Former Roxy Music member and innovator of ambient music Brian Eno has this week launched two musical scores and accompanying light installations to be played in a British hospital, after being directly inspired by Florence Nightingale.
According to the Independent, Montefiore Hospital in Hove, East Sussex is now home to the two works created by the 70s synth player and legendary producer. The first piece, 77 Million Paintings for Montefiore, uses an electronic system called ‘generative music’ that continually creates unique sounds, and it will be played in the hospital reception area. The second piece of music is entitled Quiet Room For Montefiore and will be played in a downstairs space available as an “escape” and “somewhere to think, take stock or simply relax”.
A spokesman for Eno said that the musician was inspired by Florence Nightingale’s 1859 observation that different forms and colours in objects presented to patients had a powerful effect on their recovery. However, Eno fans will have to find themselves in the English hospital if they want to hear the ambient creations, with the spokesman saying, “It’s true to say that The Quiet Room for Montefiore is an album that can only be heard in the Montefiore Hospital”.
This isn’t Brian Eno’s first foray into music in public spaces, having previously released an album of music designed to calm nervous flyers, which was first installed in La Guardia airport in New York in 1980.
