Ambient Collection, The

Art of Noise | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 23, 2010)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rhino Records
• ASIN: B000003MU6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #146,498 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Opus 4

2. Opus for Four

3. Nothing Was Going to Stop Them Then, Anyway

4. Crusoe

5. Island

6. Camilla

7. Ode to Don Jose

8. Counterpoint

9. Roundabout 727/Ransom in the Sand

10. Eye of a Needle

11. Robinson Crusoe

12. A Nation Rejects

13. Art of Love [7" Edition]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The disc to get for late 80's Art of Noise..., July 19, 2002

By 

Geekus Eclectica (Worcester, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ambient Collection (Audio CD)

... and for a pre-90's ambient masterpiece. For the non-collector, this is a great disc to get in lieu of their last two 80's albums, "In No Sense? Nonsense!" and "Below the Waste." This collection cherry-picks much of the best tracks from those albums, and a few from their mid-80's and most popular album, "In Visible Silence." Furthermore, fabbo mixer Youth made this into not just an excellent collection, but a fully integrated mix; the tracks flow together wonderfully, and it's a real art of Youth.

This was the first of three rather opportunistic compilations released by Island Records, the label for the mid-late 80's version* of Art of Noise, and clearly the best. The other two compilations released without AON involvement are the hit and miss "FON Remixes" (remixed tracks by early rave acts, including Prodigy), followed by a horrible compilation of drum and bass remixes which I, a huge AON fan, refuse to even own.

* Just FYI, there have been many versions of the Art of Noise.

1) the original AON on ZTT Records in 1982-83, released "Into Battle" and the excellent "Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise?" - these two are compiled on "Daft" which is the one to get for early AON sound. Pioneering, wild, and blew minds all over the place in the 80's.

2) When AON members Anne Dudley and JJ Jeczalik moved to Island Records; they became less odd and more accessable. Their first release, "In Visible Silence," was a huge record which included their take on "Peter Gunn," the Max Headroom track "Paranoimia," and another great single "Legs." A perfect album and the one to get from this era. Their other albums were the above "In No Sense" and "Below the Waste."

3) After AON broke up in the late 80's, Island released three compilations over the next years - this one here, the "Ambient Collection," is the one to get; the other two are forgettable.

4) Finally, a new version of AON returned in 2000; Anne Dudley, and original ZTT members ace-producer Trevor Horn, psychonaut Paul Morley, and then, surprisingly, Lol Creme of Godley & Creme. Their release, "The Seduction of Claude Debussy" is an instant classic. There is simply nothing like it out there, and never will be again.

5) Then of course, they broke up again. Bugger!

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Desert Island Disc, June 18, 2001

By 

Gavin Wilson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ambient Collection, The (Audio CD)

If I were stranded on a desert island and allowed to take say, just 30 CDs, this could be one of them. It is, as other reviewers write, extremely relaxing, and it is a wonderful CD to unwind to, after a stressful working day.

American listeners may be unaware of the TV programme that is at the heart of much of this music. In the mid-1960s, an Anglo-French production team created a black-and-white 12-episode series based on the story of Robinson Crusoe. The series was just as notable for its theme music as for the adventure which it retells. It was also repeated seemingly every Summer vacation, from the mid-60s to the mid-70s.

The music must have worked its way into the subconscious of the Art of Noise's Anne Dudley. I remember her appearing on a GLR radio programme in the late 1980s, where she was asked to select her top ten favourite pop tunes. I remember just two of her selections: Joni Mitchell's exquisite 'Shades of Scarlett Conquering' and French composer Robert Mellin's main theme for 'Robinson Crusoe'.

That theme is re-worked on this album in the track 'Robinson Crusoe'. But it's hinted at in many of the other tracks, particularly 'Crusoe' and 'Island'.

This is not quite a greatest hits album -- there is no 'Moments in Love' or 'Close to the Edit', for instance. But it's a more cohesive collection, and there's none of the abrasive, thumping electronic drums that marred the earlier 'Who's Afraid of' LP. As this was not released by ZTT, Trevor Horn is entirely absent. The whole thing is remixed by Youth.

I still don't know what any of the members of the band look like. They chose to remain faceless, never appearing in a photo in any of the albums that I bought. Who knows how popular they might have begun if they had ever made a TV or concert appearance?

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN IDEAL MELTING POT OF SPHERIC MUSIC AND NOISE, November 30, 2002

By 

Carlos Eduardo Da Silva (Zurich Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ambient Collection, The (Audio CD)

ART OF NOISE are a group of extraordinary musicians who created a sound which is difficult to describe, because it's simply unique.Imagine you come home from work after a hectic day and totally stressed. To relieve you from this, all you need is to put Art Of Noise on your CD player, turn off the lights, lay flat on the floor and then listen to the music. Soon you will find out that noises from the outside appear, wrapped in unusual music. It's difficult to say what appeals more to you, the spheric, sometimes out-of-this-world music, or the noise of birds, cars, raindrops, trains, planes or waterfalls. After a few minutes you begin to relax and you wonder why. But there is no scientific answer to that, so just accept it as it is. Whether they call it "chill-out music" or "ambient music", who cares as long as it helps to calm you completely. And indeed it does: you begin to enjoy everyday's noise, which usually you despise, when it goes with - let's say - spheric music.

That makes THE ART OF NOISE one of the most innovative and creative groups of our times.