| Music for Stowaways / Music for Listening to | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 31 March 1981 (cassette) | |||
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| Length | 32:11 (cassette) 20:25 (LP) | |||
| Label | Virgin | |||
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| British Electric Foundation chronology | ||||
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Music for Stowaways is the debut album by English electronic act British Electric Foundation (B.E.F.), formed by musicians Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh. The album released in the United Kingdom as a limited edition cassette in March 1981 by Virgin Records, who also released an LP version of the album titled Music for Listening To later in the year with a different track list and cover art, aiming its release for export markets. The Stowaways version was originally released concurrently with Ware and Marsh's first single with Heaven 17, "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang", itself a developed version of the Music for Stowaways track "Groove Thang".
As B.E.F.'s first 'minor project', Music for Stowaways was inspired by the Sony Walkman (at the time known in the UK as the Sony Stowaway). Fascinated with how the portable cassette player made users feel like what they described as film characters, they conceived Music for Stowaways as a "soundtrack for your life" designed specifically for play on the Sony Stowaway, and incorporated portable recording equipment into the album's production to maximise the effect. The album is instrumental and electronic, incorporating styles of synth-pop, ambient, funk, avant-garde and minimalist music. Largely ignored upon release, the music has been praised in retrospect, with critics crediting both the cassette and LP versions of the album as being prophetic of later musical styles.