We have all experienced a weekend, an event, or adventure that a certain record was deemed the soundtrack to the experience. Even years later, when listening to it, the song is still inseparable of the memories that surrounded it. However, this is the first record that was retroactively placed in my memory.
During my time in Hong Kong, I spent nearly two weeks trekking through the jungles and lounging on the beaches in Thailand. While my world was certainly being expanded all semester long, my head rightly exploded during the 11 days in the sweaty, tropical land.
Fast-forward a year and a half, I heard Brian Eno's Ambient 2: The Plateau of Mirrors. One song, Above Chiangmai, completely stopped me in my tracks. (Chiang Mai being the city in Thailand that served as our jumping off point for the jungle trek.)
Now, as uncanny as it may be, all of my memories of Thailand are infused with Ambient 2. When I close my eyes and listen to it, I'm riding the sleeper train down to Chumphon, unable to sleep due to my world being completely turned upside-down.
In Ambient 2, Eno paired up with a classical pianist, Harold Budd, who primarily plays the entire record, with Eno adding electronic 'treatments'.
As you listen, don't just listen the melody. Hold onto every overtone on the piano, and each reverb trail. Notice how the left ear has a split second delay in the reverb compared to the right ear. It's almost as if the sound flows from right to left.
While the record is quite experimental and technologically advanced for the time, there's parts of the sound that have been left decidedly underproduced. You can even hear the hiss of the analog tape throughout the record, which just adds to the magic.
Do note attempt to listen to the song without headphones. Just close your eyes and let it take you somewhere else.
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