Ambient 4: On Land Vinyl by Brian Eno. Ambient 4: On Land Standard Vinyl by Brian Eno. Small Craft On A Milk Sea Vinyl by Brian Eno, Jon Hopkins, Leo Abrahams. Brian Eno Documentary (1973) Eno is a 1973 documentary that profiles Brian Eno in an interesting period of his career – before he released his most important albums, before defining what we know as ‘ambient music' and before his high-profile production of classic albums by David Bowie, Talking Heads, Devo, U2 and others. In 1978, Brian Eno released Ambient 1: Music for Airports, a landmark album in ambient and electronic music. Although it wasn't the first ambient album by any means, it was the first album explicitly released as an ‘ambient music album'. The album was essentially a continuation of Eno's experiments with the tape machine as a compositional tool, as well as his exploration of generative. The Artist Name is Laraaji,Brian Eno The Title is Ambient 3 Day Of Radiance Condition Used The Media Condition is Near Mint. This disk is a nearly perfect. It may have been been played only a few times. It will play perfectly, with no clicks, pops, hissing or any other imperfections during playback. The Sleeve Condition is Near Mint.
- Brian Eno Ambient 1
- Brian Eno Ambient Music
- Brian Eno Ambient 4
- Brian Eno Ambient 4
- Brian Eno Ambient Albums
The English synthesist who first coined the term 'ambient' is widely revered as one of the most innovative and influential recording artists in contemporary music. Brian Eno's hand has touched many genres: rock, techno, electropop, world music and, of course, ambient.
artist:
Brian Eno
country of origin:
UK
style(s):
Ambient, art rock, minimalism, experimental
decades active:
70's - 10's
Brian Eno Ambient 1
essential ambient releases:
- No Pussyfooting [with Fripp] (1973, Editions EG)
- Another Green World (1975, Editions EG)
- Discreet Music (1975, Editions EG)
- Evening Star [with Fripp] (1975, Editions EG)
- Music For Films (1978, Editions EG)
- Ambient 1: Music For Airports (1978, Editions EG)
- Ambient 2: The Plateaux Of Mirror [with Harold Budd] (1980, Editions EG)
- Possible Musics [with Jon Hassell] (1980, Editions EG)
- Ambient 4: On Land (1982, Editions EG)
- Apollo (1983, Editions EG)
- The Pearl [with Harold Budd] (1984, Editions EG)
- Music For Films III [with others] (1988, Opal)
- The Shutov Assembly (1992, Opal)
- Boxed I: Instrumental (1993, Virgin)
- The Equatorial Stars [with Fripp] (2004, Opal)
Reviewed by Mike G
Brian Eno is the English synthesist who first coined the term 'ambient' and is widely revered as one of the most innovative and influential recording artists in contemporary music. His hand has touched many genres: rock, techno, electropop, world music and, of course, ambient.
Yet while he's been part of some of popular music's biggest commercial and artistic success - leaving his indelible sonic stamp as the producer of U2, Talking Heads and David Bowie - his name is hardly a household word. Perhaps that's because Eno's roots lie partly in the 20th century avant-garde or 'fine art music' as he calls it. Unlike so many composers in both popular and classical genres, Eno has always valued timbre and texture over the formalities of notes and chords, though not at the expense of accessibility. Broadcaster John Schaefer wrote in his book New Sounds: 'Eno uses the recording studio as if it were a giant instrument…recording, treating and manipulating sounds through technology is the basis of his art'. Those techniques are applied with equal tenacity on both his pop and ambient records, but it's his ambient music that concerns us most here.
Art rock and process music
After leaving art/glam rock outfit Roxy Music in the early 70's Eno recorded a series of quirky pop and art rock solo albums, of which the superb Another Green World (1975) is the most obvious pointer to his ambient works. It's a wonderful record in its own right: a seamless collection of instrumentals and abstract songs fashioned with off-beat electronic tones, innovative percussion loops and often deceptively simple melodies. A couple of beatless instrumental tracks 'Becalmed' and 'Spirits Drifting' show the best characteristics of his ambient albums: textured, slowly unfolding pieces with a certain edge that has always prevented his music from sinking into a sickly new age quagmire.
Although from a rock background, Eno's ambient music bears almost no resemblance to popular song forms. Much more influential have been the ideas of avant-garde minimalist composers such as Steve Reich. Eno's earliest ambient records, for example, are experiments in 'process music' recorded with guitarist Robert Fripp. No Pussyfooting (1973) and Evening Star (1975) - as well as Eno's solo album Discreet Music (1975) - develop an idea first coined by Reich in the 1960's: a tape-loop/feedback system which in itself becomes as important a performer as the musicians. The two albums with Fripp progressively build up shimmering, spiraling, slowly decaying layers of sound and, although an acquired taste, can induce an extraordinary trance-like experience. The minimalist ethic of developing a piece through simple repetition is clearly at play here; these albums all cast their spell through drones and slowly unfolding melodic cycles that echo the work of La Monte Young, another minimalist composer whom Eno has long admired.
The ambient milestones
On the cover notes to his 1978 milestone Ambient 1: Music For Airports (1978) Eno describes ambience as 'an atmosphere, a tint...designed to induce calm and space to think'. He also points to its non-intrusive qualities in declaring that 'it must be ignorable as it is interesting', or in other words, be able to be used for background or foreground listening depending on the listeners needs.
Crucial to Eno's concept of ambience – indeed crucial to any ambient music conceived around this passive/active model - is his conviction that such music can be produced without compromise. Thus, it remains distinguished from both the muzak heard in shopping malls and the torrents of relaxation and new age drivel that his music has unwittingly inspired. Eno believes that ambient music can relax without boring the listener into rest. Its intrinsic values remain.
On that count, Ambient 1: Music For Airports, Ambient 4: On Land (1982), Apollo (1983) and the small group jams of Music For Films (1978) succeed brilliantly. Although officially Eno solo albums, they bear significant contributions from collaborators including Robert Wyatt, Daniel Lanois and brother Roger Eno. All four albums are distinguished by a masterful use of studio processing with which he produces soothing, fascinating sounds and textures using synthesisers, piano, guitar, wordless vocals and occasional percussion. Eno's music has been accused on more than one occasion of being cool and remote, and in this regard On Land contains some of his most uncompromising work. You may find some of the ominous, atonal soundscapes here virtually impenetrable, though given time the album develops a remarkable and strange, spacious beauty. And it is undeniable that at times these albums do display a quality not previously associated with electronic music: emotion. Parts of Apollo in particular, a work inspired by the beauty and awesome mystery of space, are an exceptional listening experience. 'Ascent', with its looped, ghost-like vocal melody, is so angelic and sublime it could make you cry.
A number of Eno's official collaborations from this period are also masterful.
Possible Musics (1980) - the first and best of a two album series - contains some extraordinary mood pieces, coupling Eno's textural wizardry with Jon Hassell's totally unique trumpet sound. It's ethnic elements are subtle but definite and it remains Eno's most exotic sounding ambient project. The albums Ambient 2: The Plateaux Of Mirror (1980) and The Pearl (1984) both find Eno's electronics proving a perfect foil for the drifting, Eric Satie-inspired musings of pianist Harold Budd. Eno adds subtle but effective electronic textures throughout and also arranges some gorgeous wordless vocals on the breathtaking 'Not Yet Remembered'. The two Budd albums remain classics of the genre.
Among the remaining collaborations from this era, the colourful, wide-ranging impressionism of Music For Films III (1988) is also impressive, even if the album is more a various-artist project than a simple collaboration. It features Eno, Harold Budd, Michael Brook and others, both alone and in various combinations. Two albums from the late 70's with Roedelius and Moebius from German band Cluster are also superb (see Cluster).
Brian Eno Ambient Music
Post-80's work
Since the late 1980's Eno's ambient output has slowed down, aside from his limited-release CD's commissioned by outside sources. His most notable music in the 90's and the new century has been his ongoing adventures in electronic avant-pop and art rock - as well as his production work for U2 - and these are albums that are best reviewed and dissected elsewhere.
Only a few of the instrumental ambient albums from recent decades are outstanding. The Shutov Assembly (1992) is about the only one of his art installation soundtracks that works entirely in its own terms as an album. Its ten shimmering tracks for electric piano, synthesisers and environmental effects hover brilliantly between tonality and dissonance, a bit like late-period Cluster without the rhythms. Also essential is the third Robert Fripp collaboration The Equatorial Stars (2004). On this spellbinding recording Fripp and Eno use the same tape loop and delay processes as on their previous albums together, conjuring luminous, floating cycles of notes, propelled just occasionally with a rhythmic pulse. Beatless tone poems like 'Meissa' and 'Lyra' recall the cosmic ambience of Apollo, very deep and very beautiful.
None of Eno's other latterday ambient albums match the standard of his best work and certainly none are of the same historical significance to the genre. Occasionally they have been quite woeful. Said Q Magazine of his album Neroli (1992): 'Eno makes a muted synthesiser go bong for a couple of minutes short of an hour…which leaves you asking, is that the new Brian Eno album or is the fridge playing up again?' Most of his CD soundtracks for art installations suffer from the same limitations, a trend which started as far back as the pretty but numbingly static Thursday Afternoon (1985).
Of the available compilation albums, the Virgin 3-CD set Instrumental (1993) is still by far the best overview of his ambient music available and includes some excellent rare and previously unreleased tracks.
Eno's legacy
Today there is a good deal of music tagged ambient that goes well beyond Eno's original conception of the word. His idea of simultaneous background/foreground music is actually quite narrow - 'as ignorable as it is interesting' - even though much of the music on the albums listed above rises above this limitation.
But the idea of modern music as subtle atmosphere, as chill-out, as impressionistic, as something that creates space for quiet reflection or relaxation: these are ideas he has brought from relative obscurity into the popular consciousness. And 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. The 'studio' today is often a single desktop or laptop computer, its size and capability no doubt mind-boggling to those who where making electronic-based music in the 1970's.
In the face of his reputation as an all-round modern music guru, Eno himself is fairly modest. 'It's quite flattering to be framed as the seed from which all these things grew,' he told Vox Magazine in 1998. 'I think I've imported a few quite simple ideas from fine art music into popular music and I think they've made a difference'.
Brian Eno Ambient 4
Ambient 3: Day of Radiance | |||
---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | |||
Released | 1980 | ||
Genre | Ambient, world, new age | ||
Length | 49:00 | ||
Label | Editions EG | ||
Producer | Brian Eno | ||
Laraaji chronology | |||
| |||
Brian Eno chronology | |||
|
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Louder than War | 8/10[2] |
Record Collector | [3] |
Sputnikmusic | [4] |
Ambient 3: Day of Radiance (1980) is an album by the Americanambient musician Laraaji (alias Edward Larry Gordon), which was produced by Brian Eno.
Overview[edit]
This album is the third entry of Eno's Ambient series, which began in 1978 with Music for Airports, and was preceded by The Plateaux of Mirror. The series ended with On Land.
Compared to the rest of the series, Day of Radiance features very little in the way of electronics. Laraaji uses a variety of acoustic stringed instruments such as a hammered dulcimer and 36-stringed open-tuned zither.
Track listing[edit]
All tracks by Laraaji
- 'The Dance #1' – 9:06
- 'The Dance #2' – 9:39
- 'The Dance #3' – 3:15
- 'Meditation #1' – 18:42
- 'Meditation #2' – 7:50
Content[edit]
The first three tracks are variations on a theme named 'The Dance', and are delivered in a fast, hypnotic, Gamelan-like, rhythmic pace on a hammered dulcimer. Eno's input is not only in the role of producer; he also adds many creative touches to the natural instrument-sounds. In particular, he 'layers' the tracks, after which he applies various effects to the point at which the dulcimer almost sounds like other instruments.
These processes are particularly noticeable on the last of the 'Dance' pieces. The simple practice of slowing the tape down creates resonances that are deep, and distorted in places.
The final two tracks ('Meditation 1 & 2') are different; more in keeping with the 'ambient' style featured on the rest of the series. These are slow, meandering beatless compositions performed on the zither, with the dulcimer adding the odd highlight. Eno's tactic in these two pieces is mainly to electronically highlight the zither's naturally long decay-rate, creating a highly ethereal sound.
Personnel and instruments[edit]
- Cover art and production – Brian Eno
- Music – Laraaji
- Instruments – treated and amplified zither; hammered dulcimer
Versions[edit]
Country | Label | Cat. No. | Media | Release Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
UK | Ambient/EG Records | EGAMB 003 | LP | 1980 |
US | EG Records | EGS 203 | LP | 1980 |
US | Caroline | 1573 | CD | ? |
US | EG Records | EGED/EEGCD-19 | LP & CD | 1987 & 1995 |
References[edit]
- ^Brian Olewnick. 'Laraaji Ambient 3: Day of Radiance'. AllMusic. Retrieved 2016-12-12.
- ^Paul Scott-Bates (November 6, 2015). 'Laraaji: Ambient 3 Day Of Radiance – album review'. Louder Than War. Retrieved 2016-12-12.
- ^Paul Bowler. 'LARAAJI - AMBIENT 3: DAY OF RADIANCE (PRODUCED BY BRIAN ENO)'. Record Collector. Retrieved 2015-12-12.
- ^Kuettel, Benjamin. 'Laraaji - Ambient 3: Day of Radiance'. Sputnikmusic. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
External links[edit]
Brian Eno Ambient 4
- Japanese ambient dub quartet Audio Active have remixed a selection of the material for their album The Way Out Is The Way In, Gyroscope/Caroline GYR 6615-2, 1995 (Discogs.com)