Airport chaos being redesigned into soothing ambient music at Heathrow
**Heathrow Airport Introduces Ambient Music Created from Airport Sounds for Pre-Flight Relaxation**
This summer, Heathrow Airport is set to offer a unique and calming experience for its passengers as it introduces 'Music for Heathrow', an ambient soundscape created by Grammy-nominated musician and producer Jordan Rakei. The soundscape, inspired by Brian Eno's 1978 album 'Music for Airports', will be played throughout Heathrow's terminals.
Rakei spent time in every part of Heathrow Airport to record sounds for the soundscape, transforming a jet taking off into a synth and a baggage control siren into a soft synthesiser. The soundscape includes over 50 sound samples from the airport environment, such as baggage handlers' pressure devices, escalators, passports being stamped, bags hitting the belt, a water fountain, a jet taking off, and a baggage control siren. The water fountain provides ambience and ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response).
The aim of 'Music for Heathrow' is to ease pre-flight nerves and help travellers start their journey in the right mood. The soundscape is composed of four tracks that mirror the airport journey, from check-in to boarding.
In addition to the soundscape, live music performances will occur every Friday in July at Heathrow Airport. Artists such as The Cash Cows and the Urban Cellist are among those scheduled to perform. These live music events are part of a broader effort to enhance the passenger experience at Heathrow.
Heathrow Airport has partnered with Jordan Rakei for this project, marking a significant milestone in the artist's career. Rakei recently became the first artist in residence at Abbey Road Studios.
It is worth noting that Heathrow Airport is currently the notable example of an airport creating ambient music using its own airport sounds for pre-flight relaxation. No other airports have been publicly documented to have created similar ambient music projects as of July 2025.
Passengers can listen to 'Music for Heathrow' on SoundCloud, and the soundscape is set to create a soothing atmosphere for travellers as they begin their journeys this summer at Heathrow Airport.
The unique soundscape created by Jordan Rakei, known as 'Music for Heathrow', uses sounds recorded at the airport to seamlessly blend technology and entertainment, transforming ordinary sounds into modern music elements such as synths and soft synthesizers. This calming pre-flight relaxation soundtrack, heavily inspired by Brian Eno's 'Music for Airports', is now available on SoundCloud for passengers to enjoy before their journeys.
