Eno_Brian_music_for_airports
Originally uploaded by JRP1953
I kept buying them, then giving them away to people that I felt should have the record. Music for Airports was Brian Eno’s first album of “ambient music”—sparce, simple music meant to create mood and ambience for spaces (like an airport, for example).
Music for Airports only contained four songs, if you can call them that. Each featured a series of tape loops of a few simple notes (or sometimes just a single note) from a piano, a synthesizer, or human voice. These notes would loop on intervals, one loop would repeat every 23 seconds, another every 39 seconds, another once a minute, and so on. The randomness generated unexpected harmonies and moments of beauty, surround by periods of reverberance and near silence. It was unlike anything anyone I’d known had ever heard.
I first discovered Music for Airports at a youth theater class when I was twelve. To stress the importance of learning to move well, they brought in this flaky choreographer a couple times a year who had no interest in dealing with children at all.
“Okay now, boys and girls,” she said. “I’m going to play some music for you—and I just want you to move. You can move any way you wish, just let your body do what the music tells you to do.”
That was about the limit of our instruction. Every week she’d show up with a new piece of music. She’d hit play, and start to lead by example. She’d roll up her arm, spin around, and then dart across the stage. Then she’d collapse to the ground, flop around for a bit, then stand up and look at us.
“Okay, boys and girls, now it’s your turn!”
We just stood there, perfectly still. After a few minutes one girl would raise her arm, then put it back down. A few of us would walk around the room stiffly, trying to time our steps with the music. Then someone would jump up in the air. Within a few minutes we were all back to standing shoulder to shoulder in the middle of the room, motionless. This cycle continued for an hour every class.
“Good, boys and girls, that was very good,” she said. “Now let’s try another.”
She popped in a new tape that just contained random notes. No beat, no melody, not much of anything in fact.
“Okay now, everyone, just move to the music. Let the music inspire you.”
Everyone just stood there.
“What is this?” one girl asked.
“I think your tape player is busted,” said another.
“This is called Music for Airports. Imagine you are flying….” she said, letting her voice trail away as she raised her arms and ran around the room swooping up and down.
That next Friday, as soon as I had my allowance, I rode my bike down to the record store.
“Do you have an album called Music for Airports?” I asked.
The clerk looked at me funny. I’m sure not too many twelve-year-olds came in asking for that one.
“The Brian Eno record?” he asked. “You know what that is like?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “I’ve heard it before.”
You can listen to the entire album via the playlist below:
