Back in 1978, Music for Airports (Virgin) caused a considerable stir at the progressive end of popular music. As the creator of such ‘avant-rock’ albums as “Another Green World” and “Before and After Science” (both reissued on Virgin), Brian Eno appeared to be jettisoning his new-wave credentials in favour of a music whose content was essentially and intentionally ignorable. Two decades on and the significance of this move, in terms of ambient and electronic music, cannot be gainsaid. What could be more timely, and intriguing, than a reinterpretation by a group best known for its assaultive contribution to the current new music scene?
The most striking aspect of Bang on a Can’s realization is its fidelity to the texture and timbre of the largely improvised and (until recently) scoreless original. In so sensitively redefining the planes and contours of Eno’s synthesizer-led music in instrumental terms, moreover, BOAC have successfully claimed it, if not for the concert-hall, then certainly for the performance venue. Interestingly, the realization seems to take on greater independence as it proceeds, even allowing, in section 2/2 (notably the clarinet/keyboard dialogue from 4'38''), for a degree of ensemble interplay that Eno could not have envisaged. Maybe there is an irony here, in that by drawing out these latent implications, BOAC have made Music for Airports an active listening experience in its own right. Beautifully recorded, in an appropriately spacious ambience, it demands the attention of any listener for whom sound is its own, self-evident justification.'