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French Catalogues (1975)

Brian Eno

Brian Eno

Ti­tle of the album: Discreet Music
Ti­tle: French Catalogues (Track 03)
Publisher: Obscure, London
Da­te: 1975
Me­di­um: re­cord 30 cm
Cover: John Bonis
Performers: The Cockpit Ensemble, G. Bryars (cond)

 

French Catalogues is the second track on the B-side of Brian Eno's 1975 album Discreet Music. This fourth studio album represents a distinctive step in the development of Brian Eno's ambient music, which led to his style-defining 1978 album Ambient 1: Music for Airports.

Eno composed the album for the purpose of mixing with a wide variety of found situations as background music to create a new overall impression. Eno was inspired by a situation in which, lying injured in a hospital bed, he was forced to listen to the running but very quietly set music in combination with the rain falling outside. Eno later said, "This presented what for me was a new way of hearing music-as part of the ambience of the environment just as the colour of the light and the sound of the rain were parts of that ambience."

Eno used classical instruments as well as electronic sound generators, effects and recording devices.

French Catalogues is one of three pieces on the album's B-side, called Three Variations on the Canon in D Major by Johann Pachelbel. The pieces were recorded by the Cockpit Ensemble and co-produced by English bassist Gavin Bryars.

PS