Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno - Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks (1983)

Album Cover
Artist Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno
Title Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks
Type Album
Released 29.07.1983
Genre Ambient
Style Space ambient, dark ambient,
ambient americana
My rating (9/10)
Tracklist:
  1. Under Stars
  2. The Secret Place
  3. Matta
  4. Signals
  5. An Ending (Ascent)
  6. Under Stars II
  7. Drift
  8. Silver Morning
  9. Deep Blue Day
  10. Weightless
  11. Always Returning
  12. Stars
 
  • (4:24)
  • (3:33)
  • (4:15)
  • (2:42)
  • (4:22)
  • (3:16)
  • (3:04)
  • (2:40)
  • (3:57)
  • (4:32)
  • (3:52)
  • (7:30)
    •  
    • (48:07)
Credits:
  • Brian Eno - performance, composition,
      arrangement
  • Daniel Lanois - performance, composition
  • Roger Eno - performance, composition

My relationship with ambient music started very gradually and slowly. I believe my first "true" ambient record was "No Pussyfooting" by Fripp & Eno, tho I listened to Floyd's "Endless River" before (but it's not an "ambient" record per se imo). "No Pussyfooting" led me down a rabbithole of simmilar albums. I listened to them to help me sleep or calm down during some harder times. The ones I enjoyed the most were AFX's wonderful SAW2 album, "AIA: Alien Observer" by Grouper and this one. But this one truly was special.

Since I was little, I've been fascinated by space. I collected pop-sci educational books about space when I was in kindergarten and I used to watch documentaries for hours and hours. I remember that for some time, it was literally my obsesion and pretty much the only thing I thought about. And I kinda never moved on from all that. Sure, I stopped being obsessed about it, but the intrigue remained. I've even thought of pursuing the career of astronomer, but my dislike for travels quickly swayed me away from that thoughts. Yet I still enjoy everything space-related, even though my knowledge of this topic is really just surface-level and superficial, since I'm too dub to understand stuff like astrophysics or cosmology, even that I major in STEM.

That all being said, this record was tailor made for me. In my eyes it's become a default ambient music album. I put it on really often, especially at night and when I'm trying to relax. Probably my favourite thing about it is that all the little sounds and sonic details that burst through the music make it really sound like you're floating in space... Even that it's an obvious idea it still amazes me that Eno managed to pull this off. And to think that nobody ever thought of this before!

To be honest, I don't recognize the tracks by title, I only recall that the album gains some american influence the longer it lasts. Altough I have some of these tracks on my calming music playlists, I listen to this record almost exclusively all the way through, so talking about specific tracks as I usually do in these reviews could be a little problematic...

That being said, I'll just talk about my favourite moments on the album. The most prominent one is probably the recurring "bass"(?) motive that appears in "Under Stars" series of tracks I believe. It's so enduring and immersive, even that it's not a sound effect but just a musical lick. Somehow it just sounds very spacey.

What I also like, is the inclusion of more fearsome aspect of the endless void that is space. There's a couple of tracks there, when the sounds that you hear are of unknown and unindentifiable source - for example those dark bloops in some of the beginning tracks. Also, the title "Signal" reminds me of the "Wow! signal" incident and the whole Fermi paradox dispute. Space can be really terrifying and this record seems to be very aware of that.

Lastly, I'd like to talk about the americana/folky vibe that the guys were going on on the second half of the LP. I've always really liked it. For me it's a very surprsingly fitting juxtaposition, but I've encountered an opininion that it comes out of nowhere and breaks the pace of the record. I dunno, in my opinion these shimmering pedal steel guitar flourishes really match the vibe of space conquest, expecially when you think about what the album really it's about... I've heard that Eno himself stated that those folky bits were added in the spirit of "american imperialism" connotations of the album. He said that space conquest is the next logical step in the idea of american expansion, and american folk music is the most effective way to reflect that - the astronauts from apollo were like the pioneer settlers on the american continent. I really like this reflection, even though my feeling towards this kind of "american imperialism" stuff are what they are... It really intrugued me when I first heard of this. It adds a surpsising amount of lore and deepens the reveries that are already evoked by space ambience.

It's definitely my favourite Eno album and probably my favourite ambient album ever made.

Highlights