AMBIENT

The term ambient music was coined in the

70s by ex-Roxy Music band member and ostrich feather aficionado Brian Eno, who developed new ideas about music while incapacitated after a car accident. As the story goes, a visitor put on a record on her way out of the room. Unable to turn up the hi-fi, Eno relaxed to the sound of barely audible music merging with that of rain from outside. “This presented what was for me a new way of hearing music – as part of the ambience of the environment just as the colour of the light and the sound of the rain were part of that ambience.”

Eno was familiar with Satie’s concept of furniture music (music to be enjoyed in the background) and the tape compositions of Steve Reich. He combined the two approaches on his next LP, Discreet Music, fully realising it on 1978’s Ambient 1: Music For Airports.

With its focus on atmosphere over melody and shifting timbres over obvious rhythms, Eno’s ambient records were