I got this in late 1986 or early '87, and I fell in love it with almost immediately. A few months later Gillian S hosted a dinner party at Conduit Road. As with any dinner party, never mind the food, it's the playlist that matters. So I had a tape of this that I put on at the start when people were having their first drinks. It didn't go down that well, inexplicably. Anne O pronounced "This sounds like the kind of music they'd play in heaven" without ever letting the disdainful tone drop from her voice for a second. I thought that heavenly quality was exactly what made it delightful.
It doesn't sound quite so magical to these ears now. New Age music has made those ears more wary and sceptical. But it's enlightening to realise, in passing, that an American composer could write a piece based around an Islamic prayer and it would not even register to most listeners that this was a political act.
The credits show what an influential clique this strand of experimental music represented at the time, with everyone from Nyman and Bryars to Eno mucking in to lend a hand. Or does that just reflect the power of Eno's filofax at the time?
It's not mentioned in the credits, but I think the image on the cover is a still from Eno's video Mistaken Memories of Mediaeval Manhattan.
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