The father of ambient music, Brian Eno, will gift fans with four reissues of some of his most credible work next month as Discreet Music (1975), Music For Films (1976), Music For Airports (1978), and On Land (1982) are set to be remastered at half speed.
The reissue project, released via UMC/Virgin EMI, will see each original album spread out over two vinyl discs remastered at half speed by Abbey Road Studios mastermind, Miles Showell.
A standard one-LP vinyl edition of each release, remastered at normal speed, will also be available for purchase.
Remastering at half speed is a delicate and intricate process. This special vinyl-cutting technique, in which the source is played back at half the normal speed while the turntable on the vinyl cutting lathe also runs at half speed, ensures that the vinyl is of superior sound quality.
The advantages of half-speed remastering are second-to-none; records come out cleaner and they’re much easier to cut. The records do not play at half-speed, though; everything plays back at normal speed on your turntable at home.
“Although originally released interspersed with other albums and thus not fully sequential, these landmark records chart 4 key points in a fascinating journey that saw Eno explore generative music, found-sound ‘non-instruments’, studio experimentation, ‘figurative music’ and – most notably – building upon Erik Satie’s concept of ‘furniture music’, eventually coining the now vernacular-standard term ‘ambient,’” the company said in the reissues’ press release.
The reissues will be available for purchase on November 16. Check out the track listing below.
Discreet Music
Side A
‘Discreet Music Part One’ (15:34)
Side B
‘Discreet Music Part Two’ (15:41)
Side C
‘Fullness of Wind’ (9:57)
Side D
‘French Catalogues’ (5:18)
‘Brutal Ardour’ (8:17)
Music For Films
Side A
‘M386’ (2:50)
‘Aragon’ (1:37)
‘From The Same Hill’ (2:58)
‘Inland Sea’ (1:23)
Side B
‘Two Rapid Formations’ (3:24)
‘Slow Water’ (3:16)
‘Sparrowfall’ (1) (1:11)
‘Sparrowfall’ (2) (1:45)
‘Sparrowfall’ (3) (1:23)
Side C
‘Quartz’ (2:02)
‘Events In Dense Fog’ (3:43)
‘There Is Nobody’ (1:42)
‘A Measured Room’ (1:41)
‘Patrolling Wire Borders’ (1:02)
Side D
‘Task Force’ (1:20)
‘Alternative 3’ (3:11)
‘Strange Light’ (2:08)
‘’Final Sunset’ (4:16)
Music For Airports
Side A
‘1/1’ (16:30)
Side B
‘2/1’ (8:20)
Side C
‘1/2’ (11:30)
Side D
‘2/2’ (6:00)
On Land
Side A
‘Lizard Point’ (4:30)
‘The Lost Day’ (9:29)
Side B
‘Tal Coat’ (5:48)
‘Shadow’ (3:03)
Side C
‘Lantern Marsh’ (5:35)
‘Unfamiliar Wind’ (5:16)
Side D
‘A Clearing’ (4:06)
‘Dunwich Beach, Autumn 1960’ (7:08)
You can preorder all the albums here.
