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Ambient 4: On Land
 
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Ambient 4: On Land
~ Brian Eno (Artist)
5.0 out of 5 stars 9 customer reviews (9 customer reviews)

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1. Lizard Point Listen
2. Lost Day Listen
3. Tal Coat Listen
4. Shadow Listen
5. Lantern Marsh Listen
6. Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills) Listen
7. Clearing Listen
8. Dunwich Beach Autumn 1960 Listen

Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Released in 1982, On Land is Eno's most mature, perfect ambient work. Combining low, rumbling synths with eerie banging and clanking and the occasional wild-animal chirp or grumble, this recording places the listener alone, in the midst of a massive piece of sonic landscaping. And Eno has left no detail to chance. In fact, the work is so complete that when Eno suggests a windswept plain, the listener gets a chill. When trumpeter Jon Hassell bays with a softly disturbing imitation of a wounded beast, the first instinct is to scan the horizon for its glinting eyes. So subtle, intuitive, and well paced is this recording that as it slips quietly from the speakers and into every corner of the listening room, it transforms the space into a gently pulsing sound environment that seems strangely out of time and away from everything. It's a place you'll be drawn to time and time again. An ageless masterwork. --S. Duda

Description
Unlike most of Brian Eno's conceptually unified ambient projects, AMBIENT 4: ON LAND is something of a patchwork. Recorded in six studios between 1978 and 1982, the eight pieces--ranging between three to nine minutes in length--are a curious mixture of solo works for treated instruments and full-fledged collaborations. "Lizard Point" is the most interesting, with the synthesizer, bass, and guitar of Material's Michael Beinhorn, Bill Laswell, and Axel Gros providing a denser and more varied musical backing than most of Eno's ambient works. "Shadow", a duet with trumpeter Jon Hassell, introduces a world music element similar to their FOURTH WORLD ONE: POSSIBLE MUSICS duet album, and "Dunwich Beach, Autumn 1960" introduces guitarist Michael Brook and multi-instrumentalist/co-producer Daniel Lanois, who became one of Eno's most valuable collaborators throughout the '80s. The solo pieces refine ideas first explored on earlier ambient works, though with greater subtlety and increased tonal colour.

 
Customer Reviews
9 Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Chains, chimes, wind and water!, 2 Aug 2002
If you like to hear big ambient spaces of sound with the rumble of chains across the ground, the wind blowing in empty desolate lonely spaces and the natural sounds of the world in lonely spots and late at night - then this is the album to get. None of the music has 'tunes' its mainly drones, ambience, natural elements in the perfect mix of how to get caught up in the 'musical sounds of ambience and environments' . This really must be rated a classic recording ........10/10. If you like this one then look towards Vidna Obmana, Steve Roach, Thom Brennan, Vir Unis, Saul Stokes and Oophoi to name a few - who are extending the front of ambient and low beat techno. Ray H [munt1]
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars 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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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Sublime, 12 Oct 2001
No words, little in the way of 'tunes' this is a lovely album which I often play if I want to put an album on without having to listen to music. Alongside 'Neroli', Discreet Music' and Music for Airports' when people talk about ambient music this is what they SHOULD be talking about. A perfect album.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect.
I bought 'On Land' this afternoon and have been playing it constantly -- it's been round about six or seven times already. Read more
Published on 1 Aug 2004 by C. Quinn

5.0 out of 5 stars Experimental
Recently I have bought three cd's of Brian Eno and my personnal favourite is Music for Airports, but with Ambient 4: On Land having listened to this album three times I feel this... Read more
Published on 21 Mar 2003 by james18637

5.0 out of 5 stars Experimental
Recently I have bought three cd's of Brian Eno and my personnal favourite is Music for Airports, but with Ambient 4: On Land having listened to this album three times I feel this... Read more
Published on 21 Mar 2003 by james18637

5.0 out of 5 stars more ambient than ambient
this is not one to share with your dinner guests, (unless they can stop talking for forty minutes ). This is personal, introspective and profound. Quite brilliant.
Published on 19 Sep 2001 by Kevin Keane

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully mysterious
"On Land" is a very special record. The title is a perfect one, because the collages of sound that Eno has created here do indeed place the listener somewhere else. Read more
Published on 19 Dec 2000 by zarb23

5.0 out of 5 stars Eno's astonishing sense of place.
Simply indispensable. Quite unlike any other sound recording available, from utterly majestic (The Lost Day) to incomparably melancholic (Dunwich Beach). Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2000 by Timothy Hooper

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