'Classic blissful brilliance.'
In the days when ambient is (ahem) all around us, free iphone apps can generate chillout sounds from our nostril movements (or something), and electronica is the new rock and roll, it's easy to forget that at one stage there was no such thing as ambient music.
So rewind to 1978. 'Little Fluffy Clouds' was at least twenty years away. Samplers and synths were in their infancy, Pink Floyd still had no concept that their 'noises' actually meant anything, and gift shops in wildlife centres were totally void of the karma/rage inducing CD racks that splurge samples such as 'babbling brook on a zen mini-muffin', or 'Peruvian nose pipes versus shagging peacocks.'
In his original sleeve notes of this four movement audio-sculptural epic, Eno clains that his ambient series was mostly a backlash to Muzak, the new-age relaxation CD of it's day. He goes on to describe, and define the genre itself.
“An ambience is defined as an atmosphere, or a surrounding influence: a tint. My intention is to produce original pieces ostensibly (but not exclusively) for particular times and situations with a view to building up a small but versatile catalogue of environmental music suited to a wide variety of moods and atmospheres.”
OK, so it is well established that this album is Era defining, but why nearly 35 years later does it still sound fresh? The global explosion of ambient music in the last 15 years still has never surpassed what this work achieved.
The whole album appears to only have a few actual sounds on it and was probably performed on two tape machines but the sounds used are so rich and luscious and deep, that your modern audiophile knobs will definitely be tweaked. Satie-esque piano riffs, as good as Erik himself and vocal choir sounds better than anything you would find on any modern synth. This was the first of Eno's ambient series and undoubtedly the best.
There will definitely be a resurgence of ambient in 2012 and beyond. Who can say why? It's not a post dubstep thing, or even a financial climate thing. Perhaps it is simply that music that deeply cleanses and simplifies one soul is getting more and more important. And can you think of a better example of a single album personifying and defining a genre so accurately while being so timeless and listen-able? We broke the rulebook at Ambidub by including it in best of the month (our first ever, to boot) even though there is no scheduled re-release or other warrantable reason. Exceptional circumstances for an exceptional classic album.
