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the windows 95 start-up sound · brian eno, 1995

his tiny jewel,
an ocean of time.

as windows 95 played it0:00 / 0:06
slowed down forty times0:00 / 4:05

to scale: the original is the teal sliver; the bar is the slowed version

a list of adjectives×

“we want a piece of music that is …

optimistic,
futuristic,
sentimental,
emotional.”

and at the bottom: “it must be

3 1/4 seconds long.”

an agency working for microsoft sent brian eno that brief when he was, in his words, quite lost in his own work. he thought it was funny, and an amazing thing to try: it’s like making a tiny little jewel. he made 84 little pieces, and one became the sound windows 95 played as it started.

he wrote it on a mac. and afterwards, going back to pieces three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time.

watch the short ↗

prints that go with it