'' (1978) is one of
Brian Eno's first
Ambient albums. ''Music for Airports'' employs phasing tape loops of different length in some tracks, where, for example, in "1/1", a single piano melody is repeated and at different times other instruments will segue in and out in a complex, evolving pattern due to the phenomenon of phasing: at some point these instrumental sounds will clump together, at some points, be spread apart.
The music on this album was designed to be continuously looped as a sound installation, with the intent to defuse the tense, anxious atmosphere of an airport terminal. It was installed at the
Marine Air Terminal of
New York’s LaGuardia Airport .
The first three tracks on the album are sparse compositions with moments of silence between notes. The last track (“2/2”) is a smooth, billowy, electronic texture.
The track labelling is so because of the album's first release (1978) as an LP, and so the first track means "first track, first side", and so on.
# "1/1" : Acoustic piano, electric piano and
Synthesizer - 16:39
# "2/1" : Vocals only. - 8:25
# "1/2" : Vocals and acoustic piano. - 11:36
# "2/2" : Synthesizer only. - 9:38
All tracks were composed by Eno except "1/1", which was composed by Eno,
Robert Wyatt , and
Rhett Davies .
The back cover features four abstract
Graphic Notation images, one for each track.
The
Bang On A Can All-Stars , an offshoot of the
Bang On A Can music festival, arranged ''Music for Airports'' for live musicians. They have played their arrangements on tour and for a CD released in 1997 by
Point Music .
- Brian Eno (various instruments)
- Christa Fast (vocals on 2/1, 1/2)
- Christine Gomez (vocals on 2/1, 1/2)
- Inge Zeininger (vocals on 2/1, 1/2)
- Robert Wyatt (acoustic piano on 1/1)
