First released on LP and cassette formats only in 1982, Brian Eno’s ‘Ambient 4: On Land’ arrived with some modesty compared to the esteem with which its influence in ‘dark ambient’ circles would grow in subsequent years. Originally just the fourth (and final) in the ‘Ambient’ series of releases first started with Brian Eno’s 1979 album release ‘Ambient 1: Music for Airports’, the accompanying press coverage would make it clear to anyone still optimistically hankering after a return to song-based vocals pieces, which Eno had been most well-known for since his departure from Roxy Music, that he was done with that for good (or so it seemed…)
1982 UK LP
On its initial release in early 1982 this was an album released only on vinyl album and cassette formats. I first heard it courtesy of a copy borrowed from Aberdeen City Library’s music lending section. This was my first real taste of Brian Eno’s ‘ambient’ works and I must confess that I struggled with it on those first listens. Was this even ‘music’? Was anything actually happening? I was aware from the sleeve-notes, and an interview with Brian Eno to support its release, that this was intended as some kind of ambient ‘environmental’ or ‘landscape’ music. But, to my ears on those first listens, if it was intended to be a ‘landscape’ then it seemed like some indistinguishable, dense, dark brown earthy mudbank vista or the like. And then it started to take more precise form. The sounds and subtle melodies started to take firmer shape and be shaped by the track titles. It was landscapes alright that were being conjured, but they were subtle and fleeting at first glance and it was almost in looking away or viewed from the side eye that you could start to appreciate them for what they are and the darkness lifted, at least in some way – make no mistake, this is a dark-hued record.
When the album was released in early 1982, EG records were on something of a relaunch campaign and you can see from the inner sleeve of the album the other catalogue releases that the label were handily promoting for those of interest in ‘Ambient 4: On Land’. One side featured the ‘Ambient’ and ‘Obscure’ series releases, the other side an assortment of Eno-related collaborations/productions mainly, or connections. Contemporaneous, their ‘First Edition’ compilation album was released and you can read about that on the very first VersionCrazy post from 2008 here: Various ‘First Edition’ LP (EG records EGED 15 (2335 238)), which also features the publicity leaflet that accompanied the campaign, freely available from participating stores.
Having unlocked the appeal of the album and to subsequently become a firm favourite, when I eventually succumbed to the charms of the CD format in 1990, this album’s quiet, seeming stillness was a very obvious go-to to acquire on the crackle, rumble and click-free CD format.
1986 UK CD
The first version of the album I acquired on CD format was this UK version which was issued in 1986. Musically, it’s no different from the original album – there is no version craziness going on here with the music, that’s for sure. But… those sleeve-notes that had accompanied the album on its release in 1982 concerning ‘An Ambient Speaker System’ were gone altogether and replaced with an essay that was contemporaneous from the time of the album’s initial release but had not featured on the cover but been issued to the press instead. Here they were now in a revised form for this 1986 re-release on CD format and taking the place of those original sleeve notes and instructional diagram on the best way to listen to the album, if one had the the time and effort to wire things up that way.
Another subtle alteration this time out was that ‘Unfamiliar Wind’ was now ‘Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills)’ on the sleeve track listing – which cleared up some of the ambiguity in the credits on the original album release, where it only had that full title on the label and one of the credits referred to it as ‘Leeks Hills’ instead.
Those original sleeve-notes had also mentioned the following: ‘These pieces have been used in conjunction with a series of vertical format video pieces which will shortly be available on VHS and Beta cassettes.’ That ‘shortly’ would be a little ambitious. While used in exhibitions, there was no VHS release until 1987 and would take the form of the later ‘Mistaken Memories of Mediaeval Manhattan’ video release. You can watch and read more about that via this YouTube upload. The accompanying notes from the uploaded are vital to understanding the relationship between the album release and the original video pieces – titling in particular, as the video pieces have their own titles which beat no relation to the accompanying music used. A later DVD release, ‘14 Video Paintings’, dating from 2005, combined this with the ‘Thursday Afternoon’ video piece.
2005 UK/US CD
Fast forwarding to 2005 and this CD edition was part of the ‘Original Masters’ series of re-releases. The series was far from flawless in its execution , with some glitches affecting some of the re-releases leading to corrected re-pressings being required, but as far as I’m aware the glitches did not affect this album.
As you can see, the sleeve-notes from the 1986 CD re-issue were retained in preference to the original 1982 sleeve notes.
Since this 2005 CD release there have also been a series of Brian Eno vinyl re-master releases and amongst those have been both a two-disc (playing at 45 RPM) and single disc (playing at 33 RPM) editions of this album from 2018 – I have yet to come by either of these, so can’t comment much on them, other than the most obvious difference – that those original 1982 sleeve-notes have been re-instated!