Customer Reviews

Thursday Afternoon

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When the CD format first began to take shape, legendary producer/composer/ambient pioneer Brian Eno jumped at the opportunity to create a piece of music specifically for the medium. The end result is the 1985 masterwork "Thursday Afternoon" which still stands strong as one of ambient music's shining moments 20 years later.
"Thursday Afternoon" is a single continuous 61-minute piece which remains unchanging in mood despite its epic length. Throughout its hour-long running time, there is a quiet single chord which is held through the entire piece. Single piano notes, bell-like tones, subtle chord washes and a light drone all settle themselves around the main central chord creating a lush beautiful landscape in sound. There is nothing compilicated or difficult about this piece. It is built with the most basic musical elements and is kept at its most simplistic form throughout. This is what makes "Thursday Afternoon" such an intruiguing work - its beauty of simplicity without becoming boring.
As mentioned above, "Thursday Afternoon" continues to be a pioneering ambient effort 20 years after its original release. Surely, it ranks among Brian Eno's best instrumental work and fits in perfectly with other works such as "Music For Airports", "Discreet Music" and his other hour-long ambient/minimalist opus "Neroli" which he would create in 1993.
An Essential Ambient Masterpiece!!

having listened deeply to all of enos recorded work, i can think of no other title (except possibly "on land") that has consistently provided a transcendental listening experience with every single play.spanning 61 minutes, thursday afternoon is a somewhat commited listening experience, which reveals numerous subtle shifts in tone and melody that is uniquely eno-managing to evoke emotion and feeling in a context (ambient music) that is difficult to bring those things into alot of the time.many passive listeners will find this to be aural wallpaper, but for an active listener seeking to escape into a beautiful mesh of sound, this disc is a sure winner.12 years after purchasing this cd, i still find it to be one of the most appealing things to listen to when scanning my cd collection for things to chill out to.eno followed this cd up with "neroli"- a sort of companion piece to thursday afternoon, as far as its 1-track format is concerned, but thursday afternoon is the superior disc, manging to blend the atmospheres of on land, apollo, and the pearl into one glorious 61 minute excursion.take a chance with this one-highly recommended.

Having spent the past several years exploring a somewhat more theme-based form of ambient composition, "Thursday Afternoon" is in many ways a return to form for Brian Eno, embracing instead the structure of "Discreet Music" and "Music For Airports"-- there are multiple themes that are complimentary and of varying lengths that are repeated at uneven intervals. The results are remarkably astounding.

The sound of "Thursday Afternoon" is quiet, relaxed, almost soporific. A haze exists in the background, with the melody sounding like a gentle electric piano. What it somehow manages to do is convey in its lack of intrigue exactly that-- it holds your interest, remarkably for the over an hour of length that it stretches.

Because "Thursday Afternoon" is one extended composition, it may be harder to digest than other works. Nonetheless, its a fine piece worth investigation for any fan of ambient music.

A meditative masterpiece. As Eno intended, this works on many levels. Study the patterns, the shifts in focus, or just let go and get lost. I listen to it in the office as a calming layer of sound. Its presence bewilders visitors - if they notice it. 61 minutes, hell. Put it on "repeat" and try 488 minutes for the 8 hour work day. You'll either go insane or become the next Ghandi.

Arguably Eno's most perfectly realized piece of ambience ("Neroli" certainly can qualify, as well), "Thursday Afternoon" perfectly blends his piano riffs (very similar to what Robert Wyatt did on "1/1" on "Music for Airports") with just the right amount on synthesizer for texture and base to create a very surreal landscape.

If played as Eno intended, the effect is ever greater, with wifts of it reaching your ears like a distant smell of fresh baking done next door and a breeze gently lofting some of it through the open window to your unsuspecting nose- you can subconsciously detect it, you know its there, but it doesn't permeate your senses fully. To play this cd any other way is fine, but alters the total effect too much for it to be fully realized or enjoyed.

A gem on an lp, and among my favorite Eno cds.

I was looking for a music-only CD to play while learning to sit still for a half hour daily to reduce stress. I like this CD because it is not as light and fluffy as a lot of meditation-type music. It's interesting and thought-provoking. It seems serious yet hopeful, if that makes any sense at all. Leaves me with a good feeling.

This is a beautiful, mellow recording. It has become my favorite ambient piece. I enjoy this even more than "Music For Airports" and "The Pearl". This music can be left on all day long (usually at work) and it never gets old. A great background to life in a busy world. The 61 munutes pass quickly and before you realize it, home you go, refreshed and calm. For those of you with a desktop PC and speakers, try it and see for yourself. I anxiously await the new release from Harold Budd and hope it will be as pleasant as this. I also hope Mr. Eno will do more work like this in the future.

This album, a 61 minute piece of shifting piano and landscape sounds formed by multiple 'samples' looped at different durations, and later edited by Eno, serves quite possibly as the pinnacle of this great man's work. It is the closest I think he has come to creating a truely ambient piece, as he had himself defined it in the early 70's: music which...'should be as ignorable as it is interesting.' In this sense, the Thursday Afternoon 'rewards listener attention, but doesn't demand it.' You can either put it on as background to a conversation, or do as a friend of mine and have often done and put it on, sip cognac, and listen intently without speaking for the entire hour it plays, and then enjoy the silence for a time after it is done.

'Thursday Afternoon' is evidence, if such were needed, of the ever-widening range of uses to which listeners put music: in this case, for meditation, for chilling out, or for office ambience. 35 years ago, these uses barely existed.

I guess it was Edison who started the rot. By enabling the recording of music, he created the disconnection between performer and listener. For the first time, we could listen to say, a Beethoven symphony, without having to book an orchestra. Recorded music meant that the listener could enjoy the material with zero involvement from the original performer. Ambient music takes this idea one stage further by providing material that requires zero or minimal involvement from the listener.

Nothing much happens throughout the 60+ minutes of this CD. But it happens in such a serene and beautiful way. Recorded by the same team who put together 'Apollo' (Eno, his brother Roger and Daniel Lanois), 'Thursday Afternoon' is a more consistent and continuous work. After an hour of this, even 'Apollo' will seem jerky, twangy and too demanding.

If you only buy one ambient CD, this should be it. Nothing much happens ...

I believe this ranks as one of the greatest minimalist/ambient compositions yet penned by anyone. Have you ever had the experience of trying to focus on something considerably out of eyeshot and can only gain a general approximation of what it might be you are looking at, until you slowly move closer to it and gradually come to realize that there is a logical form and structure to the object that was previously fuzzy and indistinct--and eventually when it is right in front of you, you finally come to realize just what you have been looking at the entire time? This composition is like that. After an hour of listening you realize you have been in the presence of a superbly crafted and slowly evolving piece that makes as much sense as the most traditional 4-part harmony. I think Eno was onto something truly Great here. This, and "On Land" are pinnacles in his catalog of creative output.