Ambient, Vol. 1: A Brief History Of Ambient CD

Considered by many to be the ultimate ambient album, MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS is so delicate, lovely, and aesthetically moving, that it has been known to give rise to sensations of flying, being enfolded in warm blankets, or watching a vision take place in the heavens. If this sounds like an overstatement, you haven't heard the album. A four part "piece" performed entirely on synthesizer and piano, Eno's composition finds a referent more in abstract painting (one visualizes bold blocks of color in warm hues) than in any musical genre.

Resonant synthesizer notes resembling bells or voices are interwoven with bits of melody, overlapping each other, and fading in and out of an architectural silence. Essentially, it's the kind of music one might hear in heaven, and Eno manages to present it without the pretense or cheese that typify most of what later became "new age" music. MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS stands against the prejudices of even the staunchest ambient music critics, partly because Eno did it first, but mostly because this disc is genuine, pure, and achingly beautiful.Rolling Stone (p.94) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[A] hypnotic, lush excursion into ambient music that gave birth to a million electronic musicians for whom microvariations in tone are equivalent of guitar solos."
Q (7/99, p.151) - Included in Q's Best Chill-Out Albums of All Time - "...soothing and sublime, a useful album when you're feeling particulary delicate....[its] fragile, weightless music that frequently vanishes altogether, lapsing into contemplative silence."
The Wire (p.59) - "He has expanded on the core idea of Ambient representing a kind of subtle interventionism, a music specifically designed to affect the space in which it is played..."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.127) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[A]n affecting work of great beauty..."