Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks was written, produced and performed by Brian Eno together with his brother Roger and Daniel Lanois. The music was originally recorded in 1983 for a landmark feature-length documentary, For All Mankind, directed by American journalist, film director and screenwriter, Al Reinert. The film featured 35mm footage of the Apollo moon landing with real-time commentary as well as the Apollo astronauts sharing their recollections of the momentous events surrounding it.
A remastered, extended edition of the album is released in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. This very special anniversary edition – Apollo: Soundtracks and Atmospheres Extended Edition features the original album remastered by Abbey Road’s Miles Showell as well as an accompanying album comprising of 11 new instrumental compositions reimagining the soundtrack to For All Mankind.
The music from the original album is highly recognisable and tracks from it have been streamed in excess of 300 million times. Since its release many of the songs from Apollo have found a life of their own, making their way into any number of films, television shows and commercials, most notably Trainspotting, Traffic, 28 Days Later, Drive and Love. An Ending (Ascent) was also used in the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony.
Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois produced the original Apollo album which was recorded at Daniel and his brother Bob’s studio in Hamilton, Ontario. Lanois also collaborated with Eno on several other projects, most famously producing several albums for U2 including the multi-platinum The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby and No Line On The Horizon. Apollo was the first recording experience for Roger Eno who also went on to collaborate on a number of other films with and without his brother and was the springboard to a long solo career of his own. The 11 new tracks on Apollo Extended Edition find Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno working collectively for the first time since the original album in 1983. Lanois contributed 3 compositions - Capsule, Last Step From The Surface and Fine-grained while Roger Eno’s are Waking Up, Under The Moon and Strange Quiet.
