Have you ever had one of those ‘health retreat’ weekends where you swan about in white dressing gowns drinking concoctions of grass clippings, listening to repetitive slow music usually involving whale songs or babbling brooks while pretty uniformed Asian girls gently pummel your body in an effort to realign your chakra ? No, me neither but it did get me thinking about the music though.

This style of relaxed music is generally labelled Ambient and was brought to us in the early 70s by one Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno or just plain old Brian Eno to you and me.

You may remember him from the early Roxy Music. The cute blond one with feathers and eye make up sitting in front of a cash register twiddling his knobs (!)

After a couple of years (and albums) Eno left Roxy to go out on his own. His first album Here Come The Warm Jets was a pop/glam rock album not that far from what he was doing with Roxy Music. It peaked at number 26 in the UK album charts.

At around the same time he met up with King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp and released No Pussyfooting, an album of guitar, synthesizers and tape loops.

Eno and Fripp set up two tape decks side by side to create a tape-loop system. A single reel of tape is physically joined together at the ends then run continuously between the outermost reels of  the two adjacent decks. The first records incoming sound and the second plays it back. Fripp would continue to use this effect which he christened Frippertronics. Sounds all a bit too technical but the overall result was something not heard prior to 1973.

They recorded two tracks both about twenty minutes long and put it out on an album. It wasn’t that well received by the critics at the time. Island Records tried to delay it’s release as it was only a few months since Warm Jets was put on the market. The King Crimson crew were also not impressed as they thought it clashed with what they were trying to do as a band.

There were a few followers though, me included. I could see potential in this music. I was already an admirer of composers like Philip Glass and Steve Reich.

Opinions have changed over the years with one critic hailing it “now one of those albums that’s spoken about in hushed, reverential tones as a proto-ambient classic”.

Brian Eno continued to hone his skills putting out experimental and minimalist records, four of which would include the word ‘ambient’ in the title.

If you have half an hour or so and just want to chill out, take the time to listen to some ambient music. I highly recommend it.

Make mine a chamomile tea Mae Lee, I’ll be through for my Reiki session in minute……….and turn up the music will you.

(Post by John Allan of Bridgetown, Western Australia – July 2023)