The solstice has arrived and we have entered “Evening Star weather,” in honor of the second collaborative album from pioneering English musicians Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, released in December of 1975. Fifty years on, you can hear large swaths of the ambient genre echoing through Evening Star: The cosmic calm of Steve Roach’s classic 1988 album Structures From Silence. The neo-classical predilections of Eluvium and Stars of the Lid. The billowing atmosphere of Wolfgang Voigt’s music under the name Gas. The cracked nostalgia of Fennesz’s Endless Summer. Kyle Bobby Dunn’s commitment to drones that sound like sunrise on the other side of the solar system. The fuzzed-out psychedelia of Emeralds. The dreamstate travels of Windy & Carl. And so on and so on.
Category: Brian Eno
Jon Hassell / Brian Eno :: Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics
The music winds sinuously, like a river in deep, humid tropics. In six tracks which blend seamlessly into one musical entity, this pivotal collaboration from Brian Eno and Jon Hassell explores a mystical, minimalist music, tinted by Southern Hemisphere sounds but also incorporating 20th century electronics. The cuts move slowly but insistently, a sensuous wiggle in their syncopation.
Bruce Brubaker :: Eno Piano
There have been various interpretations of Eno’s Music For Airports over the years — Psychic Temple’s beauteous rendition, Bang On A Can’s sweet version. Here, Bruce Brubaker strips the ambient masterpiece down to the studs in (mostly) solo piano form, alongside a few other similarly styled Eno tunes. And the whole thing is absolutely gorgeous. I could listen to that iconic Airports piano line (originally played by Robert Wyatt) for at least 24 hours, and in Brubaker’s hands, it is appropriately luminous and enchanting.
Brian Eno & The Winkies :: A Year With A Collapsed Lung (BBC Sessions + Live 1974)
For a minute there after leaving Roxy Music, Brian Eno was poised to become one of the era’s most glam-tastic superstars. He’s captured here venturing to outer regions with the Winkies.
David Byrne :: The Catherine Wheel, ’81
Revisiting David Byrne’s score to “The Catherine Wheel” (1981). Like Remain In Light and Bush of Ghosts, Byrne rides a similar aesthetic groove, mining funk, African poly-rhythms, processed vocals and the avant-garde, all underscored by a potent sense of urgency
Brian Eno Interviewed On KPFA’s Ode to Gravity, February 1980
Go ahead and clear the next two hours. In 1980, Berkeley radio KPFA’s “Ode to Gravity” host, Charles Amirkhanian, sat down with Brian Eno to discuss the various aspects of […]
David Bowie :: Boys Keep Swinging (Lodger, 1979)
Speaking of Brian Eno collaborations , last week at the Echo, Sylvia’s between-band DJ set included “Boys Keep Swinging,” my favorite track off Bowie’s
Everything That Happens Happens Today
As I am sure many of you reading are aware, last week David Byrne and Brian Eno’s first collaboration in nearly three decades hit the digital marketplace in the form of their new LP […]