Part 1 here.
David Lang, one of the founders of the new music collective Bang On A Can (BOAC), once described their repertoire as "too funky for the academy and too structured for the club scene."(1) Brian Eno's ambient classic Music For Airports (MFA) doesn't quite fit this bill, although Eno's position as a key figure at the intersection of 70s rock and experimental music would definitely have put him on the BOAC radar. Their version appeared in 1998, and, inevitably, given the special status of the original, it raised some eyebrows. The anti position is well laid out by Cecilia Sun, who sees BOAC's version as an attempt to claim MFA "for their own musical canon and narrative", by "dragging the piece into the concert hall, with its aura of culture."(2) Lang's liner notes do tend to dwell on the more "classical" aspects of the piece, calling it "music that's carefully, beautifully, brilliantly constructed", adding that its "compositional techniques rival the most intricate of symphonies." Suitably intrigued by all this, I took both records on holiday, for some side-by-side listening...
1. Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music For Airports (1978)
2. Brian Eno, arr. Gordon, Lang, Wolfe, Ziporyn - Music For Airports - Bang On A Can All-Stars (Robert Black (bass); Mark Stewart (guitar); Lisa Moore (piano/keyboards); Evan Ziporyn (clarinet/bass clarinet); Maya Beiser (cello); Steven Schick (percussion) + guests - Katie Geissinger, Phyllis Jo Kubay, Mary Runyan Maratha, Alexandra Montano (voice); Wu Man (pipa); Davis Fedele, Liz Mann (flute); Chris Komer (horn); Wayne du Maine, Tom Hoyt (trumpet); Julie Josephson, Christopher Washburne (trombone); Todd Reynolds (violin); Matt Goeke, Greg Hesselink (cello) Mark Stewart (cello/mandolin/mandocello)) (1998)
MFA is in four parts, titled simply 1/1, 2/1, 1/2 and 2/2.(3) The original 1/1 was put together from keyboard improvisations by Robert Wyatt and Rhett Davies (guitarist Fred Frith was also present, but we don't hear him). Eno took a section of music he liked, and made a tape loop. He then slowed the whole thing down, and added touches of his own. The 17 minute final version is apparently made up of 11 repetitions of the loop, but it's hard to hear the music that way, such is the length of each repeat, and the repetitive nature of the music within it (Eno's additions also serve to conceal the joins).
For the BOAC version, arranging duties were shared between the three founder members of the group (Lang, Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe), with the fourth and final piece given over to clarinettist Evan Ziporyn. In his version of 1/1, Gordon makes full use of the expanded line-up of the organisation's performing arm, the Bang On A Can All-Stars. Slowly-decaying tuned percussion instruments help to recreate the reverb-heavy environment of the original, although Gordon also adds quiet string lines to extend certain notes within phrases. Unsurprisingly, the BOAC version of 1/1 becomes a more "active" listening experience; ingenious composerly touches and the technicolour palette are bound to tickle the ear. Oddly, I was reminded of Webern's version of the Ricercar from Bach's Musical Offering. Webern's approach is more kaleidoscopic, but like Gordon, he transforms a rigorous, tonally muted original into something more vivid (for better or worse).
The remaining parts of MFA were composed/assembled before 1/1. 2/1 came about during a visit to the studio owned by Conny Plank, a German musician who worked with both Stockhausen and the leading lights of the Krautrock scene. Seeing and hearing the results of Plank's experiments with tape loops, Eno had the idea of making a piece from the recorded voices of Plank's partner and two studio assistants (his own voice also ended up in the mix). The sound of Eno's highly processed chamber choir has a tranquillising effect on me - I find it just about impossible not to slow to the glacial pace of 2/1. Sometimes, I'll fight it, and end up tracking the gaps between the vocal entries, but not for long. In the BOAC version, David Lang also has fun with instrumental colour, and, as in 1/1, I find myself engaged in wondering how and why he makes the choices he does. It's worth noting that the BOAC singers do a terrific job of reproducing the original (all of the arrangements were recorded in single takes). That said, although they are electronically treated to sound remarkably like Eno's singers, there are occasional moments of (very) slight imperfection. On repeated listens, these little blips became oddly touching: tiny glimpses of real life humans through the electronic haze...
1/2 combines the ethereal voices of 2/1 and the gentle piano excursions of 1/1. The mood is different, though. The vocal entries are further apart, and the piano responses (Eno this time, I believe) are more fragmentary. Again, there is a sense of patterns repeating, and, as before, it's hard to pin down, thanks to the similar nature of the material involved and the time between repeats (if they are repeats). The BOAC version is more sure of itself. I think this is partly a result of the arrangement, with its strong, anchoring bass notes, and the now familiar range of colours, including vocal-sounding brass. It may also be down to the playing of the ensemble - some of Eno's tentative phrases are briskly dashed off by these new music virtuosi. This, and the rapid shifts of instrumentation give the BOAC version a much greater (unwanted?) sense of forward motion.
Eno's 2/2 is an improvisation on an ARP 2600 synthesizer, slowed to half-speed, and drenched in delay. The synth has a lovely, warm sound, swelling and fading like a well-matched low brass choir (with identically perfect articulation). Listening again now, I'm drawn to the play of these gentle attacks, which seem to increase in frequency as the piece goes on. My goal-directed ears, conditioned by hundreds of symphonies and sonatas, point me to the lowest line, which occasionally suggests we're making a big harmonic move. It never comes, though, and the end feels quite sudden.
As mentioned, the BOAC 2/2 arrangement was entrusted to clarinettist Evan Ziporyn, a familiar name to new music fans. In an interview, Ziporyn talked about his approach to MFA, saying: "I asked myself: What's going on inside the piece [...] what's the pattern and what do I want to do with it? I began to impose my own narrative on it."(4) While Gordon, Lang and Wolfe make the most of the resources at their disposal, they don't tamper with the form of the original. Ziporyn does, adding two and a half minutes of his own material, right in the middle of the piece (around 4'40" onwards). What's more, this new music has a different character: over a drone, Ziporyn and pipa player Wu Man trade and expand ideas, in what feels like a kind of written-out improvisation. After this section, Ziporyn sticks to the original, although the frequent tremolando effects maintain the surface busyness (lots of "expressive" playing here). The introduction of more dynamic, developing material makes for a different kind of piece, and I'd understand if ambient Eno devotees found it beyond the pale. For my part, I prefer the purity of the original - I'm not sure that Ziporyn's extra music really adds much. In fact, it made me wonder if he really likes (or approves of) MFA.
Personally, I can't get too upset about the idea of a concert arrangement of Music For Airports. As someone from the more classical side of the tracks, I was bound to want to check out the arrangements. Plus, as a listener fascinated by how we listen, this experiment in ambient/active listening was sure to grab me. Eno has suggested that his ambient records are designed to "accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular." For me, his original succeeds in achieving this: it can fade into the background, but will stand up to focussed listening, without seeming boring or facile (not always the case with other ambient records I've heard). Eno himself is a big fan of the BOAC version. At the UK premiere, at Stansted airport, he called his original a "demo", waiting for its first "proper performance." He was also impressed by the BOAC record, sending them this fax: "I don't know why this recording has moved me so deeply [...] I think this is so very beautiful I'm almost embarrassed to say it, except for the fact that what I'm finding beautiful is the powerfully emotional quality you brought to it."(5)
(1) Alex Ross - Shall We Rock?, The New Yorker, 23rd June 2003
(2) Cecilia Sun (2007) Resisting The Airport: Bang On A Can Performs Brian Eno, Musicology Australia, 29:1, 135-159
(3) For more on how MFA was put together, plus an account of the album's origin story, see this excellent Pitchfork article.
(4) Quoted in Sun, pg.154
(5) Bang On A Can Bandcamp page
