4,992Shows
249,891Spins
Monday, May 16 2016, 6AM
Roxy Music's second record delves deeper into Eno's sonic world, most notably on this track, which fades out with a number of tape loop effects and closes with a recording of a Judi Dench saying 'You don't ask. You don't ask why." After the album's completion, Eno departed the band over disagreements with Bryan Ferry about the group's management.
Eno's solo debut was record in 12 days at Majestic Studios in London in September 1973, only 6 months after the release of Roxy Music's 'For Your Pleasure'. Eno enlisted 16 guest musicians to play with him on the basis that he thought they were incompatible musically. Notably, he enlisted every Roxy Music member except for Bryan Ferry and his future frequent collaborator, Robert Fripp.
Eno directed the musicians in nontraditional ways such as dance and body language and credited his own performances with terms like "electric larynx" or "snake guitar", describing the production and sound of instruments rather than the instruments themselves.
Eno's second solo record is where Eno ultilized "Oblique Strategies", a series of instruction cards developed with his friend, artist Peter Schmidt, containing phrases and remarks that encourage creative solutions and lateral thinking. Like his previous record, Eno would create the lyrics by singing nonsense syllables to himself and then forming them in actual lyrics, many of which were references to the Chinese Communist revolution, the Turkish Airlines DC-10 crash in 1974, and an asylum in Limbourg, Belgium.
'Another Green World' is Eno's first move towards the ambient style that he would eventually be best known for. Eno used his "Oblique Strategies" to encourage himself to find new ideas when he was feeling creatively blocked. Brian Eno played many of the instruments himself and also features collaborators: John Cale, Phil Collins, Robert Fripp, and engineer Rhett Davies.
'Discreet Music' is credited to Brian Eno's full name and marks the shift into his signature ambient style. The inspiration for this significant change originated when he was laying in bed as a result of a car accident. Aiming to listen to 18th century harp music, Eno physically struggled to put the record on his turntable. Although he was able to start the record, he realized the album was turned down and could barely hear it. The experience informed him that music is an environmental experience and this framework continues to influence his work.
David Bowie was a huge fan of 'Discreet Music' and invited Brian Eno to collaborate on his record, 'Low". Eno joined Bowie in Berlin where he took part in the music scene and some cocaine.
One day, when Bowie was away in Paris, Eno was sitting next to producer Tony Visconti's son, who was playing an A-B-C sequence on the studio piano. Eno took the sequence and eventually transformed it into the song's ("Warszawa") main theme.
Eno was a primary collaborator on "Heroes", often adding his sonic elements and synths to Bowie's songs. Eno has co-writing credits on three of the album's tracks, including "Heroes". Written about a time when Bowie saw producer Tony Visconti embracing his girlfriend by the Berlin Wall, Eno wrote a wall of sound-style arrangement with the word "heroes" in mind before Bowie wrote any of the lyrics.
Brian Eno and David Byrne first met in May of 1977 when Talking Heads were supporting the Ramones in the UK. John Cale took Eno to see them in London and Eno invited Cale and Byrne back to his apartment where the three of them listened to records, including Fela Kuti's 'Afrodisiac', which would later become the template for 'Remain In Light'.
Brian Eno was selected to produce Devo's debut record. Eno paid for the cost of flights and recording expenses even though the band did not have a record deal at the time (but was certain they would obtain one in the near future) and simply asked for a share of any subsequent deals as compensation. The sessions were frustrating at times for both parties, as Eno considered the group reluctant to experiment with the arrangements of the songs on the demo. Additionally, he made synth parts and "treatments" for a large portion of the record, only some of which the band ultimately used.
The first in Eno's four album Ambient series, the album was also the first record to be described with the term: "Ambient". The music was designed to be continuously looped as a sound installation, with the intent of defusing the tense, anxious atmosphere of an airport terminal. Appropriately enough, the album was installed at the Marine Air Terminal of New York's LaGuardia Airport for a brief time in the 1980s.
Talking Heads initially worked on 'Fear of Music' without a producer but they were unhappy with their sessions and brought Eno in to record basic tracks and shape the direction of the record. You can hear Eno's influence most prominently on the opening track, 'I Zimbra", which guitarist Jerry Harrison would later note as an inspiration for their next record, 'Remain in Light'.
Of the albums in the Berlin Trilogy, Eno has the most co-writing credits on 'Lodger'. The track "African Night Flight", which was inspired by a trip Bowie took with his son to Kenya, in particular would prove to be influential in Eno's next move, as Bowie considered it to be a precursor to Eno's African-influenced work with David Byrne. Shearwater recently covered Lodger's "Boys Keep Swinging" in our new home and you can catch out the full session here:www.youtube.com
Brian Eno was initially hesitant to work with the band on the album as he was concerned that after working on their past two records, they would run a risk of repeating themselves. However, he was convinced after hearing the band's early demos, and immediately immersed himself in the recording process. Eno would record the instrumental sections which were often recorded spontaneously - and sample and loop them to create tracks, merging disparate genres and sounds into cohesive tracks. Eno has compared the creative process to "looking out to the world and saying, 'What a fantastic place we live in. Let's celebrate it."
'My Life in the Bush of Ghosts' release was delayed due to the process of legally clearing its many samples. Eno and Byrne were very interested in African and electronic music at the time, and sought to combine the two, rather than imitate either genre. The album was constructed entirely on analogue recording equipment, which meant that the process of synchronizing the sampled tracks was often painstaking, but also produced unexpected results. The vocals on "Regiment" are from Dunya Yunis, a Lebanese mountain singer recorded on the album, 'The Human Voice in the World of Islam' and some of the drums on the song are played by Talking Heads drummer, Chris Frantz.
The recording on 'Ambient 4: On Land' took three years because Eno had become bored with the synthesizer and sought to outfit his compositions with field recordings and other found sounds, finding the mix of organic and analog sounds to produce what resulted in this ambient work.
This sequel was composed with Eno's brother, Roger, and Daniel Lanois, a team he would also have on the same year's 'Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks'.
The track, "Deep Blue Day" was prominently used in a key scene in the 1997 film, 'Trainspotting', and the album's tracks have also been used in 28 Days Later and Traffic.
The first of Eno's many collaborations with U2 came together with a little resistance due to Eno's lack of interest and some nervousness by Island's label president, Chris Blackwell. However, Eno was won over, in part by Bono's persuasion and Eno's appreciation for the band's philosophy who used emotional terms to speak of their music rather than technical terms.
Eno's influence was not only recognizable on their record but in their live show, which was expanded significantly with the use of sequencers to create a fuller sound.
'Thursday Afternoon' is one 60 minute track, which was the soundtrack of the 1984 video of the same name, which was a series of images filmed in "vertical format", which meant that to watch it in its intended manner, one would have to turn themselves or their television on its sides.
Eno almost destroyed one of U2's greatest songs, "Where the Streets Have No Name". He planned to stage a studio accident with the song's tape in hopes of encouraging them to start with a fresh perspective on the track. As he was about to stage the "accident", engineer Pat McCarthy entered the room and dropped his tea tray in order to physically restrain Eno.
Encouraged by the ways that the producers pushed them, U2 hired Eno and Lanois for 'The Joshua Tree'. The iconic Joshua tree on the album fell around the year 2000 and a fan placed a plaque in the ground there that reads, “Have you found what you’re looking for?” The location of the tree is not in Joshua Tree National Park and is actually more than 200 miles from there.
'Wrong Way Up' was Eno's first album of songs after a decade of doing production and ambient work. In 1990, he reunited with John Cale to deliver this outlier in both artist's catalogues, full of pop-influenced, campy songs that differs from their earlier work.
U2 enlisted Eno to "come in and erase anything that sounded like U2". Eno would only come visit every few weeks to remain distant from the work, while Lanois served as the day-in-day-out producer. Crucially during one visit, Eno found the band contemplating breaking up due to divisions in the band created by musical experimentation. He convinced them to stick together, assuring them their endeavors were fulfilling their goal despite associated struggles.
Eno wanted to record something that sounded cutting edge in terms of technology and sound, and he succeeded with 'Nerve Net'. The album is filled with electronic beats and distorted vocals that make this Eno's most danceable record.
Credited with playing a variety of synthesizers and samples, Eno's signature is written all over 'Zooropa', whose songs almost all feature a degree of experimental sounds and loose song structures that lean towards eno work than U2's previous releases.
James were excited to work with Brian Eno who agreed to work with them upon viewing their jam sessions. He found their improvisations to be just as important as their finished songs, and he requested that the band produce an album of their improvisations alongside their planned record of typically structured songs.
Inspired by David Bowie's 'Low' in their early sessions, Slowdive called Brian Eno to produce their second release, 'Souvlaki'. While Eno declined to produce the whole record, he spent a few days writing and recording with band leader, Neil Halstead, which resulted in the track, "Sing". The sessions inspired Halstead to take on more ambient music which impacted the album's final set of songs.
Laurie Anderson enlisted Brian Eno to produce her first record in five years: 'Bright Red' (1994). "In Our Sleep" features Eno, Anderson, and Lou Reed.
After a little over a decade, Brian Eno and David Bowie began working on a new album, which saw them revisiting many of the same strategies used on the Berlin Trilogy. 'Outside' is one of Bowie's longest albums and most complex conceptually, featuring a number of characters in the setting of a dystopian late '90s North America. In 2015, the two were discussing revisiting these themes for another album in the near future but sadly, this never came to be.
U2 and Eno (under the pseudonym Passengers) originally planned to create a soundtrack for Peter Greenaway's 1996 film, 'The Pillow Book'. When those plans fell through, the group leaned towards more "Music for Films". "Miss Sarajevo" was played live for the first time when U2 played Sarajevo in 1997 after the end of the war, an experience that the band would consider to be among their proudest moments.
'Faith and Courage' is Sinead O'Connor's first album in six years and her fifth full-length, after taking time away to focus on motherhood. Eno produces the track, "Emma's Song".
After commercial disappointment of their 1997 album, 'Pop', U2 veered back to their more traditional sound with Eno and Lanois producing. Despite more conventional arrangements, Eno pushed the band to continue experimenting with their song structures, which is evident throughout the record.
Interested in making an album with vocals for the first time in 25 years, Eno released 'Another Day on Earth' in 2005. Eno was not content leaving his voice untouched in the recording process so he played with pitch-shifting and other fun patches to find unorthodox ways to use his vocals alongside his typically experimental music.
It wasn't until the pair were discussing the 2006 reissue of their first album at dinner one night and realized both of them had unfinished songs that the other could complete. Byrne had lyrics with no accompaniment and Eno had music with no words. The album was particularly influenced by gospel music, which Eno had an interest in for many years, but had recently given more of a focus, going as far to join a gospel choir.
Jones' first album in 19 years featured a number of guest artists and producers, but Brian Eno was brought in to work on every track, adding keyboards and his "treatments" to the entire album.
'Olympia' stands as the closest thing to a true Roxy Music reunion as we'll ever get. Bryan Ferry's 2010 solo album included input from Eno and the members' various other projects.
Eno is joined by Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams on this instrumental LP, which was created primarily using improvisation and inspiration from movie soundtracks.
James Blake collaborated with Brian Eno on the track "Digital Lion" from 2013's 'Overgrown'. In an interview, James Blake talks about looking to Eno for advice,“I needed to talk to somebody, and Brian was really good for justifying the direction it was going in, and saying ‘No, no, you don’t need to change anything.’”
One day while socializing at the gym, Albarn runs on the treadmill and Eno takes water aerobics - Albarn invited Eno to come listen to his first solo album, which led to Eno singing on it rather than producing, on the gospel track, "Heavy Seas of Love".
Eno and Underworld's Karl Hype first collaborated on a track for a compilation that Underworld had done with the Misterons in 2009. Sessions involved working on unfinished Eno tracks for the '90s which led to their first collaborative record, 'Someday World'. A few months later, their second LP, 'High Life' emerged.
Eno's latest release, 'The Ship' finds him exploring the line between the vocal and ambient music of his catalog, and also briefly nostalgic at the end of the record with his cover of the Velvet Underground's "I'm Set Free".
