Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BRIAN ENO’S
Ambient 1: Music for
Airports
JOH N T. LYSA K E R
1
1
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For Steven Brence and Jeff Stolle
Series Editor’s
INTRODUCTION
Kevin C. Karnes
Emory University
CONTENTS
A bou t t h e C om pa n ion W e b si t e x
Ack now l e d gm e n t s xi
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xii Acknowledgments
limited, particularly where disagreements could arise. But
I have benefited from the scholarship, which I’ve noted
throughout. However, I want to acknowledge my grati-
tude beyond those notes, particularly for the writings of
Geeta Dayal, David Sheppard, Cecilia Sun, Eric Tamm,
and David Toop, none of whom I know but all of whom
have proven good company. (You’ll find the titles of their
books alongside others in the section called Additional
Sources for Reading and Listening.) I must also thank
the tireless laborers that maintain two websites: MORE
DARK THAN SHARK and EnoWeb. Each has gathered
numerous interviews that are resources for scholars and
fans alike.
Other support was literally more material. Several
record and CD shops have kept me flush since I first fell
for music around 1980. I name them with gratitude and
pleasure: the Princeton Record Exchange; the House of
Records in Eugene, Oregon; and now several in the greater
Atlanta area—Criminal Records, Decatur CD, Ella Guru,
and Mojo Vinyl. A good shop curates as well as stocks, and
I’ve been the beneficiary of many top-flight curators. (Our
neighborhood postman, David Bomar, also brought many
LPs and CDs, and always asked how the book was coming
along, which was much appreciated.)
I’m one whose love of music generated a love for the
kind of equipment that can make it sing. Echo Audio in
Portland, Oregon, has been my dealer for what is almost
twenty years, and I thank them—particularly Kurt Doslu—
every time the needle drops or I press play. In particular,
Kurt’s old turntable brought Music for Airports to life in
new and startling ways.
Acknowledgments xiii
My beloved wife, Hilary Hart, was, as in everything, a
boon companion throughout the writing process, which
occasionally left me distracted, puzzled and puzzling, and
probably for the birds (as opposed to airports). Our mar-
riage is an ongoing joy, and her indulgence was very much
appreciated.
Kevin Karnes has proven a great interlocutor along the
way, whether in response to writing or in conversation.
I probably never would have pursued the project without
his prodding, and it would have been worse off without his
feedback and willingness to hear me riff on some recent
discovery or, as was more often the case, confusion.
Finally, my ear for music changed radically when I began
to make my own with Steven Brence, Jeff Stolle, and John
Capaccio, and then later with Steve, Jeff, John Fenn, and
Ben Saunders. I began to hear so much more, and to hear
choices made (and resisted) in the music of others. And
I got a feel for how sounds present a kind of meaning
that resists translation into discursive prose, which I hope
informs what follows. Furthermore, trying, alongside Jeff
Stolle, to write songs that didn’t embarrass us (or those
who heard them) made me a good deal humbler in the face
of whatever music catches my ear. I can’t thank the lads
enough, Jeff and Steven most of all. They let an untutored
ear and throat into their midst and that reopened a world
I thought I knew.
xiv Acknowledgments
BRIAN ENO’S
Ambient 1: Music
for Airports
INTRODUCTION
WHITE NOISE, SEMINAL SOUNDS
2 Introduction
F igu r e 0. 2 The label of a Japanese pressing of MFA, side one
it.”6 And not just critics; some of Eno’s peers disliked the
album. Lydia Lunch, a fixture in New York’s “no wave”
music scene, which Eno had helped promote, reportedly
snarked: “it is just something that flows and weaves, flows
and weaves . . . it’s kind of nauseating. It’s like drinking a
glass of water. It means nothing, but it’s very smooth going
down.”7
Times change. MFA is now a touchstone work within
and beyond a genre it helped found. Michael Bloom, writ-
ing for Pitchfork in 2004, reviewed several Eno albums
4 Introduction
F IGU R E 0. 4 Brian Eno, as painted by Tom Phillips. Copyright Tom
Phillips/Dacs.
6 Introduction
F igu r e 0.5 The front cover of Music for Real Airports. Design By Human.
10 Introduction
CHAPTER 1
A FIRST LISTEN, OR
THROUGH A GLASS
LIGHTLY
There are far more types of sounds that aren’t musical in a tra-
ditional sense. They’re not sounds that you connect with any
particular instrument or with any particular object.
—Eno, in Downbeat: The Great Jazz Interviews