Brian Eno’s Music For Airports – The Creation Of A New Genre In Music
In the latest episode of Pearl Acoustics’ Great Recordings series, host Harley Lovegrove takes a look at Brian Eno‘s seminal ambient album, Ambient 1: Music For Airports.
Lovegrove is the Founding Director of Pearl Acoustics, and his videos are one of those rare examples of a company creating a video series that strives to do more than promote their products. Each of his Great Recordings videos focuses on an iconic album, ranging from vintage classics like Take Five to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter.
Eno’s Ambient 1-4 are seminal albums that defined the concept of Ambient Music. Eno didn’t ‘invent’ ambient music, but Ambient 1-4 defined the genre, and demonstrated the range of possibilities within the genre.
Lovegrove’s video provides an introduction to Eno and his work, and then digs deeper into Ambient 1 and the album’s individual tracks.
“It’s very calming,” he notes, “just like sitting…..at the beach with the sound of the waves rolling in. You can sit there for hours, without speaking a word, alone or with a group of people.”
Video Summary:
“When the composer and music producer Brian Eno had to suffer intolerable ‘muzak’ in an airport departure lounge, while waiting for his flight home back in the 1970’s, he concluded that there must be something better to fill the void. The result was the creation of a totally new genre of music which he called ‘Ambient’.
Designed to be played in any circumstance and not requiring the intellectual participation of the listener, unless desired, this album ‘Ambient 1 – Music for Airports, was the first LP in the new genre and set a ball rolling that is very much alive, 47 years later.”
Topics Covered:
00:00 – Title sequence
00:26 – Introduction to the topic & context
03:27 – Brian Eno, a brief synopsis
06:58 – Ambient 1 – Music for Airports
13:58 – Track 1 (1/1)
18:03 – Track 2 (2/1
21:19 – Track 3 (1/2)
24:41 – Track 4 (2/2)
