Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks

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Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks
Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks cover
Studio album by Brian Eno
Released 1983
Recorded Bob & Dan Lanois Studio, Canada
Genre Ambient
Length 48:08
Label EG, & various
Producer 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.[1] Music from the album appeared in the film Trainspotting and on the soundtrack that sold approximately four million copies, [2] and two of the songs from the album, Silver morning and Deep blue day, were issued as a 7" single on EG Records.

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 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.

The Yamaha DX7 was used extensively by Eno on the album.[2] "...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) Eno said, ".... 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) 4.


[edit] Track listing

  1. ”Under Stars” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois) – 4:25
  2. ”The Secret Place” (Daniel Lanois, arranged Brian Eno) – 3:27
  3. ”Matta” (Brian Eno) – 4:14
  4. ”Signals” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois) – 2:44
  5. ”An Ending (Ascent)” (Brian Eno) – 4:18
  6. ”Under Stars II” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois) – 3:15
  7. ”Drift” (Roger Eno, Brian Eno) – 3:03
  8. ”Silver Morning” (Daniel Lanois) – 2:35
  9. ”Deep Blue Day” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Roger Eno) – 3:53
  10. ”Weightless” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Roger Eno) – 4:28
  11. ”Always Returning” (Brian Eno, Roger Eno) – 3:49
  12. ”Stars” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois) – 7:57

[edit] Credits

[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

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Prendergast, Mark (2000). The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Trance - the Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age. Bloomsbury Publishing, New York, 125. ISBN 1582341346. 
  2. ^ a b Independent on Sunday: 50 Eno Moments. hyperreal.org (10 May 1998).


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