Music For Airports (I), 2012

Music For Airports (II), 2012

Ambient 1: Music For Airports  is an album by Brian Eno. It was released in 1978.

This was a relatively late purchase for me – I got hooked on Eno when I heard his first three albums – they’re clever, funny, pop albums (my favourite has always been the overlooked one, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (1974), (wherein Brian takes nonsensical lyrics to an extreme – Mother Whale Eyeless being as good a place to start as any). Anyway, Another Green World (1975), one of the other vocal albums featured instrumental miniatures, which were better than the songs, and through them I got into the ambient stuff. And thinking that one day I would be a great avant-garde composer (I was messing around with tape recorders a lot at the time), I devoured the lot, but somehow missed this one. It’s alright. It’s one of those albums that’s better as an idea than a listening experience. In fact, you’re not really supposed to listen to it in a “I’ll just sit down and listen to Ambient 1: Music For Airports” kind of way at all; you’re supposed to put it on and let it just be there in the background. I can no longer imagine a time when this would be of any use or even possible – it would have to be at deafening volume to be heard in our house.

There’s a really interesting article about the album here.

This CD can be found: dining room, left-hand bookshelves, third shelf down.

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Thank you, once again,  John and Denne for title and tag ideas etc. And to Terry for sending me in the direction of the shelves in search of inspiration, and of course, as always, to Richard at CK Ponderings for being a super-cool collaborator.

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