Ambient 1/Music For Airports

This is music. But it's background music. It's not meant to be listened to. (By Eno's own admission. It was literally written with the thought of having looping background music in airports and other similar spaces.) So it's inclusion on 1001 albums you've gotta hear really frustrates me. Since Eno pioneered ambient music with this album, thousands of other similar pieces of music have been made to serve as background music or meditation soundtracks. What makes this example special other than it being the first? It's not that I have a problem with this music (though I wouldn't choose to listen to it), but I have a bone to pick with its inclusion on this list.

This is the album that transformed ambient music from a concept that some artists used to toy with to a de facto music genre. Brian Eno's sensible minimalistic approach in those four compositions became a roadmap for ambient records in the late 1970s and it's still very much referentiated to this day. The piano improvisations stitched together, the vocal loops and the beautifully crafted synth sounds all come together to create an album that grows inside you like a very powerful feeling and leaves you calm, but also pensative. As a electronic music record, it also explored that dicotomy of a human-machine relationship, evoking the uniqueness of giant flying metal machines mixed with small helpless humans on the go. Altought the attempt to remove the tension of an airport terminal through music didn't really work on a practical level at the time, when it was used as an art instalation, airports enviroments changed a lot in the last 25 years and I'm curious to see how it would work like that again after all this time and in this world we currently live in. Nonetheless, it's a masterpice, an album that goes straight to the heart.

if Buddha found a synthesizer while ego tripping in a small town Midwestern Episcopal church

Awesomely beautiful. (And provided for a great bike ride.)

I have this one on quite frequently whilst I work - on that basis, it's absolutely the perfect accompaniment to some gentle cogitating. The title gives it away, even if Eno was being semi-ironic - it's functional music. And on that basis, a triumph

Yes please. So very pleasant and I believe wholly met Eno's goal of creating music equally interesting and ignorable.

I could yoga so hard to this album. And outside of that environment, I’m not likely to listen to it again.

Music for (empty) elevators, deaf people, morgues, and trees falling in the woods when nobody can hear them.

I'm already wound up by the album cover not being lined up properly. Not a great start if this album is designed to be chilling me out. It is a just a bunch of random sounds grouped into 4 tracks. I didn't find it ambient at all because there was no rhythmic structure to it. Every random note kept interrupting my train of thought. If you gave 1001 baboons a keyboard and a chorus pedal each, they could each knock out one of these in about 40 minutes. Would they all be indespensible? No. So why the fuck is this one. This album is a crock of shite. (And I'm rather pleased because my Summary page was looking very top heavy).

Okay, I’m not going to lie, I actually really love this. It’s so calming and relaxing. Daughter liked it, too.

I've always had a soft spot for this album.

I don't know. I'm not hearing a single. I'm not sure what this album wants from me, except for me to let it play on in the background. And on that note, it works perfectly. It is, absolutely, ambient.

Music for airports got me through a lot of grad school coding projects and has served me well when I’ve needed to call on it since. Good stuff, aptly named. I Stan Eno

As far as music for work - this is best album ever made.

Don't really know what to say about this except that it does exactly what it tells you it's going to do and it does it very well. Great studying music and very relaxing

I chose Brian Eno for my playlist when I was in labour (ambient Brian, not King's Lead Hat or Driving Me Backwards Brian - I'm not a masochist). I love him and everything he has ever touched (apart from that U2 album - as I say, I'm not a masochist). An easy 5* for me.

Already one of my favorite ambient albums. Really a genre defining album, and still very good at what it was designed to do.

Maan... lyssnade på denna medan jag gick ut och promenerade med katten och det mesta i livet kändes ganska kristallklart... banger

Starts out as music for airports, becomes music for spaceships. Brian Eno, and more specifically his ambient albums, were a great comfort for me during a lot of recent stressful times in my life. Just to have something nice on in the background while working through some stuff. Just perfect.

I listen to ambient almost everyday. So when I Review this differently than other albums. It's not about how catchy or how well it is composed it is, it's about the feeling you get from listening. I personally feel the tranquility of standing at an empty airport. The juxtaposition of imagining a usually busy place being empty often gives me an odd sense of calm. I understand why people don't enjoy it or don't know how to review an album that have very little change, it can seem boring and repetitive but that is kind of the point. I can feel how influential this album been in the development of ambient but i am skeptical on having it on this list. Still a pleasant experience.

PERFECT

The best background music. Does exactly what it says on the packaging

Ambient music is not my jam. I always prefer something with energy and drive. I expected this album to be a complete waste of my time. But... somehow... it's not. It's totally ignorable but also not offensively bland. It DOES have layers of interest. The engineering on this album is absolutely top-notch. Way beyond its time. I was actually kinda into the first track. The second track, however, completely lost me with its constantly ebbing and flowing generic human voices. It was creepy AF, to be honest. The third track redeems those vocals by using them as texture to a primarily piano-focused track. But it's only the first and fourth tracks that are listenable, in my opinion. It gets more stars than I anticipated giving it but it's still not a great listen overall.

The Rocket 88 of ambient. Many earlier tracks can be cited, but the genre is deemed to start here. Five subtle background stars.

An all timer in innovating music. Re-thinking what music can be, making it for a cool purpose and absolutely crushing the assignment. There is beauty in liminal spaces and being in the in between.

It invited a genre for chrissakes. Have YOU ever invited a genre? Probably not.

4.5 stars. Beautiful, calming ambient music. Pretty impressive that this album was sorta the first of it's kind when it comes to this genre. Works equally well as background music while focusing on something else, or as interesting standalone art on it's own.

I felt less anxious while listening to this in an airport. But then suddenly became enraged as I was trapped in a dystopia.

It's not exactly BAD, but I'm still giving it one star because why in the hell is this part of the list? What's next - an album of elevator music?

As advertised. Very easy to play in the background while doing anything. Great back in my day vibes.

100% REAL UNCUT ROCK AND ROLL! THIS AINT YOUR GRANDMA’S ALBUM! 🚙🚛🔥🔥🔥🦅🔫🔫

For years, this was one's morning listening – to get quiet and focused. And it still works very well for that, too. 1/1 is best cut but they all work and one can easily drift in and out of listening. One believes this is best work Eno ever did (though definitely don't sleep on Discreet Music) – and not just because it's title 100% pays off (provided one has good noise-cancelling headphones – as well as working well on airplanes, too). The dreaminess makes it more interesting than ingnorable but one wonders how many people would differentiate it from Muzak. Bangs was right about it having a "sunlight through a windowpane sort of quailty" and so too Sasha Frere-Jones calling it "too beautiful to ignore." One's fully down with the Pitchfork's naming it best ambient album of all time. Additionally, this records offers ample theory that Eno is secretly a romantic – and not mainly a cold, clinical studio artist – who wants everyone to relax and navigate the stressful modern world more quietly and peacefully. Rounding up for being first-ever ambient record and it remains the best.

This calmed me down while commuting through Union square so it really is transportative. Yes I paused it on the train to watch several Lonely Island videos but that’s really none of your business.

Nothing happens in this album and that's why its beautiful! There is so much emotion conveyed in the ambient spaces and sparse musical material of this wonderful recording that I will always be in the mood for.

Ambient gold

Love the ambient vibes

Ground-breaking by Eno, very peaceful, tranquil and clever - a rather nice accompaniment whilst buried in a work spreadsheet but I would struggle to play it in many other environments or situations. Music for airports? Struggle how this would go down in the bar, Bristol airport at 6am whilst "Jen's Hen do" sink Proseccos and devour a full English breakfast!? We've changed! (sadly).

Brian Eno was easily one of the most important people in music history. Not only was he at the forefront of Art Rock, Experimental Sound Design and even Drone but he also invented the actual genre of Ambient. This album was purely created because he was annoyed with the Airport music and *boom* Ambient!!! The album kickstarted a new way of approaching and looking at music and even though better Ambient albums have been created (even by Eno himself), the album is still packed with great ideas and beautiful moments as well as a Blueprint of any following Ambient projects. The album is made up of 4 tracks all titled after the number of the song and the number of the vinyl side. So, '1/1' starts the album with some great moments right off the bat. It combines Modern Classical Minimalism (which artists like Steve Reich were at the forefront of) and New Age and even Impressionism. Meaning that right at the start, the Ambient genre shows what it tries to give you: peaceful and even meditative melodies that are easy to listen too and put one into a state that is both soothing and ethereal. The track is mainly made up of simple and lovely Piano sounds as well as some synths. There isn't much more than a total of three instruments on the entire track. It is incredibly simple but it knows that and it doesn't push itself further than that. I guess that it's hard to really give a "score" or anything to a track like this because either it works for you at this moment or it doesn't but I personally love this track. Brian Eno was and is one of my biggest inspirations and a track like this just emphasizes that less can be more. The track does exactly what it wants to do and I am hypnotised by what it does: This is a perfect track. '2/1' keeps things going by adding a lot of Choral A Cappella from four vocalists including Eno himself and using that as an Ambient instrument by playing it from a tape in different ways. It does sound like it's just a few parts of a church Choral and I do like that sound on its own but this track repeats and all of that and often breaks the little bit of flow that it had. The only thing that I really enjoy here are the synths but to be honest they aren't really so prominent that it takes the fact away that the vocals are simply annoying after a while which is the least thing Ambient tries to do. It does get incredibly frustrating because it feels like the exact same thing over and over and over and yes, the first track also sounding like that but it did it better and not as obnoxious as this track. I am sorry but I genuinely think that this is a very, very unpleasent track and without a doubt one of Eno's worst songs ever put out on a major release. The second half of the album starts much better. '1/2' does feature very similar vocals but there is piano again and doesn't fully rely on the vocals. They are still very present but they are used much more sparingly and are broken up by the piano which often times does a much better job at keeping the track together than the synths did on '2/1'. I do think that after what happened on '2/1' that I am connected to these vocals a little more than I should be because they still feel a little bit annoying which does ruin the song a little bit for me. I think that it's still an incredible track but it's simply not perfect because of these vocals. The album is closed by '2/2' which is another complete change of sound because it goes much more into a genre that only later was put under the Ambient umbrella. It uses Electronic Space Ambient in the form of only synthesizers to create a similar Ambient atmosphere. It does still fall under the "normal" Ambient genre because it does set itself apart from other Space Ambient tracks and mostly the Progressive Electronic aspect but it does utilise a lot of the sounds that it first made popular. The track sounds like a dreamy sci-fi movie about astronouts and I absolutely love it. While I do think that '1/1' is overall better, this is still a perfect Ambient track and has some of the best moments on the album as well as closing it perfectly. favourites: 1/1, 2/2 least favourites: 2/1 Rating: strong 7 to light 8 https://rateyourmusic.com/~Emil_ph for more ratings, reviews and takes

What an odd thing...setting out to make music that's intentionally unremarkable and inventing a new genre in the process. The synth voice was probably pretty novel for the time, but I prefer the piano-based track. It has its place and could be a repeat listen. 4.0

Music for Zen! Delicate notes, I enjoyed everything about this album. And now it's on my Lounge folder 4/5

I didn't really notice it

Eno's ethereal atmosphere is the best part of his albums. I just wish this one had a little more to it, but he wrote it for airport background music, so what do I know? Favorite Track: "1/1" (Acoustic and electric piano; synthesizer.)".

it works, i guess

Wonderful music to meditate and go to sleep to. Very peaceful.

This wasn't really music to listen to, just sounds to be on.

Breezy nothingness.

The middle vocal loops are too New Age to me, while the opener and closer are gorgeous. Having got into ambient music through friends a couple of decades ago, coming to this for the first time is peculiar; I was expecting something even more abstract or perhaps sublime, and my initial thought was that this is almost too tuneful to be ambient. 1/1 and 2/2 earn the stars.

The absolute finest music to fall asleep to, which is meant as a compliment. 1/1 in particular is the peak of the ambient genre and could last forever with no complaints from me

An interesting album to be featured on this list. This album offers almost nothing, but is a very peaceful listen. I don't think anyone would actually listen to this without doing some other activity concurrently. Since it has the element of deliberately naming it self background music, I think the album does an incredible job at that.

The most ronseal of albums, this sounds like ambient music for airports. Not something to be actively listened to, but nice and relaxing. I wouldn't be unhappy if this was playing in an airport or a spa. 5/5 for achievement of artistic intent. 3/5 for my enjoyment of the output. Rating: 3/5 Playlist track: 2/1 Date listened: 19/04/22

This has the same effect as white noise, but it's called ambient music. You can decide on which side you stand, I found mine.

You're better off taking some Xanax if you're that nervous about flying. Suitable album title, as it sounds what it's like to be stuck in an airport. But who the hell wants to spend time in an airport? I'm also guessing airports could get a better deal from Muzak than they could from Brian Eno. In the interest of full disclosure, I put this on once to put me to sleep, and I'm pleased to report that it worked in that regard. The only reason this album is getting bumped up a notch from a 1 rating is because I really needed sleep that night, so much so that Spotify kept playing a shitload of songs after this Airport Album ended. The following is an incomplete list of artists played after "Music For Airports" ended. I have to assume these artists are all approved by TSA, Airport Group International, and any other group associated with airports: • Galaxie 500 • Goldmund • Julianna Barwick • Scott Walker • Television (!) • John Cale • Library Tapes (go figure) • Harold Budd • Stereolab • The Fall • Boards of Canada (should have been called BORED In Canada, amiright?)

Nah

Are you kidding me?

Ambient? I guess Ambivalent? Absolutely! A whole lot of nothing.

There’s a reason I wear headphones in airports. Absolute garbage.

I wanted to like it because I've heard this album referenced before and I think it was kinda new or influential for it's time. Was painfully boring for me to listen to.

it's difficult to rate ambient music because I wouldn't vibe to this but maybe it would be nice for sleeping?? idk I've heard way better ambient sounds than this

Otra vez Brian Eno? Ideal para echarse una siesta, uf

J. D. Considine wrote in The Rolling Stone Album Guide that the record defined the ambient aesthetic while providing a name for the genre. Plus now I feel super chill.

Repeat listen

I think Brian Eno is one of those guys that fly's under the radar (pun intended), but has had such a huge impact on music. The father of ambient music, coining the "ambient" term with this album. Without this, would we have modern day lo-fi, chillhop, trance, EDM etc? These genres are so widely appreciated today for work and study spaces and it's awesome being able to listen to the albums that started it all. I've listened to Brian Eno's Before and After Science, which I really enjoyed, but learning a bit more about him, he's really up there in GOAT status in the music world. I really enjoyed this album exactly for the reasons why he made it. Calming music that is just kind of there while you contemplate. It's the same reason why I enjoy trance music (also thanks Brian for your influence on that.) Anyone that says the music is "boring" is missing the point of it. In today's world, it's common for people to turn on the tv or have a podcast in the background while they're not paying attention to it. Why? There's some psychological and emotional comfort in having some type of noise. The audio stimulation helps people relax and reduce anxiety. Queue ambient music. It provides this stimulation without needing to listen to lyrics or interpret the meaning behind songs. It's just there, supporting you while you go about your business. My co-workers have white noise machines that they use at their desk to break the silence. While I sleep, I play audio of rain and thunderstorms. These are all ambient ideas that originate from this album. It's not in music form, but the exact same idea all originated from Brian Eno, and this album coined the term. Just really cool to find the source of something that you've never really thought about.

I love life. After getting home from one of the most annoying performances I've ever been in, I get to forget about it and listen to ambient music. "As ignorable as it is interesting" was a really good way to describe this album, thanks Wikipedia. Music For Airports is a really bland-sounding idea but it really goees in some excellent directions. I love the repeated piano lick in 1/1, especially.

accurate title

Enjoyed this immensely on this immensely sad day. Soothing after a big loss.

Omg I love this album. Back to back bangers. The pre cursor to FredAgain’s ambient sound.

Aerial smooth

Beautiful. Simple. Inspiring. Still sounds fresh. Hit just right for my mood today. Although in other moods I might give this one star.

This is 5 stars because it’s calm and kept me super chill while cooking. It’s not 5 stars as in I will play it at the next party… but I will play it again while reading.

Это реально мощно. Очевидно, не добавил ничего в любимое, потому что это странно. Но это все равно очень мощно -- порой я куда-то улетал. Где-то грусть, где-то сосредоточение. Очень хорошая музыка как фон для работы.

Okee Dokee... I am and always have been a fan of Brian Eno. I love electronica and yeah, godfather status goes here. But (!) considering the vast amount of music out there, dwelling on one musician or even a few has never been my style. So I have a couple of his albums but am not in the know of his whole catalog. I never knew he made ambient music. Turns out he does, and it is frickin' stellar!!! O. M. G. Music for airports? IDK, maybe? But this is s o much more than that... I am not used to those long pauses between songs but that is to do with my DJ weaving obsession... Nevertheless, damn... Wow. Just wow!

I have heard this album many times before today, so this isn't new for me. It is indeed as ignorable music as it is interesting, as Eno said. He invented ambient music with this album and deserves all the praise for it. Usually I am against music that is background music but this is such a soothing, calm experience that I absolutely love it. It still sounds fresh and new almost 50 years after its release, which is really mindblowing. And it should totally be played at airports instead of all the nervy pop music they have nowadays.

Important for me personally and I would argue important for music history. An interesting story, a unique perspective and a wonderful artifact.

I don’t know how this community will rate this one, and I could see arguments for being overrated or whatever. But I know that this album executes perfectly what it set out to do and was a groundbreaking project in studying ambiance and the space between notes of music.

Brings me a profound sense of well being.

Pretty solid. I enjoy Ambient albums in general so it is my kind of vibe overall

An album I have played many times.

Not my first listen to this, so I know it relatively well. Amazing how influential this was and how early it was. Listened on a drive home and it was perfect. Eno truly deserves all the praise for inventing ambient music.

Interesting, I accidentally had the first track set on repeat - I wasn't sure at first, I might have listened to it all the way through twice before I figured it out. That said, this is sounds and music that I enjoy. Not all the time, not while I'm driving, for example, but I appreciate ambient and minimalist music and compositions. This is one of the grandaddys of that style. Wonderful.

A classic.

This album is great. Is this the mother of the millions of relaxing / ambient youtube playlists I've listened to? 2/2 had a lot of Bon Iver energy in it. I floated through this album very pleasantly. It was relaxing. I feel like I should have been in a pool or sensory deprivation chamber while listening. 9/10

Masterpiece

Repetitive for some, but I find this album excellent in building a unique space, expressing various emotions. This is not merely background music. Perhaps most impressive is how I feel as though I'm listening to a classical or jazz piece rather than something inorganic.

- impactante, bem diferente dos álbuns recentes - acho que artistas consolidados no mainstream se baseiam muito em artistas menos famosos fora da bolha musical, esses artistas deveriam ser mais reconhecidos - mesmo assim é um álbum muito influente em várias mídias, filmes, jogos

Brian Eno defined a genre of music with this album. I will be the first to admit it’s not a great listen if you are only focusing on the music. But it was intended to be a part of the ambiance and it set the bar for a reason. Great for reading or a quiet walk

Loved every second.

The music is stunning, beautiful, ethereal, whatever else you associate with Eno's discography. The downside is, there's nothing here that an individual "must hear" before they die. It's background music meant for ambience, or, as you might assume, to put on in your headphones and tune out the busy sounds of airports. Please ignore my rating on this one. It truly does not matter. Listen to it if you need some heavenly sounds to get lost in.

Depart your mind on ambient’s arrival.

MUY LINDO.

Tranquil

It’s like Windows 95 is starting up for 48 minutes. Loved it.

While I am not comfortable saying this is the most important ambient album of all time, it is certainly in the conversation. Eno's concept behind Ambient 1 effectively serves as a mission statement for ambient music in general. He sought to place beauty and true artistic integrity into what would be effectively considered "canned muzak". The idea is that the resultant piece is something that is enjoyable at any level of listening. An album whose nooks and crannies can be front and center, or which can fade into the background and serve as an atmosphere of faint blissfulness in a public, tense space: say for example, an airport. I for one have some history with this album, I've read to it, written to it, driven to it, but on this listen I thought about it with more intent than usual, and I must conclude that it is truly successful in accomplishing the goal it sets out to achieve. The best first listen to this is probably as background music, but feel free to let it draw your attention now and then. The compositions here are surprisingly detailed, the textures are varied and intriguing and the atmosphere is light and ethereal, while being as all-encompassing as you let it be. 1/1 is probably the most "iconic" track here, but my personal favorite is probably 1/2. It is still just as able to be ambient set-dressing as anything else on the project, but it kind of sneakily ramps up the detail and density of sounds, and if you let yourself give into it a little, it is incredibly enchanting. I wasn't sure when I started, but yeah, I am gonna give this a 5. It is so influential, so successful at its stated goal, and so (surprisingly) enjoyable that it has completely won me over.

exceptional, amazing, love the ambient, thats the origin

Calming, and wildly effective in inducing a trance like state.

One of the first ambient albums, and certainly the one to codify the sound - and still one of the finest. Brian Eno manages to create captivating pieces that are interesting enough to latch on to for active listening while also fading perfectly into the background. It's not often that someone invents a genre and almost immediately gets it right, but Eno is built different.

Loved this one for 25ish years. Great for engaged or background listening. Insanely influential.

Wow. This record improved my focus at work, made me feel very calm, and also made me start reflecting on life and specifically some good memories. It reminded me of when I went to New Zealand with my wife and parents for some reason. It reminded me of some very peaceful meditation sessions I've had while grappling with existentialism and the meaning of life. Who thought that such simple noises could do such a thing. I guess that's the brilliance of a project like this.

Really liked this. Could never sit down and listen to it. But in the background it created a marvellous aura of peace and calmness.

Chill time.

calm