Brian Eno - C or D?

Yeah, I'd heard that "Eno stopped by the studio" thing, and ... sure, but what a weird story. It looks like that album was recorded in Seattle and mixed in Connecticut. I wonder if someone else Eno was working with at the time was in one of those studios? Anyway, the song just happens to be a perfect fit, sounding like an outtake from "Another Green World" or something of that era.

Hmm, now that I think about it, it's possible Eno was on a ... lecture tour? Here's a review my dude Mark did of his appearance in Chicago in 1990.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-10-16-9003260701-story.html

Finding Shore is really good

BTW, I know this has been posted, too, but if anyone missed it, here's footage of Eno at work in 1973:

https://www.facebook.com/darren.k.lock/videos/vb.600379516/10157109373779517/?type=2&theater

Eno and Cale "One Word" -- this whole record is great, and "Spinning Away" is the Eno classic here, but this is probably the best fusion of the two's sensibilities -- they harmonize brilliantly together, the lyrics are great, the call and response chorus is killer and the "miles and miles away" climax

so otm

Remember this oil by Augustus John?
These are the ones I found in Rome
Very few things I keep for long
When does your plane leave for Cologne?

is one of my favourite lyrics by anyone ever

"Lilac" on High Life is another high point along the same lines

those Eno/Hyde records are interesting b/c Hyde has done very little as a solo artist. I don't hear any Underworld at all in those albums.

Eno is an underrated lyricist, possibly because so much of his stuff is surreal and/or seemingly random. But then you hit something like "Spider & I" and it's just so concise and evocative:

Spider and i sit watching the sky
On a world without sound
We knit a web to catch one tiny fly
For our world without sound
We sleep in the mornings
We dream of a ship that sails away
A thousand miles away.

always loved this part of "Kings Lead Hat"

Splish splash I was raking in the cash
the biology of purpose keeps my nose above the surface BUHHHHHH

Agreed – his lyrics on Before and After Science are an esp. good juxtaposition of the surreal and evocative.

Reflection is amazing, one of my absolute favorites of his

Finding Shore is really good

since 2000, my favorite things have been the Eno/Schwalm 2001 shows,

one of my favorite ever lyricists ~

but if you study the logistics and heuristics of the mystics
you will find that their minds rarely move in a line
so it's much more realistic to abandon such ballistics
and resign to be trapped on a leaf in the vine

!!!

Even gibberish like "Miss Shapiro:"

All the peasants in the squares
At their tables and their chairs
Set to salvage certain numbers
From the wonder of the tundra
And the muses in the gloom
Counting needles in their rooms
On the carpet in the corner
In a kind of secret slumber
While the in formation rain
Slashed the dirty window pane to the square.

Smoky broads and smoky windows in the square
Come come charmer come on over for the day
Disappearing cocoa forests flash and die
Fortunes crumble all demolished in the bay.

Over forty pointed people
In the perfect pointed steeple
Looked to see the lucky number
Yes the wonder of the tundra
Had come up to fame and fortune
Singing his tune, my tune, your tune
Wooing daughters of the gifted
On the carpets of the courtrooms
While the tickets were expensive
The show was quite relentless in the square.

Smoky broads and smoky windows in the square
Come come charmer come on over for the day
Disappearing cocoa forests flash and die
Fortunes crumble all demolished in the bay

Dalai llama lama puss puss
Stella marls missa nobis
Miss a dinner Miss Shapiro
Shampoos pot-pot pinkies pampered
Movement hampered like at christmas
Ha-ha isn't life a circus
Round in circles like the archers
Always stiff or always starchy
Yes it's happening and it's fattening
And it's all that we can get into the show.

Smoky broads and smoky windows in the square
Come come charmer come on over for the day
Disappearing cocoa forests flash and die
Fortunes crumble all demolished in the bay

"Lilac" on High Life is another high point along the same lines

those Eno/Hyde records are interesting b/c Hyde has done very little as a solo artist. I don't hear any Underworld at all in those albums.

― frogbs, Thursday, March 26, 2020 bookmarkflaglink

"Lilac" in particular is the high point of both Eno/Hyde albums, in my opinion. That might be my favorite Eno thing of the last 20 years.

Trying to get into this new Eno/Eno album. Weirdly I like it on headphones at night, but when I listen to it during the day while working, it feels too retro, kinda hokey to me.

I think I would not have liked it even ten years ago; Eno’s taste for midi glock, celeste & string synths can get treacly for me. Could not do that new Apollo album, and there are definitely a few tracks on this I left off the playlist, but it saves the best for the end

I’ve probably just made the decision to like it, but it has something to do with the fact that Eno’s midi tastes are now recognizably his as a person, that when he applies them to what are unmistakably his brother’s piano lines, which I find sentimental but not manipulative, then it becomes a record that only these two could have made. having Apollo / Voices / MFF3 in the bloodstream since they came out helps. Or maybe my nervous system is just shredded this week and music like this and Mozart are all I can take, even most Monteverdi is too aggressive for me right now

There's no question this record hits the spot right now (I would recommend you give the second disc of Apollo another shot however -- if you aren't comparing it to APOLLO, it's actually quite good on its own terms).

I think a big piece of why the new record works is that Brian's MIDI tastes have also gotten more processed and shaded as he's moved from hardware to softsynths. Thinking back to Nerve Net's "Pierre in Mist," where he dinks around on an M1 ROMpler sax sound ... or the entire sound palette on The Drop 5 years later ... those records sound like what they were: MIDI presets he treated with this Eventide H3000 signal processor. No matter how many swirling pitch-shifted reverb tails he would smother them in, it was still a MIDI conga, or tamborine or a piano.

The sounds he uses today are all generated from and processed in his computer -- and while that's not everyone's cup of tea, for Eno the result is far more integrated. A track like "Wintergreen" starts off sounding like an electric piano but then shades of an acoustic piano sound joins in a few minutes in and ... well, it sounds great. (I've never been convinced, FWIW, that he was the master of the DX-7 we're told he was ... most of his sound design for that is bell sounds which are by far the easiest sounds to create).

I would also agree that Roger's melodic sensibility (like Tom Rogerson's or Harold Budd's for that matter) really jibes nicely with these sounds. None of those records are mawkish.

those are two good posts, i welcome more eno(s) process talk. i have nothing to contribute since i've been using the new record as attempted toddler-lulling music (without much success) in these trying times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k66nGplNRmQ

Haven't dug into the making of this one yet, but the Tom Rogerson album was pretty High Concept.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bnYGfa90dc

(xp) I've got one of those albums, maybe I should listen to it myself.

Looks like A Year With Swollen Appendices is getting a 25th anniversary (gah) reissue:

https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/brian-eno-book-extract

Fun little essay in there about how things are different today.

Gah indeed... Nice though, pre-ordered!

During a recent house move, I found two copies of this. One completely knackered and held together with tape, the other pretty beat up, the binding really wasn't very good. I re-read and enjoyed it and would like to read another one, although not 2020 preferably.

I have my old copy, is there anything new here but the intro (that's reproduced in that GQ link)?

Anyway, this is a really pleasant revive because I was going to bump this about 12 hours ago. I was talking with one of my kids about something, and next thing I know I'm streaming "An Ending (Ascent)." Then I dig up a repost of that unofficial "extended" version, an hour long version of the track. But as I listened I skimmed over the (recent) comments in all their earnest, honest, ridiculous glory and almost immediately got a little weepy. It's amazing the power certain piece of music can have, and what they mean to people. Stuff like:

I wish this world was a better place. I live here in Colorado and everyone hates each other here. I never see anything good anymore. This song just reminds me everything is going to be ok

This hits differently at night under the stars😔 life seems to slow down and you sit there and think how life is taken for granted every day, I wish I could go back to my child hood 😔😔 and see all my friends and family

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWsTPNMYiuU

Predictably the reactions to the original and "original" extended versions posted are just as sad and profound and appreciative and ott. One comment is simply "I miss my mum."

what happened to slocki's sad youtube thread?

thought this revive would be about the Film Music compilation set to be released.

I have his PDFs somewhere compiling them.

Roger and Brian Eno Announce New Album Mixing Colours🕸

Missed this. Roger and Brian have their first joint album out on Deutsche Grammophon, March 20. First track is up:

📹

Funny, I've been relistening to this album today and it's even lovelier and more mysterious than I recalled. Made me very proud when my daughter came downstairs, listen to a second of the music, then asked me if it was Brian Eno!

Josh, by this evidence, you are a father who’s doing it right.

This is a few years ago, and yes I know I glued Eno's synth on the wrong way, don't know how I made that mistake.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8l9lma5crnx9bp/IMG_4442.TRIM.MOV?dl=0

Opal is almost 4 now and more inclined to listen to the Frozen soundtrack, but this was a proud parenting moment for me.

Opal? Is her middle name Editions EG?

It’s Judith. The Opal is actually a Syd Barrett reference despite the different spelling.

Dan, I was thinking of your post as soon as Josh posted his. I must be doing something wrong with my girls because they mostly think I’m a dork for playing this stuff.

NTI, you are also a father who’s doing it right. Keep the faith.

Lol, to be fair, my older daughter is 16! She's learned that Eno can be good for studying.

I did not come here for “my daughter” content :-/

Just be glad Eno's not dead!

Fit as a fiddle that guy.

minute 13:22 of the Unforgettable Fire documentary, during the recording of Pride

edge: i didn't feel like we peaked, necessarily.

eno: you want to go out there and peak, then?

classic

Heard someone suggest that True Thrush by Dan Deacon was a tribute to Eno’s vocal albums and now I can’t stop hearing it

XP - Eno is gold all the way through that documentary, telling the little girl outside during the eclipse that his name is Quincy Jones.

Anyone read his new book? It's in my Amazon cart but I've yet to pull the trigger

I read it back when it first came out. Well worth your time, if only for his weird digressions (like, iirc, tasting his own urine out of curiosity, or, not unrelated, supposedly sneaking a vial of his urine to a Ducahmp exhibit to spray on his "Fountain," reasoning that Duchamp would have wanted that).

Brian Eno said WHAT?!? pic.twitter.com/5ik69poEzR

— ClickHole (@ClickHole) March 12, 2021

lol, I've been listening to the expanded reissue of Mixing Colours for a month or so now, and all this time I've been assuming it was initially recorded like 30 years ago... imagine my surprise when I looked at the liner notes and saw it's originally from 2020!

This is one of the finest examples of an ambient recording that can phase shift between inconsequential and arresting... like an optical illusion, sometimes you can compel this to happen with mysterious concentration, other times it seems beyond your grasp. I love it!

Huh:

Brian Eno is pleased to share with you the launch of his new station, The Lighthouse, out now on Sonos Radio HD, which features decades of unreleased music from his extensive archive. ⁠⁠
The Lighthouse will serve as a living collection where Eno will premiere both past and new musical projects directly to fans across the world, giving listeners rare insight into an illustrious career spanning more than 50 years of creating, producing and redefining music.

The renowned musician will premiere 300 tracks on the new station, including unreleased, old and new work

https://www.mixcloud.com/sonos/program-1-introducing-the-lighthouse-from-brian-eno/

Would prefer this as a gigantic SoundCloud dump tbh, but intriguing!

I think he said that right now the earliest track is from 1990, which is slightly less interesting, because it probably just means tons of generative stuff, but who knows.

his generative music is good

I agree, but it's generative, so he could have his own station playing a song that is constantly changing forever if he wanted to.

Brian Eno from the lighthouse
Brian Eno from the lighthouse
From the lighthouse
With Brian Eno
From the lighthouse
With Brian Arno

Yes, Arno, that is what I meant to type thx phone