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Soundtrack of the Week: Brian Eno | |||
Brian Eno is most famous for his production work, creating big synth landscapes for ‘classic’ period U2, a veritable world of glam for ‘classic’ period Roxy Music and quirky little keyboard vignettes for ‘classic’ period Talking Heads. He also basically invented ambient music and produced some of Bowie’s best ‘classic’ period albums. Music critics hail him as a genius in the most academic sense of the word, but personally I find the intellectual aspects of his work less interesting than the sounds themselves. He began releasing solo albums in 1973 after being ousted from Roxy Music for being too weird, and released ‘No Pussyfooting’ with guitarist Robert Fripp and ‘Here Come The Warm Jets’ the same year. This album and 1974’s ‘Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)’ are his most popular solo works, combining elements of glam rock with weird instrument manipulation and his double-tracked vocals. Songs like Mother Whale Eyeless are also pure, weird, joyful pop. After developing the concept of ambient music on ‘Discreet Music’ (sounds designed to provide atmosphere rather than be listened to with great attention) Eno released few ‘singing’ albums, except for the popular ‘Before And After Science’ in 1977. ‘Another Green World’ from 1975 was a mixture of tunes and sounds, including Golden Hours, which resembles concise early Pink Floyd. He was also producing bits and pieces for soundtracks, which have been collected on several volumes of ‘Music For Films’ and includes the heavily flanged M386 from 1978, which sounds similar to the influential instrumental pieces contained on Bowie’s ‘Low’ and ‘"Heroes"’, creating a reputation for experimentation Bowie never really followed through with and indirectly leading to New Wave. The exploration of ambient sounds included collaborations with David Byrne, Joachim Roedelius, Moebius (the famous French cartoonist) and Harold Budd. 1978’s ‘Ambient #1: Music For Airports’ was designed to be played in waiting lounges and 1982’s ‘Ambient #4: On Land’ includes Unfamiliar Wind (Leek Hills), one of many Eno pieces that are designed to evoke a particular time, place and feeling. This specific one includes birdsong and is rather sad and beautiful. 1983’s ‘Apollo Atmospheres & Soundtracks’ features the extraordinary An Ending (Ascent) which was used recently to great effect in the non-zombie film ‘28 Days’. His work since the 90s has been extremely serious, although Healthy Colours III from 1994’s ‘The Essential Fripp And Eno’ is a playful sampled sound collage (ah –that’s something else he invented). His 1995 diary ‘A Year With Swollen Appendices’ makes for unusually interesting reading. |
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Base | aRtwork | Urls | Nostalgia |
Soundtrack | World | Intro | Characters | Kontact
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