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.

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.

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

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

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

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'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).

PERFECT

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

This album is a great example of the genius and creativity of Brian Eno, and why he is one of the greatest thinkers and innovators in music. It really says something that this was a first-of-its-kind record, and still stands as one of the best examples of the genre.

Loved this

I got Brian Eno’s Here Come The Warm Jets a few months ago, and while I could hear its influence and the bones of future music it inspired, the album itself wasn’t very good. So when Brian Eno popped up again today, I was incredibly disappointed. But from the first note, I knew that I was in for something very, very different than Here Come The Warm Jets. I would have to say, that in nearly 550 albums, this one has been one of my top three or four most pleasant surprises. I’m a huge fan of the Ghosts albums by Nine Inch Nails, which I now understand to be a direct successor to this album. It’s simple, yet layered. Melancholy, yet hopeful. It’s haunting, yet accessible. It’s simply beautiful.

It does exactly what it says in the label.

Love Eno, love ambient, love this. Minimalism leaves no room for fluff and this is beautiful dresmscape.

I remember when I first looked through the book and saw this album. The title, artwork, and even the tracklist were so evocative that even before listening to it, or having much experience with ambient music, I knew exactly what it was going to sound like. And even then, it totally exceeded my expectations. The thing is, there a sort of nostalgia permeating this music, from a time I wasn't even alive for. I'm sure airports in the pre-9/11 world were a very different place than they are today, way less busy and stressful, unless you were afraid of flying, of course. So these four sparse compositions suit the environment perfectly, while also evoking a sort of post-industrial ambience but in a positive way. Key tracks: 1/1

Really lovely!

1/1 e ein av verdens beste sanga, hørre på den stadig vekk

I don't always resonate with Brian Eno's work, or with ambient in general, but something about this one feels special. It sounds like something I've heard before and know well, but haven't gotten tired of.

Music for airports, answering emails, cleaning the house, grocery shopping, walking to the gym, cooking and folding laundry — everything becomes more beautiful with this on

Instant classic

The world would be a little less crazy if we all spent more time listening to ambient music.

It's ambient. Before ambient was a thing. I mean, for background music, it's GREAT! But to put on rotation, maybe not. You need something to zone out to in order to get something tedious done, it's awesome. But I wouldn't listen to it on the regular for driving down the road or jamming with friends. Because I dig ambient for its purpose, I'm going to rate it high. But I still wouldn't listen to this album on the regular.

Tough Album Sparse and haunting Leaves you alone with your thoughts and feelings in between tones. Introspective and challenging. Don’t know if I’ll listen to it again but I enjoyed the challenges it presented

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

I love Brian Eno, but I had kind of avoided these ambient albums. And when I first started listening, I thought what in the hell is this? Then, I let it fade into the background as intended and you know what it did make me think pretty deeply and evoke some strong emotions. Touche Brian Eno.

Relaxing

Good to sleep to.

Nailed the concept. Also, I cant fully grasp my own logic here— but I’m fairly certain Pure Moods would have never happened without this album.

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.

It;s not often you get to hear the birth of a new form of music. It’s far more melodic than a lot of the ambient music that followed, but this is pure musical genius. It remains one of my personal Top 10 records of all time

Great working music.

INcredible

I was in airports and airplanes almost all day yesterday and could’ve used this. But I already am quite familiar with and enjoy this and other ambient works.

Top album.

I’ve been waiting for this one! I have a lot to thank this album for. This was the first ambient album that I ever heard, and I fell in love with it instantly. It made me branch out my tastes and helped encourage me to try out new music, especially ambient and other genres. Ambient has become one of my favorite genres. But with that out of the way, is this still a good album? Yes! Brian Eno got the idea for this album from hearing music in actual airports and thinking it stunk. I’ve had the pleasure of listening to this in an airport with headphones, and it really does capture the atmosphere. Brian Eno coined the term ambient with this album, and described it to be, “as ignorable as it is interesting.” I think that fits this album really well. This album is just so meditative and calming. Its atmospheric loops, simplistic synthesizers and piano melodies evoke such a sense of serenity. 1/1 is just so iconic, and in my opinion one of the best ambient songs ever made. It perfectly encapsulates ambient music as a whole. 2/1, while being my least favorite track, has minimalist vocal samples and harmonies that are angelic and ethereal. 1/2 vocals combines those choir-like vocals with the soothing piano and synthesizers of 1/1, and it’s a fantastic combination. The final track, 2/2, has layers of soothing synthesizers that evoke a sense of wonder, like the other songs on this album. It’s an example of the fantastic minimalism to be found on this album. Ambient 1: Music For Airports is genre defining, and a pioneering work of ambient music. I highly recommend this for people who want a calming atmosphere, and want to get into ambient music. It’s a true classic, and I love it.

About 500 albums ago when I got Eno's previous album to this one, I noted how I could get into the ambient approach he took on side two. I didn't know that this album was the first time he, or anyone really, would go full bore ambient. I absolutely loved it. 1/1 in particular is a masterpiece. I have friends who listen to classical music when they work or need to think but I think this is the style for me. Which is funny as I had been avoiding this album because I had some work I needed to concentrate on and wanted no distractions. I didn't look at the title of the album, just that it was eclectic Eno. What a mistake that was. This album perfectly does what ambient music is supposed to do - induce calm and a space to think. When I am done listening to this album on repeat (which could be awhile) I will have to listen to the other three albums in his ambient series.

This album has served as a little place of calm reflection and headspace, and I think much of the music I both listen to and make today can be routed back to Ambient 1/Music For Airports.

Baanbrekend, en mooi.

General impression: groundbreaking ambient that still holds up Detailed review: The fact that this album is seen as sort of an “origin” of ambient music may suggest that it’s rudimentary and has been surpassed. Not so. This is still one of the best albums in the genre and is honestly still the best gateway album for someone to get into ambient music. It’s hard to beat that beautiful and unparalleled piano motif in “1/1,” but the other three tracks differentiate themselves nicely. There’s comfort, there’s a little bit of eeriness, there’s piano, there are wordless vocals, there’s some cool synth work. It’s really all one needs for a nice ambient listen. Deeper thoughts (context): I said it above. This is like the Kind of Blue for ambient. Score: 5 Number of albums left to review: 952 Number of albums from the list I’d consider “must-listens”: 29 (including this one) Albums from the list I won't include in mine: 20

Gotta love someone that establishes a brand new genre of music. I enjoy having this on in the background while I am working. I know I have heard it in airports.

Well, what do you know… ANOTHER CLASSIC BRIAN ENO RECORD.

Wow... I did not expect this! What a great album, and amazing that he more or less invented this genre! Love it.

Does what it does very effectively. Great album, this is what Brian Eno does best

Beautiful. Classic. Created a new genre

Remind me to add this album to my roster of things I can do to mediate anxiety.

If you listen to this backwards, it fucking rocks.

I’ve been getting more into ambient music this past year or so and loving it. It makes for great background music while I’m writing. This album is one I discovered earlier this year and put into rotation. It’s also a great album to end the night with. I’ve sat out on my porch late at night listening to this. It’s really tranquil music. The piano melody on “1/1” is particularly gorgeous. And on “1/2” as well. I also love the synths on “2/2” that sound like sad, muted horns. Beautiful music and all the more impressive knowing that it was one of the pioneering works of ambient music.

Ahead of it's time.

Ambient perfection by the patron saint of Ambient. I couldn’t love it more.

Has taken me years to wrest this back from it's pigeonhole of 'music we put on constantly 13 years ago in desperate bids to get the baby to sleep.' Same as Satie's Gymnopedies. Perhaps it's the familiarity of those liminal evenings between sleep and waking that this music brings to me, that makes it so easy to just drift off inwardly when this music is played. Particularly 1/1 and 2/2. I could not disagree more strongly with the idea that this is background music. It's music to get lost in, swim around in, go on journeys inside your own head. I sometimes wonder if people who don't appear to appreciate that aspect to this music simply aren't that introspective. That might be harsh but if it's true it's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm sometimes jealous of that as it probably provides a much tougher exterior to the world around you, bad things must simply bounce off your psyche without you noticing. But on the other hand, yes, you can drift in and out of it and use it as a backdrop to get into a flow state while working. So it's simultaneously absolutely not background music and definitely is background music.

Felt more like a day at the spa than a day at the airport. Very relaxing.

I pressed play and within 30 seconds realized I have heard the opening track somewhere before… fairly recently… I think it was maybe an art installation - perhaps even at an airport. There’s something strangely interesting about this album. I played it driving in rush hour traffic and I’m sure it lowered my blood pressure as it put me in a space to just sit back and be. I think I love this album and will definitely keep it at hand for the upcoming election season.

I have listened to this album probably 100 times. The unofficial soundtrack to my doctorate. I always get the opening of 1/1 and Gymnopedie No 1. Mixed up in my head. This album is my personality.

Fell asleep at work listening to this, accidentally caught myself on fire

Ground Zero for Ambient Genre. Eno created a whole new thing.

I played a game of League and was very tilted. Then I put on this album. Tilt is no longer a word in my vocabulary. Such an incredibly peaceful album. There's not much to it, it's just a synthesizer and piano. Reading up on it, Eno wanted to make an album that diffused the stress felt in airports? Yeah, good job dude, you friggin nailed it.

The master of his craft. Old soar puss himself.

I remember this album from years ago - loved it then and still do