From Brian Eno's Original Masters Soundtracks Series comes Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks. Originally released in 1983 on EG Records, this Virgin incarnation betters the sound quality of the earlier Caroline CD release of this title and is a vast improvement over the vinyl. One can hear super deep tones in the music reproduced for the first time in a full-throated manner, and the perspective of distance opens into vast vistas of the emptiness of space, rather than into a haze of tracking error as did the long player.
Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks is usually cited as an Eno album, but it is actually a three-way collaboration between Brian Eno, producer Daniel Lanois, and Roger Eno. It was created for the Al Reinert film For All Mankind, in itself not completed until 1989, but ultimately lauded as the best film documentary on the early years of the NASA space program. Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks, as one would expect, is appropriately spacey and slow moving, but is divided up mostly into rather short cues. Some of the first cues, such as Matta, make use of strategies that are oblique indeed; incorporating a small measure of inarticulate sounds, such as thumping noises, to help build tension, and as such is some of the most challenging ambient music that Eno has written.
Eno's adherents proclaim Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks as the best of his ambient productions, though it has an Achilles heel. Silver Morning, composed by Lanois alone, seems to stick out like a sore thumb in contrast to the rest of the material, its jangling and bright steel slide being sort of like Michael Hedges suddenly stepping out onto the barren surface of the moon. Deep Blue Day follows suit, but doubtless these tracks would not have been created if they didn't fit what they were intended for, and the participants were so enthusiastic about the two that at one point they were combined onto a limited-edition 45. By the concluding Stars, Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks is back in its element, and this eight-minute ambient track truly is one of Eno's finest creations. Even though Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks may be more of a mixed bag compared to, say Music for Airports, as one reviewer said about its corresponding film, it is a shame that Apollo isn't longer than it is.From Brian Eno's Original Masters Soundtracks Series comes Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks. Originally released in 1983 on EG Records, this Virgin incarnation betters the sound quality of the earlier Caroline CD release of this title and is a vast improvement over the vinyl. One can hear super deep tones in the music reproduced for the first time in a full-throated manner, and the perspective of distance opens into vast vistas of the emptiness of space, rather than into a haze of tracking error as did the long player.
Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks is usually cited as an Eno album, but it is actually a three-way collaboration between Brian Eno, producer Daniel Lanois, and Roger Eno. It was created for the Al Reinert film For All Mankind, in itself not completed until 1989, but ultimately lauded as the best film documentary on the early years of the NASA space program. Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks, as one would expect, is appropriately spacey and slow moving, but is divided up mostly into rather short cues. Some of the first cues, such as Matta, make use of strategies that are oblique indeed; incorporating a small measure of inarticulate sounds, such as thumping noises, to help build tension, and as such is some of the most challenging ambient music that Eno has written.
Eno's adherents proclaim Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks as the best of his ambient productions, though it has an Achilles heel. Silver Morning, composed by Lanois alone, seems to stick out like a sore thumb in contrast to the rest of the material, its jangling and bright steel slide being sort of like Michael Hedges suddenly stepping out onto the barren surface of the moon. Deep Blue Day follows suit, but doubtless these tracks would not have been created if they didn't fit what they were intended for, and the participants were so enthusiastic about the two that at one point they were combined onto a limited-edition 45. By the concluding Stars, Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks is back in its element, and this eight-minute ambient track truly is one of Eno's finest creations. Even though Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks may be more of a mixed bag compared to, say Music for Airports, as one reviewer said about its corresponding film, it is a shame that Apollo isn't longer than it is.false2022-11-12 07:59:34Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks8.619901990-01-011990-01-0149AmbientElectronicSpace Ambient1123622117747be4c2b6f-2818-401e-a0dd-2fde6b57c1d8ff95eb47-41c4-4f7f-a104-cdc30f02e87203fe7fe6-2d96-3b40-816d-885b5118107e/media/data/media5/Music/Brian Eno/Apollo- Atmospheres & Soundtracks (1983)/folder.jpgBrian EnoAlbumArtist/config/metadata/People/B/Brian Eno/folder.jpgBrian EnoArtist/config/metadata/People/B/Brian Eno/folder.jpgBrian EnoBrian EnoBrian Peter George Eno (; born 15 May 1948), also mononymously known as Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and visual artist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambient music and electronica, and for producing, recording, and writing works in rock and pop music. A self-described "non-musician", Eno has helped introduce unconventional concepts and approaches to contemporary music. He has been described as one of popular music's most influential and innovative figures. In 2019, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Roxy Music.
Born in Suffolk, Eno studied painting and experimental music at the art school of Ipswich Civic College in the mid-1960s, and then at Winchester School of Art. He joined the glam rock group Roxy Music as its synthesiser player in 1971 and recorded two albums with them before departing in 1973. He then released a number of solo pop albums, beginning with Here Come the Warm Jets (1974), and explored minimal music with the influential recordings Discreet Music (1975) and Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978), with the latter coining the term "ambient music".
Alongside his solo work, Eno collaborated frequently with other musicians in the 1970s, including Robert Fripp (as part of the duo Fripp & Eno), Harmonia, Cluster, Harold Budd, David Bowie, and David Byrne. He also established himself as a sought-after producer, working on albums by John Cale, Jon Hassell, Laraaji, Talking Heads, Ultravox, and Devo, as well as the no wave compilation No New York (1978). In subsequent decades, Eno continued to record solo albums, and produce for other artists, most prominently U2, Coldplay and Peter Gabriel, and including Daniel Lanois, Laurie Anderson, Grace Jones, Slowdive, Karl Hyde, James, Kevin Shields, and Damon Albarn.
Dating back to his time as a student, Eno has also worked in other media, including sound installations, film and writing. In the mid-1970s, he co-developed Oblique Strategies, a deck of cards featuring aphorisms intended to spur creative thinking. From the 1970s onwards, his installations have included the sails of the Sydney Opera House in 2009 and the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank in 2016. An advocate of a range of humanitarian causes, Eno writes on a variety of subjects and is a founding member of the Long Now Foundation. His modern political activism has also included Gazan tragedy awareness before and during the 2023-24 Gaza–Israel conflict, climate change awareness, anti-Toryism, and the freedom and release of Julian Assange.