We’ve had music before that I’ve referred to as “ambient”, but this is the first to be deliberately designed for that purpose, rather than being merely minimalistic.
It is what it says on the tin, Eno having written the music to instil a sense of calm and peace in the environment of the airport, without being necessarily noticeable. It’s even written to be looped, and at such a tone and pitch that announcements could be made over the top without interruption, or the music confusing with the voice.
What you get are some simple phrases on piano and synth, plus some ethereal vocals that have been modulated – these reminded me of a setting on the Kawai K1 synth that made kind of choral ethereal voices. You could just play any chords, or any keys, in pretty much any order, and it sounded good, if spooky.
The piano phrases are quite simple and for a while I was trying to remember what they reminded me of – it's 9Bach, a Welsh kind of ambient/alternate folk group who do a lot of very sparsely arranged songs. And I may add their album Tincian to my list of albums that were overlooked by Robert Dimery.
The loops on the tracks are all timed slightly differently, so that although there are repeats, the tracks have enough variation that they don’t impinge on your consciousness. It’s kind of odd listening to music that you’re not supposed to “listen” to; the better way to appreciate the album is to have it on in background. It’s very like the kind of thing that gets played in spas, and makes for pretty good meditation or mindfulness music. These days such things are very common, you could probably even get a 10-hour loop on YouTube for this kind of music, but Eno is arguably the first to actively think about how it would work.
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