Track Listing

1. 1/1
2. 2/1
3. 1/2
4. 2/2

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5637 in Music
• Released on: 2004-09-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .13 pounds
• Running time: 48 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
This complex sound sculpture was created by Brian Eno in 1978 and was even installed for a while at the Marine Terminal of New York at LaGuardia Airport. The ambient-minimalist soundscape has been alternately described as background Muzak, a profoundly artificial musical milieu, and a groundbreaking studio creation. Eno designed Music for Airports from a few simple notes and the serial organisation of variable tape loops that didn't quite match up. It's a groundbreaking elaboration on the aural/spatial dimension that utilises silence, piano, synthesizer, female voices, and, most importantly, the technology of the studio. A true metaclassic, the "music" is divided into four distinct movements. This record is the first of Eno's ambient series and is undoubtedly the best. --Mitch Myers

From Amazon.com
Eno's theory of the "discreet music" he called ambient was far from the modern chill-out room: the idea was that it should function at very low volumes, unobtrusively coloring the atmosphere of a room. Evolving by tiny gradations, the long pieces of Music For Airports (the first in a series of albums that followed the statement of purpose Discreet Music) defy close attention, but then they're not meant to be listened to consciously; they're meant to serve as a counterpoint to the frantic arcs of travel, or rather to be imagined in that setting. --Douglas Wolk

CD Description
Considered by many to be the ultimate ambient album, MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS is so delicate, lovely, and aesthetically moving, that it has been known to give rise to sensations of flying, being enfolded in warm blankets, or watching a vision take place in the heavens. If this sounds like an overstatement, you haven't heard the album. A four part "piece" performed entirely on synthesizer and piano, Eno's composition findsa referent more in abstract painting (one visualises bold blocks of colour in warm hues) than in any musical genre.
Resonant synthesizer notes resembling bells or voices are interwoven with bits of melody, overlapping each other, and fading in and out of an architectural silence. Essentially, it's the kind of music one might hear in heaven, and Eno manages to present it without the pretense or cheese that typify most of what later became "new age" music. MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS stands against the prejudices of even the staunchest ambient music critics, partly because Eno did it first, but mostly because this disc is genuine, pure, and achingly beautiful.

Customer Reviews

Gorgeous
This is an album of beauty. The sound is simple, something to be put on in the background whilst reading a book or magazine, you let it flow through you without noticing it, then every now and then, maybe a key or rythmic change, you lift your head and realise what great music you're listening to. This is ambient from the old school, one track in particular sounds dated with synths playing a heavy role, but it is no less great than the other 3. Fans of Godspeed you black emperor! or silver mt. zion, tangerine dream and the others will find much to listen to here. I am unsure, however, of the differences between this and the "import" version. They both claim to have the same tracks, yet one is more expensive.

Relaxing drift of sound--great for spacing out
Nearly everyone who uses a computer is familiar with at least one piece of Eno's work; he wrote the little 3 second Windows booting-up music for Microsoft.

This album is a perpetual favorite, one of the New Age genre classics. Divided into 4 sections ("1/1," "2/1," "1/2," and "2/2"), it soothes the listener with repetitive piano and synthesizer motifs, and adds the color of chimes and vocals. This is the "ambient" music style, something to play while you need to concentrate, perhaps, or to relax or go to sleep by. I can also recommend the newer "Glitters is Gold" which also has non-linear music of this type.

Outstanding music: delicate, subtle and profoundly effective
This is a colossal achievement; rarely is music so powerfully evocative and at the same time so unobtrusive. It has greater depth than more recent ambient compositions and its structure is reassuringly simple. It can be as important a part of your home as your furniture; leave it on in the background or sit and make an effort to listen to it - in both situations, listening to "Music for Airports" is an incredibly rewarding experience. Whether working, relaxing or socialising, this CD is _the_ essential accompaniment to modern lifestyles.