Brian Eno & Bang On A Can - Music For Airports

Documentary about musical departure lounges

Though entitled Music For Airports, the real meat is the 50-minute documentary In The Ocean, directed by Frank Scheffer. This explores the development of the contemporary music scene over the last 30 years, as led by composers who broke away from dead tradition to create their own vibrant living organism. “Progress is impossible without deviation,” states one of them, Frank Zappa. With Phillip Glass (verbally sharp), Steve Reich (gloriously passionate) and the Bang On A Can collective interviewed, as well as Brian Eno himself, this is one of the best summations of experimental and contemporary music available.

Vitally, as well interviews, segments of music are allowed to breathe, giving the viewer a flavour of the sweet challenge and beauty of them all. “You make the work invite this conferral process,” Eno says of his own studio explorations. It’s apt, as his own 1978 album Music For Airports was itself an experiment.

This seminal work was re-created by Bang On A Can in 1998, using cello, clarinet, electric guitar, percussion, piano/ keyboards and double bass. It’s presented here as accompaniment to Scheffer’s hazy ambient images of the terminals and travellers of Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.

4 stars 4 stars 4 stars 4 stars

Medidi Arts | 3077558

Reviewed by Ian Shirley
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