Today we celebrate the birthday of the incredible pioneer Brian Eno! To celebrate all of our Brian Eno records are 10% off until May 17th!
Ambient music now, in virulent fashion, resides comfortably in our culture. Living as the framework of movie soundtracks and as a tool used for studying sessions. Emotional sounds that often occupy just the right amount of mental real estate for the listener.
However, the proliferation of ambient music as we understand it now is relatively new. A pioneer for this viral serenity is multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, sound designer, and political activist Brian Eno who has irrevocably influenced the culture of sound design in America and beyond.
Creation of Music For Airports
Eno is credited with pioneering the ambient label. An essential catalyst for modern iterations of ambient music is Brian Eno's 1979 Ambient 1 Music For Airports. An album consisting of spacious and fleeting samples of voice and piano melodies. Though Eno had previous projects with similar intentions, this was his first record that he assigned the ambient label. The vinyl's liner notes, which as Pitchfork's Currin aptly calls the Holy Writ of ambient, writes:
"Ambient music is intended to induce calm and a space to think. Ambient must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be ignorable as it is interesting."
(We also have these liner notes present in our store's pressing!)
The Serenity of Harp and Rain
Famously, Eno's inspiration for this style of album is a pithy tale. It starts with him being hospitalized after a car accident. While recovering at home, his roommate, friend, and fellow artist Judy Nylon brought him a record of harp melodies. The harp played softly while the rain gently pattered on the windows. It was an enticing scene and ignited his vision for Music for Airport's creation.
Glam Rock Origins
However, Eno's contributions do not reside purely in the ambient genre. Ironically before his contributions to the quiet scene of ambient music, Eno was in the glam rock scene as a keyboardist for the group Roxy Music. An intriguing transition from the overwhelming brightness of his rock sound to the calm warmth of ambient.
Tensions eventually developed between him and Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry resulting in his split. After Roxy Music, he would continue in the glam rock style and create classic albums such as "Here Come the Warm Jets." Afterwards in 1975 he created one of his most highly regarded albums of all time, Another Green World. This record is a fascinating blend of his pension for New Wave inspired rock and the embryonic forms of ambient music. It is one of my favorite records of all time and we have a pressing here at Bynx!
Seemingly Endless Influence
Music for Airports was only one of the first of Eno's albums in this ambient style. He would then go on to finish his ambient series with Ambient II, III, and IV. To this day he is still creating new ambient albums. All exploring new ideas and sonic landscapes.
Eno has a strong reputation as a trailblazing artist with unconventional methods. His influence is notoriously widespread. For example, he was commissioned by Microsoft to design the Windows 95 start up sound. He was also a frequent collaborator. Working with artists such as Talking Heads, Robert Fripp, John Cale, David Bowie, and more. His reputation is illustrated with MGMT's song titled Brian Eno. In the song they joke "I followed sounds to a cathedral, imagine my surprise to find that that they were produced by Brian Eno."
For Collectors
If you're interested in purchasing some records to calm yourself, to relax the tension of the modern capillary - or to frolic in the bright whimsical tunes of his glam rock - we at Bynx have a collection of Eno's record available for purchase.
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