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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Heavenly & remote classic from 1982..., 14 Dec 2003
Ambient 4: On Land is probably my favourite Eno-record, though to be fair, we are spoilt for choice; along with Music for Airports, The Marble Index, & disc one of Get Up With It (more in a bit) it's a frequent choice of music to listen to as I approach the world of sleep...The eight tracks are utterly sublime, recorded between 1978 and 1982- a period when Eno was equally busy with such releases as "Heroes", Remain in Light, the debuts by Devo & Ultravox, Fourth World Music & My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (amongst others). On Land returns to the ambient climes of Music for Airports/Films & Plateaux of Mirrors & features many key names: Daniel Lanois (Birdy, The Joshua Tree), Bill Laswell (My Life in the Bush of Ghosts), Jon Hassell (Power Spot, Brilliant Trees)& ambient guitarist Michael Brook. There are even credits for advice from people like Harold Budd & Robert Quine- the latter must rank up there with John Cale for being almost everywhere at everytime!Sonically the territory here precedes film soundtracks like Blade Runner & many Angelo Badalamenti scores for David Lynch films (The Lost Day really reminds me of the theme to Mulholland Drive). The major influences for this album, which takes as its cue the climes discovered on Another Green World (1975) are Fellini's Amarcord & Miles Davis' He Loved Him Madly (the 30-minute opening joy on disc one of Get Up With It; a tribute to Duke Ellington that drifted towards the future and other spaces). As such, these instrumentals just flow; there are probably a lot of words not unlike opaque and otherworldly that could describe the music here. Better off just listening & letting it take you over- On Land very much precedes such later ambient joys as Plight & Premonition (Sylvian/Czuckay), Music Has the Right to Children (Boards of Canada) & Selected Ambient Works II (Aphex Twin). The titles pretty much point to the kind of music it is: Lizard Point, The Lost Day, Shadow, Lantern Marsh, A Clearing...a sense of infinite spaces & perhaps the notion of memory which may be alluded to in the final & greatest track Dunwich Beach, Autumn, 1960- which features great trumpet from Jon Hassell, who would go on to produce great works with Sylvian/Czuckay/Jansen (see the reissue of Alchemy: An Index of Possibilities) & Voiceprint (with 808 State). I find this album wonderful, one I can think and remember and write and wonder to. Really, replace your TV with a stereo & just play this! Ambient 4: On Land is a key ambient album & a highlight of Eno's oblique strategies...
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