Comments on: Ambient

Ambient

Artw — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:29:02 -0800

Brian Eno brings generative music to the iPhone.

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:38:15 -0800

A list of FAQs will appear on this site as soon as some questions have been frequently asked!

By: aeighty

aeighty — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:48:43 -0800

That's really cool, thanks.

By: topynate

topynate — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:00:14 -0800

When the album was finally played at an airport people complained of nameless, gnawing anxieties People have no taste. I've never slept more soundly than with Music for Airports playing. Although the 4th album of the Ambient series is pretty intense, in an ambient way.

By: Slack-a-gogo

Slack-a-gogo — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:04:20 -0800

I love Eno even when I'm not exactly sure what the hell he's going on about. Even when I don't like music he's working on, I'm always interested in his approach.

By: box

box — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:27:01 -0800

More music-creation devices, as far as I'm concerned, can only be a good thing. But watching the videos makes me wonder if Eno ever played Electroplankton.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:49:52 -0800

Ambien music, the t is surplus to requirements. Seriously though, I love the idea of generative music, but the execution is extraordinarily difficult.

By: iurodivii

iurodivii — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:50:29 -0800

"It is hypnotic and ludicrously addictive. A friend of mine spent six hours poking the screen of her iPhone, mesmerised by the colours and noises she was making" Six hours? C'mon at least mention the psychedelic substances involved! And i must second topynate in that I have been listening to Music for Airports as my go-to-bed album for a year now. There is nothing but relaxation in that album. Brian Eno is a musical genius and I love that he is still pioneering.

By: Seekerofsplendor

Seekerofsplendor — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:51:36 -0800

Interesting. Statistically, over 85% of you listen to Eno's sounds every day, if you're on any recent Windows OS. When you start up, reboot and turn off, you're listening to his work, albeit for a few seconds. (Error message, download and other sounds too)

By: twoleftfeet

twoleftfeet — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:09:01 -0800

over 85% of you listen to Eno's sounds every day, if you're on any recent Windows OS Only if 85% of you are still using Windows 95. Other people did the later versions (Fripp did Vista!)

By: Inspector.Gadget

Inspector.Gadget — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:23:23 -0800

He did a similar thing with 77 Million Paintings. I uninstalled it after a while - I love a lot of Eno's work, from his wonderful compositions with Harold Budd to the guilty pleasure of St. Elmo's Fire - but the whole reason I like ambient music is because it isn't participatory.

By: basicchannel

basicchannel — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:33:29 -0800

Here came my warm jets. (ugh, sorry)

By: cjorgensen

cjorgensen — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:36:25 -0800

Does it record to the iPhone, or play only? Anyone buy it? $4. Apple on Eno.

By: ijoshua

ijoshua — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:52:31 -0800

I bought it and am downloading it now. I'll be back in 6 hours for my review.

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:52:56 -0800

> Does it record to the iPhone, or play only? Anyone buy it? $4. A friend kept raving at me on AIM about it. And then other friends began raving about it on Twitter. I watched the YouTube link in the OP (there are many, many more YouTube videos of 'Bloom' in action as well, if you need 'em). I finally folded. When you launch it, here's a low-midrange drone, kind of synthy, kind of like a sarod. The key shifts occasionally. Tap the screen and you strike a note, sounding something like an upright piano and something like a wood marimba, but whatever it is it's got the reverb of a large chambered room. Tap low on the screen for a low note, high on the screen for a high note. Chords are possible. Intervals are limited to avoid dissonance, but it's not hard to generate noise clashes if you're determined to try. You can't control attack or sustain, and dragging finger does nothing. There are different mood settings but I haven't been able to pick up on the differences. All the moods are named after incenses, so I think the whole point is to evoke a diffuse, impossible-to-grasp sensation. If you tap the screen a lot through a couple loops it'll begin dropping notes; there are obviously technical limits you can't blame on Bloom's developers, and anyway it's not something you're supposed to play Fats Waller on. After you noodle for a while you can leave the toy alone. It'll continue looping through the patterns you'd entered, subtly varying volume and timing. That's the beautiful bit: Turn the app on, plug your headphones in, noodle for a while, and let it do its thing. How monotonous it gets depends on how well you're able to treat it as a proxy for ambient sounds. If you need something to mask out your office chaos and have noise-canceling headphones, you'll never have to buy another album of background music again. Four bucks is the bargain of your life.

By: box

box — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:53:40 -0800

Only if we're still using Windows 95, and have speakers connected, and have the sounds turned on, and still use the original ones. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's a pretty small group, especially among the Metafilter crowd.

By: afx114

afx114 — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:59:10 -0800

Best iPhone app so far. Even my wife, not necessarily an "electronic" music fan, spent hours playing with it in the car. She's not a musician, but she composed quite a beautiful soundtrack for us while we were cruising down the highway. This is a great new avenue for musicians to make money to offset the death of record sales. I can't wait for the Aphex Twin and Squarepusher apps!

By: ijoshua

ijoshua — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:02:30 -0800

Okeh, in less than 10 minutes, I can tell you I like it better than Everything That Happens.

By: kaseijin

kaseijin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:21:27 -0800

And yet, less than a week after Eno's application, he's outdone by RjDj...

By: malocchio

malocchio — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:35:17 -0800

Oblique Strategies for the Eno fans. (You can choose a new card or buffer your previous thought...)

By: uaudio

uaudio — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:44:30 -0800

I've had this app for a few days and found this weird static in the background makes the app unusable for me on my iPod Touch. Maybe its just the cheap Apple headphones that came with it.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:51:28 -0800

I came close. I have a visualizer that makes cellular automata for the iPhone, but I don't yet have the sound synth! Darn you Eno!

By: lukievan

lukievan — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:54:22 -0800

Very cool app, for sure. Would be even better if the tone/eq of the notes changed as you went from left to right on the screen. Also - if instead of the 'moods' affecting the color scheme, they should change the scale/harmony that is being used. Still...pretty badass for 4 bucks. Go here and click on pretty much any interview from the last 35 years and prepare to be amused, educated, and humbled. I heart Eno.

By: seawallrunner

seawallrunner — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:06:59 -0800

bought it love it - now if only it could recite neatly aligned words from a calendar too.

By: limeonaire

limeonaire — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:14:18 -0800

Hm. One of the few things that's actually made me want, ever so briefly, an iPhone.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:30:03 -0800

eno in Oberammergau

By: clearly

clearly — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:36:32 -0800

I don't know why, but it seems that Brian Eno has been everywhere lately. I heard his and David Byrne's Strange Overtones on the radio the other day and loved it. For being 60 or so, the guy still has great quantities of 'it." I also found his take on creating the Windows 95 tone pretty interesting, although he really seems like more of an Apple guy, if that makes any sense.

By: ageispolis

ageispolis — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:38:13 -0800

This thing is pretty amazing.

By: ChickenringNYC

ChickenringNYC — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:27:30 -0800

I'll post a video response of myself playing Electroplankton on Nintendo DS. The "ambient" mode is pretty similar. Youtube name same as this one.

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:49:14 -0800

That Vexations is a real toe-tapper...

By: pxe2000

pxe2000 — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 04:32:57 -0800

Oblique Strategies on Twitter. Probably the best use of the Twitter interface yet. what?

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 04:37:46 -0800

> Oblique Strategies for the Eno fans. (You can choose a new card or buffer your previous thought...) Freeware Oblique Strategies for Eno fans with iPhones. (Link will launch iTunes)

By: milarepa

milarepa — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:15:41 -0800

Sweet, the oblique strategies made it to the iphone. I was wondering if that would ever happen. They are surprisingly helpful when you feel blocked or annoyed.

By: chupacabra

chupacabra — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:09:42 -0800

I love this app. Kind of pointless, but totally soothing and mesmerizing.....well, I guess that is the point.

By: paddysat

paddysat — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:15:44 -0800

<lloydbridges>I sure picked the wrong week to stop dropping acid.</lloydbridges> (I just bought it. Really like it. Totally worth it.)

By: greenie2600

greenie2600 — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:59:07 -0800

I've been hearing about this for a while. I just downloaded it, and I've spend the last 20 minutes or so playing with it. It really is great, and the sounds it produces are very reminiscent of Music for Airports. At my last DJ gig, my setup was two turntables and an iPhone (playing MP3s). At my next gig, my setup will be the same, plus this. (I only spin at head parties.)

By: Relay

Relay — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:07:11 -0800

Oh great, just great. ANOTHER reason to get an iPhone. I'm trying so hard to keep from giving AT&T my data more easily, and now this. I know, I know, I could buy an unlocked iPhone, or fiddle and fiddle and fiddle with buying a "normal" one and jail-breaking it every so often, but that's kind of beside the point, isn't it.

By: domakesaypat

domakesaypat — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:07:34 -0800

While awesome, the program isn't worth paying for on the Ipod touch right now, as it has some pretty serious problems with really aggravating non-stop static. Total bummer.

By: shoepal

shoepal — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:22:11 -0800

I love it. Highly recommended.

By: chunking express

chunking express — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:16:35 -0800

RjDj is fucking awesome. It's like a Brian Eno soundtrack for your life. I was going to make an FPP about it, but then I noticed it was mentioned here already.