Music For Real Airports

Unlike Brian Eno’s seminal 1978 work Music For Airports, which was conceived as a soothing four part textural ambient piece destined to be used by airport authorities, the music collected here by Ken Downey and brothers Martin and Richard Dust, although ambient in nature, doesn’t seek to be used in airports, but rather brings a multitude of sonic elements of airport life into the work. The album itself, like many of the Black Dog’s records, has a very clear narrative structure, giving a panoramic view of interactions involved with air travelling, starting with the journey to the airport (M1), reaching the terminal, going through check in and security(DISinformation Desk, Passport Control, Wait Behind This Line), waiting in lounges, facing delays, suffering sleep deprivation, and eventually reaching the other side (Businness Car Park 9). The music, like most modern airports, is extremely polished and well-ordered on the outside, but deep below the smooth surfaces hide a host of often almost imperceptible activity, cast into micro-beats, hyperactive electronics, hums, noises and haunting textures. At times, crowd noises and announcements break the cold and relentless progression of the record, as to remind the listener of its purpose, but all too soon, it is back to highly processed textures.

　　While it shares a lot of common features with its predecessors, Music For Real Airports is quite a radical departure for The Black Dog as they move away from the elegant techno that usually serves as backbone to their work to focus entirely on atmospheric forms. Ambient has always been an integrant part of the band’s music, but it is the first time that it has taken such a dominant place. It is difficult to gauge the full scope of the project with the visual part of it missing, but the soundtrack to the installation actually works superbly well as a stand-alone piece. The music flows elegantly from one end of the record to the other, each track linked to the one before it yet utterly unique, creating one of the band’s most absorbing work to date.