Ambient 1: Music for Airports

Ambient 1: Music for Airports
Studio album by
ReleasedMarch 1979
Recorded1978
StudioLondon and Cologne
Genre
Length42:20
Label
ProducerBrian Eno
Brian Eno chronology
Before and After Science
(1977)
Ambient 1: Music for Airports
(1979)
Music for Films
(1978)

Ambient 1: Music for Airports is the sixth studio album by the English musician Brian Eno, released in March 1979 by Polydor Records. It was the first Eno album released under the label of ambient music, a genre intended to "induce calm and a space to think" while remaining "as ignorable as it is interesting". While not Eno's earliest entry in the style, it is credited with coining the term.

The album consists of four compositions created by layering tape loops of differing lengths, and was designed to be continuously looped as a sound installation, with the intent of defusing the anxious atmosphere of an airport terminal. Eno defined his approach in opposition to "canned" Muzak and easy listening practices. The album was the first of four albums released in Eno's Ambient series, which concluded with 1982's Ambient 4: On Land.

In 2004, Rolling Stone credited Music for Airports with defining the ambient genre. In 2016, Pitchfork ranked it the greatest ambient album of all time.