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Consequence Of Sound OCTOBER 5, 2018 - by Lake Schatz

BRIAN ENO ANNOUNCES VINYL REISSUES OF FOUR SEMINAL AMBIENT ALBUMS

Discreet Music, Music For Films, Music For Airports, and On Land were remastered at half speed at Abbey Road Studios

On November 16, Brian Eno will gift fans with deluxe vinyl reissues of four of his seminal ambient albums: Discreet Music (1975), Music For Films (1976), Music For Airports (1978), and On Land (1982).

Due out through UMC/Virgin EMI, this reissue project sees each original album spread out across two, 180-gram vinyl discs, and remastered at half speed for 45rpm by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. Each release comes packaged in a gatefold sleeve with Obi spine strip and Abbey Road Certificate of Authenticity. A standard one-LP vinyl edition, remastered at normal speed, will also be available for purchase.

"Although originally released interspersed with other albums and thus not fully sequential, these landmark records chart four key points in a fascinating journey that saw Eno explore generative music, found-sound 'non instruments', studio experimentation, 'figurative music' and - most notably - building upon Erik Satie's concept of 'furniture music', eventually coining the now vernacular-standard term 'ambient,'" a press statement describes this reissue series.

The first of the reissues, Discreet Music, was inspired by a hospital stay in which he was bed-ridden and listening to eighteenth century harp music. The experimental music pioneer recalled how these listening sessions, coupled with the sound of rain, "presented what was for me a new way of hearing music - as part of the ambience of the environment, just as the colour of the light and the sound of the rain were parts of that ambience."

On Land, the final edition in this "ambient" series, found Eno shifting from "electro-mechanical and acoustic instruments towards 'non-instruments' like pieces of chain, sticks and stones." In an interview with Mojo about the project, he recounted: "One of the big freedoms of music had been that it didn't have to relate to anything - nobody listened to a piece of music and said, 'What's that supposed to be, then?', the way they would if they were looking at an abstract painting; music was accepted as abstract. I wanted to try and make music which attempted to be figurative, for example by using lots of real noises."

TRACKLISTS

DISCREET MUSIC Side A 1 Discreet Music Part One (15:34) Side B 1 Discreet Music Part Two (15:41) Side C 1 Fullness of Wind (9:57) Side D 1 French Catalogues (5:18) 2 Brutal Ardour (8:17)

MUSIC FOR FILMS Side A 1 M386 (2:50) 2 Aragon (1:37) 3 From The Same Hill (2:58) 4 Inland Sea (1:23) Side B 1 Two Rapid Formations (3:24) 2 Slow Water (3:16) 3 Sparrowfall (1) (1:11) 4 Sparrowfall (2) (1:45) 5 Sparrowfall (3) (1:23) Side C 1 Quartz (2:02) 2 Events In Dense Fog (3:43) 3 There Is Nobody (1:42) 4 A Measured Room (1:41) 5 Patrolling Wire Borders (1:02) Side D 1 Task Force (1:20) 2 Alternative 3 (3:11) 3 Strange Light (2:08) 4 Final Sunset (4:16)

MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS Side A 1 1/1 (16:30) Side B 1 2/1 (8:20) Side C 1 1/2 (11:30) Side D 1 2/2 (6:00)

ON LAND Side A 1 Lizard Point (4:30) 2 The Lost Day (9:29) Side B 1 Tal Coat (5:48) 2 Shadow (3:03) Side C 1 Lantern Marsh (5:35) 2 Unfamiliar Wind (5:16) Side D 1 A Clearing (4:06) 2 Dunwich Beach, Autumn 1960 (7:08)

Back in March, Eno released his expansive Music For Installations box set.