We are increasingly likely to find ourselves in places with background music. No composers have thought to write for these modern spaces, which represent 30% of our musical experience.
Brian EnoRead
There are certain sounds that I've found work well in nearly any context. Their function is not so much musical as spatial: they define the edges of the territory of the music.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Brian Eno emphasizes the importance of specific sounds in music that help create a spatial sense rather than focusing solely on melody.
In this quote, Brian Eno highlights the significance of particular sounds that serve to outline and define the musical space within a piece rather than merely contributing melody or rhythmic elements. He suggests that these sounds create a framework that enhances the listener's experience, providing context and depth to the music, making them essential for the overall composition and emotional impact.
Themes
SoundsMusicSpatialCompositionContext
In practice
Example use cases
In a music production workshop, one might use this quote to discuss how ambient sounds can shape a track's atmosphere.
More from Brian Eno
All quotes →I think that technology is always invented for historical reasons, to solve a historical problem. But they very soon reveal themselves to be capable of doing things that aren't historical that nobody had ever thought of doing before.
Brian EnoRead
When I first started making ambient music, I was setting up systems using synthesizers that generated pulses more or less randomly. The end result is a kind of music that continuously changes. Of course, until computers came along, all I could actually present of that work was a piece of its output.
Brian EnoRead
People do dismiss ambient music, don't they? They call it 'easy listening,' as if to suggest that it should be hard to listen to.
Brian EnoRead
In the future, you won't buy artists' works; you'll buy software that makes original pieces of 'their' works, or that recreates their way of looking at things. You could buy a Shostakovich box, or you could buy a Brahms box. You might want some Shostakovich slow-movement-like music to be generated. So then you use that box.
Brian EnoRead
Ambient music must be as ignorable as it is interesting.
Brian EnoRead
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