Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks

Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno

I started getting into ambient music about 15-years-ago via some chillout compilations I used to buy on the streets of Bangkok. A friend then recommended Phil Thornton’s Tibetan Meditation and I really got into it. As the years progressed, listening to electronic mixes became a mainstay while writing and working and it branched out from there. Somewhere along the line I encountered Brian Eno, who I learned is in many ways the father of ambient music.

A deeper dive into Eno-land and I discovered that he helped shape David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy of albums, as well as U2’s The Joshua Tree and a host of others. He’s generally recognized as a musical wizard. His work first hit the mainstream, if you can call it that, with 1978’s Ambient 1: Music for Airports, his sixth studio album, which introduced many to the concept of ambient music.

Our pick for October 2021 is Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks by Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno, which is the ninth solo studio by British Eno and was released in 1983. It was a collaboration with his brother and Canadian Daniel Lanois. Many of the tracks have since appeared on soundtracks such as Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, and Heat, among others. 

The album was originally recorded as the soundtrack for a feature-length documentary movie called Apollo, but the film went through several iterations and wasn’t particularly well received. But the music has gone on to make a much deeper impression upon listeners since its release.

Get into a chill mood, hunker down, put on some headphones, and experience this very interesting and complex album, the first ambient work we’ve examined at The Sonic Collective. Check out our impressions and review at the end of the month. 

Links

Berlin Trilogy 

Brian Eno – Wikipedia

Ambient 1: Music for Airports 

Apollo on Spotify

Apollo on Wikipedia

Apollo on iTunes

Apollo on Amazon

Also Considered this Month

Black Sabbath: Paranoid

 

Recommended Posts

No comment yet, add your voice below!


Add a Comment