Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks

Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks
Studio album by Brian Eno
Released	1983
Recorded	Bob & Dan Lanois Studio, Canada
Genre	Ambient
Length	48:08
Label	EG, & various
Producer	Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Rolling Stone 2004 Pitchfork Media 9.1/10 link
Brian Eno chronology
Ambient #4/On Land (1982) Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks (1983) Music for Films Volume 2 (1983)

Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks (1983) is an album by the British ambient musician Brian Eno. It was written, produced, and performed by Brian Eno, his brother Roger and Daniel Lanois.^[1] Music from the album appeared in the films 28 Days Later, Traffic and Trainspotting, whose soundtrack sold approximately four million copies. ^[2] Two of the songs from the album, Silver morning and Deep blue day, were issued as a 7" single on EG Records.

Overview

This music was originally recorded in 1983 for a documentary called For All Mankind, directed by Al Reinert. This film’s release was delayed until 1989. By that time several tracks on the album were omitted from the soundtrack and replaced by other pieces by Eno and other artists.

The tracks from the album that remained on the film are:

• Always Returning
• Drift
• Silver Morning
• Stars
• Under Stars
• The Secret Place
• An Ending (Ascent)

The tracks from the film not on the album are:

• Sirens
• Theme for "Opera"
• Fleeting Smile
• Tension Block
• Asian River
• Quixote
• 4-Minute Warning
• For Her Atoms

In the liner notes, Eno relates that when he watched the Apollo 11 landing in 1969 he felt that the strangeness of that event was compromised by the low quality of the television transmission and an excess of journalistic discussion, and that he wished to avoid the melodramatic and uptempo way it was presented. For All Mankind was originally intended as a non-narrative collection of NASA stock footage from the Apollo program. The non-narrative version with the Eno soundtrack was released on video in 1990 by the National Geographic Society. An alternate version was also released by NASA featuring audio interviews but omitting the Brian Eno soundtrack.

The music

The album contains a variety of styles. "Under Stars", "The Secret Place", "Matta", "Under Stars II" and "Stars" are all dark, complicated textures similar to those on Eno’s previous album Ambient 4/On Land. "Signals", "An Ending (Ascent)" and "Drift" are smoother electronic pieces. "Silver Morning", "Deep Blue Day", "Weightless" and "Always Returning" are country and western inspired ambient pieces featuring Daniel Lanois on guitar.

Country music, which Eno listened to as a child in Woodbridge on American armed forces radio, was used to "give the impression of weightless space" 1.

"Under Stars" is a recurring theme in the album, first appearing as an ambient electronic bed behind a treated guitar. "Under Stars II" is the same composition, but with different effects and treatments. "Stars" is the pure background texture without the guitar.

The Yamaha DX7 was used extensively by Eno on the album.^[2] "...so many processings and reprocessings - it's a bit like making soup from the leftovers of the day before, which in turn was made from leftovers..." (making the album) Eno said, ".... Well, I love that music anyway .... what I find impressive about that music is that it’s very concerned with space in a funny way. Its sound is the sound of a mythical space, the mythical American frontier space that doesn’t really exist anymore. That’s why on Apollo I thought it very appropriate, because it’s very much like "space music" — it has all the connotations of pioneering, of the American myth of the brave individual...." (on country music) 4.

Live version

In the summer of 2009 a live version of the album was performed at two concerts in the IMAX cinema of London's Science Museum and in an arrangement by South Korean composer Woojun Lee for the ensemble Icebreaker with featured artist B J Cole on pedal steel guitar. The album was performed in its entirety, with the tracks in a different order, to a silent and edited version of For All Mankind.

Track listing

1. ”Under Stars” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois) – 4:25
2. ”The Secret Place” (Daniel Lanois, arranged Brian Eno) – 3:27
3. ”Matta” (Brian Eno) – 4:14
4. ”Signals” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois) – 2:44
5. ”An Ending (Ascent)” (Brian Eno) – 4:18
6. ”Under Stars II” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois) – 3:15
7. ”Drift” (Roger Eno, Brian Eno) – 3:03
8. ”Silver Morning” (Daniel Lanois) – 2:35
9. ”Deep Blue Day” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Roger Eno) – 3:53
10. ”Weightless” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Roger Eno) – 4:28
11. ”Always Returning” (Brian Eno, Roger Eno) – 3:49
12. ”Stars” (Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois) – 7:57

Credits

• Musicians: Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Roger Eno
• Cover Art : Russel Mills
• Mastered by Greg Calbi, at Sterling Sound

Versions

Uses in other media

• "An Ending (Ascent)":
  • TV - James may's man on the moon - opening sequence
  • TV - Chris Morris's surreal TV comedy series Jam
  • TV - American drama Nip/Tuck, in numerous episodes.
  • TV - Ouroboros, an episode of the British comedy series Red Dwarf
  • TV - Top Gear (Series 7 Episode 3), as the presenters drove supercars to the Millau Viaduct
  • TV - Top Gear (Series 13 Episode 7), during the final sequence of the series and closing credits as Jeremy drives the Aston Martin Vantage V12
  • TV - Dan Cruickshank's documentary Cruickshank on Kew : The garden that changed the world
  • TV advertisement - for the PlayStation 3
  • TV advertisement - for the NSPCC
  • Film soundtrack - Traffic (2000)
  • Film soundtrack - Ghosts of Cité Soleil (2006)
  • Film soundtrack - 28 Days Later (2002)
  • Film soundtrack - Waterlife (2009)
  • Game soundtrack - Thief II: The Metal Age, Mission "Trail of Blood"
  • Cover - Arturo Stalteri, on his 2001 album Cool August Moon
  • Cartoon - David Firth's cartoon Milkman.
  • Sample - Used in Frou Frou's song "Hear Me Out" on the album Details

• "Deep Blue Day":
  • Film soundtrack - Trainspotting
  • TV - Chris Morris's surreal TV comedy series Jam
  • The British shoegazing band Slowdive, on whose 1993 album Souvlaki Eno made two contributions, used it to open some of their live concerts

Footnotes

1. ^ Prendergast, Mark (2000). The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Trance - the Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age. Bloomsbury Publishing, New York. p. 125. ISBN 1582341346. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Independent on Sunday: 50 Eno Moments". hyperreal.org. 1998-05-10. http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/ind98b.html.