Two New Eno Apps

by Bob Boilen

I was completely knocked out last year when artist-musician Brian Eno, along with programmer-musician Peter Chilvers, created a music making application called Bloom.

Now Brian Eno has two new applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, based on his ambient music. One is called Air. The other is called Trope.

Air is basically an endless version of Eno's 1979 album Music for Airports.

Here's the official description:

"Air is a generative audio-visual work created by musician / software designer Peter Chilvers and Irish vocalist Sandra O'Neill. Based on concepts developed by Brian Eno, with whom Chilvers created Bloom, Air assembles vocal and piano samples into a beautiful, still and ever changing composition, which is always familiar, but never the same."

Screenshot of "Air" on the iPhone

"Air features four 'Conduct' modes, which let the user control the composition by tapping different areas on the display, and three 'Listen' modes, which provide a choice of arrangement. For those fortunate enough to have access to multiple iPhones and speakers, an option has been provided to spread the composition over several players."

Air is beautiful, but not as astonishingly beautiful as Trope. Like last year's Bloom program (which I still play with on a weekly basis), Trope let's you draw beautiful and colorful patterns while producing gorgeous drones and plaintiff piano motifs.

Screenshot of Trope

I'm awestruck by its simplicity and beauty. The fact that it costs $3.99 is beyond belief for someone who has spent thousands of dollars on hardware-based and software-based synthesizers.

Sure, these programs are one-trick ponies. But what a ride.

5:43 PM ET | 09-22-2009 | permalink

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