Ambient 4: On Land

On Land is a mixture of synthesizer-based notes, nature/animal recordings, and a complex array of other sounds, most of which were unused, collected recordings from previous albums and the sessions that created them. As Eno explained, "... the making of records such as On Land involved feeding unheard tape into the mix, constant feeding and remixing, subtracting and "composting".{{cite web|url=http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/sos2.html|title=Sound on Sound: A fervent nostalgia for the future – Part 2|access-date=20 August 2016}}

In the three-year process of making the album, Eno found that the synthesizer came to be of "limited usefulness" and that his "instrumentation shifted gradually through electro-mechanical and acoustic instruments towards non-instruments like pieces of chain and sticks and stones ... I included not only recordings of rooks, frogs and insects, but also the complete body of my own earlier work".{{cite web|url=http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/onland-txt.html|title=Ambient 4: On Land|access-date=20 August 2016}} Cognizant of the music's deeper aural qualities he said: "On the whole, On Land is quite a disturbed landscape: some of the undertones deliberately threaten the overtones, so you get the pastoral prettiness on top, but underneath there's a dissonance that's like an impending earthquake".{{cite web|url=http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/spin89a.html|title=Spin: Man Out of Time|access-date=20 August 2016}}

In the liner notes, he suggested listening to the album through "a three-way speaker system that is both simple to install and inexpensive, and which seems to work very well on any music with a broad stereo image", a diagram of which was included.

The album makes reference to definite geographical places, such as Lizard Point, the exposed southernmost tip of mainland Britain in Cornwall.

"Tal Coat" refers to Pierre Tal-Coat (Pierre Louis Jacob),{{cite web|url=http://www.spaightwoodgalleries.com/Pages/Tal_Coat.html|title=Pierre Tal-Coat (French, 1905-1985): Landscapes in pencil and drypoint|access-date=20 August 2016}} a proponent of the French form of abstract expressionism, Tachisme. This interest in painting is reflected in Eno's statement that the album was "an attempt to transpose into music something that you can do in painting: creating a figurative environment. At the beginning of the 20th century, the ambition of the great painters was to make paintings that were like music, which was then considered as the noblest art because it was abstract, not figurative. In contrast, my intention in On Land was to make music that was like figurative painting, but without referring to the history of music – more to a "history of listening""{{cite web|url=http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/artpress01.html|title=Artpress: In the Enosphere|access-date=20 August 2016}}

"Lantern Marsh" was a place in East Anglia near where Eno grew up. He remarks, "My experience of it derives not from having visited it (although I almost certainly did) but from having subsequently seen it on a map and imagining where and what it might be".{{cite web|url=http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/onland-txt.html|title=On Land}}

"Leeks Hills", Eno explains, "is a little wood (much smaller now than when I was young, and this not merely the effect of age and memory) which stands between Woodbridge and Melton. There isn't a whole lot left of it now, but it used to be quite extensive. To find it you travel down the main road connecting Woodbridge and it lies to your left as you go down the hill".{{cite web|url=http://www.tobylitt.com/askings.html |title=Tobylitt Question |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061121092350/http://www.tobylitt.com/askings.html |archive-date=21 November 2006 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.tobylitt.com/enoanswer.html |title=TobyLitt Answer |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061121092526/http://www.tobylitt.com/enoanswer.html |archive-date=21 November 2006 }}

"Dunwich Beach, Autumn, 1960" is named after the once prosperous seaport of Dunwich, Suffolk, which eroded into the sea over a period of three hundred years.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side one

| all_writing = Brian Eno, except "Lizard Point" by Eno, Michael Beinhorn, Axel Gros, and Bill Laswell.

| all_lyrics =

| all_music =

| writing_credits =

| lyrics_credits =

| music_credits =

| title1 = Lizard Point

| note1 =

| writer1 =

| extra1 =

| length1 = 4:34

| title2 = The Lost Day

| note2 =

| writer2 =

| extra2 =

| length2 = 9:13

| title3 = Tal Coat

| note3 =

| writer3 =

| extra3 =

| length3 = 5:30

| title4 = Shadow

| note4 =

| writer4 =

| extra4 =

| length4 = 3:00

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side two

| extra_column =

| total_length = 44:35

| writing_credits =

| lyrics_credits =

| music_credits =

| title1 = Lantern Marsh

| note1 =

| writer1 =

| extra1 =

| length1 = 5:33

| title2 = Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills)

| note2 =

| writer2 =

| extra2 =

| length2 = 5:23

| title3 = A Clearing

| note3 =

| writer3 =

| extra3 =

| length3 = 4:09

| title4 = Dunwich Beach, Autumn, 1960

| note4 =

| writer4 =

| extra4 =

| length4 = 7:13

}}

• Brian Eno – various electronic, acoustic, and ambient elements
• Michael Beinhorn – synthesizer (track 1)
• Axel Gros – electric guitar (track 1)
• Bill Laswell – bass guitar (track 1)
• Jon Hassell – trumpet (side one, track 4)
• Michael Brook – electric guitar (side two, track 4)
• Daniel Lanois – live equalisation (side two, track 4)

;Technical

• Engineering: Andy Lyden (London), Barry Sage, Cheryl Smith, Daniel Lanois (Canada), John Potoker (NYC), Julie Last (NYC), Martin Bisi (Brooklyn), Neal Teeman (NYC)
• The frogs on track 6 were recorded in Choloma, Honduras by Felipe Orrego.
• Special thanks: Robert Quine, Alex Blair, Harold Budd, Laraaji and Danniel Lanois "who contributed their encouragement and suggestions at the right times"
• Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, New York
• Artwork, Design & Text: Brian Eno
• Typography: Chong-Donnie

• "Mistaken Memories of Mediaeval Manhattan" is a 1981, 47-minute ambient video created by Eno which uses music from the album (cat # HEN 2134). Two time-lapse animated GIFS from the production – [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/images/mistmem1.gif (133K)], [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/images/mistmem2.gif (270K)].
  This title was later repackaged with his Thursday Afternoon video as "14 Video Paintings", RykoDisc, (HNDVD 1508) [https://web.archive.org/web/20070315090331/http://www.rykodisc.com/Catalog/dump/rykoalbums_1677.asp 9], [https://web.archive.org/web/20070203013947/http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=20428 10].
• The Khumba Mela (Same as it Ever Was), A 1982 90-minute video filmed in the waterways of Kashmir in India about a Saddhu's pilgrimage by Albert Falzon, features music from the album (Hendring, HEN 2135) [http://www.albertfalzon.com/AF0Bio.htm 11], [http://www.albertfalzon.com/Films.htm 12], [https://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809359210/info 13], [http://www.morningoftheearth.net/People/Alby00.htm 14].
• Mythological Lands – Symbols from the Magic Drum, by David Bickley, a film about Lapland (1990, 45 minutes) features music from the album [http://web.mac.com/dibickley/iWeb/DAVIDIANBICKLEY.COM/Exhibitions.html 15]{{Dead link|date=October 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, [http://elonet.fi/title/ek3fe1/ 16], [http://elonet.fi/title/ek2sj8/ 17].
• Ocean of Sound, a book by David Toop, has been accompanied by a 2-CD compilation including "Lizard Point" (Virgin AMBT 10; 7243 8 41367 2 7) [https://web.archive.org/web/20070203110846/http://www.cortical.org/Toop.html 18], [https://archive.today/20130222183323/http://www.mediamatic.nl/magazine/previews/reviews/strengholt/strengholt_toop.html 19], [http://www.mmguide.musicmatch.com/album/album.cgi?ALBUMID=816037 20].
• OHM: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music 1948–80 (Ellipsis Arts, 2000) features the track "Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills) [http://furious.com/perfect/ohm/index.html 21].
• Shutter Island, (2010, Paramount Pictures) a film directed by Martin Scorsese, features the track "Lizard Point" as a part of its soundtrack.

• Ambient 1: Music for Airports
• Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror
• Ambient 3: Day of Radiance
• Ambient music
• Electronic music

{{reflist}}

Works cited

• {{Cite book

| editor1-last = Weisbard

| editor1-first = Eric

| editor2-last = Marks

| editor2-first = Craig

| title = Spin Alternative Record Guide

| publisher = Vintage Books

| year = 1995

| isbn = 0-679-75574-8

| chapter = Brian Eno

| title-link = Spin Alternative Record Guide

}}

{{external links|section|date=August 2016}}

• {{Discogs master|6358}}
• [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/onland-txt.html Liner notes from On Land]
• [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/troup82a.html Interview; Trouser Press, Aug 1982]
• [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/musn82.htm Interview; Musician mag, Oct 1982]
• [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/mram82a.html Interview; Modern Recording & Music, Oct 1982]
• [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/reha88.html Interview; Reality Hackers, Winter 1988]
• [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/sos1.html#On-Land Interview; Sound On Sound Vol 4 Issue 3, Jan 1989]
• [http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/mojo98a.html Interview; MOJO 55, June 1998]
• [http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=1250 Stylus mag feature, 2004] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309152206/http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=1250 |date=9 March 2012 }}
• [http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive_rock_discography_CD.asp?cd_id=7732 ProgArchives review] {{Rating|5|5}}

{{Brian Eno}}

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Category:Brian Eno albums

Category:1982 albums

Category:Albums produced by Brian Eno

Category:E.G. Records albums

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