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Brian Eno

After leaving Roxy Music just one year after the release of their first album, Brian Eno headed straight into the studio to create a bizarre post glam-rock debut, Here Come The Warm Jets.

No-one at that stage could have imagined how his astonishing and highly successful career would turn out, becoming a producer who nurtured two pop-music giants, Talking Heads & U2, to their greatest achievements.

...And did that fame by association, coupled with the cachet of er...presenting tolerable avant-garde (Ambient music) to the man in the street, mean that Eno is:

a highly intuitive opportunist
an innovator
a genius
or just... "...the worlds best knob twister and sonic plook fairy" Amazon reviewer, Rone

I can't say that I really know...but I do find Eno damn interesting and I invite you to look at this selection of his works:

Albums of Songs

Collaborations with Robert Fripp

In 1972 Brian Eno introduced King Crimson's Robert Fripp to a simple system that he'd devised to create instrumental music:

Set up 2 tape recorders so as to create a tape delay effect
provide a sound input
occasionally vary that unput

Fripp became that sound input and the pair recorded two albums initially and a third in 2005:

No Pussyfooting
Evening Star
The Equatorial Stars

Fripp was to later work with that system on his own, touring a a solo act and releasing a number of albums that were referred to as:

Frippertronics & later
Soundscapes

Ambient music

Following the Fripp albums, Eno produced Discreet Music, stumbling upon Ambient Music, an area which has developed for the last 30 years.

Collaborations with David Bowie:

The two first albums of famous Bowie/Eno Berlin trilogy are widely regarded as two of the most influential releases in European rock music. Their collaboration came about as a result of Bowie's disappointment at not being able (for unspecified reasons) to provide the soundtrack to the movie he starred in, The Man Who Fell To Earth

When Bowie landed in Berlin, a city where he felt he could escape his destructive "star" lifestyle, he gave Brian Eno a call to help with some instrumental music he was planning to create, having been greatly impressed by Eno's Another Green World.

The sessions became three albums, two of which changed rock music:

Producer of Talking Heads:

With Brian Eno as producer on their second third and fourth albums, Talking Heads, (with Eno co-writing many of the the tracks) went from virtually unknown to mass popularity with the ongoing recognition for their Once In A Lifetime track and its incredible music video...

Reviews of these albums will be available when the Talking Heads retrospective is finished in 2008.

More Songs About Buildings And Food
Fear Of Music
Remain In Light
My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (collaboration with David Byrne)

Collaborations with Bryan Ferry

Coming full circle, Brian Eno has made small contributions to two Bryan Ferry albums:

Mamouna &
Frantic

Books

More Dark Than Shark

...is a collaboration between illustrator Russell Mills & Brian Eno fist published in 1986 and now re-released...

"...I bought this book when it was first published in 1986, and it changed my life...The text is very well-written, explaining how the influences on Eno & Mills--Duchamp, Cage, and the Dadaists in particular--were synthesized by these two contemporary artists..." C. Gardner

A Year With Swollen Appendices: The Diary of Brian Eno

"...Expect also to find a real person: a father, a friend, a businessman, a showman, a teacher, a joker...and a few new words for your vocabulary (re-commode-ification indeed!). This is not brilliant literature--hey, it's a diary for crying out loud!--but as such it makes a perfect book to read in small doses (bedtime, commuting, etc.)

...It's packed full of interesting anecdotes and insights into the working and thinking habits of one of this century's...most important and blessed professional craftsmen of ideas..." Micah R Sisk

N.B.: If you're interested in other (medically) sick middle-age men's memoirs, you may care to see Spalding Gray's frequently hilarious Gray's Anatomy. (see also: Xango)

Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical Color of Sound

Eric Tamm's fairly thorough Eno biography.

"...The information provided in this book is very thorough. The author outlines each album song by song. The writing, however is somewhat dry. It is delightful to read Eno's own words through out the book. Eno has a wonderful view on music as art which is rarely covered in most music publications. Overall, it is a must for any Brian Eno fan who is also a musician or artist..." Perkins Wood

DVDs

14 Video Paintings:

comprising of 2 different works of slowly evolving "video paintings":

Mistaken Memories of Mediaeval Manhattan (the Manhattan Skyline) with a soundtrack culled from 2 of his acclaimed ambient albums, On Land & Music For Airports + 1 unreleased track &
Thursday Afternoon (the human figure) with different music from the album of the same name

Both works were created in the early 1980's for art gallery exhibition only. The DVD release is a deluxe digi-pak with 16-page color booklet and Eno's liner notes.

Software

Developing his video paintings, Eno created 77 Million paintings, a piece of ambient-like software...

77 Million interview

"...This a beautiful package, with a sturdy and gorgeously made color booklet, an interview DVD and the software disc. The software loads fully on the computer, so the disc can be removed during play..." D W Wisely

"...The music is a lot more "rock" and "edgy" than I would have imagined. Lots of Eno squelchy vocals with this strange "whooping" noise...and deep temple bell-like sounds..." Michael Thomas Roe

BBC interview Feb 2007
Wired interview Feb 2007