land / The Plateaux of Mirror". Mojo. No. 131. p. 127.
39. Singer, Liam (7 October 2004). "Brian Eno / Harold Budd: Discreet Music / Ambient 1: Music for Airports / Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror / Ambient 4: On Land Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
40. ^ Haver Currin, Grayson (7 January 2024). "Ambient 1 (Music for Airports)". Pitchfork. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
41. Rathbone, Oregano (January 2019). "Brian Eno: Music for Airports". Record Collector. No. 488. p. 98.
42. Considine 2004, p. 278.
43. ^ Cinquemani, Sal (2 November 2002). "Brian Eno: Ambient 1: Music for Airports". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
44. Powers 1995, p. 129.
45. Pinnock, Tom (January 2019). "Brian Eno: Discreet Music / Ambient 1: Music for Airports / Music for Films / Ambient 4: On Land". Uncut. No. 260. p. 38.
46. Beta, Andy (1 September 2021). "Things Fall Apart: How William Basinski's life prepared him to make a beloved musical memorial to 9/11". Texas Monthly. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
47. Mitchell, Nick (5 January 2017). "How Brian Eno proved the potential of ambient music". I. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
48. Lysaker 2018, p. 5.
49. Kosman, Joshua (10 May 1998). "'Airports' lands on the stage / ensemble arranges eno's seminal album for instruments". San Francisco Chronicle. ProQuest 411295433. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
50. Bloom, Michael (26 July 1979). "Ambient 1: Music for Airports". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
51. Christgau, Robert (2 July 1979). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
52. Niester, Alan (26 May 1979). "Ambient 1 - music for airports brian eno". The Globe and Mail. ProQuest 387027077. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
53. Bangs, Lester (November 1979). "Lester Bangs Interviews Eno". Musician. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
54. Davidson, John (20 December 2004). "Brian Eno: Ambient 1: Music for Airports [reissue]". PopMatters. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
55. Frere-Jones, Sasha (30 June 2014). "Ambient Genius". The New Yorker. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
56. "Best Chill-Out Albums of All Time". Q. No. 154. July 1999. p. 151.
57. Dimery 2006.
58. Eddy, Chuck (August 2011). "Essentials". Spin. Vol. 27, no. 7. p. 78. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
59. "The 50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time". Pitchfork. 26 September 2016. p. 5. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
60. Roquet, Paul (2009). "Ambient Literature and the Aesthetics of Calm: Mood Regulation in Contemporary Japanese Fiction". The Journal of Japanese Studies. 35 (1): 87–111. ISSN 0095-6848. JSTOR 27756619.
61. Sheppard 2009, p. 457.
62. Richards, Chris (2 September 2007). "How Brian Eno Helped Travelers Check Their Emotional Baggage". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
63. Cateforis, Theo (2011). Are We Not New Wave? Modern Pop at the Turn of the 1980s. University of Michigan Press. p. 204. ISBN 978-0-472-02759-0.
64. King, Jason (2007). Listen Again: A Momentary History of Pop Music. Duke University Press. p. 185. doi:10.2307/j.ctv11sn0sw. ISBN 978-0-8223-9055-8. JSTOR j.ctv11sn0sw.
65. Sinker, Mark (October 1992). "Taking Modern Culture By Strategy: Brian Eno". The Wire.
66. Sheppard 2009, p. 301.
67. Stump, Paul (1997). The Music's All that Matters: A History of Progressive Rock. Quartet Books Limited. p. 328. ISBN 0-7043-8036-6.
68. Sheppard 2009, p. 387.
69. Lysaker 2018, p. 7.
70. Fink, Robert (2005). Repeating Ourselves. University of California Press. p. 144. doi:10.1525/9780520938946. ISBN 978-0-520-93894-6.
71. "British album certifications – Brian Eno – Ambient 1 - Music for Airports". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
72. "Mistaken Memories of Mediaeval Manhattan". IMDb.
73. "Ryko link". Archived from the original on 15 March 2007.
74. "Minimalism: More Or Less (1998, CD)". Discogs.
75. "Makyo". Discogs.
76. Music For Airports / In The Ocean, 2008
77. "Creation of the Universe". IMDb.
78. "Nine 1/2 Weeks". IMDb. 21 February 1986.
79. "The Lovely Bones". IMDb. 15 January 2010.
80. "The first music played on Beats 1 is Music For Airports". FACT Magazine: Transmissions from the underground. 30 June 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2019.

1. Szabo further theorised on the perceived direction, noting that juxtaposed with the album's function it evokes a "distance from human affairs", as does the aversion to musical conventions and abstract replication of a map.

References

• Albiez, Sean; Pattie, David, eds. (2016). Oblique Music. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 98–99. ISBN 9781441155344.
• Christgau, Robert (1981). "Brian Eno: Music for Airports". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor and Fields. ISBN 0-89919-026-X. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
• Considine, J. D. (2004). "Brian Eno". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
• Dimery, Robert, ed. (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (revised and updated ed.). Universe Publishing. ISBN 0-7893-1371-5.
• Lysaker, John T. (2018). Brian Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780190497293.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-049729-3.
• Powers, Ann (1995). "Brian Eno". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
• Sheppard, David (2009). On Some Faraway Beach - The Life and Times of Brian Eno. Orion Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4091-5762-5. OCLC 1023346143.

External links

This section's use of external links may not follow Misplaced Pages's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (August 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

• Ambient 1: Music for Airports at Discogs (list of releases)
• Interview on Ambient 1: Music for Airports
• 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

• Brian Eno albums
• 1978 albums
• Albums produced by Brian Eno
• E.G. Records albums
• 1970s concept albums
• Ambient albums by English artists
• Minimal music albums
• Electronic albums by English artists