Brian Eno - C or D?

i remember the ambient stuff being way better than i expected, too, though i haven't heard it in a while.

Didn't care for 'heroes' from the one listen I gave it a couple of years ago.

And I'm a sucker for the Wall of Eno vocals he adds to everything he works on. For a somewhat limited singer, he harmonizes with himself really well, from his one man band "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" to more recent stuff like "Someday" (that beautiful James song from the very underrated "Laid").

Anyone ever hear the NPR piece on "Once in a Lifetime," which details just what Eno brought to the track? He basically added the call and response chorus, worthy of the co-write credit. Eno also gets co-writer credit on "Heroes."

1. Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (the only solo Eno album I am enthusiastic about in its entirety), as well as individual tracks on some of his other albums (especially Before and After Science).

2. His touch as producer on what are often the best albums of the bands he's worked with: Remain in Light, Bowie, Devo (I forgot this--using allmusic as a cheat-sheet now), etc.

3. Collaborations with: Fripp (although I would say say that Fripp carries most of the weight there--but still, I think Eno's presence counts), Jon Hassel, etc.

Etc. because I have to go.

3.

Of course, the man and the vast majority of his music, and his influence, is classic. Couldn't live without "Taking tiger mountain" or "Music for airports" amongst others. Those two boxed sets are two of the best investments I've ever made.

Plus the Obscure Music series, which has some good titles.

Its just so coool. Weird pop and ambienty bits floated against each other in the nicest way, and my four year old loves to sing "I'll come running" which has got to get him some points somewhere.

then, suddenly, like a switch being thrown...

when 'wrong way up' came out an interview disc was distributed to radio, where he's sounding and dull, then at the end he begins talking about the recent birth of his daughter and how unimportant the theoretical side of music had become to him, and how now he just wanted to relax and play tunes. which makes me happy for eno the man, but keeping up with the last decade of releases has been a punishing experience.

'spinning away' from 'wrong way up', still excellent though

"Uh-oh!"

"Ding ding!"

*I can't remember if I bought a copy or received it as a gift, but probably the latter. I used to get my older brother to buy me "weird"** records for my birthday and Christmas.

**I think he thought it was weird anyway (judging by his response to what I listened to on the radio), but I think he was a little amused to watch me growing up and getting into punk and new wave, and new bands he hadn't heard of, or other stuff that seemed esoteric to him. I think he may have bought me this album, the first Psychedelic Furs album, and Fripp's Let the Power Fall, and some a John Coltrane collection, all at my request. Now I'm getting all sentimental about my older brother. I miss being close to my family, and it's all Brian Eno's fault--well, not exactly.

Possibly the fact that I often couldn't make out the lyrics or didn't know what he was talking about contributed to my liking the songs. "With Burgundy, Tizer and Rye/Twelve sheets of foolscap: don't ask me why." I'm still largely in the dark about these lines, for example. I think I only found out what foolscap is in the last few years and I've already forgotten the details.

I kind of like the lyrics to "True Wheel." I am looking at a lyrics page now, and I find myself saying, oh, is that how it goes? I really am not even hearing what he's saying a lot of the time.

music for airports = nice but forgettable, put aside after a couple of listens.

apollo = stunningly beautiful, one of my most played albums in recent times.

with this in mind, what next?

try no pussyfooting, with fripp.

http://www.furious.com/perfect/bangseno.html

a musical genius, the godfather of Ambient, the mastermind of warm synthesis, although the cause of a lot of shit (ie damp snares in 80s music from Low) still one of the true heads!

A let me emphasize his Ambient series - i don't understand why anyone hasn't yet. On Land, man! and lets not mention the second side of Day of Radiance with Laraaji (the first side i admit being...well). Most of my feelings on Before and After Science, Another Green World have meen mentioned.

And on a last note, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is fucking ingenius record :)

seriously, listen to the title track from Taking Tiger Mountain or the first track on Warm Jets and get back to me, you will be a convert y0.

My neighbors must wonder what's up when they walk by my apartment door and hear me playing music with English lyrics.

Couldn't understand the 'insipid' for 'Before and After science' either. That run of solo albums is pretty flawless to me.

I thought there could be something here in terms of comparing generative music to generative AI and maybe look at the politics from that angle, but maybe that's too obvious. Like it was right there, but I haven't engaged enough with anything of Eno's work after 1982 so..

you should really check out Wrong Way Up with John Cale, that's my fave of post-1982 stuff by far

and yeah, I love BAAS as well, I could understand Wuelfling rejecting Music For Films but not that one. he's snarky about Music For Airports too!

I can sort of see why Penman might feel that way, given his adoration of Roxy Music.

I'm probably being way too general, but *Wrong Way Up* and *Another Day on Earth* (both brilliant) do feel like outliers, post-*Thursday Afternoon*. I'm not going to make the case for any of his production work, post-Talking Heads, being transformative enough to warrant consideration, tbh. Happy for someone to point out why I'm talking bollocks.

I think Unforgettable Fire should get a pass in terms of his post-TH work, but there's not much else that moves me

James are great, obvs, but not necessarily fussed about the sound. I was convinced he'd produced early Slowdive but instead he was merely on *Souvlaki*.

The Ship is genuinely excellent and very different from anything else he’s done.

I do have that one as a physical release. the 12" with Kevin Shields is very good as well.

oh and I love Music For Installations, which imo covers a lot of his best post-80's work

other unreleased gems:

Music For Glitterbug

"'Spinner' wastn't really a collaboration. I had done the soundtrack to the Derek Jarman
film, Glitterbug, but didn't think it stood up on its own as an album, without the film.
Somebody suggested I let Jah Woblle have a go at it, I presented him with my original stereo
mix, which he worked on top of.
Some of the tracks he left alone, others he added to - rhythms, bass parts, and some
orchestrations. So some pieces started out as landscapes, but ended up completely rhythmic."

Eno & Schwalm Lanzarote 2001

this concert was broadcast on German radio, Peter Schwalm's Interview segments were taken out. This is not the whole concert, however most of it. The sound is superb!!!

Music for 'Nile'

This is the soundtrack composed as background music for a computer game.

Nile is a computer game for Windows (deleted); Brian composed the music for it in 1996.

Eno/Schwalm/Czukey - Sushi! Roti! Reibekuchen!

an audience recording of the ENO/Schwalm/Czukey concert 'Sushi! Roti! Reibekuchen!' (which took place at the same venue on 27th August 1998 and was Eno's first live concert after 15 years)

The concert w Schwalm and Czukay was released this past year. But that’s an interesting list … I’ve heard some but all of the installations set. I’m not sure I’d ever heard of that video game (with … Kelly McGillis apparently?!?).

Much earlier but I was poking around online a ways back after revisiting the Shepherd book and found some music he wrote for some pretty racy/borderline exploitation art films in the 70s most of which didn’t make it on to Music for Films.

Here’s a tape loop piece that’s apparently from 1970:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDj8Tc6259o

Here’s one supposedly from a Greek horror film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WKarWs_Frw

Thanks for that round-up Sleeve. Listening to the Music for Installations stuff now and it's lovely.

the two eno hyde albums are great

you should really check out Wrong Way Up with John Cale, that's my fave of post-1982 stuff by far

― sleeve, Friday, 26 September 2025 bookmarkflaglink

Listening now and feeling this.

the first eno hyde album is basically a sequel to wrong way up and the second is probably closest to my life in the bush of ghosts

Saying things publicly does at least force one to smell one's own bullshit.

That second Eno/Hyde record *is* good. Also like *The Equatorial Stars* (the second Fripp/Eno album from 2004) and *Drawn From Life*, his 2001 album with Peter Schwalm.

ooh I never heard of those other 70's pieces, very cool

there could be something here in terms of comparing generative music to generative AI and maybe look at the politics from that angle, but maybe that's too obvious

Eno and Ezra Klein get into this discussion on Klein's podcast:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-brian-eno.html

I am skeptical of the idea of generative music but the way Eno describes it is interesting, even if the results (IMO) tend towards the soporific:

I thought that was a nice area for music to be in because if you think about it, up until the turn of the 20th century, you could never have the same musical experience twice. There was no way that you could precisely repeat a musical experience.

As soon as records came along, you could do that. You could hear exactly the same performance of exactly the same song over and over and over and over, and that became how most of us listened to music.

You know, unless we happen to be born into a musical family or a church group or something like that, most of the music we heard was repetition. So what I thought was: I wonder if you could use the technology of repetition to make music that constantly changes.

What an incredible, curious mind Eno has. I loved this conversation.

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:muiwxo7dnmhypr5gj6hua7ke/bafkreid4g63e4q6jcohzmwlhtgc7utofqfbogdr2fdcfa3iibruvhewrc4@jpeg

https://pulpsabotage.zenfolio.com/p940300603

These are great

lol wtf

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1243885900655720

screenshot?

It's a "reel," so not sure how to embed it ...

Damn it, I quit Facebook and now I am missing out on Eno content.

I could describe it
It's a video of Roger Eno in bed, asleep, while Serge Gainsbourg plays in the background. He rolls over to a stuffed frog on the pillow next to him, gives it a kiss, then the frog turns into Brian. Roger opens his eyes, sees his smiling brother, then yelps in shock. Beneath the clip it says "tomorrow? #wsd?"

"wtf" is right

It's on insta too

https://www.instagram.com/p/DVy0b_oCAoN/?hl=en

Not on Insta either, but that’s ok. Does Roger have hair or are they a couple of cueballs?

It's there when I clickthrough ...

Roger not only has hair, he has a big beard.

They should take a promo photo of Brian’s head under Roger’s chin so his beard looks like Brian’s hair.

i do wonder what they're teasing. another live gig? I still haven't watched the Athens one all the way through

Today is World Sleep Day. Link in bio to listen to “Tributary” by Roger Eno, and “Afterlife” by Beatie Wolfe & Brian Eno.
#worldsleepday

My 11 year old has gone to sleep listening to Thursday Afternoon practically her entire life.

Seems like most of Eno's solo music from the 70s is missing from Spotify.

Good.

they're off apple music as well so it's likely some label licensing shift

Everything seems to be intact on Tidal UK.

Also Tidal in the US.

Not on Qobuz, afaict.

Hmmm, correction, Here Come the Warm Jets and Before and After Science are missing.

...and now they're back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZM4fST2ts8

https://i.redd.it/5w8nib65crxg1.jpeg

I may have mentioned it elsewhere, but a while back I decided to fill out my ambient collection, so I bought Thursday Afternoon and Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirrors on good old-fashioned compact disc. There are few things more nostalgic than pulse code modulation. Every time I play Thursday Afternoon I like to imagine that I'm a mid-80s hipster living in a converted warehouse in New York. Tinkering with my new Apple Macintosh.

However Ambient 4 and Fourth World seem to have gone out of print. On Amazon.co.uk, at least, 4 is only available second-hand (for £29.99), ditto Fourth.

Discogs.com suggests that the last time 4 was issued was back in 2009, which is... several years ago. It's seventeen years ago. Presumably someone at Virgin Records is thinking "shall we reissue it again", and then Dark Kermit says "but it's 2026 and people don't buy compact discs any more". And I'm not sure if it's a contractual thing but Fourth appears to no longer be on Virgin. Apollo seems to only be available as a two-disc extended edition and it's very expensive.

I think the lesson is that if you want to buy something, wait until the hype dies down, but not so long than it becomes unavailable.

Seems like On Land at least is available at more modest prices on Ebay, if not Discogs as well?

There was an expanded Apollo?!?

https://www.discogs.com/release/13929004-Brian-Eno-With-Daniel-Lanois-Roger-Eno-Apollo-Atmospheres-Soundtracks-Extended-Edition

There was an expanded Apollo?!?