Unlike Music for Films, the music for Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks was entirely written for a specific film project—a documentary about the NASA Apollo lunar missions, by director Al Reinert. Additionally, by this time, Eno had found a sympathetic partner in Canadian Daniel Lanois, having already worked with Lanois on the 80 collaboration with Harold Budd, Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror and the 82 release, Ambient 4: On Land. Lanois would bring an equally vivid imagination, and a more melodic bent that would be matched by Enoâ��s brother Roger, who also collaborated on the release. However, while Lanois  foundations were in roots music, Roger Eno's were more representative of a European upbringing in classical music.

The first half of the album, the Atmospheres, is more ambient in nature, evoking images of the vast reaches of space and an aural impression of weightlessness. Even An Ending (Ascent),  which is the first piece on the disc to actually use simple chord changes and a transcendent melody, remains within the Ambient mold. That this piece would later show up in Danny Boyle's film 28 Days Later to complement the images of an empty London, apparently devoid of life, is almost paradoxical, given its sublime beauty