Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks | ||
 |
||
| Studio album by Brian Eno | ||
| Released | 1983 | |
| Recorded | Bob & Dan Lanois Studio, Canada | |
| Genre | Ambient | |
| Length | 48:08 | |
| Label | EG, & various | |
| Producer(s) | Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
|
||
| Brian Eno chronology | ||
| Ambient #4/On Land (1982) |
Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks (1983) |
Music for Films, Volume 2 (1983) |
Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks (1983) is an album by the British ambient musician Brian Eno. It was written, produced, and performed by Brian Eno, his brother Roger and Daniel Lanois.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
This music was originally recorded in 1983 for a documentary called For All Mankind, directed by Al Reinert. This film’s release was delayed until 1989. By that time several tracks on the album were omitted from the soundtrack and replaced by other pieces by Eno and other artists.
The tracks from the album that remained on the film are:
- Always Returning
- Drift
- Silver Morning
- Stars
- Under Stars
- The Secret Place
- An Ending (Ascent)
The tracks from the film not on the the album are:
- Sirens
- Theme for "Opera"
- Fleeting Smile
- Tension Block
- Asian River
- Quixote
- 4-Minute Warning
- For Her Atoms
In the liner notes, Eno relates that when he watched the Apollo 11 landing in 1969 he felt that the strangeness of that event was compromised by the low quality of the television transmission and an excess of journalistic discussion, and that he wished to avoid the melodramatic and uptempo way it was presented in. For All Mankind was originally intended as a non-narrative collection of NASA stock footage from the Apollo program. The non-narrative version with the Eno soundtrack was released on video in 1990 by the National Geographic Society. An alternate version was also released by NASA featuring audio interviews but omitting the Brian Eno soundtrack.
[edit] The music
The album contains a variety of styles. "Under Stars", "The Secret Place", "Matta", "Under Stars II" and "Stars" are all dark, complicated textures similar to those on Eno’s previous album Ambient 4/On Land. "Signals", "An Ending (Ascent)" and "Drift" are smoother electronic pieces. "Silver Morning", "Deep Blue Day", "Weightless" and "Always Returning" are country and western inspired ambient pieces featuring Daniel Lanois on guitar.
Country music, which Eno listened to as a child in Woodbridge on American armed forces radio, was used to "give the impression of weightless space" 1.
"Under Stars" is a recurring theme in the album, first appearing as an ambient electronic bed behind a treated guitar. "Under Stars II" is the same composition, but with different effects and treatments. "Stars" is the pure background texture without the guitar.
[edit] Track listing
- ”Under Stars” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois) – 4:25
- ”The Secret Place” (Daniel Lanois arr Brian Eno) – 3:27
- ”Matta” (Brian Eno) – 4:14
- ”Signals” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois) – 2:44
- ”An Ending (Ascent)” (Brian Eno) – 4:18
- ”Under Stars II” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois) – 3:15
- ”Drift” (Roger Eno, Brian Eno) – 3:03
- ”Silver Morning” (Daniel Lanois) – 2:35
- ”Deep Blue Day” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Roger Eno) – 3:53
- ”Weightless” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Roger Eno) – 4:28
- ”Always Returning” (Brian Eno, Roger Eno) – 3:49
- ”Stars” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois) – 7:57
[edit] Credits
- Musicians: Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Roger Eno
- Cover Art : Russel Mills
- Mastered by Greg Calbi, at Sterling Sound
[edit] Versions
| Country | Release Date | Music Label | Media | Catalogue Number | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | 1983 | Editions EG | LP | 813 535-1 | |
| US | 1983 | EG Records | LP | EGLP 53 | |
| US | 1983 | Caroline | CD | 0 1704-61514-2 9 | |
| UK | 1983 | Virgin | CD | 0777 7 86778 2 6 | |
| UK | 1986 | EG Records | CD | EGCD 53 | |
| UK | 2005 | Virgin | CD | 7243 5 63647 2 1 | |
| Europe | 2005 | Virgin | CD | ENOCD 10 | Remastered |
| US | 1983 | Editions EG | 11 x LP | EGBS 2 | Working Backwards 1983-1973 (Box set) |
[edit] Uses in other media
- "An Ending (Ascent)":
- TV - Chris Morris's surreal Jam
- TV - Ouroboros, an episode of the British comedy series Red Dwarf
- TV advertisement - for the PlayStation 3
- Film soundtrack - Traffic (2000)
- Film soundtrack - 28 Days Later (2002)
- Cover - Arturo Stalteri, on his 2001 album Cool August Moon
- "Deep Blue Day":
- Film soundtrack - Trainspotting
- TV - Chris Morris's surreal Jam
- The British shoegazing band Slowdive, on whose 1993 album Souvlaki Eno made two contributions, used it to open some of their live concerts
[edit] Trivia
- The Yamaha DX7 was used extensively by Eno on the album 2
- The Trainspotting soundtrack has sold four million copies, and earned Eno, at a guess, £100,000 (Independent on Sunday, 10 May 1998) 3 (point 45).
- In 1983, Silver morning and Deep blue day were issued as a 7" single (EG Records EGO 12)
- "...so many processings and reprocessings - it's a bit like making soup from the leftovers of the day before, which in turn was made from leftovers..." (making the album).
- ".... Well, I love that music anyway .... what I find impressive about that music is that it’s very concerned with space in a funny way. Its sound is the sound of a mythical space, the mythical American frontier space that doesn’t really exist anymore. That’s why on Apollo I thought it very appropriate, because it’s very much like ‘space music’ — it has all the connotations of pioneering, of the American myth of the brave individual...." (on country music). See also 4.
