Noted composer, producer, musician, philosopher Brian Eno is known for a wide variety of accomplishments. His influence has permeated many facets of the musical world today. The thing that I admire him the most for, though, is his invention of ambient music as a genre and term. Eno created soaring, celestial music. It was engaging, but also ignorable. This is important in understanding ambient music; it needs to be able to be interesting enough for active listeners to want to take a closer listen but simple and unremarkable that it can be ignored. It must provoke contemplation, much like it’s doing right now as I write this blog entry. When I listen to this gorgeous music, I think about the concept of “the second world” or that place one enters when one is deeply engrossed in a piece of art. In Eno’s world, one seems to not quite enter the second world yet not quite escape it. His pieces place listeners in this interesting middle world where we are not quite engrossed in the piece yet not entirely detached either.
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