Brian Eno - Father of Ambient Music Quiz

Answer: Roxy Music

Eno played the synthesizer in English art rock band Roxy Music from 1971 to 1973 before going solo. He played on their eponymous debut released in 1972 and on their second album, 'For Your Pleasure', released in 1973.

Answer: Phil Collins

Collins played on the songs 'Sky Saw', 'Over Fire Island', and 'Zawinul/Lava'. Apart from Collins, other heavyweights to feature on this album included Robert Fripp and John Cale.

Answer: Another Green World

While the album did not chart in either USA or UK, it has won critical and popular plaudits over the years - these included 'Rolling Stone' ranking the album number 429 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, 'NME' placing it at number 36 on its list of the greatest albums of the 1970s and Pitchfork Media placing it at number ten on its list of greatest albums of the 1970s.

Answer: By This River

'By This River' is a song from the album 'Before And After Science', released in 1977, featuring vocals by Eno. German electronica group Cluster also contributed to this song.

Answer: After The Heat

Recorded in 1977 and released in 1978, 'After The Heat' was a collaboration between Eno, Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius; the last two were members of German electronica group Cluster. Eno also collaborated with Moebius and Roedelius on 'Cluster & Eno', released in 1977.

Answer: Johann Pachelbel

The second side of 'Discreet Music' features three variations on Johann Pachelbel's famous 'Canon in D Major'. In each variation, a small segment of the score was taken as a starting point and each player's parts were varied in a manner that they combined in ways very different from the original score. This was intended by Eno to achieve his aim of a self-regulating musical system.

Answer: The Unforgettable Fire

'The Unforgettable Fire' was jointly produced by Eno and Daniel Lanois. 'October' as well as 'War' featured Steve Lillywhite as the producer, while 'Pop' featured Howie B and Flood (a.k.a. Mark Ellis). Apart from 'The Unforgettable Fire', Eno has worked with U2 on 'The Joshua Tree', 'Achtung Baby', 'Zooropa' and 'No Line On The Horizon'. U2 and Eno also collaborated on an album called 'Original Soundtracks 1', under the pseudonym 'Passengers'.

Answer: Royal Designer for Industry

Eno was awarded the Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) distinction on November 14, 2012 for 'Designing with Sound'. He became the first person to receive the RDI distinction for this particular discipline.

Answer: He composed the sound on a Mac

Apparently, Eno isn't too keen on PC systems - in the interview he added, "I've never used a PC in my life; I don't like them." In another interview with the San Francisco Chronicle in 1996, he mentioned that he had actually made 84 different pieces of music while working for this project.

Answer: 4

There were four albums in the Ambient series - 'Ambient 1: Music For Airports' (released in 1978), 'Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror' (collaboration with Harold Budd released in 1980), 'Ambient 3: Day Of Radiance' (collaboration with Laraaji released in 1980) and 'Ambient 4: On Land' (released in 1982).