AMBIENCE /// BRIAN ENO + AIRPORTS
"The century of aeroplanes has a right to a music of its own." CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Eno believes that ambient music has the power to abolish hierarchies and “must be as ignorable as it is interesting”. In his seminal work, Music for Airports, two piano lines phase in and out of one another. By splicing tapes of simple melodic lines and looping them, Eno creates fragments of diatonic, ambient sounds. Music for Airports was truly environmental music during its limited residency at the Marine Air Terminal of New York's LaGuardia Airport in the 1980's. Eno's ambient music transformed Satie's furniture music from a century prior, but the essence of Satie's intentions is still there. This music does not require attention, it is pleasant, and it is designated for the background ...
(b. 1948 - ) Eno is crucial in the historical progression of furniture music because of his ambient music, the term he gave to his environmental music. His initial interest in experimental music stemmed from John Cage’s piece, Silence, also known as 4' 33". As mentioned previously, Cage's 4' 33" is his interpretation of furniture music: environmental sounds as music. Eno more closely aligns with Satie's original conception of furniture music, although he achieved his compositions with technological means impossible during Satie's time. Another similarity between Eno and Satie is their lack of formal musical training and/or dissatisfaction with academia. Both have achieved recognition without traditional conservatory training.