Hello, music lovers and lovers of life. Time for another midweek cafe and lounge. I am still trying to find some time to prep a series on Japanese ambient music. In the meantime, let’s start from the beginning. What follows is the title track to Brian Eno’s landmark album Discreet Music.
The concept for this piece came in part from his recovery from an accident. He often found it inconvenient to get up to adjust the volume of his stereo, so the much of what he was intending to listen to was barely audible. Got him thinking of how music could be used intentionally to be played in the background, and this composition was something of a test run for his other ambient pieces later on during the 1970s and into the 1980s.
His remaining rock albums during the 1970s often had ambient-style pieces as well. His basic sound at the time reminded me a good deal of some minimalist composers, perhaps a bit of impressionism, and maybe just a hint of John Cage. Eno would influence a number of others in the 1990s and beyond. I seriously doubt Aphex Twin, DJ Spooky, or Howie B – not to mention Augustus Bro would have been possible without Eno’s work as a touchstone. In these turbulent times, some tranquility is much needed.
For those of you wondering how I and Neon Vincent are circumventing Sucuri to embed videos, here is an example of the embed code we use, so that you can replicate as wanted:
Just remember that each unique 11-digit video code in YouTube needs to be pasted in two separate locations within the embed code in order for your video to show up properly. So easy that I can do it!
