Extracts from Music for White Cube
Encyclopedia
Extracts from Music for White Cube, London 1997 is an ambient
Installation
album from British
musician Brian Eno
, released in 1997.
The music on the album was made for an Installation
- a show featuring music and visuals - that took place at the White Cube
art gallery in London
, from April 25 to May 31, 1997.
The gallery describes itself as "possibly the smallest exhibition space in Europe", and consists of a simple square room, painted white. During the show, white blinds covered the two windows in one wall and a suspended ceiling muffled lights that were suspended above it. Mounted on each of the four walls was a CD-player with two speakers on either side, playing random tracks.
Eno created the music by selecting random sites situated within a one-mile radius of the White Cube and recording a variety of ambient sounds around him, such as crowd-noise, the ringing bells of clock-towers, weather and rushing traffic. On top of this he also recorded himself singing a single, long note at each location.
Taking the raw recordings back to his London studio, he ran them through a variety of enhancement software/hardware to produce a series of time-stretched, compressed, equalized, reverberating compositions, which he burned onto CDs (8 to 16 tracks on each). These were the discs that were fed into the Installation players and set to 'random'. Eno says "I was thinking of the sound less as music and more as sculpture, space, landscape, and of the experience as a process of immersion rather than just of listening."
The Extracts from Music for White Cube album was originally the "catalogue" to accompany the Installation, which has a short essay on the inlay card. During the Installation's run at the White Cube gallery, visitors could also select from, and buy, a series of unique CD-Rs named Contra 1.2. These varied in length from around 20 to 50 minutes, and the music was created with Koan's music-generation software.
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
Installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
album from British
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...
musician Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
, released in 1997.
Track listing
- Notting Hill, Feb 20 - 11:45
- Old Brompton Road, Feb 20 - 3:09
- The Oval, Feb 24 - 7:07
- Regents Park, Feb 1 - 24:33
- Barbican Station, Feb 24 - 1:39
- Bermondsey, Feb 24 - 4:20
- Kentish Town, Jan 29 - 2:39
- Lavender Hill, Feb 14 - 6:57
- Camden Town, Feb 24 - 6:18
Overview
The album is an Opal release, with no catalogue number.The music on the album was made for an Installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
- a show featuring music and visuals - that took place at the White Cube
White Cube
White Cube is a contemporary art gallery designed by MRJ Rundell & Associates in Hoxton Square in the East End of London Mason's Yard, in central London and White Cube Bermondsey in South East London...
art gallery in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, from April 25 to May 31, 1997.
The gallery describes itself as "possibly the smallest exhibition space in Europe", and consists of a simple square room, painted white. During the show, white blinds covered the two windows in one wall and a suspended ceiling muffled lights that were suspended above it. Mounted on each of the four walls was a CD-player with two speakers on either side, playing random tracks.
Eno created the music by selecting random sites situated within a one-mile radius of the White Cube and recording a variety of ambient sounds around him, such as crowd-noise, the ringing bells of clock-towers, weather and rushing traffic. On top of this he also recorded himself singing a single, long note at each location.
Taking the raw recordings back to his London studio, he ran them through a variety of enhancement software/hardware to produce a series of time-stretched, compressed, equalized, reverberating compositions, which he burned onto CDs (8 to 16 tracks on each). These were the discs that were fed into the Installation players and set to 'random'. Eno says "I was thinking of the sound less as music and more as sculpture, space, landscape, and of the experience as a process of immersion rather than just of listening."
The Extracts from Music for White Cube album was originally the "catalogue" to accompany the Installation, which has a short essay on the inlay card. During the Installation's run at the White Cube gallery, visitors could also select from, and buy, a series of unique CD-Rs named Contra 1.2. These varied in length from around 20 to 50 minutes, and the music was created with Koan's music-generation software.
External links
- White Cube webpage.
- A report on the Installation.
- Portrait; White Cube publicity card.
- Beep discography entry.
- Discogs.com entry
