Music For Airports (Brian Eno)
Label: Point Music
Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: 1998
Genre: Classical, Electronic
Style: Modern Classical, Minimal, Ambient
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Album requested by Walt.
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One need not be a fan of Brian Eno's ground-breaking original, "Ambient 1: Music For Airports," to appreciate this exquisite rendition from Bang On A Can, a New York City-based outfit comprised of three classically-trained musicians: Julia Wolfe, David Lang and Michael Gordon. Eno's opus emerged as a textbook example of what has become quite an important genre: Ambient music. What this trio (heirs to another important genre: Minimal music) have accomplished is what might be both the simplest and the hardest task of performing other people's music: they offer their own voice without usurping Eno's original brilliant composition.
In an age of remixes, reworks, dubs and covers, Bang On A Can gently present an acoustic version of the original "loops & tapes" classic. Originally, Eno designed "Ambient 1: Music For Airports" to be continuously looped as a sound installation, with the intent to diffuse the tense, anxious atmosphere of an airport terminal. He conceived this idea while being stuck at Cologne Bonn Airport in Germany in the mid-1970s. Contrast that with the startling presence of Bang On A Can's simply-employed layered instrumentations, which rattle, pluck, drone and twitter expressively, whereas the quiet becomes the space for anticipation of the instruments. So, rather than the steady rolling pulse of Eno's modulations, the subtle use of guitar, winds and even pipa give Bang On A Can's cover a worldly feel that the original soars above. It may even be posited that Eno's original is best expressed indoors while this cover complements an outdoor setting. In fact, a 1998 performance of "Music For Airports" in Central Park serendipitously began with an airline jet passing overhead with an awed audience maintaining a respectful silence throughout the entire concert. In an interview with Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson regarding the fact that they had recently attended this performance, they said they were both moved to tears. Eno was later surprised to hear this, commenting that he had written the music to be without emotion, but that he was pleasantly surprised that people had been affected by the music many years after he had written it.
A succinct review from Steve Tignor distills this album endearingly: "Bang On A Can is an avant-garde ensemble playing the 1978 Brian Eno piece which put ambient music on the map. Eno's idea was to make a series of tape loops into tightly composed Muzak. He wanted a sonic backdrop for bland public spaces that would reward close listening. Bang on a Can, playing acoustic and electric instruments, breathe life into it, making the music's neutrality seem coldly beautiful. The piece is divided into four parts, each consisting of a few gentle, minimal figures, calmly repeated and shifted. Rhythm is eliminated and time seems to stretch. What is revealed is the sensuousness possible in a single note. Music has never been the same. This is the best place to hear where it changed."
Review by Walt [http://www.thisismyjam.
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