NEWS UPDATE: JANUARY–MAY 2022
Thanks to Dario, Rory, Alex, Michael, David, Peter, Samantha, Richard, Rupert, and EnoWeb's own newsbot Tom Boon in no particular order for these news items.
To mark this year's Earth Day, Brian and friends released a selection of new/previously unreleased tracks; revenues for these will go to EarthPercent. For some reason they decided to restrict sales (and hence donations) to just a couple of weeks, which means you probably only have until 5th May to buy any tracks you want. Those with Brian's involvement are listed below.
- Brian Eno: Did the World Begin Today
- Hot Chip x Fay Milton x Brian Eno: Line In The Sand – some pics from the recording here
- Michael Stipe: Future, If Future
- Fovea Hex: All Those Signs (EarthPercent Mix)
- All of this year's EarthPercent Earth Day tracks
- Short clip of Brian at an Earth Day online discussion
- The Guardian: interview with Brian on this topic (he misidentifies The Colbert Report as Saturday Night Live)
- Short video from an EarthPercent dreaming session at Brian's studio
AMBIENT KYOTO
A light and sound installation will take place in Kyoto, Japan, from 3rd June to 21st August. The venue (according to Google translation) is Kyoto Central Credit Bank Former Welfare Center, 113 Karasumaru Nishiiri, Nakai-cho, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto. Or according to Facebook's translation, "Kyoto Chuo-Chuo Trust vault, the old-fashioned health center" and "Kyoto Chuo Station Credit vault. Old Life Center." Opening hours: 11:00–21:00. Works at Ambient Kyoto will include 77 Million Paintings and The Ship, and there will be an Eno Shop page on the website.
Tying in with the installation is A Beginner's Guide to Brian Eno, a new Japanese book published by ele-king on 25th May which provides an overview of Eno's musical career and a detailed discography.
- Ambient Kyoto and Instagram
- A Beginner's Guide to Brian Eno at ele-king and Instagram
WHAT'S UP, DOC?
Documentarian Gary Hustwit is currently working on a new film about Brian. The pair previously collaborated on Hustwit's film RAMS, for which Eno was an interviewee and soundtrack composer, and there really couldn't be a better filmmaker for the project. Instead of a linear narrative, the film will present information generatively (as if EnoWeb has a clue what it is typing about here). He tells Variety: "I think of 'Eno' as an art film about creativity, with the output of Brian’s 50-year career as its raw material." Bit of a spoiler with the reference to the film title there, though EnoWeb suspects it'll actually be called ENO in upper case like Alfi Sinniger's film. It certainly sounds like a deep dive into Eno's archive, as Hustwit's site says his team have "digitized and restored approximately 400 hours of material spanning 50 years: interviews, seminal early video art projects, lectures, performances, behind-the-scenes documentation of recording sessions, and more." The film is due for release in multiple formats in 2023.
- Variety
- Eno page on Gary Hustwit's website
- Trailer on Twitter with unreleased Eno track from 2021 and a curious salad fetish shot at the 18 second mark
- Gary with Brian
CURRENT AFFAIRS
In an article that was rapidly overtaken by events, President of the Stop The War Coalition Brian Eno explained that peaceful Russia never did nuffink and everything was the fault of beastly Westerners and their talking-up of conflict to create favourable market conditions for weapons sales. After President of the Start The War Coalition Vladimir Putin did what it said on his tin medals, Brian signed an "Artists against War in Ukraine" letter condemning the invasion. He also teamed up with his "Let's Talk It Over" group for an exclusive broadcast from the saddles of their high horses atop their Ivory Tower, where they agreed that it was surprising there was such a high level of support for Ukraine; furthermore, they agreed that it was all much more complicated than people realised. The panel agreed it could be solved by Joe Biden having a meeting with Vladimir Putin, and their agreeable meeting was adjourned.
Quotes from the past show how Eno's thinking has evolved.
"The discussion about Bosnia is so muddled by the failure to distinguish between moral and legal arguments. What the Serbs are doing is illegal, and recognized as such in international law. THAT IS ALL WE NEED TO KNOW. We don't have to go into great arguments about whether they should be allowed to continue because they have historical grievances ... Our first priority should be to enforce law, to respect the consensus that we have subscribed to." — Brian Eno, 1995, in A Year with Swollen Appendices
"At that time I still swallowed the line, oh Bosnia's so complicated, it's been going on for 1,200 years." — Brian Eno, 1996, referring to 1993, in The Independent
"My feeling about Brexit was not anger at anybody else, it was anger at myself for not realising what was going on. I thought that all those Ukip people and those National Fronty people were in a little bubble. Then I thought: ‘Fuck, it was us, we were in the bubble, we didn’t notice it.’ There was a revolution brewing and we didn’t spot it because we didn’t make it. We expected we were going to be the revolution." — Brian Eno, 2017, in The Guardian
- Stop The War article
- Artists against War in Ukraine letter
- Let's Talk It Over; they also released extracts from Brian's contribution as a separate video in which he says it's complicated and refers to the original title "St Petersburg" for his collaboration with Hot Chip and Fay Milton
OH BROTHER
Roger Eno has just released a new album, The Turning Year, on Deutsche Grammophon.
- The Turning Year
- The Turning Year (Official Music Video)
- Clearly (Official Music Video)
- Bells (Official Music Video)
- NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert
OTHER THINGS THAT CAUGHT ENOWEB'S EYE
In a short article about the Earth Day music, Brian tells UNCUT "he has been working on some of [Peter] Gabriel's new material, as well as finishing a 'whole batch' of his own music. 'I've got so much ready to come out now, I'm just not quite sure what form to release it. You know, whether to release a track a day for seven years or something!'"
Brian has spoken at a number of events (e.g. Green Events & Innovations Conference and the International Music Summit), but not everything makes it to YouTube.
Summer may see some digital art by Brian on Dublin's Living Canvas.
Artists who have discussed working with Brian in the past: Jah Wobble, Laraaji, Dido, David Byrne (1988); and recently: Sissi Rada talking about this track, Fred Again..
- How Musicians Can Help Protect the Planet: Brian Eno & Pete Tong with Sadhguru (this appears to have been syndicated over multiple channels on YouTube)
- Art & Climate: A Conversation with Brian Eno & Beatie Wolfe at SXSW 2022
- URBANOsur conducted some lockdown-related interviews with musicians for a series of documentary profiles; information is really vague but it appears these were intended as a series for the Citibanamex bank... available only in Mexico... for a short time in 2021... and may not have happened at all. There's a teaser for Eno's bit here and a longer trailer on this page.
- Brian provided a soundscape for Marcus Lyons' Fields of Vision: A Human Atlas Project at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, in early March
- J. Peter Schwalm and Stephan Thelen (w. Eivind Aarset, Tim Harries, Manuel Pasquinelli) are releasinga new album called Transneptunian Planets
- Tim Story and Hans-Joachim Roedelius released a tribute to Harold Budd
- Brian Eno Talks about Climate Change, COP26, Earth, Royalties & Women (2021)
- Lago Escondido by Samuel Aguilar & Brian Eno – see also SOCIAL DISTANCING CONVERSION VARIANT by Samuel Aguilar which includes contributions from Brian and others (track 4 can be found on SoundCloud here)
- Another Let's Talk It Over on Fixing the climate capitalism broke
- Ensemble Delalus plays Thursday Afternoon and other Eno Top Ten Gold Classics (extracts)
- Woodbridge will be having an ambient festival
- "Kurt's Rejoinder" playing on Brian's colour-changing Turntable is one of the exhibits at Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven's exhibition about Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate until 22nd May
- 77 Million Paintings at Buenos Aires, 2016 video at All Saints Productions