Customer Reviews

Music For Airports

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Brian Eno, in many ways, is one of those composers responsible for a lot of what you hear today without having gotten his due recognition. Since the days of Roxy Music to his production of U2's music, Eno has forged new paths for contemporary music without fanfarre nor self-congratulatory intentions. "music for Airports" is a classic of what has become quite an important genre: Ambient music. As far as I'm concerned, Eno, at least partially, has fathered New Age, Trip Hop and Ambient music. Bang in the Can has accomplished the simplest and hardest task of performing other people's music: they offred their own voice without bastardizing the original composition. Whether in music or any other "walk of life," this group of musicians decided to honor a composer and found enough room to sound themselves, in the process. What you have here is an acoustic version of the original "loops & tapes" classic. Played impeccably and arrnged with love. I enjoy it, in its own right, as I do with Eno's own version. Buy it without reservations, and, if you don't own Eno's own, get them both!

I have known the original Eno version intimately for years, so I approached this CD with a question: Does it add anything to the original? The short answer is one part does, two maybe do and one part doesn't. The first part (arranged by Michael Gordon) is the least satisfying. It doesn't seem to add anything to the original Eno version apart from an unsettling deep piano chord at the start. It sounds awkward and clumsy, and it lacks the smooth beauty of the original. Part two consists of mostly aetherial voices, as did Eno's, but on this version David Lang has fleshed it out with subtle additions that work quite well. Third section brings out a slight jazz flavour to the original, which is interesting although I have yet to decide whether I like that angle or not! The best part is the final part, which certainly adds to the original Eno composition. Eno's rich, chorale of synths has been enhanced by the addition of some interesting instruments, e.g. plucked instruments, that really brings out some novel textures in the piece. So, overall, three stars - one for each reasonable piece on the album.

I'm not sure why anyone would fault Bang on a Can for reinterpreting Music for Airports. First of all Eno wrote the music over twenty years ago... More importantly, I read an interview on Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson regarding the fact that they had recently attended a live concert of Music for Airports performed by BOAC. During the concert 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. That's all the justification needed.
The album is great.

In re-recording this classic, Bang on a Can have, consciously or unconsciously, helped to bring ambient music to new level. Not only is the instrumentation here different from the original, but the pieces are played live in the studio. The original recording was 'produced' by Eno in his truest ambient form: by setting up tape loops of different durations and allowing the permutations formed by stepping back to play themselves out. In this sense, Eno's 'production' style was formed out of his intelligence and musical genius and a kind of 'don't touch' approach; you set up a realm of possibilities where any outcome is desirable, and then you leave it alone. However, while he has gone down the road of Generative Music, using computers to do what he had previously done with tape (or, endorsed this avenue I should say), Bang on a Can take his ideas in a vastly separate direction by playing these pieces live. Thus, in the Eno tradition, the ideas which served to generate the music are at least as interesting as the music itself. Even if I would recommend skipping this release and going straight for the original, I would still say that what this piece accomplishes is much like what Cage's 4'33" did for sound: it is great to know that someone had the idea, even if the outcome is not as beautiful.

Eno produced "music for airports" twenty years ago when he was toying with synthesized recordings to create a unique sound. Today, Bang On A Can revives the classic, performing with live instruments recorded onto analog.

This amazing concept puts you into a trance with its first repetitive track, simply titled, 1/1. By the second track you find yourself floating with the haunting voices sending you to a heaven. Then you are left suspended in mid-air for 2/1, until 2/2 calls on you to descend.

Five minutes into 2/2 finds the instruments in a game, as they bounce off eachother, creating a playful mood for the sedate finale. I call this Phillip Glass on valium. A great album for when stress levels are high and time to travel within the realms of your mind and soul. Who needs drugs?

Bang On A Can continues to bring the most innovative works to the contemporary-classical world. Music for Airports is an increidible journey into Brian Eno's groundbreaking acheivements. This CD is a must!!!!

By taking Brian Eno's legendary ambient cornerstone album "Music for Airports" out of the studio, i.e. by recording it with live musicians in real time, avant-garnd ensemble Bang on a Can present us with quite a masterpiece, considering the original work was conceived as a piece solely with synthesizers and tape loops in mind (and at hand) when the music was first put together over two decades ago.

After interpreting works of the great minimalists Steve Reich and Terry Riley it would only seem appropriate for them to be the most appropriate pick to give new life to Eno's seminal ambient work, and they do an extraordinary job at it, in my opinion. The result is an album (an exec. production by Philip Glass, by the way) that is true to the source while adding new instruments to it in a process that counted with Eno's blessing all along the way.

I have never listed Music For Airports as one of my favorite Eno works. In terms of Ambient music, I believe Discreet Music and On Land were much better realized records. After hearing this for the first time recently and relistening to the original, I think Eno's conception was extremely strong, yet his resourses were some what limited by 1978 technology. At that point in time, Eno was definitly process oriented, but does this mean he would used the same material in the same manner 5 years later (or 5 days later).

The arrangements are deceptively complex. It sounds, at first listen, like an exact replica of the original. The subtle use of guitar, winds and even pipa give this performance a worldly feel that the original lacked, which Eno claims was his goal. It is this since of place that has always made Eno's work stand out.

For me, a fan of Eno's work since I first heard Another Green World in 1979, it is hard to admit that this surpasses the original. Now maybe they can take a stab at On Land.

This music is so dependable in its minute changes that while you're listening to it, it becomes such a part of you that it comes as a shock when the songs end. This is ambience that wants you to have room for your important thoughts.

Relaxing music that refuses to be stupid or sappy is rare in a market cluttered with new age shlock. Eno's art sounds even better in this acoustic, chamber piece translation. I listen to Music For Airports by Eno, Music For 18 Musicians by Steve Reich or On The Other Ocean by David Behrman, when I need to wind down. Thank you Bang!