Brian Eno - Microsoft Windows Theme

The Microsoft Sound composed by Brian Eno.

In 1994 Microsoft corporation designers Mark Malamud and Erik Gavriluk approached Brian Eno to compose music for the Windows 95 project. The result was the six-second start-up music-sound of the Windows 95 operating system, The Microsoft Sound (.wav). In the San Francisco Chronicle he said:

"The idea came up at the time when I was completely bereft of ideas. I'd been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, "Here's a specific problem — solve it."
The thing from the agency said, "We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah- blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional," this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said "and it must be 31/4 seconds long."
I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It's like making a tiny little jewel.
In fact, I made 84 pieces. I got completely into this world of tiny, tiny little pieces of music. I was so sensitive to microseconds at the end of this that it really broke a logjam in my own work. Then when I'd finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were like three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time.

As a guest on the The Museum of Curiosity radio show, Eno stated that the list of adjectives, which included "sexy", comprised "about one-hundred and fifty adjectives" and that the music was to be no more than "3.8 seconds" long.

(Text taken from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Eno)

• Category

  Science & Technology

[DeadWhiteButterflies]

So wait, I was listening to Brian Eno every time I booted up my computer? Awesome :)

[coglions coje]

Fail at the end picture... it's a mac.

[marockroshiba]

I should have checked this video sooner! Been looking for start-up sound of windows 95 with Eno photo. Huge thanks uploading ! xxx

[Артур Абдулов]

He switched to mac =(

[theDoomguy2011]

He made this on a Mac.

[Triplechoco52]

There has to be a remix of this. I wouldn't mind a longer version of listening to something like this.

[Jen N]

He made the song on a Mac.

[PooKneader]

True, but Mr Eno's style is evidently not analogue, and it's well known that he uses computers nowadays in his composing.

[Dbweop]

One can compose electronic music without using computers; many people do...

[BenTJGough]

Windows mode :P

[Mitchell De La Cruz]

It's called irony, my friend.