On his ambient music, like Music for Airports:

It’s closer to sitting by a river than watching an orchestra. . . Some of that music came out of trying to find something I could listen to while trying to work. . .

[the other music was] too attention-grabbing, it was designed to grab your attention. . .

One is always inclined as a composer to put in more than you need as a listener. So one of the very good things about working on this, is that there’s a speed control. I work on them much faster than I end up releasing them, generally. In the days of analogue tape a lot of the music I released was released at half the speed I recorded it at. . .

This is the opposite of what people are doing on television, where they accelerate everything. . .

I find with music — if you’re making it — you always tend to fill the gaps. You want to paint the whole picture. But if you’re listening, you actually want a lot less than that. So I do that the simplest way by slowing it all down.

From a session with game designer Will Wright done by the Long Now (view the summary or download the audio). I’ve cut out Wright’s comments only to get to the heart of what Eno was trying to say.

Tags: Design, Psychology