Each month the good folks at Aquarius Records pick a disc that they think shines above the rest. Read their reviews and listen to a couple of sample tracks.
Newly reissued n' remastered! Perhaps the most renowned of Eno's ambient albums, Music For Airports, originally released in 1978, is a (or should we say THE) seminal ambient work. The proof is over a quarter century's worth of other artists (and some downright imitators) who've amassed an enormous collective body of work directly inspired by this one album. This is the O.G. of gorgeous shimmering atmospheric soundscapes. Truly sublime. While Eno's conceptual "hands off" compositional style is certainly one of the larger factors in his influencing other future ambient artists, the striking thing about this work that makes it so compelling is the way in which the pieces manage to impart a feeling of warmth despite the clinically mechanical way in which they are played. And while the performance here is not executed by machines, the impact of it carries on down, all the way to the Aphex Twin's zenith of robotic beauty, The Richard D. James Album.
The four pieces here (programmatically named "1/1", "2/1", "1/2" & "2/2" for their sequencing on the original LP) build one upon the next. The first is arranged entirely with electric and acoustic pianos (with some help from Robert Wyatt), the second a chorus of voices and the third and fourth pieces combine those elements with additional synth help. The drifting and staggered arpeggios cascade in slow motion giving the pieces a shapeless consistency, somehow always moving forward while remaining frozen. A suitable antidote to muzak if there ever was one. If anything dates, or holds back the three latter pieces on this disc it's the now archaic synth patches. They can be charming, but I've never been able to listen to "2/2" without thinking immediately of Steve Winwood's "While You See A Chance." Needless to say, this small downside doesn't spoil as great an album as this.
- the staff of Aquarius Records
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