"Sitting among the gleaming steel fixtures and softly glowing concrete lines of the modernist Cologne Bonn Airport on a sunny Sunday morning in late 1977, en route to his homebase, the perennially nervous flier recoiled once again at the canned pop pleasantries mindlessly piped into such an inspired space. The music was not only an afterthought but also insulting to the idea that you would soon climb into a sleek metal tube and be propelled by engines through the sky at 40,000 feet. “I started thinking, ‘What should we be hearing here?’ I thought most of all you wanted music that didn’t try to pretend you weren’t going to die on the plane, ” Eno, laughing but serious."<p><a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/brian-eno-ambient-1-music-for-airports/" rel="nofollow">https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/brian-eno-ambient-1-mus...</a>
Great song.<p>For anyone curious how to produce something that sounds like this, paulstretch is the way to do it.
<a href="https://sonosaurus.com/paulxstretch/" rel="nofollow">https://sonosaurus.com/paulxstretch/</a><p>My personal favorite use of this: <a href="https://youtu.be/XiKWfcy-Z70?si=iJTP0XTEAAObI_rU" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/XiKWfcy-Z70?si=iJTP0XTEAAObI_rU</a>
I'm rather fond of The Black Dog's Music for Real Airports, myself. <a href="https://ra.co/reviews/7404" rel="nofollow">https://ra.co/reviews/7404</a>
If anyone would like to play with something more interactive, I'm testing out some new effects on Ambiphone, my ambient soundscape web app. The test version is at <a href="https://test.ambiph.one" rel="nofollow">https://test.ambiph.one</a><p>There's a basic playback speed control now (basic in as much as it doesn't preserve pitch) plus things like reverb and delay effects<p>Here's some slowed-down ambient music: <a href="https://test.ambiph.one/?m=1-Slow+Realisation-ap50a25c60" rel="nofollow">https://test.ambiph.one/?m=1-Slow+Realisation-ap50a25c60</a><p>And a cat purring at 50% speed makes a pretty convincing lion: <a href="https://test.ambiph.one/?m=1-Lion's+Den-aa8a34c60e37f100ac50b28c72aj26c36ao100a59c38e15bd50a68c24" rel="nofollow">https://test.ambiph.one/?m=1-Lion's+Den-aa8a34c60e37f100ac50...</a><p>(Audio may be a little glitchy on Android Chrome if you have lots of sounds playing - I'm debugging that at the moment)
In this field : Windows 95 startup sound, from Brian Eno as well :
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnoX3E2WFcc" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnoX3E2WFcc</a>
It seems like the website is region locked?
I haven't seen an 405 error mentioning a specific country yet though, it seemed interesting.
<a href="https://imgur.com/a/AiY9xMJ" rel="nofollow">https://imgur.com/a/AiY9xMJ</a>
When the AI songs started happening, I've been hoping someone would make a very long version of 1/1 from Music for Airports. This is not that. I don't mean stretched out. I just mean that it gets interpolated outwards after the original composition ends.<p>Does anyone know what <i>can</i> make that?
For anyone else perusing the comments for more ambient music, I recommend Stars of the Lkd for anyone looking for similar feels.<p><a href="https://youtu.be/c4E6RO4muLU?si=6QbUatQXm0zzWy0N" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/c4E6RO4muLU?si=6QbUatQXm0zzWy0N</a>
Gary Hustwit (Helvetica, Objectified) just made a worthwhile documentary about Eno: <a href="https://www.hustwit.com/eno" rel="nofollow">https://www.hustwit.com/eno</a><p>It's only streaming right now and each streamed version is unique, riffing off of Eno's "generative" music.
Semi-related in the same vein of background ambient music:<p>For fans of the film Heat: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHP4qbgAN6s" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHP4qbgAN6s</a>
One of my absolute favorites to work to.
Perfect opportunity to point out that there is a 23x slowed down version of Brian Enos Windows 95 startup sound <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNIfbdi41ho" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNIfbdi41ho</a>
I bought Bang On A Can's version soon after it was released in 97, and it remains one of my favourite pieces of music to code to. For reasons that I can't adequately explain I prefer it to the (itself wonderful) original.
Deconstructing Brian Eno's <i>Ambient 1: Music for Airports</i>:<p><a href="https://reverbmachine.com/blog/deconstructing-brian-eno-music-for-airports/" rel="nofollow">https://reverbmachine.com/blog/deconstructing-brian-eno-musi...</a><p>It's a must-read! It has analysis of all Eno's tape loops and an interactive note randomizer. Mentioned in the article's related content but it's worth an extra shout.<p>Fun to play around with for anyone who likes the album or ambient music in general.
Well I know what I’m listening to at work tomorrow. Wonder if this is going to make my code happier or sadder.<p>Also now wondering if there’s any research on how music affects (cognitive) performance.
For those who find this finishes all too quickly, before it really gets started, here's Igor Levit's performance of Satie's Vexations<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/Uu_03mUPgHU?si=ggJYSJH8SUy0AcKO" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/live/Uu_03mUPgHU?si=ggJYSJH8SUy0AcKO</a>
God is this annoying. How can I listen to music where a single note stretches longer than my window of attention? My mind perceives this the same way as the sound of my fridge working, except much louder.
Or, on Thursday afternoons, you can listen to one of my favorites<p><a href="https://youtu.be/TTHF2Dfw1Dg?si=PKvJpnG88hjV2-St" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/TTHF2Dfw1Dg?si=PKvJpnG88hjV2-St</a>
Not sure anyone posted it already, also great: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hOVdjxtnsH8" rel="nofollow">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hOVdjxtnsH8</a>
Interesting bit there about music for facing mortality. An ambient classic from that same era is Steve Roach “Structures from Silence”. He had an NDE and that music is what he heard during.
Brian Eno - Alternative 3<p><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H9AldyuIh5A" rel="nofollow">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H9AldyuIh5A</a><p>I heard this music off on for decades, but couldn’t place it. I doubled down and only having a memory of it I was certain it was by Brian Eno.<p>It took me a while to stumble upon it, it was music written for an ITV Science programme’s April Fool’s episode; which due to strike action was delayed until July.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_3" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_3</a><p>This comes up repeatedly with regards to conspiracy theories, I assume not by people who think the Moon landings are a hoax, that would be insane. Erm wait a minute…
dupe? this was on the homepage 4 days ago <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43520122">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43520122</a>