AMBIENT 1 - MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS

Ambient 1 isn't Eno's first experiment with ambient music - No Pussyfooting, Discreet Music and Music For Films preceded it - but it's nonetheless a powerful statement of intent. As mentioned in other reviews, the idea is to provide music which can be entertainingly listened to directly or which can fade into the background to creep into your consciousness on occasion. This is much like Tangerine Dream's accomplishments on Zeit; you can put the album on and it will drift in and out of your awareness like magic.

The overall mood is gentle and relaxing - the intent was to produce music which would make the process of rushing around an airport terminal less stressful - and some tracks include an incognito Robert Wyatt contributing on piano. It's not going to knock you off your feet and was never designed to, but despite that it's an important and perfectly designed cultural artifact which achieves precisely what it intended to achieve in exactly the way it intended to do so.