"Atmosphere" is a song by the band Joy Division

Joy Division

Joy Division were an English rock band formed in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester. Originally named Warsaw, the band primarily consisted of Ian Curtis , Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris .Joy Division rapidly evolved from their initial punk rock influences...

. It was originally released in 1980 as a France-only single under the title Licht und Blindheit

Licht und Blindheit

Licht und Blindheit is a single by post-punk band Joy Division, released by Sordide Sentimental in France in 1980.It was limited to just 1,578 copies. Bootlegged version exists and can be recognized by Medusa image on vinyl centre.-Track listing:...

 with "Dead Souls" as the B-side.

Following the death of lead singer Ian Curtis

Ian Curtis

Ian Kevin Curtis was an English singer and lyricist, famous for leading the post-punk band Joy Division. Joy Division released their debut album, Unknown Pleasures, in 1979 and recorded their follow-up, Closer, in 1980...

, "Atmosphere" was released as a double A-sided single with "She's Lost Control

She's Lost Control

"She's Lost Control" is a song by British post-punk band Joy Division. It was first introduced in a concert in June 1978. Two separate single recordings have been released: a guitar-dominated version appearing on the band's 1979 debut album Unknown Pleasures, and a heavier and more electronic...

". "Atmosphere" was the A-side for the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 release but the B-side for the US

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 release. "She's Lost Control" is an alternate version from the one that appears on the debut album Unknown Pleasures

Unknown Pleasures

Unknown Pleasures is the debut album by the English post-punk band Joy Division, released in 1979 through Factory Records. Martin Hannett produced the record at Strawberry Studios, Stockport, England. The album sold poorly upon release, but due to the subsequent success of Joy Division with the...

.

The single was re-released in 1988 to coincide with the release of the compilation album Substance

Substance (Joy Division album)

Substance 1977-1980 is a singles compilation album by the post-punk band Joy Division, released on Factory Records in 1988. It is companion to a similar singles compilation by their subsequent band New Order, also entitled Substance. It peaked at #7 in the UK album chart and #146 on the Billboard...

.

The single peaked at #1 in New Zealand in August 1981, and it would later re-chart there in July 1984 (#17) and when it was reissued in August 1988 (#5). "Atmosphere" also hit #34 in the UK during June 1988.

Peter Hook

Peter Hook

Peter Hook is an English bass player, musician and author.He was a co-founder of the post-punk band Joy Division along with Bernard Sumner in the mid-1970s. Following the death of lead singer Ian Curtis, the band reformed as New Order, and Hook played bass with them throughout their career until...

 formerly of Joy Division has said he regards the song as the band's greatest. In 2000, "Atmosphere" was voted the greatest song of the millennium by listeners of John Peel

John Peel

John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...

's Radio 1

BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

 programme.http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/johnpeel/festive50s/2000s/millennium/

Original release

All tracks written by Curtis/Sumner/Morris/Hook.

12" vinyl (Factory UK FACUS 2)

1. "Atmosphere" – 4:10
2. "She's Lost Control" – 4:45

12" vinyl (Factory US FACUS 2)

1. "She's Lost Control" – 4:45
2. "Atmosphere" – 4:10

1988 re-release

All tracks written by Joy Division.
7" vinyl (Factory Fac213/7)

1. "Atmosphere" – 4:10
2. "The Only Mistake" – 4:19

12" vinyl (Factory FAC 213)

1. "Atmosphere" – 4:10
2. "The Only Mistake" – 4:19
3. "Sound of Music" – 3:55

CDS (Factory FACD 213)

1. "Atmosphere" – 4:10
2. "Transmission" (live) – 3:37
3. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" – 3:27

In popular culture

• It featured in UK television adverts for First Direct
  First Direct
  First Direct is a telephone and internet-based retail bank in the United Kingdom, a division of HSBC Bank plc. First Direct has headquarters in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, and has 1.16 million customers....
  
   bank.
• It featured in Trainspotting
  Trainspotting
  Trainspotting may refer to:* Trainspotting , an amateur interest in railways/railroads* Trainspotting , a 1993 novel by Irvine Welsh** Trainspotting , a 1996 film based upon the novel...
  
   movie soundtrack.
• It also featured on the film 24 Hour Party People
  24 Hour Party People
  24 Hour Party People is a 2002 British film about Manchester's popular music community from 1976 to 1992, and specifically about Factory Records. It was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and directed by Michael Winterbottom...
  
   just after Ian Curtis' suicide is portrayed.
• The song is used at the end of the Ian Curtis biopic Control.
• It was used at the end of Armando Iannucci: Milton's Heaven And Hell, a documentary on John Milton
  John Milton
  John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
  
   by Armando Iannucci
  Armando Iannucci
  Armando Giovanni Iannucci is a Scottish comedian, satirist, writer, director, performer and radio producer. Born in Glasgow, he studied at Oxford University and left graduate work on a PhD about John Milton to pursue a career in comedy....
  
   which was broadcast in May 2009.
• The song was used on the closing credits of 2007 Grant Gee's documentary Joy Division
  Joy Division (2007 film)
  Joy Division is a 2007 British documentary film on the British post-punk band Joy Division, directed by Grant Gee.The film assembles TV clips, newsreel, pictures of modern Manchester and Manchester in the late 1970s, and interviews...
  
  .
• In August 2004 British television station Five used "Atmosphere" for promotional segments for their coverage of Liverpool F.C.
  Liverpool F.C.
  Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
  
  's UEFA Champions League
  UEFA Champions League
  The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
  
   qualifying game against Austria
  Austria
  Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
  
  's Grazer AK
  Grazer AK
  Grazer AK, founded 18 August 1902 as Grazer Athletik-Sport Klub , is an Austrian sports club, from the city of Graz in the federal state of Styria . The football section is one of the most traditional Austrian clubs, most successful in the decade 1995 – 2005...
  
  .
• The song was used on the closing credits of the BBC's coverage of England's defeat to Portugal at the 2006 football World Cup.
• A cover of the song by Ola Podrida was featured extensively throughout the film The Signal
  The Signal (film)
  The Signal is an independent psychological horror-comedy film written and directed by David Bruckner, Dan Bush, Jacob Gentry and produced by Alexander A. Motlagh—four filmmakers who have been collaborating since 1999 in Atlanta, Georgia...
  
  .
• The song was used in 2010 for Heath Kirchart's final video part in Emerica - Stay Gold.
• Recently the song was used in the popular E4 Show Misfits
  Misfits (TV series)
  Misfits is a British science fiction comedy-drama television series about a group of young offenders forced to work in a community service programme, where they obtain supernatural powers after a strange electrical storm. The first series started broadcasting on 12 November 2009 on E4, and was...
  
  .
• Atmosphere
  Atmosphere
  An atmosphere is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, and that is held in place by the gravity of the body. An atmosphere may be retained for a longer duration, if the gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low...
  
   was recently featured in the BBC two
  BBC Two
  BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
  
   program, The Trip
  The Trip (2010 TV series)
  The Trip is a BAFTA award-winning television sitcom series which was first broadcast on BBC Two and BBC HD in the United Kingdom. The series stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as fictionalised versions of themselves undertaking a restaurant tour of northern England.The six episode series, which is...
  
   starring Rob Brydon
  Rob Brydon
  Rob Brydon is a BAFTA-nominated Welsh actor, comedian, radio and television presenter, singer and impressionist...
  
   and Steve Coogan
  Steve Coogan
  Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...
  
  . In the show, while driving through the rural North of England, Coogan plays the song claiming, "…that's what I've chosen for the soundtrack for this landscape. It's not expected; you think of [the song] as industrial, associate it, like, normally with an urban landscape."
• The song was recently used at the end of episode 7 of the second season of the Italian tv series Romanzo Criminale.

Video

The video released with the song's re-release in 1988 contained characters wearing black-hooded cloak

Cloak

A cloak is a type of loose garment that is worn over indoor clothing and serves the same purpose as an overcoat; it protects the wearer from the cold, rain or wind for example, or it may form part of a fashionable outfit or uniform. Cloaks are as old as human history; there has nearly always been...

s and white burial shroud

Shroud

Shroud usually refers to an item, such as a cloth, that covers or protects some other object. The term is most often used in reference to burial sheets, winding-cloths or winding-sheets, such as the famous Shroud of Turin or Tachrichim that Jews are dressed in for burial...

s. It was directed by Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn is a Dutch photographer, music video and film director. He is the creative director behind the visual output of Depeche Mode and U2, having handled the principal promotion and sleeve photography for both for more than a decade...

, who later directed the Ian Curtis

Ian Curtis

Ian Kevin Curtis was an English singer and lyricist, famous for leading the post-punk band Joy Division. Joy Division released their debut album, Unknown Pleasures, in 1979 and recorded their follow-up, Closer, in 1980...

 biopic Control (2007).