Customer Reviews

Apollo Atmospheres and Soundtracks

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If Neil Young is the Godfather of Grunge, Brian Eno is the Godfather of Ambient. Long from his "art" days with Roxy Music, where he countered Bowie for weirdness, we now have a soft-spoken, balding, producer of U2 in plaid, flannel shirts, examining the purity of idle, unobserved moments. Eno takes the mundane incident of being to the alter of the Joy of Existence.

Combined with his brother, Roger Eno (buy Voices), and Canadian Daniel Lanois (Buy For the Love of Wynnona), they have created a Desert Island Recording. Particularly challenging to the listener, especially in Deep Blue Day, is the Texan simplicity (brought by the astronauts) meets the face of the cosmos (brought by _____ ) - spectacular! This recording will be relevant 50 years from now. Doubt that? Switched on Bach is 30 years old.

Also? Music For Airports WORKS in Airports! Try it! Especially when you have a long wait, at the solitude of a deserted gate, waiting for your plane! :)

One of the songs on this C.D. is one of my fav. songs of all time. It's called
"An Ending(Ascent)". I never get tired of listening to it. It has been used in movies and tv shows.

This is a classic album with lots of flavour from Daniel Lanois as well as signature Eno gestures. Some of the tracks are all too familiar on film score temp tracks! Its great atmosphere.

"Apollo" contains fantastic synthesizer work. Dan Lanois & the Eno brothers created one of the best soundtracks in the history of film (pieces from this album are still turning up in movies twenty years later: "An Ending" was used as the end title sequence of Soderbergh's "Traffic" and was more recently used to great effect in Boyle's "28 Days Later"). I remember when I owned this document on vinyl, and thought: side one is dissonant & spooky like the cold vastness of space, and side two filled with peace and awe and wonder. On CD as a continuous experience it's like doing an orbit from the shadowside back to the sun's cold light. Very organic and warm, it is one of Eno's very best.

Oh. It's great. I do like Eno quite a bit, so I am already converted. Has the track from Trainspotting that has that Hawaii-floating sort of feeling. The rest of it is quiet, soothing, depth that Eno is such a trend-setter at. I read one review before buying it about it being 80's because of some guitar solo. It's not a Van Halen guitar solo or anything. I'm not sure what that reviewer was doing with Eno in his hands anyway. I would love to see the Apollo landing with this as the soundtrack. This is the first review I've written. It's a certain buy.

Although this is by no means Brian Eno's first Ambient work, it is by far my favorite, and perhaps his most perfect Ambient creation. It merges the ideas of courage, technology and science with beauty, it celebrates the achievements of mankind, and distills all of this into a blissful audio environment. The environment transcends the music and the subject matter (the Apollo missions), and takes both to a much higher level.

For those of us that grew up in the 60's the Apollo missions were the greatest achievements of our time. This music captures and distills these feelings with unabashed emotion, and delivers them to all willing to listen.

Perhaps the greatest acknowledgement I have heard was this: the last song played by Alex Patterson in his long running "Teatime with the Orb" broadcasts was "Ascent: An Ending" from this album. I could think of no better and no more honest a compliment. This album is one of those rare seminal pieces upon which an entire genre has been built.

I am a huge ambient music fan. If you look at the top left corner (the place of honor) of my CD bookcase you'll find Eno's Discreet Music, Music for Airports, On Land, Thursday afternoon, etc. Next to it you will find Biosphere, Stars of the Lid, Lustmord, Steve Roach and others. But "Apollo" is on the top of my "Sell on eBay immediately" stack. It sounds so dated to these ears. I actually had a physical reaction (a cringe) when the guitars kicked in on this CD. My fiancee laughed at it. It sounds like what you would expect an early 80's ambient album to sound like. Prog rock fans may dig this, but it sounds so dated when compared to ambient masterpieces such as Selected Ambient Works Vol. II, On Land, Substrata, Ambiant Otaku, and Tired Sounds. It is my humble opinion that this is an Eno offering you should skip if you like and are familiar with the more sublime and mature works mentioned above. Buy Steve Roach's "Mystic Chords and Sacred Spaces" instead...it will never "date" itself.

When I first heard this masterpiece I was transported back to the the age of imagination...imagination that became reality when Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface. It's "ambient" and strong...yet manages to encapsulate the harmonic emptiness of Space. "Under Stars" 1 & 2 are wonderfully relaxing pieces, and "Deep Blue Day" is absolutely brilliant. I love Daniel Lanois' music, especially his "Acadie" CD, and his influence here is perfectly balanced with the ethereal side of Brian Eno. If you like Brian Eno's ambient recordings (now being released on CD thank goodness!)like Music For Airports, or Pearl, this is a "must have."

This is an almost out-of-body listening experience. Beautiful electronica riffs woven into a tapestry of stars. It's easy to let this music just wash over you, but it also invites scrutiny and the discerning ear will find lots going on. Brian Eno's "ambient" music is quite magical, and many have tried to copy his style. His best are, in my opinion, Apollo (Daniel Lanois plays here), Music for Films, and Ambient 1,2 and 4. Essential listening to anyone who likes electronic music.