Do you listen with direct engagement to ambient music if you listen to it at all?

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Says Ned, trying to review a (very good) Bass Communion album. Are the likes of Satie and Eno right and should we just go about cleaning up the dishes or dusting the shelves while listening, or are we to concentrate on the deep inner peace, dude, you know?

Me, I just wonder if anyone actually used _Music for Airports_ in airports.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 25 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't know, are there lots of people who spend a lot of their time that deeply engaged in any kind of music? Maybe it's just because I'm so tired/busy lately, but I always have music on when I'm doing something else (like studying, cleaning up, etc.); I never take the time to just sit in a room and concentrate on what I'm listening to. I don't think this necessarily does a disservice to the music, be it ambient, folk, etc.

― Nicole, Wednesday, 25 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I use Music for Airports almost exclusively as pleasant background noise whilst I'm working. I do remember a time where I did listen to it intently but that didn't last long. Apparently it has been used in actual airports.

― philT, Wednesday, 25 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ABSOLUTELY, yes. It's a whole 'nother thing to listen to ambient music loud and give it all your attention. Think Windy & Carl or Oval (though only the mid-period Oval could be considered ambient.) Play it on a nice stereo and crank it up and let the complex sound wash over you, I say. Fripp & Eno is totally wasted at low volume, in the background.

― Mark, Wednesday, 25 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Not a great ambient fan, but when it gets airtime in my house, I find it most rewarding to turn up and pay attention. Wierd little details often appear and disappear again before you quite grasped them. I like that.

― Dr. C, Wednesday, 25 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I certainly don't do other things while listening to ambient, unless, of course, sleeping counts as doing something.

― Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 25 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Not often, no, but that's not because it's ambient music, it's more a symptom of what my life has become. When I listen to music, I am often doing something else at the same time. Typing an article, surfing for more information, composing email. I always feel that if I am ever doing just ONE THING, I am wasting my time. Sometimes I find the time to just sit and listen to something intently, but I'm find that's getting more and more rare. Maybe a better questions is: how many of us listen to ANY type of music intently anymore?

― Sean Carruthers, Thursday, 26 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Er, which is pretty much what Nicole said. Anyhow, the last album I really listened to intently is the last Godspeed You Black Emperor record. Aren't you glad you asked, Ned? ;)

― Sean Carruthers, Thursday, 26 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I do both; direct attention, sometimes, but more usually, I play ambient as it is intended (? - may not be true for a large portion of what's now called 'ambient') to be played. And Mark's right, it's just wrong to play Fripp and Eno quietly. It's got to vibrate your room.

― Josh, Thursday, 26 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mmm, I use every music as ambient, so Slayer is as good for doing the dishes as Satie. I just can't sit down with a glass of wine and stroke my chin for an hour. I'm able to concentrate on *only* the music in clubs with bastard sound-systems or when spliffed out of my head (gave that up years ago though and I hardly go clubbing anymore).

― Omar, Thursday, 26 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I can give you two examples: aphex twin - "selected ambient works vol.2". I thought this sucked mightily, until I put it on whilst trimming & looping mellotron samples :) Suddenly I realised that it sounded really good, and worked as "ambient" music.

OTOH, a few years ago, I helped a bookshop-owning friend stocktake. He put on a load of Eno ambient music. After about 1hr, we took it off, because it was REALLY getting on our nerves...

So....I suppose it depends on whose ambient muzak it is, or something...

x0x0

― /<-r/-\/>, Thursday, 26 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm always glad, Sean. Now I know to throw hexes at you when our paths cross. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 26 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

Revive!

I actually heard a story about how Music for Airpots was used in airports but that studies had eventually shown that an increasing number of people would miss their planes because of getting 'lost' in the music.
Somehow, that story sounds too good to be true..

― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Monday, 22 March 2004 10:56 (twenty-two years ago)

When I finally got around to buying a copy of "Music for Airports" in 1984, it struck me as being a bit familiar to me. It turned out that the one and only time I'd visited Rhoose Airport (nr Cardiff) in 1979 was one of the times "MfA" was being played over the PA.

― Rob M (Rob M), Monday, 22 March 2004 15:52 (twenty-two years ago)

It was Pittsburgh's airport. Joseph Lanza's wonderful book Elevator Music makes mention of it. Related article here:

http://www.newmusicbox.org/third-person/dec00/home.html

― m.e.a. (m.e.a.), Monday, 22 March 2004 16:22 (twenty-two years ago)

i listen intently to selected ambient works two,and would heartily recommend that others do the same

― robin (robin), Monday, 22 March 2004 16:29 (twenty-two years ago)

That Lanza book kinda sucks.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 22 March 2004 17:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I must listen to music less than any other music freak I know. I pretty much only listen to stuff while djing or at clubs/concerts. My ride to work takes 4 minutes and I listen to NPR, I don't listen to anything at work (or rather, let the secretary play her dippy secretary music) and I rarely put anything on while doing stuff around the house (It distracts me too much) I do get about 2 or 3 hours of mixing records for myself a nite, and am usually out listening at least once a week. I'm keeeerazy!

― tylero, Monday, 22 March 2004 22:02 (twenty-two years ago)

>That Lanza book kinda sucks.

I remember enjoying a lot of the factual information being presented, and learning a lot. But he's awfully impressed with the 'achievement' of Musak Inc., the potential for social engineering, it's clear he doesn't listen to music in the same way I do, that's for sure...

― (Jon L), Monday, 22 March 2004 23:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I like to put it on and kind of float in and out of it. I listened to "on Land" earlier and enjoyed it in the backround but like it best when it teases me into paying attention with light whisps of melody.

― hector (hector), Monday, 22 March 2004 23:27 (twenty-two years ago)

My ambient listening habits are changing. I am finding that I cannot listen to purist ambient stuff anymore. I have no problem with it, it is just that I need something that can kind of draw me in or let me back away. Pygmalion by Slowdive, Future Days by Can and Spirit Of Eden by Talk Talk are doing the trick for me right now. I was into drone-core wallpaper music for years and even used to play the stuff live, but I need chord progressions and real motifs these days.

That being said, Permafrost and Piercing Music are both fantastic albums.

― The Rebukes of Hazard (mjt), Monday, 22 March 2004 23:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Have you tried the B Fleischmann / Christian Kleine type stuff yet?

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Monday, 22 March 2004 23:35 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to be into Christian Kleine back in the day, but I lost interest when Morr started changing directions. I know they site those same records as influences, but I don't think they pull it off. Between Kleine and Ulrich Schnauss I have no desire to keep up with that scene.

― The Rebukes of Hazard (mjt), Monday, 22 March 2004 23:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Not to be snarky, it just isn't my cup of tea.

― The Rebukes of Hazard (mjt), Monday, 22 March 2004 23:43 (twenty-two years ago)

i go asleep to ambient every night, pretty much. naturally, i'm not really in a state to pay great attention to it then. i still listen to ambient when i'm fully awake and out-and-about as well- usually on the disc man. i think my ambient favourites work well either way -though anything with vocals (slowdive and talk talk mentioned here f'rinstance) don't make good slumber music for me - words require me to lock on and pay attention. current ambient fave = eno "apollo: atmospheres and soundtracks". long term ambient fave = susuma yokota "sakura".

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 22 March 2004 23:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I am really liking fs blumm for the chord progression type of ambient stuff.

― hector (hector), Tuesday, 23 March 2004 01:12 (twenty-two years ago)

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