10 classic albums for concentration
by Mike Garner on 28/02/2010
This is a completely subjective list. It features albums that, with one exception, were all made between the mid-seventies and mid-eighties. I’ve been listening to them for years and when I really need to concentrate, I shut the door and put this playlist on. I make no excuse for the fact that it’s exclusively Eno (et frère) and Budd, the two have shaped relax music single-handed in recent years. Most discerning people will already have them or at least know about them. If you don’t, enjoy.
Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno:
Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks
The so-called (although not by himself), inventor of ambient music. This album was part of the soundtrack to For All Mankind, a film that documented the Apollo space mission to the moon. The film itself wasn’t released until many years after the album, by which time it had taken on a life of its own. A mixture of styles from the broody, atmospheric beginning to the country-tinged steel guitar of the later tracks, this was the first real ambient album I listened to. Like On Land, it evokes landscapes that are bleak and grey, not just lunar. As good a starting point to ambient music as you’ll get. Especially if you want to clear your head for any reason.
Harold Budd/Brian Eno:
Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirrors. The first of Brian Eno’s two collaborations with Harold Budd. It features Budd playing sparse, rambling piano with Eno’s “treatments” and sythesisers interjecting and underpinning at the same time.
The Pearl: Remastered
On Land: Ambient 4/Remastered
Music For Films, this is a collection of pieces brought together for various works produced between 1975 and 1978. The album was intended as “possible” music for “imaginary” films and sent to producers for possible inclusion. Three of them actually made it into films, Sparrowfall (1) to John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow and Slow Water in Derek Jarman’s Jubilee and Final Sunset to Breathless. Although it is a compilation, it hangs together pretty well as a work in its own right.<br />
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Neroli
Thursday Afternoon: Remastered
Voices
Harold Budd:
The White Arcades
The Room
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Mike
It’s pretty uncharacteristic for me to bother leaving little thank you notes around the internet, but I make an exception here.
As a work-from-homer, I’ve gradually developed not just a tolerance of, but excitement about, ambient music. Much as I love Radio 4 and the Beeb in general, they are way too provocative and intrusive for the hassled head of 21st century digital man trying to do an honest day’s work.
This list is great. I’d already discovered Brian Eno’s ‘Music for Airports’, and it had become a favourite for periods of required concentration. Your list has opened a gate at the far end of that particular Eno field, and I’m feeling even more liberated.
Also, as along-time folkie, I’m grateful for the pointer towards the extraordinary “Imagined Village” project, which has entertained me all day. Far from ambient, admittedly: I wanted to sit back, stare out over the next door neighbour’s garden, and listen to everything. But for all that, I’ll frequently revisit.
Thanks
Andy