the footstep sounds makes me think of a sort of white marble environment, a huge dome, maybe, hushed voices
railway concourse transposed to the mythic dimension.
The most peculiarly dated bit on that album is the 'We are the music makers' sample but perhaps with luka's romantic reading of the album that fits in perfectly...
You're right, it is romantic, and (to risk pretension) sublime in the romantic sense of being somehow beyond comprehension, beyond reach. Eno's 'On Land' is sublime in the REALLY proper romantic sense of being slightly terrifying. Beyond human.
I think its more sophisticated in terms of the emotional terrain it attempts to explore. Nostalgia is a less elemental phenomenon than melancholy or bliss.