Description
180 Gram Vinyl
While his earlier work with Robert Fripp on âNo Pussyfootingâ and several selections from his own âAnother Green Worldâ feature similar ideas, âDiscreet Musicâ marked a clear step toward the ambient aesthetic Eno would later codify with 1978's âAmbient 1: Music for Airports.â
The inspiration for this album began when Eno was hospitalised after an accident. Whilst bed-ridden and listening to a record of eighteenth-century harp music, the volume was too low and he couldnât reach to turn it up. It was raining outside, and Eno recounts he began listening to the rain and to "these odd notes of the harp, that were just loud enough to be heard above the rain".
This presented what was for me a new way of hearing music â 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, he observed.
The A-side of the album is a thirty-minute piece titled âDiscreet Musicâ, which Pitchfork called âone of the greatest single ambient pieces that Eno has producedâ. It was made using two overlapped tape loops of melodic synthesizer phrases of different lengths. This technique became known as âFrippertronicsâ; one of Enoâs early forays into algorithmic, generative composition â exploring multiple ways to create music with limited planning or intervention.
The second half of the album, titled âThree Variations on the Canon in D Major by Johann Pachelbelâ features the Cockpit Ensemble, playing brief excerpts from the score, which were repeated several times, with the tempo and other elements gradually altered â the end result of which âforced the listener to switch fundamental modes of hearingâ, Pitchfork proclaimed.
Disc 1Â
1 Discreet Music (Brian Eno) - 30:35
Disc 2Â
1 Three Variations on the Canon in D Major By Johann Pachelbel Fullness of Wind - 9:57
2 French Catalogues - 5:18
3 Brutal Ardour - 8:17
Release Date: 16 Nov 2018
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