Reviews (page 4 of 8)
Incredibly chill. Sleepy music.
I am alive, but sleepy. Great!
Why do we cry, when it's the onions that are getting hurt? The eyes are the nipples of the head.
Love ambient music. An album i will listen to again. Standout track: 2/1
Points for being the originator of ambient, but by its very ambient nature, it's not something you spend attention listening to. Four stars, but not necessarily on the same scale as non-ambient music.
perfect for what it is and yet somewhat boring nonetheless
Great album by Eno, title says it all, perfect vibe for airport waiting
Love this album! Peak Brian Eno, so beautiful, so interesting, so relaxing!! It sparked a thought of how amazing it is how much music can affect our mood and even behaviour - cool!
Nice and very calming to listen to
I already love this album. I think my favourite Brian Eno. So calming and peaceful. I often do yoga to it and did again this week when it cropped up!
Stansted?! Lovely album, very nice. I knew of this album already but never heard it. Definitely a keeper for when needing some peaceful music.
Very nice music
I actually liked this as background or relaxation music.
This is a great album to have playing while doing work that requires concentration. I discovered Brian Eno’s ambient work some time ago. I also listen to Tim Hecker’s ambient work. In fact, I have Eno and Hecker on an “ambient” playlist already.
not really my cup of tea, NPI, but I'm thinking a fall rainy Sunday afternoon drinking tea blanket and a book with headphones listening to this.
Really enjoyed this one! Would never have listened to it, but it was very relaxing
Although Eno himself stated that this was to be nothing more than background music, I still thought it was a pleasant enough experience on its own
This is the type of album that would hit differently at 3AM
Something special
This is the perfect album for relaxing in an airport or airplane. Perfectly named album.
I'm a big fan of systems and I admire the way he constructed this. This is not something I come back to often, but I consider it art.
An album whose story and mythos are maybe greater than it's actual output. It's almost quaint at this point in terms of Ambient and to me there are many much better ambient albums to date. But, huge respect for this album for sure, it's just not what I'd wanna listen to these days.
Classic
Very zen
“Music to get a massage to.”- Matt
Ambient indeed. Simple, easy background music that's intended to be simple, easy background music. 4/5.
It is exactly what it says. Really nice, soft & gentle. Perfect background for working.
This was very peaceful and relaxing but why is it an album I need to hear before I die?😂 I listened to it while studying, which was pleasant, but nothing special. Apparently it's like the first ambient music album tho so props for that I guess. Now that I think of it, I actually got a lot done while listening to this, so it def made me focus well. I would've liked some creativity in the title choices tho...😶
Awesome, nice piece of background music.
pretty sweet I still like it
Atmospheric Excellence
Snoozefest but i guess i like it as far as it's ambient so boosting one star. hopefully this will be as good as the name sounds.
Loved it. Enjoyed having it the background which was its intended purpose
This was so lush for a slow Monday morning
Absolutely lovely, this was great to just have on while reading and sounds fantastic
Difficult to find more relaxing music than this!
The generator gave me this album on a day when I'm working from a cafe and it was just perfect. Listened to it on repeat several times and it flowed very nicely. Nothing particularly memorable which is exactly how it was intended. 4/5
Cet album pose tellement bien les bases du genre qu'on peut croire que tous ceux qui ont suivi en sont issus et y sont déjà représentés
Such a visceral experience - I swear if I closed my eyes I was sitting at my American Airlines terminal waiting to board in group 9.
Will definitely listen next time at an airport.
It's nice, relaxing, and interesting. Maybe in hindsight it seems like typical new age bullshit, but we have to consider the fact that Eno pioneered this genre. There's more to it than just relaxing sounds. 4 stars.
This is one of the Grand Daddy’s of modern ambient music. A remarkable evolution from his earlier rock music, it’s not as saccharine sweet or commercial as some of the “New Age” artists that followed, nor as controversial or mind bending as say John Cage’s 4’33” where there’s nothing but silence for the duration. This album never gets old, and I think it’ll always be as essential hundreds of years from now.
Truly meant as background noise. I liked the beginning more than the middle or end. It is good music for reading or studying. I get why it's on this list, but at the same time it feels like it doesn't quite belong.
The last time I had an extended stay in hospital, I watched Stuart Little 2 again and again until it felt as though I could recite it word for word. In the 1970s, it wasn’t out yet, so all Brian Eno was able to do was coin a new genre of music. “Ambient” was allegedly conceived when Eno was bedridden after an accident and stuck with the volume of his music too low to distinguish it from the sounds of his environment. The resulting “Music for Airports”, one of his first full-length explorations of ambient music’s potential, isn’t strictly music for a dedicated listening session. It’s not an experience in itself, but it’s in service to something else. It’s music to be subliminal, wallpaper, an extra layer of the environment. Most succinctly described by Eno as “ignorable as it is interesting”. This album has helped me through many a study session or sleepless night in the past, becoming my go-to to calm my nerves or put me at ease. In most cases, I’ve only got as far as the end of 1/1 before either falling asleep or switching it off and getting on with something else. I’ve never listened to it in the middle of an airport lounge while worried about a flight: on this particular occasion, I heard it through headphones in a dark room. At worst, “Music for Airports” is distracting (presumably exactly what Eno did not want it to be). At best, it’s arrestingly beautiful. There’s something of a feeling of diminishing returns across the album: when the vocal or brass synth pads come in on 2/1 and 2/2, it feels a bit plastic space-age, like an airport from a Star Trek set. In 2022, it was enough to take me out of the immersive experience and wish they’d gone for some different sounds. The sparser and more organic the instrumentation is, the better, which is why 1/2 feels so effective and cleansing. As the whole idea of this album is to present a different purpose and function of music, it’s useless to measure it in the same way as others on the list. The main question really is whether “Music for Airports” fulfils its aim?While it never really took off (no pun intended) as a departure lounge soundtrack, ambient music is pervasive now, and this is a landmark record in the genre. Sure, if Eno hadn’t done it, somebody else would have done, but “…Airports” is spacious and serene enough to deserve its acclaim. I wish I’d known about it back when I was stuck with Stuart Little 2.
I enjoyed this one if nothing else because I needed something soothing at the moment
Some fine vibey ambiance tunes... not an everyday thing, but I can never fault Eno.
Does what it says on the label
I really dislike 1/2. But otherwise, what a soundscape. It sounds like something that unearths what already naturally occurs. That illusion of manufacturing something that feels like it should have always existed is what makes this brilliant.
i like this kind of music. thank you brian for inventing it.
It’s great but it’s background music.
Inte det bästa ambient albumet, ens Enos bästa, men bra ändå
Truly a beautiful album. Filled with sounds of wonder and opportunity. I don't entirely know the context of the album and if it's designed to be an airport album or something, but they really should be playing this stuff in an airport. It's a great soundtrack that would add to the sense of travel and exploration that airports offer us.
I think I bought this cheap on tape from some mall somewhere near Scranton, PA when I was working in the kitchen on a summer camp for rich kids from NY. Good times, good album.
I liked this, nice and peaceful and I would definitely listen again in certain situations.
Really like this ambient music. Nice sounds that make me feel something and isn’t that what art is all about.
chillllll
Seems ahead of it’s time. I love ambient music.
A regular listen…
This album is very soothing. To the point where it makes me sleepasdf;kjna;sdlkfnlksndf;kdddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd
Actually some really good ambient music! Watched a perfect sunset while listening so it fit pretty well. 4
Ok, not sure how to rate this. It’s not something I would just put on to listen to it. It’s more something I would use for meditation or maybe to help me fall asleep. It’s almost more of a tool than it is music to me I guess. That being said; I like the way that the sounds are put together. A lot of times with meditation/relaxation music, there are sounds mixed it that end up becoming distracting. However, this had a nice consistent sound and feel to it that makes it able to melt into the background. In general, I dig it and will give it a try for relation/meditation/sleep.
It was very chill Ambient music
Background music, which is what he apparently intended. Really pleasant to have on while driving, studying or relaxing, as it is nice but not too engaging. Surprised I liked this so much, after previous Eno experiences, but it was (twice) a lovely wee reset in my day. Only four tracks, but it might as well be one to be honest.
this is a good title for this album. Very chill ambient sounds. I liked it.
Coincidentally listened at the airport. Blended right in with the actual airport muzak
Quand je tombai sur Brian Eno, je le trouvai roulé en boule dans un coin de la pièce. Après m'être approché lentement et lui avoir demandé ce qui avait pu le mettre dans un tel état, celui-ci répondit simplement par l'identité de mon pire ennemi : "eltrapeze". J'étais furieux. Cette situation me rappelai un souvenir d'enfance. Une fin d'après-midi, alors que j'étais en moyenne section maternelle, j'allai avec ma mère chercher mon grand-frère à l'école primaire après l'étude du soir. J'avais sur ma tête un immense chapeau de fou du roi rouge confectionné en classe le jour-même. J'en étais très fier. Il était 17h45 lorsque nous arrivâmes à l'école. L'heure de la sonnerie n'étant pas encore venue, je décidai de monter dans la classe où mon frère se trouvait dans le but de me pavaner avec mon grand chapeau sous le regard de ses camarades. Seulement voilà : ce chapeau ne fut pas du tout de goût de celui-ci qui me reprocha de lui faire honte. Je sortis alors dans la cour de récréation pour aller pleurer lorsque tout à coup, trois élèves semblant âgés de seize ans (je pense maintenant qu'ils avaient neuf ans) vinrent me voir pour me demander pourquoi j'étais dans cet état. Je leur racontai toute l'histoire depuis le début. Ceux-ci me confièrent alors la chose suivante : mon chapeau était le plus beau qu'ils aient jamais vu. J'étais alors pleinement consolé. Revenons-en à Brian Eno. Une fois que celui-ci eut prononcé le nom de mon ennemi juré, je me rappelai mon grand chapeau et lui confiai la chose suivante : "Ne pense pas à ce que t'a dit cette ordure d'eltrapeze, je le trouve très beau ton chapeau de fou du roi, Brian." — C'est vrai, tu le penses vraiment ? — Oui, je te le jure." Brian Eno sécha ses larmes et me fit un bisou sur la joue. Je l'avais pleinement consolé.
Ambient music got me through the COVID lockdown, so learning its roots with this album was a real treat.
This is extremely relaxing, pleasant, comforting. I enjoyed this a lot more than ever I have Brian Eno. Not sure I'm a convert yet, but it is very good. Perhaps this is because of my recent experiences reuniting with the Hearts of Space radio program which serves up weekly ambient music now online whereas it did so when I was a kid on the radio once a week. When it's done well, ambient music can really head straight into the heart and move you.
Listened to on 7/21/22 4/5 Favorite song: 2/1 This ambient music was PERFECT for working and definitely hit the goal of being interesting enough to not be ignored
4.1 + Definitely a curiosity that adds depth to Eno's rich and varied output. Revisiting this, I'm struck by the tone. One would think ambient music for an airport would be more cheerful. But then I wonder how that upbeat music would make me feel personally if I'm running to my gate towing luggage. Instead Eno creates a sense of calm empathy. As if to say: "I know traveling can be hard. But you'll get through it. Be strong." Also, this album has a vaguely East Berlin feel to it - particularly, "2/2" feels like I'm drifting through rows of gray residential buildings on a sunny day.
Yndisleg plata. Mjög róandi. Ég vil þakka Brian Eno fyrir að hafa komið mér hjartaáfallslaust í gegnum erfitt borð í Chip's Challenge.
One of my favorites. Music to sleep to (and that is a compliment to the artist). Love it.
This was the perfect album to have recommended to calm my nerves before a job interview with my employer Clark College.
Fitting, and lovely
This has been on my shelf for decades. You need to be in the right mood but it is essential Eno and essential ambient...4 longish instrumental tracks that slowly evolve. Music to get lost in.
Exactly as advertised. Great background music.
This is such a different kind of album or listening experience that it's hard to put this on any type of scale similar to the others. I mean...Brian Eno himself said that this music is meant to be "as ignorable as it is interesting." That's as good a description as I can think of. As a point of note I feel I should say that I absolutely HAVE listened to this album in airports before. It's very relaxing. I can also imagine very clearly many people loathing this album - like..."this isn't music!" or "the most boring 45+ minutes possible" and I get it. e.g. I got this a few days after getting Green Day's "Dookie" - they are not similar. Compartmentalizing it (because you have to)...: this album is not meant to be "enjoyed" in the same way a typical pop music album is; it is literally background loop music (but it is music, let's be fair) and I do find it entrancing, dreamlike [n.b. it's great to fall asleep to, if not already obvious], and mysteriously haunting at times. Also points for being one of, if not the very, first truly ambient records. I'm a fan. 8/10 4 stars
There had been bits of pieces here and there (collabs with Robert Fripp, Discreet Music, the majority of Another Green World) but this is it. The start of the main chapter of Brian Eno's career and the main thing that most people associate him with. This is the perfect collection for unwinding, mellowing out after a tough day. It seems quite ironic that this was considered made for airports, given the rather chaotic nature of those places. Maybe that was what Eno envisioned. I don't know but what I do know is that this is essential to the Brian Eno discography. It would be incomplete without it. Favorites: 1/1, 2/2.
Ambient will never be a genre I listen to a lot of. I played this on the perfect day when in fit what I was doing and was a great backing track. Probably liked it more because of the timing, but I did really enjoy it.
Hauntingly beautiful. Austere yet warmly human.
Yes!
Definitely like this one a lot - in the right place & time of course.
Mellow ambience from a chameleon musician
I enjoyed listening to this and I wasn't even in an Airport. The description of it being an alternative to musak holds up in that it is beautiful, rather than reductive.
Cheeeeeeeeeeeeelin
Any album that names a whole genre should be listened to before you die, this is no exception. A manifesto for what ambient music could be, expectedly pretty and abstract
Does what it says on the tin
This was an awesome album. Perfectly timed for traveling in the airport. A huge desressor, but also didn’t exactly sound like something you’d hear in the airport. Either way, I’m excited to use this for meditating and sleeping in the future.
amazing atmospheric ambient
Loved it.
moi aussi j'ai peur de l'avion et donc je testerai le concept de l'album prochainement, en attendant c'était très relaxant pour commencer ma matinée de travail en mangeant des miel pops
Not his best, but essential anyway.
48 minutes of ambient music, eh? well I guess. Eno says that this is music "Really, it’s music to resign you to the possibility of death." Its very calming after a while, so thats nice. Wow that album passed me by in a flash. Defintely soothing.
Música instrumental. Sin más. Agradable. En todo momento pienso que estoy en el espacio :D.
Вот они, истоки эмбиента. Идеально для медитации.
Wow. I didn't know it was possible! A Brian Eno album I liked! Obviously very chill and sleepy, not particularly attention grabbing, but great mellow music for the background.
I like ambience. Very nice flow 👍
I first heard of Brian Eno as a producer of other bands that I like (including U2 and the Talking Heads). I listened to Ambient 1/Music For Airports before, to find out what Eno's own music sounded like. I'm not sure who to recommend the album to, but it's good enough. I know when I would play the album. I would have no problem listening again. Rounding up to 4 stars.
1975??!! very innovative
Dakle, ovo. Ovo je za mene jedno od savršenijih ambient materijala. Definitivno ako ikad budeš imao problema sa spavanjem, da se umiriš itd, ovo je taj album koji ti treba. Brian Eno je legenda ambijentalne glazbe, i to sam se bome uvjerio kroz dosta njegovih albuma. Uglavnom, ako nisi slušao, a paše ti ambijentalna glazba, ovo je pod MUS!
well this is an interesting album from Mr. Eno. Be told I<m a fan of Eno but never heard this before. I think Another Green World is brilliant. as is Here Come The Warm Jets. Taking Tiger Mountain.... and Before and after science are great but not quite uo to the lofty standards of AGW. So where does this album fall...Not sure. It;s great late-night, lights out music that blends into the background but also bears stands up well to further scrutiny. After it finished I wanted to hear it again. I hear some of AGWs quieter moods in the opening piece which aided in my appreciation of the album. I can see this becoming an addictive album. 4 stars with a bullet
Really good background music for just chilling. 0RS
Eno is a master of ambient music. First listen of this album. Extremely mellow and transcendent. Somewhat lengthy and repetitive.
I had an ambient music phase around fall of last year so I’ve already listened to this piece before. However I forgot everything about it. But this is an essential album for anyone who wants to get a start into the ambient genre. Honestly all of Brian Eno’s works are good “starter” albums. The sound is so peaceful and it would be great to listen to while doing any task. Again I really enjoy this album, I haven’t listened to ambience in a while, but I might hop back in
Does its job
So exciting!
Eno is a genius and this offers great background music for what it intends to do. Not only is it Eno quality but it is highly influential, popularizing the genre. However, the parts only differed slightly, making the album feel tiring with full attention. Nevertheless one of the best ambience works out there cause Eno duh.
Great studying music
Neat album, very relaxing and warm. I didn’t care for the breathy choir though. It’s definitely not an album for everyone, but I enjoyed it
Calming, really good for learning 4/5
This album is everything about being calm. Really relaxing listen and very enjoyable to have on in the background!
Very pretty. It does what it says on the tin.
Exactly as advertised. Beautiful and serene
Certainly is calming and ambient. It is pretty good for what it is.
Znam, dobre
Very interesting and soothing
Super chill and gentle! Not really sure why its on this list but is great background, definitely helped me concentrate. 8/10 for nice sounds
8/10 I guess, really pleasant ambient music. But still ambient music, so not the most exciting listen.
Música instrumental. Sin más. Agradable. En todo momento pienso que estoy en el espacio :D.
good, repetitive but its ok
This would be interesting to come back to. Maybe background/ambient music for working to.
Does what it says on the tin
vibes
To quote the man himself "music as ignorable as it is interesting". Great starting spot for ambient music.
nice
Pretty nice, chill, ambient background music.
pretty good
Not something i enjoy as background music but when actively listening with headphones it's really nice and almost hypnotic.
Eno was a pioneer of what we now call ambient music. He envisioned this as an art piece as much as music. It's very influential today. But of course his earliest attempts at it were more about showing what could be done. There are many better ambient albums in the almost 50 years since he released this album. Anyway, I think a good addition to the list as a historical document. But rates a 3 only.
Rate: 7/10
Why the freaky deaky are we getting relaxing sleeping music but it kinda angelic though 3 for putting me to sleep like a small baby and its for airports 🛫
I haven't listened to this in several years. The tracks are pretty calming, and I wondered the first time I heard it whether it would be surreal to listen on headphones while actually walking through an airport. I've never tried it, but I can sort of picture it. The Wikipedia article mentions that a journalist made a connection to Erik Satie, and I can totally hear that in "1/1".
My first reaction was not ANOTHER Brian Eno album. But this is different, he gave up singing and trying to be a pop star and just made some pleasant ambient music. For me this is a soundtrack for some other activity, not the main event on its own.
I mean...It came across exactly as labeled.
This actually but me to sleep. I’m not being hyperbolic- I put it on, and then woke up when the album ended. So, three stars, because music with a practical application is always appreciated.
Pleasant mood music, nice in the background, but didn’t really grab me/have an emotional effect on me
Mellow.
Honestly, not music I would ever want to hear in an airport. Maybe if the airport were completely empty, no one in it, and it was early morning where the sun is first peaking out, but yeah. I don't think there's much to say about it honestly. It's pleasant, but not something I'm ever going to "listen" to. Overly long where he just barely develops (with minor changes here and there) and idea or two over ten minute track lengths. I would have much preferred more interesting developments and movements over the loops. In comparison to the other Eno albums I've got, its probably one of the better ones, but that's more a function of it not doing stuff I dislike like on Before and After Science and My Life In the Bush of Ghosts as opposed to doing stuff I enjoy. Still think Another Green World is his best though. Need to get Here Come the Warm Jets, so the jury is out on that one.
Great album to have on the background and do a chill task. He is a big name in the industry and i see his vision.
Yeah it’s kinda pretty ambient music, maybe could soundtrack the right movie, but it’s background noise through and through. This does not need to be heard before you die.
Effectively relaxing
I’ve “listened” to this album before, or let it drift over me more like! Very good and does exactly what it says on the tin.
To me and my wife it sounded like some kind of Terrance Malick movie where someone on their death bed is seeing their life flash before them. Too apt to enjoy.
I don't really need to hear this ever again. I get that the point is not to hold my attention and make me feel anything emotional except for possibly calm but that also means I find it boring. I also get that this "invented" a genre, I find this genre to be boring background music. That being said this isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination. 3 stars.
Listening to this in an airport 😅
I mean is this really any to just be a YouTube chill beats to study to album. Because if so I’m bailing out. Never heard of album or artist. Big time Minecraft vibes in the first one. Like the piano is good and relaxing but I wouldn’t say any of this is impressive or complicated. Unsure why it didn’t end at 10:30 that seemed like an obvious closing spot. The beeps are super disorienting. Keep thinking I’m abt to get hit by a truck. First one is a lot better than the second. Not enough going on with the second song. Much more opera-y. Missing the piano but good strings. I like the return of the piano on 1/2. Good mix of both of the first 2 songs. Relaxing again. And 2/2 is more of the same. The fact I made it all the way through says something. It’s like the Minecraft theme in a an album. Really good to listen to while working. A lot of good sounds, but not a ton of variety. Slightly better than JAA because it does take talent to make you enjoy music that doesn’t have lyrics. True average album. 2.5/5
Brian Eno described this as “background music to be ignored”… and he absolutely nailed that description. This was weirdly cool, but I definitely ignored much of it.
Good music for reading
There's a lot of Eno on this list! Good background and/or sleeping music.
Is it what it is? As a form of art, interesting. As an ambient, I mean, AI can do this shit in less than a minute. I did not hate it
Heard it before. Not sure if it'd actually work as music for airports but certainly it's music that calms you down 3/5
The Rolls Royce of easy listening music.
45 minutes of synth swells, ethereal vocals, and piano tinkling. It's either brilliant or absolute wank, I'm not quite sure which. Not convinced I'd want to hear this in the airport though.
Have definitely heard of this one for decades. I know it’s a pioneering record. As a listening experience in 2026, I found it calming, soothing - which *would* be nice in airports. Having listened to electronic for 30 years though, its innovation for the time sadly doesn’t blow my socks off.
Eno came up with the term and genre of "ambient music"??? Lofi Beats To Relax/Study To and all its ilk owes literally everything to this guy
Need to give credit any time an album is exactly what the artist intended. Beatless, wordless, all ambient whooshing with some piano meandering in the background - this was a major artistic statement and very influential on rock musicians going forward. This is the most extreme example, but this opened the door to pop/rock artists working with “textures” not just notes.
Ada minecraft minecraft nya gitu
The wrong album to listen to when you're tired. The album title seemed very fitting for the first track - I could definitely picture listening to it in the tunnel at DTW. I didn't enjoy the rest of the album much.
I understand the concept of the album and on paper it should be ideal for slipping in to the back of my head while it plays in the background while I work. But there were some times where it was a bit discordant that drew my attention away. Not at all a bad album but certainly not 5 stars either.
I put this on while studying and got every question correct.
Ik vind dit best geinig. Gewoon lekker voor achter werk of studeren waar je goeie focus voor moet hebben
Vind het concept keihard, de muziek is natuurlijk niet heel pakkend maar als dat de bedoeling is vind ik het goed uitgevoerd
I seem to be giving lots of threes these days. Same for this album. But in a way, a 3 is probably a perfect score for this. A 5 would mean it's probably too exciting and that was not the aim of this album. I like the overall sound and the influence this album had as a very early (the first?) ambient album. So I feel it deserves to be on the list. But it's still what it is, background music.
music for work
Listened to during my 5 AM commute to work. Damn near fell asleep but hey the music is good.
backrooms music. liked the first bu the other tracks were too mysterious x
It was a simpler time. No airport sounds like this anymore. I don't really want to hear what an airport sounds like today, I kind of miss 'simpler' times.
Very interesting addition to this list. Who knew where ambient music came from. I did like the background noise as well as being rewarded when you listen more closely
Strong 3
Just read the title man, the music was very calming but it doesn’t really belong on this 1001 albums list.
5 stars for the concept, but it got old unsurprisingly quickly.
Pretty much whay I expected from the title. Slow, ambient, cinematic. It was like a score to my boring depressing life.
An great album to listen to while studying or working 3/5
not my fav. too loud for background to me
chill. etheral. mellow. music?
Probably suffered from coming one day after Boards of Canada. Too much slow electronic for me. Need a shot in the arm. Not eno’s fault though. I like this just fine. It does make me think of an airport, I suppose.
Hard to rate. I didn't notice it so I guess it succeeded as an ambient project. I like my ambient a bit more noticeable to I will keep it dead in the middle.
p421. 1978. 3 stars. Inoffensive and mildly pleasant background music. Not sure it is essential listening.
Sitting and doing arts and crafts, this is great.
On ne se cachera pas que ce n'est pas la partie la plus fameuse de son oeuvre.
Je respecte la démarche artistique, mais comme il a pas réussi à changer pour de vrai la background music dans les lieux publics pour ça je vais donner un 3 pour l'intention. Sur une échelle de techno (1) à blues (5), ça va là. 1/1 me fait un peu penser à la trame sonore de American Beauty. Et Frère Jacques. Aussi, j'appellerais plutôt ça Spa music. Ou Steve Reich copycat music.
If this was playing at an airport I would think I had died and my soul was leaving my body because of how ethereal this sounds. I've never been into the soundscape stuff but I can appreciate the effort to make something weird like this. Maybe the airport would be more tolerable if this was playing over the PA? It might even help with the drunk people at Chili's outside their gate.
Fairly inoffensive and bland. I know it says it’s for airports but I can’t imagine listening to this album anywhere. It’s like Brian Eno found the church organ setting on his keyboard and went… I could gently play chords with this!
If Brian Eno’s name wasn’t on this, would we see it as anything more than generic spa music?
It’s very ethereal and atmospheric, which is probably exactly what it was going for. Even then, it’s too ambient and out there for me making it a bit of a lull at times.
Ambient 1: Music for Airports, by Brian Eno (42:20, 4 tracks, debut Ambient,1979) Ambient (genre defining) I could see myself listening to this at work or going to sleep – great background music (which is exactly what is designed to be.) The definitive masterpiece of the ambient genre. Originally inspired by Eno's frustration with the "uninspired" background music at Cologne Bonn Airport, the record was designed to replace stressful "canned music" with sounds that induce calm and a "space to think". While not the first quiet music ever made, it was the first to be explicitly labeled "ambient". Reviewers often compare the music to abstract painting, where soundscapes "hang" in a room like visual art rather than following traditional melodic or rhythmic progression. The album consists of four long, untitled movements created using asynchronous tape loops that rarely repeat the same combination of notes. 1/1 Acoustic piano (Robert Wyatt) and soft synthesizer loops. Described as "luscious," "gorgeous," and the most relaxing track. 2/1 Wordless female vocal loops of varying lengths. Often called "heavenly" or "angelic," though some find it "ghostly". 1/2 A mix of piano and vocal loops. Noted for its human warmth and "cathedral-like" texture. 2/2 Purely synthesizer-driven (ARP 2600). Regarded as the most "space-ambient" track; luscious and slow. Ambient 1: Music for Airports is a studio album by the English musician Brian Eno. The first Eno album released under the label of ambient music, a genre 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 as an alternative to "canned" Muzak and easy listening styles. The album was the first of four albums released in Eno's Ambient series, which concluded with 1982's Ambient 4: On Land. Rolling Stone credited Music for Airports with defining the ambient genre. In 2016, Pitchfork ranked it the greatest ambient album of all time. In 1975, Eno was hospitalized after a car accident. While he recovered at home, his friend Judy Nylon brought him an album of classical harp music and set it playing quietly against the sound of the rain against the window. 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. Alongside this experience, his concept of ambient music would build upon composer Erik Satie's idea of "furniture music", music that is intended to blend into the ambient atmosphere of the room and "mingle with the sound of the knives and forks at dinner" rather than be directly focused upon. 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. [Eno] was in part striving to create music that approximated the effect of visual art. Like a fine painting, these evolving soundscapes don't require constant involvement on the part of the listener. They can hang in the background and add to the atmosphere of the room, yet the music also rewards close attention with a sonic richness absent in standard types of background or easy listening music. Eno began work on Music for Airports while producing the 1977 David Bowie album Low in Berlin. In the studio of the German producer Conny Plank, he recorded individual notes sung by three female German singers. After returning to England, Eno recorded Fred Firth on guitar and Robert Wyatt on piano. Eno turned the recordings into tape loops. Eno said the album was "conceived as deliberately austere and unemotional" and "was essentially made by machines". 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. Eno 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". "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 synthesizer. 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.” The first album of ambient music to become popular – and later recognized 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 favored 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." Alan Niester categorized the album as alien, calling it "background grunge" that was best suited for "dish-doing [and] bed-making". 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." 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." Chuck Eddy from Spin later named it the fourth most essential ambient album. J. D. Considine wrote in The Rolling Stone Album Guide that the record defined the ambient aesthetic while providing a name for the genre. Jon Caramanica called it the best of Eno's work which shortly followed Roxy Music. The album has been installed and performed in at least five airports; it has been met with resistance from some travelers and workers, who deem it disruptive. Clinics and hospitals have used the albums to soothe patients. Track listing 1. "1/1" (Acoustic and electric piano; synthesizer.) 16:30 2. "2/1" (Vocals; synthesizer.) 8:20 3. "1/2" (Vocals; acoustic piano.) 11:30 4. "2/2" (Synthesizer only. Lasts 9:38 in the "Working Backwards" box edition (1983) and on the CD.) Eno 6:00 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 – synthesizer, 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") Brian Eno – cover art See also Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror Ambient 3: Day of Radiance Ambient 4: On Land Brian Eno Bio: Born Brian Peter George Eno 1948 (age 77) Melton, Suffolk, England Musician, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, sound designer, author and political activist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambient music and electronica, and for producing, recording, and writing works in rock and pop music. A self-described "non-musician", Eno has helped introduce unconventional concepts and approaches to contemporary music. He has been described as one of popular music's most influential and innovative figures. In 2019, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Roxy Music. Eno studied painting and experimental music at the art school of Ipswich Civic College in the mid-1960s, and then at Winchester School of Art. He joined the glam rock group Roxy Music as its synthesizer player in 1971 and recorded two albums with them before departing in 1973. He then released solo albums, beginning with the rock-oriented Here Come the Warm Jets (1974), and explored minimal music on the influential recordings Discreet Music (1975) and Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978), with the latter coining the term "ambient music". Alongside his solo work, Eno collaborated frequently with other musicians in the 1970s, including Robert Wyatt, Robert Fripp (mainly as part of the Fripp & Eno collective), Harmonia, Cluster, Harold Budd, David Bowie, John Cale and David Byrne. He also established himself as a sought-after producer, working on albums by Jon Hassell, Laraaji, Byrne's Talking Heads, Ultravox, and Devo, as well as the no wave compilation No New York (1978). In subsequent decades, Eno continued to record solo albums and produce for other artists, including U2, Coldplay, Peter Gabriel, Daniel Lanois, Laurie Anderson, Grace Jones, Slowdive, Karl Hyde of Underworld, James, Kevin Shields, and Damon Albarn. Dating back to his time as a student, Eno has also worked in other media, including sound installations, film and writing. In the mid-1970s, he co-developed Oblique Strategies, a pack of cards featuring aphorisms intended to spur creative thinking. From the 1970s onwards, his installations have included the sails of the Sydney Opera House in 2009 and the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank in 2016. An advocate of a range of humanitarian causes, Eno writes on a variety of subjects and is a founding member of the Long Now Foundation. His modern political activism has also included awareness of the conditions in the Gaza Strip before and during the Gaza war and genocide, climate crisis awareness, opposing the Conservative Party, opposing Brexit, and advocating for freedom for Julian Assange. In September 2025, he signed an open pledge with Film Workers for Palestine pledging not to work with Israeli film institutions "that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people." Early life His grandfather was a multi-instrumentalist who played the saxophone and bassoon whilst he built and repaired pianos and church organs. I like melancholy and have never found it to be the same thing as moroseness or sadness. I've always enjoyed being melancholy, perhaps because that mood is very much a feature of the environment where I grew up. It's a very bleak place and most visitors find it quite miserable. I don't think it's miserable but it's definitely a sort of lost place in a lost time – nothing has changed in this part of England for many hundreds of years,” Brian Eno. In 1969, after separating from his wife, Eno moved to London, where his professional music career began. Eno's first appearance on a commercially released recording is the Deutsche Grammophon edition of The Great Learning (1971) by Cornelius Cardew and the Scratch Orchestra, which features Eno as one of the voices on the track "Paragraph 7". At one point, Eno had to earn money as paste-up assistant for the advertisement section of a local paper for three months. He quit and became an electronics dealer by buying old speakers and making new cabinets for them before selling them to friends. In 1971, Eno co-formed the glam rock band Roxy Music following a chance meeting with saxophonist Andy Mackay. Eno later said: "If I'd walked ten yards further on the platform, or missed that train, or been in the next carriage, I probably would have been an art teacher now". Eno played on their first two albums, Roxy Music (1972) and For Your Pleasure (1973), on which he is credited mononymously as "Eno". On the records, Eno was noted as playing the EMS VCS 3 synthesizer, whilst also being credited for tape effects, backing vocals, and production. Initially, Eno did not appear on stage at their live shows, but operated the group's mixing desk at the center of the concert venue where he had a microphone to sing backup vocals. After the group secured a record deal, Eno joined them on stage playing the synthesizer and became known for his flamboyant, androgynous costumes and makeup, partly stealing the spotlight from lead singer Bryan Ferry. After the tour in support of For Your Pleasure ended in mid-1973, Eno quit the band, citing disagreements with Ferry. Almost immediately after his exit from Roxy Music, Eno embarked on his solo career. In 1973, he released (No Pussyfooting), a collaboration with King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp. The album had been worked on for over a year, particularly with the use of tape looping and delay systems, which would later be known as "Frippertronics". The record is hailed as being groundbreaking for future developments in drone and what would later be termed ambient music. Eno's first solo studio album, Here Come the Warm Jets, was recorded the same year and released in February 1974. The album notably features Fripp's guitar playing on several songs. In March 1974, he released the single "Seven Deadly Finns" with the B-side "Later On". Between 1974 and 1975, Eno began to write new material for a third solo studio album. Within this time, in January 1975, Eno was hit by a taxi cab while crossing the street and spent several weeks recuperating and room-ridden at home. After she had left, he put on the record and lay down. He then realized that he had set the amplifier to a very low volume, and one channel of the stereo was not working, but he lacked the energy to get up and correct it. Immediately following a full recovery, he began to experiment with several instruments and tools in Island Studios (now known as Basing Street Studios). Between July and August 1975, he had recorded what would become Another Green World. The album was released on 14 November 1975 but did not chart in either the United Kingdom or the United States. The album predominantly featured instrumental tracks, with notable fragments of minimalism and avant-garde tensing throughout the 40 minute record. Those that had featured vocals, such as "Everything Merges With The Night", "St. Elmo's Fire" and "Golden Hours" were met with praise. The track "Zawinul / Lava" is a homage and tribute to Austrian jazz fusion keyboardist and composer Joe Zawinul. The only song to have any single release was "I'll Come Running", which became the B-side to Eno's cover of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh)". The album has been recognized by critics as a "universally acknowledged masterpiece" and "breathtakingly ahead of its time". The acclaimed music journalist Robert Christgau rated the album as an "A+", stating that it was "the aural equivalent of a park on the Moon; oneness with nature under conditions of artificial gravity". In 1975 Eno released the minimalist-electronic record Discreet Music (1975), created with an elaborate tape-delay methodology which he diagrammed on the back cover of the LP. Considered to be a landmark of the ambient music genre and the first record of Eno's to feature his full name, the album only features four tracks, one of which is the 30-minute long "Discreet Music", which features synthesized tape delays by Eno on an echo configuration. The album was remarked as a favorite record of David Bowie and, as a result of the record and its recognition to Bowie, it had led to his collaboration with Eno on Bowie's Berlin Trilogy. After Discreet Music Eno released two other experimental-electronic albums: the Fripp-collaborated Evening Star (1975) and the Roedelius-Moebius collaborated Cluster & Eno (1977). In December 1977 he released Before and After Science, which featured electronic and artistic rock compositions with vocals. In 1977 Eno assisted David Bowie and Tony Visconti for Bowie's album Low. It was during these sessions that he began work on his next solo project, released in 1978 as the first of his Ambient series, Ambient 1: Music for Airports. He coined the term "ambient music", which is designed to modify the listener's perception of the surrounding environment. In the liner notes accompanying the record, he wrote: "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." The following records after the release of Ambient 1 and the subsequent series inclusions were The Plateaux of Mirror (Ambient 2) featuring Harold Budd, Day of Radiance (Ambient 3) with American composer Laraaji, and On Land (Ambient 4), a solo record. In 1983, Eno collaborated with his brother, Roger, and accomplice and friend Daniel Lanois, on what would be Brian Eno's ninth full-length album Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks. In September 1992, Eno released Nerve Net, an album utilizing heavily syncopated rhythms with contributions from several former collaborators including Fripp, Benmont Tench, Robert Quine and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin fame. During the 1990s, Eno worked increasingly with self-generating musical systems, the results of which he called generative music. This allows the listener to hear music that slowly unfolds in almost infinite non-repeating combinations of sound. In one instance of generative music, Eno calculated that it would take almost 10,000 years to hear the entire possibilities of one individual piece. Eno achieves this through the blending of several independent musical tracks of varying length. Each track features different musical elements and in some cases, silence. When each individual track concludes, it starts again re-configuring differently with the other tracks. He has presented this music in his own art and sound installations and those in collaboration with other artists, including I Dormienti (The Sleepers), Lightness: Music for the Marble Palace, and Music for Civic Recovery Centre. In 1993, Eno worked with the Manchester rock band James to produce two albums, Laid and Wah Wah. Laid was met with notable critical and commercial success both in the UK and the United States after its release in 1993. Wah Wah, in comparison, received a more lukewarm response after its release in 1994. One of Eno's better-known collaborations was with the members of U2, Luciano Pavarotti and several other artists in a group called Passengers. They produced the 1995 album Original Soundtracks 1, which reached No. 76 on the US Billboard charts and No. 12 in the UK Albums Chart. It featured a single, "Miss Sarajevo", which reached number 6 in the UK Singles Chart. In 2004, Fripp and Eno recorded another ambient music collaboration album, The Equatorial Stars. In early 2006, Eno collaborated with David Byrne again, for the reissue of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts in celebration of the influential album's 25th anniversary. Eight previously unreleased tracks recorded during the initial sessions in 1980/81, were added to the album. In late 2006, Eno released 77 Million Paintings, a program of generative video and music specifically for home computers. As its title suggests, there is a possible combination of 77 million paintings where the viewer will see different combinations of video slides prepared by Eno each time the program is launched. Likewise, the accompanying music is generated by the program so that it's almost certain the listener will never hear the same arrangement twice. The Nokia 8800 Sirocco Edition mobile phone, released in late 2006, features exclusive ringtones and sounds composed by Eno. Although he was previously uninterested in composing ringtones due to the limited sound palette of monophonic ringtones, phones at this point primarily used audio files. In 2008, he released Everything That Happens Will Happen Today with David Byrne, designed the sound for the video game Spore. In March 2020, Eno and his brother, Roger Eno, released their collaborative album Mixing Colours. From the beginning of his solo career in 1973, Eno was in demand as a record producer. The first album with Eno credited as producer was Lucky Leif and the Longships by Robert Calvert. Eno's lengthy string of producer credits includes albums for Talking Heads, U2, Devo, Ultravox and James. He also produced part of the 1993 album When I Was a Boy by Jane Siberry. He won the best producer award at the 1994 and 1996 BRIT Awards. Eno has contributed to recordings by artists as varied as Nico, Robert Calvert, Genesis, David Bowie, and Zvuki Mu, in various capacities such as use of his studio and electronic treatments, vocals, guitar, bass guitar, and under a mononymous stage name (Eno). In 1984, he (amongst others) composed and performed the "Prophecy Theme" for the David Lynch film Dune; the rest of the soundtrack was composed and performed by the group Toto. Eno produced performance artist Laurie Anderson's Bright Red album, and also composed for it. Eno has spoken of an early and ongoing interest in exploring light in a similar way to his work with sound. He started experimenting with the medium of video in 1978. Eno describes the first video camera he received, which would initially become his main tool for creating ambient video and light installations: Music for Airports, at least one of the pieces on there, is structurally very, very simple. There are sung notes, sung by three women and myself. One of the notes repeats every 23 1/2 seconds. It is in fact a long [recorded tape] loop running around a series of tubular aluminum chairs in Conny Plank's studio. The next lowest loop repeats every 25 7/8 seconds or something like that. The third one every 29 15/16 seconds or something. What I mean is they all repeat in cycles that are called incommensurable – they are not likely to come back into sync again. So this is the piece moving along in time. Your experience of the piece of course is a moment in time, there. So as the piece progresses, what you hear are the various clusterings and configurations of these six basic elements. The basic elements in that particular piece never change. They stay the same. But the piece does appear to have quite a lot of variety. In fact it's about eight minutes long on that record, but I did have a thirty minute version which I would bore friends who would listen to it. The thing about pieces like this of course is that they are actually of almost infinite length if the numbers involved are complex enough. They simply don't ever re-configure in the same way again. This is music for free in a sense. The considerations that are important, then, become questions of how the system works and most important of all what you feed into the system. The list below consists of albums, soundtracks and downloadable files that contain excerpts from some of Eno's generative music explorations:[citation needed] 1970 – Berlin Horse [Film Short] 1975 – Discreet Music 1975 – Evening Star (Fripp & Eno) 1978 – Ambient 1: Music for Airports 1981 – Mistaken Memories of Mediaeval Manhattan [Installation Video] 1982 – Ambient 4: On Land 1983 – Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks (Eno, Lanois & R Eno) 1983 – Music for Films II (Eno, Lanois & R Eno) [exclusive to Working Backwards Box Set] 1984 – Thursday Afternoon [Installation Video] 1985 – Thursday Afternoon 1988 – Music for Films III (Various Artists) 1989 – Textures (Eno, Lanois & R Eno) 1992 – The Shutov Assembly 1993 – Neroli (Thinking Music Part IV) 1994 – Glitterbug [Original Soundtrack] 1996 – Neverwhere [BBC TV Mini-Series Soundtrack] 1997 – Contra 1.2 1997 – Lightness 1998 – Music for Prague 1999 – I Dormienti 1999 – Kite Stories 2000 – Music for Civic Recovery Centre 2001 – Compact Forest Proposal 2003 – Curiosities – Volume I 2004 – Curiosities – Volume II 2012 – Lux 2013 – CAM [Web – the book Brian Eno: Visual Music includes a download code] 2014 – The Shutov Bonus Material [Shutov Assembly reissue bonus CD] 2014 – New Space Music [Neroli reissue bonus CD] 2016 – The Ship 2016 – Reflection 2017 – Sisters [Web Download] 2018 – Music for Installations [Box Set][113] 2023 – Secret Life (with Fred Again)[114] Eno is frequently referred to as one of popular music's most influential artists.[176] Producer and film composer Jon Brion has said: "I think he's the most influential artist since the Beatles."[177] Critic Jason Ankeny at AllMusic argues that Eno "forever altered the ways in which music is approached, composed, performed, and perceived, and everything from punk to techno to new age bears his unmistakable influence."[1] Eno has spread his techniques and theories primarily through his production; his distinctive style informed projects in which he has been involved, including Bowie's "Berlin Trilogy" (helping to popularize minimalism) and the albums he produced for Talking Heads (incorporating, on Eno's advice, African music and polyrhythms), Devo, and other groups. Eno's first collaboration with David Byrne, 1981's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, utilized sampling techniques and broke ground by incorporating world music into popular Western music forms.[178][179] Eno and Peter Schmidt's Oblique Strategies have been used by many bands, and Eno's production style has proven influential in several general respects: "his recording techniques have helped change the way that modern musicians;– particularly electronic musicians;– view the studio. No longer is it just a passive medium through which they communicate their ideas but itself a new instrument with seemingly endless possibilities."[180] According to Vinyl Me, Please writer Jack Riedy, Eno's peak as an artist coincided with the album era – a period in popular music during which the album surpassed the single as the dominant recorded-music format – "and Eno took full advantage of the format to pursue all his musical ideas on wax." His groundbreaking work in electronic music has been said to have brought widespread attention to and innovations in the role of electronic technology in recording. Pink Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright said he "often eulogized" Eno's abilities. Eno's "unconventional studio predilections", in common with those of Peter Gabriel, were an influence on the recording of "In the Air Tonight", the single which launched the solo career of Eno's former drummer Phil Collins. Both Half Man Half Biscuit (in the song "Eno Collaboration" on the EP of the same name) and MGMT have written songs about Eno. LCD Soundsystem has frequently cited Eno as a key influence. The Icelandic singer Björk also credited Eno as a major influence. Eno has married twice. In March 1967, at the age of 18, Eno married Sarah Grenville. The couple had a daughter, Hannah Louise (b. 1967), before their divorce in the 1980s. In 1988, Eno married his then-manager Anthea Norman-Taylor. They have two daughters, Irial Violet (b. 1990) and Darla Joy (b. 1991).[193][194] Per a May 2020 interview with Michael Bonner of Uncut referencing his current girlfriend, Eno and Norman-Taylor may have separated or divorced at an unspecified juncture. Longtime friend Ray Hearn currently serves as Eno's manager. Raised Catholic, Eno has referred to himself as "kind of an evangelical atheist" but has also professed an interest in religion. In 2006, Eno was one of more than 100 artists and writers who signed an open letter calling for an international boycott of Israeli political and cultural institutions, and in January 2009, he spoke out against Israel's military action on the Gaza Strip by writing an opinion for CounterPunch and participating in a large-scale protest in London. In 2014, Eno again protested publicly against what he called a "one-sided exercise in ethnic cleansing" and a "war [with] no moral justification," in reference to the 2014 military operation of Israel into Gaza. He was also a co-signatory, along with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker and others, to a letter published in The Guardian that labelled the conflict as an "inhumane and illegal act of military aggression" and called for "a comprehensive and legally binding military embargo on Israel, similar to that imposed on South Africa during apartheid." Eno was appointed President of Stop the War Coalition in 2017. Solo studio albums Here Come the Warm Jets (Island, 1974) Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (Island, 1974) Another Green World (Island, 1975) Discreet Music (Obscure, 1975) Before and After Science (Polydor, 1977) Ambient 1: Music for Airports (Polydor, 1978) Music for Films (Polydor, 1978) Ambient 4: On Land (E.G., 1982) Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks (E.G., 1983) Thursday Afternoon (E.G., 1985) Nerve Net (Opal/All Saints, 1992) The Shutov Assembly (Opal/All Saints, 1992) Neroli (Opal/All Saints, 1993) Headcandy (BMG, 1994) The Drop (All Saints, 1997) Another Day on Earth (Hannibal, 2005) Lux (Warp, 2012) The Ship (Warp, 2016) Reflection (Warp, 2017) ForeverAndEverNoMore (Verve/UMC, 2022) Aurum (Opal, 2025)
This was quite nice to listen to while working. But it’s still elevator music…
I don’t ever really have much to say about ambient music, so instead of a review I’m going to assign an airport I’ve been to to each song 1/1 - Chicago O’Hare 2/1 - Philadelphia 1/2 - Tampa 2/2 - Minneapolis
# Album Name: Ambient 1-Music For Airports # Artist: Brian Eno # Rating: 3/5 # Comments: Literally music you could like to whilst in a airport/elevator/shopping centre etc # Top Tunes: # Would I listen to it again? Maybe background music.
So ambient I often forgot it was playing. Peaceful.
Para momentos que solo necesitas conectar con vos misma este álbum musicaliza muy bien esa situación
I never really know what to do with ambient like this. Eno himself called it “ignorable but interesting“ and that is my experience. I like having this on in the background but I don’t really feel much or find it essential.
2.9 Got a bit to much in to the spa music category for me. It did however give you a certain space to think, about the music, or whatever else that was going through my mind. I found that pretty interesting. I think Im going to have to a deep Eno dive at some point
Yep. Ambient. I would have been a neutral listener at the airport.
It's a lovely album but I had trouble singing along
I do think there's better ambient and I would reject a lot of the historical significance (there was plenty of ambient before this including stuff made by the man himself) but this does still have a lot of merit as a standalone project
Relaxing, ambient. Should have listened in the evening with low light and a quick hit. Instead, I was in the middle of my workday.
Minecraft
The title and blurb suggested this might be the perfect solution to help my wife pass more peacefully through international travel hubs. The suggestion of this solution, combined with her dislike for ambient music in general, did not receive a warm reception. I was unable to really immerse myself in this album as may have been necessary but found it pleasant enough as a backing track.
Perfect reading music
This is hard to rate, after all, it is just background music and that's is purpose 🤣. I grant you that it relaxing and at times barely noticeable 🤷🏻. As background music is concerned it does the job, but would I normally choose to this type of music?
Album incroyable pour de la relaxation, de la méditation ou pour mettre de la musique de fond pour le travail. Un petit moment de douceur dans ce monde de brute. Presque un poil curieux que ce soit de la musique pour aéroport. Très bonne musique ambiant, mauvaise musique d'aéroport. Note : 3 A réécouter : Oui
-good vibes -really helps calm me when I’m stressed -probably would be good for an airport -I enjoyed this as background music
If they had just started playing this in airports in 1978 we would be living in a utopia by now
This is without a doubt some ambient music. I put it on in the background and had listened to about 30 minutes before I even noticed. It reminds me of music you would hear at a video game or movie main menu or on that sci-fi themed amusement park ride while you wait to get on. If you're looking for background music that defines background music, you will find it here. Excellent ambient music. background.
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I understand that the ambient isn't very dynamic, but I didn't hear anything truly interesting in this album. For example, C418 did it much better. Rate 5/10
Brian Eno twice in three days is a choice. I get the importance of this, but this is just a straight up background noise album.
Agradável
I can appreciate this for what it is. Ambient. It is ambient. I can respect that, but I doubt I'd ever go back to it again.
ну ебать музыка интерстеллара
It's hard to rate this, I'm going with 3 because it wasn't interesting but it was influential
It's hard to know what to rate this. I can't deny that it did what it set out to do - it's very much what it says on the tin - or that it influenced a whole genre of music... Or indeed that it's a really well made piece of background music that's boring, calming and inoffensive in all the right ways. I put this on while I was working, and it was fantastic background music. On the other hand, it's not something I feel that I must have listened to before dying. I understand this album's worth and value on a cognitive level, and on a more abstract level I let it guide me through a meditative state as I plodded away at work, doing worky things... but I don't understand why someone decided this was required listening for life. I don't dislike this one bit, but I am perplexed by its inclusion. I suppose if nothing else it has broadened my horizons slightly and I've learnt something about the origins of ambient music, but this is "1001 albums you must listen to before you die", not "1001 Wikipedia pages about albums you must read before you die".
very chill, good for studying
I get the historical interest and it was cool to learn about. I don't know that I agree that I MUST LISTEN to this though.
Albums unlike playlists can be impacted by when you listen to them. My experience of this gossamer thin thing was probably improved by my circumstance. Catching an early train the slight, repetitive atmospheres were penetrated by the sounds around me the distorted announcements, the wind. As Eno imagined it would be. The music is never at the forefront but washed over me, in a calming way
This is actually kind of cool and like should I listen to it the next time I’m in an airport?
Music to read or nap by…in the correct context and environment, it’s enjoyable. Three stars.
I don’t actually know how to rate something like this, it’s really nice and calming. Genuinely fell asleep on the first listen. Not in a bored way though more in a relaxed sort of way. It reminded me of what you’d find on the sleep playlist on Spotify. I knew of Brian Eno prior to this through collaboration with David Byrne & I know another one of his songs ‘Baby’s on Fire’. This album however is nothing like either of those tracks, so I assume his discography is very experimental and has touched on a lot of different genres & sounds. The music was really pleasant and chilled, nothing stood out majorly but it was good to shut off too. I could use this album to relax or use it when I’m hungover. It definitely is background music, would go hand in hand with studying or reading. Favourite tracks are: ‘1/1’ & ‘2/1’.
I mean, it's fine? Very lovely for what it is, but what it is is just background music that i don't feel you're meant to notice very much - i certainly struggles to focus on it, but it was still... nice?
ladies and gentleman, the lengendary brian eno and his legendary ambient albums! i will put on this for my calculus ab mock exam. lets check out the progress after 40 minutes. im sorry to announce that i slacked off thinking of unrelated things. im sorry. the ambiants are quite nice but dont help. 3/5
Not sure if the long drawn out pauses between songs are intentional or a bad version on Amazon Music. It is what Eno claimed—as ignorable as it is interesting (at least the first half). Listened to this for the last hour of the workday and not really sure I’d be able to pick it out of an ambient music lineup…
3.5 stars for some reason I always assign the synth sound of the 1970's & 80's to him. I'm not certain I know exactly which albums are the ones that Brian Eno has produced in the past, but I associate bands like Talking Heads & U2 with him. I enjoyed this album, just wanted a bit more. I know that's not always the point with ambient music but still... didn't have a favorite track.
I was listening to this while stuck in terrible traffic and it didn’t help me calm down at all
Koncentrationskrävande
I appreciate this album being on the list for its importance in music history. That said, it's background music by design, and does its job well. So, maybe 3 stars in a compliment.
Transitioning from this to James Blake's CMYK or Moby's Hymn, the through line is super obvious, especially with the first song. Ultimately, though, it just fades into the background and often veers too close to what you'd hear in a spa.
very pleasant to listen to, but also a bit slow
Spa music.... listened to best when relaxing, not for driving or operating machinery.
Somehow pleasant and annoying at the same time
It is what it is. It’s background music. And it’s nice. For what it is. But even then it gets boring.
Cool that this album was the inspiration for the term “ambient music”!
This is a tough one to rate. It's probably not something I'd seek out again, but I enjoyed the effect of it. Meditative, mood-altering. It'd be the soundtrack to a movie I enjoy.
While acknowledging Brian Eno's huge influence, I struggle to consider this essential listening—though I guess the book only highlights this, the first of his ambient albums. There's certainly something to be said for its restrained minimalism, but Eno himself declared the music must be "as ignorable as it is interesting." In that case, mission accomplished, as this easily settles into background music while I work.
Good background music
Barely music yet relaxing/interesting
Nice bakgrundsmusik, kommer antagligen ha albumet i bakgrunden några gånger.
Well, as elevator music goes this is pretty good. Fell asleep about halfway thru the first tune but I'm sure the rest was good too.
This is #day504 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge, and… here's to my second out of five Eno records represented on the list. "As ignorable as it is interesting" is really the best way to put it. I've nothing else to add. Let it be a 3 out of 5. Looking forward to #day505.
Sounds lovely Good, nice background All good Eno is muy bueno
Yes it is music for airports but I rarely go to airports so it is not goodm not bad.
Driving across NE, nearly fell asleep to this. Uber chill
Fitting that this would come up on a Friday-before-Christmas; as an extremely mellow and contemplative counterpoint to the mad festive whirl. Much of the time, I suspect I might not have the attention span to hear this through in a single sitting, but today it felt like welcome respite.
It feels less like music for airports and more like something to play when I want to fall asleep. The track order (1/1, 2/1, 1/2, 2/2) just feels weird to me — it probably indicates some kind of classification, but since the pieces are so long, I couldn’t really tell which tracks were meant to be related.
Definitely on this list because of its musical relevance rather than its catchy tunes. But the first track I genuinely enjoy, the others not so much. This is one I listen to when it’s focus time at work. A tricky one to rate but because I really like listening to 1/1, I’ll give it 3 stars.
wow, this really is ambient
I like ambient music so this was a nice one for me. Nothing too unbelievably special in my opinion though. I'll probably come back to this album when I'm looking for music to study or read to.
Ambient music is not something I expected to be on this list. In the right mood this would be awesome.
Chill ambiance, spa like music
Honestly kinda of nice for a change. Although I feel like this music is almost kind of liminal sounding if I actually heard it in an airport, I feel like it would feel slightly off for some reason... Could see this being played at a spa, a massage clinic, in a water themed video game level or maybe even an aquarium. Little bit haunting at times... for listening sake, not sure if it had to go on for as long as it did. For ambient sake the length was solid so that you dont have to loop it as often lol.
Really not enjoyed Eno’s stuff on this list so far so let’s see how this one goes… Maybe can get a bit more on board with his "ambient music", a term which he coined to describe music "as ignorable as it is interesting" and capable of "induc[ing] calm and a space to think" Much more palatable but maybe just safer than the marmite of other albums. But feels pretty unskilled, if inoffensive. Yeh, pretty bored of it by track 3 and nothing new or grabbing. Guess I just don’t really like this guy.
Shit made want to take a flight to a remote island and never talk to anyone again.
this sure was something. I would put it on to work to, but i wouldnt say I really enjoyed it. I think its very contextual. it is by no means bad, in fact its good. Its just not for me, unless im working, or sleeping. 3/5
I've come around more an ambient music in the last year or two, with the previous Tangerine Dream album and the occasional dungeon synth but this one doesn't really work for me 2/1 and 1/2 give me "ancient structure built by a long dead civilisation" in something like The Elder Scrolls rather than airports. It even stops for a second like the song is restarting. It's pretty annoying. It works for building atmosphere in that context but less so when I'm sitting at my desk working, I found myself wanting it to end. I like some of the piano work on 1/2 like I did with 1/1 though I was going to go 2 but I like at least half the album and parts of 2/1 so 3 is fine Highlights: 1/1, 2/2
★★★½
Not bad, but it definitely is meant to listen to when in an airport, meditatin,g or trying to fall asleep
Very serene and calming. I enjoyed listening to it as background noise, I don't think I'd ever sit down and just listen to it but I would revisit if I need to do something else and have a bit more noise involved. 3/5 stars.
Ok
Sounds like an art gallery
For what the album is supposed to be, it’s lovely. I love what it provides, and I’ve found it makes studying a bit easier. Not a fan of the vocals, they kind of creep me out.
4 songs, 48 minutes. I‘m already annoyed. The songs are very calming. But calling this an album is bold. Was this the origin of ambient music? Apparently yes. Well done Brian Eno.
I’m sorry. I just can’t get into Eno.
King of Ambient music. Great for relaxing/sleeping.
okay but not for me; the title alone kind of told me that :-) but I did give it a listen
I believe this album is the definition of ambient. "Ambient 1" should preferably be listened to while doing something. It gets boring when you play it at a party. "Ambient 1" could send you to sleep. I appreciate Eno's work, including the Windows 95 startup sound. 3 stars for "Ambient 1/ Music for Airports".
Instrumental and experimental
I think it achieved what it set out to do but certainly calls for the right mood to enjoy it 3.5*
Super relaxing
This is really calming music, great for yoga!
People often have the discussion, and I've had it with my friends before, what's better? - headphones, speakers, or live music? Personally, I find that each of them has a time and place. Headphones are good for albums like this, where you'd almost need access to Orfield Laboratories' anechoic chamber to properly appreciate it with speakers (I joke but you're definitely not having a good listening experience in the car or without a decent set-up), speakers are great for when you're with friends, don't want to wear something or are wanting a wider soundscape, and live music (which completely depends on the artist you're seeing) is awesome for the raw technical skill or atmosphere from the crowd. If you put a gun to my head, though, I'm choosing the headphones 10 out of 10 times. The availability of isolation from the outside world with noise-cancelling, the ability to take it anywhere, and the level of depth that you're able to get - easily outweigh any other medium to me. 1/1 is a very good ambient track, but I found the rest to not live up to this standard.
How was this 1977?
Pioneer of ambient music
I listen to this when I want to sleep (complimentary).
The most aptly named album in history. This Eno guy sure has layers to him.
My impression of Brian Eno has changed a lot recently. All the songs sounded the same but in a good way
I’ve actually listened to this before (in an airport!) after it being recommended in an episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour. Pleasant. Kind of occupies a different medium besides “music” though. Makes comparing it to the rest of the actual albums intended to be enjoyed rather than background apples and oranges
The first ever example of true "ambient music," i.e. music that you're literally not supposed to listen to -- just put on in the background and forget about. This goes against everything I believe about music, but at the same time, this was utterly pioneering, and Brian Eno kind of perfectly accomplished what he was going for...? This would probably make me feel rather peachy in that hellish purgatory of LAX. But also, when the purpose of a piece of art is to ignore it, and it happens to be really good at making itself so forgettable and invisible that you inevitably ignore it...can we seriously call it great art? Maybe? Fucking hell.
Are we done with Brian Eno albums now? 3 seems a bit much Easily ignorable background music. Perfect title for this album
Some more Brian Eno. I am now officially halfway through this guy's albums. It's been too long since the last one - 150 albums or so. I haven't listened to Here Come the Warm Jets in the time since first hearing it, though I remember admiring it for being pretty out there and unusual. I also remember having a decent impression of Another Green World, so this album could be the one to win me over. Yeah, not bad. I enjoy ambient music when it captures an ethereal, otherworldly atmosphere, and this album channels that feeling pretty well with it's delicate pianos, breathy synths and wrapping soundscapes. Ambient is an admittedly difficult genre for me to engage with through a critical lens, though from an enjoyment perspective I appreciated the bits which occasionally popped into my attention. "1/1" is pretty good, even if it's long as fuuuuuuck. Very meditative. It reminds me of the rest sublevel music from Pikmin 2, which is a pretty good tune to be in league with - that song always makes me feel like my soul is leaving my body. "1/2" is a good continuation(?) of the opener. The solitary atmosphere is pretty great, and I appreciate the jingling quality with the piano along with the lively, breathy synths. Book time. Where Eno found his footing with the creation of the ambient genre. A whole lotta nothing in there after that, though I'm favourable to this inclusion for that single point. I didn't know Eno created the ambient genre, though it makes a lot of sense knowing this guy's involvement and reverence within the production side of the music industry. I cosign this inclusion.
This is experimental music from a composer that established ambient as a genre. It’s interesting and easy to listen to, especially while working on something else. It sets the mood and the environment (hence the name). I enjoyed it, but would probably pick other works by Brian Eno for a repeat listen.
This is no doubt influential and there is definitely a place for this. I enjoyed listening to the first track whilst I worked, it was incredibly calming, and I was even contemplating a 4 for this album but the rest of the album didn’t quite have the same effect on me. I could see myself returning for a listen as an accompaniment to working or perhaps when trying to relax but feels like it would be for a specific purpose rather than anything regular.
Brian Eno said that ambient music (as he coined it) is "as ignorable as it is interesting." He certainly nailed it. And I don't mean that as an insult in the slightest. I found this album to be quite good at what it does - being good background music that invites a sense of calm and introspection. I thought it excelled at that brilliantly. And I think that's the best way to review and talk about this album - through the lens of its purpose and intent. Eno set out to do something specific here. He set out to make an album that was ignorable while still be interesting. That sounds like an easy task, but I'd imagine it was actually quite challenging. I really think he nails the concept, and should be celebrated as having done so. I wish I had more to say, but this isn't album that necessarily warrants or invites much deep criticism or analysis. It works, and that's the most and best I can say about it. Three stars. Standout Tracks: 1/1, 1/2
I would never put this on a a listening experience, which I think is kind of the point anyway. Might pop it on next time my anxiety starts running wild though
music for yoga
good vibes
Niche!
It must have something about it to be on this list but for me, it was background music. Didn't make me feel anything and was very forgettable. Perhaps you had to be there when it was released
Inoffensive and relaxing. Not sure it’s an album I need to hear before I die, and I’d rather go listen to some modern Lo-Fi instead.
There seem to be a lot of people who are mad that this album was on the list but I disagree. I think this belongs on the as really the first album of it's kind. It's more of an art installation piece. I might not actually want to sit and listen to it frequently, but it's kind of something you experience. A cool idea that I think people really take for granted these days because you hear stuff like this all the time now. But you hear stuff like this all the time because of this record. It's interesting if nothing else. As for a rating, it's tough to say. I mean I don't really like it, it just kind of flows over you as intended. It's by no means complicated or musically advanced. I certainly wouldn't buy this if I saw it in a record shop or recommend it to anyone. But it does what it was intended to do very well. 3/5
Didn't sound like music I'd heard of in an airport before, a spa maybe. Perfectly solid background music but nothing more interesting than that; even the tracks aren't named at all interestingly.
Don’t really know how to rate this, because by design it’s pleasant while not really giving much to engage with. It’s fine, but not really what I’d choose to listen to.
Bueno
Different but delightful nonetheless, would be happy to listen to other pieces :)
There's nothing wrong with a nice choice of wallpaper. I mean, at the end of the day it's just wallpaper. It's there to sit in the background and make the room more pleasant without really getting in the way. It doesn't make the room. But it certainly can make the room a bit nicer.
Probably listened to this 2 or 3 times as I inadvertently put it on repeat. Not against it, seamlessly followed one after the other. Went to sleep…
Fine background. Used it in yoga
How much of Brian Eno is on this list? Ugh. Well, this was kind of nice but also kind of... Boring.
It reminds me a college boyfriend and sleeping over at his house. Otherwise, fabulous! Loved it! Already did and haven’t heard it in a while. Just yeah, the memories.
Best Song: 2/1. Maybe the most "forward" of the tracks here. Worst Song: 2/2. Sounded a bit too much like musicians warming up their instruments. Overall: I mean, it's ambient, so it feels like there inherently isn't that much to say about it. It succeeds at what I feel like it is attempting to do. It lies gently in the background, and I think subtly augments an already relaxed setting.
Good ambient