News update: 5TH JULY 2018

Thanks to Dario, Rory, John, Richard, Bernd, Joe, and EnoWeb's own newsbot Tom Boon in no particular order for these news items.

77 Million Paintings is showing at the Historical Museum Of BiH in Sarajevo until 29th August. Brian gave a talk to launch it on 14th June; apparently we should brace ourselves for "some very strong language".

A new BBC Radio 4 play about David Bowie's Low includes "Brian Eno" as a character, played by Wilf Scolding.

  • Low - broadcast at 14:30 on Saturday 7th July and then available for a month afterwards

In the months since our previous update, Brian turned 70. He appeared reluctant to squeeze any publicity out of his birthday, though he did show up to plug Music for Installations a bit.

Two official snippets have been released from his Music For Installations talk at the British Library.

Here's a round-up of Music for Installations reviews:

There's a one-page interview with Brian in Issue 250 of Classic Rock magazine. He says, "I used to get up very early. But now I've come to believe that sleep is very, very important."
Mustard The Tortoise: I could have told him that.
Eno's statement may be seen to tie in with his comments about "Surbahar Sleeping Music" in the book accompanying Music For Installations: "an attempt to make a piece of music that would help me get to sleep". After the theories of Surrender and Scenius, it is clear that Sleep is the new S-themed bee in Brian's bonnet.

Talking of talking, "Matt Berry Interviews... Brian Eno"

As does Geeta Dayal.

  • Rolling Stone; Salon also has an article about the Oblique Strategies from Geeta's Another Green World book.

And Peter Aspden.

And Red Bulletin.

And Eclipsed Rock-Magazin.

Brian donated a lightbox for an auction in aid of Artangel, titled Aeolian.
Mustard The Tortoise: I'm going to steal it. Then it'll be an Illegal Aeolian.

An article about the Graham and Brown wallpaper that Brian designed in 2016.

Excerpts from Mister Eno's Politickal Activism Almanack:

"Stones" - a new track by Brian and Trio Joubran resulting from the Block9 Creative Retreat

Enovideo. Gotta say that YouTube's Search function really doesn't work well any more. You type in Brian Eno and it serves up loads of irrelevant stuff. Separating the wheat from the chaff:

Activities of Eno's pals and collaborators:

It's so hot that Mustard The Tortoise has taken refuge in EnoWeb's mailbox to try to keep cool.

Dave writes: Is there a way to subscribe to updates? For example, do you have an email list I could join that notifies me when there are updates?
Mustard: There's no email list as GDPR makes managing that kind of thing a bit of a nightmare. Tom set up a frankly amateurish enowebnews Blog page to which you can subscribe. RSS may or may not work these days.

Manifestation Miracle writes: Hi, Today I want to show you a really absurd, but extremely effective "Manifestation Formula"
Mustard: I don't care how absurd it is, just so long as it involves a formula for manifesting dandelions. Mine have all wilted in the heat.
Manifestation Miracle: This will FORCE the universe to give you the life of your dreams
Mustard: Putting my understandable scientific scepticism to one side for a moment, can you offer me any examples that might pique my interest?
Manifestation Miracle: money
Mustard: Nope
Manifestation Miracle: happiness
Mustard: Nope
Manifestation Miracle: success
Mustard: Nope
Manifestation Miracle: I am talking about the kind of life that most people only ever fantasize and dream about.
Mustard: I only ever fantasize and dream about dandelions. Let's skip to the end.
Manifestation Miracle: Life will all of a sudden get super exciting, you'll find it hard to sleep as you'll be so excited about each new day to come...
Mustard: You really don't know me at all.
Manifestation Miracle: P.S. You will find yourself shocked and amazed the very first time you use this secret.
Mustard: What, when I discover I paid out for something that doesn't work?

Susan Harris writes: We are a Business to Business (B2B) contact list provider. Being a speck in an industry we are aware is unfortunately mired in distrust with unfulfilled commitments, our aim is to provide a service that will have you return to us for your subsequent needs.
Mustard: A most admirable aspiration! Alas, as a speck you do sound too small to be credible.
Susan Harris: I shall attach one of our Business development executives to you should you be willing to try us out.
Mustard: Sorry, I don't fancy having one of that lot glued to my shell. I draw the line at having to cart them around everywhere I go.

Zine writes: I am outspoken, caring, affectionate, conscious, plodding and emotional woman.
Mustard: It's a character sketch that tells me everything I need to know.

Surprise Reward writes: Enjoy the Scenery of These Irresistible Ladies
Mustard: Y'know, all humans look big to me, but those ladies sound as if they may be taking it to extremes.
Surprise Reward: Hello, Thousands of gorgeous Russian ladies are looking for someone to fulfill their loneliness.
Mustard: I can certainly help with that.

Tammy Peterson writes: Bill Gates invests in spray that re-activates your hair follicles so you regain all your hair back.
Mustard: Hasn't he got anything better to do with his time? It's the Tortoise and the Hare all over again.

Helen Gonzalez writes: the masters limerick went like this: Then I encountered styled the work of Larry Eisenberg, appropriately enough
Mustard: That's a rubbish limerick. It doesn't even rhyme.

Guardian-angel-reading writes: Golden Angel: his celestial help is all yours! Whether it is about Money, Love or Luck, I am certain that you have 3 Secret Wishes deep down that you would really like to quickly see granted.
Mustard: This is true. They are 1) dandelions, 2) dandelions, and 3) more dandelions.
Guardian-angel-reading: With the help of your Guardian Angel, I will deploy mighty powers capable of fulfilling your 3 Secret Wishes so you can be filled with Happiness starting now.
Mustard: That's awfully generous of you, although I would prefer to be filled with dandelions. Can you fix that? Thought not.
Guardian-angel-reading: You only have one gesture to make Ask to receive Your Angelical Reading for free right away.
Mustard: I'm making a gesture now. Can you divine what it is?

PREVIOUS update: 11TH APRIL 2018

Thanks to Ray, Dario, Rory, Richard and EnoWeb's own newsbot Tom Boon in no particular order for these news items.

From Eno with loveBrian will be DJ For A Day (or an hour, at any rate) on Saturday 14th April. He's taking part in Love Letters To Berlin for German radio station NTS and SONOS from 20:00 to 21:00 CET. Apparently his poptastic line-up will include work with David Bowie and an extract from his recent Berlin-based Empty Formalism installation. The show will be available to stream online on the NTS site afterwards.

Brian has written an op-ed for The Guardian on Proportional Representation.

A new book called It's Basic Income has a contribution from Brian. Not a monetary contribution, a contribution in the sense of a piece of his book-learnin'.

Phil Manzanera has uploaded a jam called "The Unknown Zone" recorded in the early 2000s, featuring him, Robert Wyatt and Brian.

Brian is one of the artists represented by Paul Stolper at ART COLOGNE, Booth C-030 Hall 11.2, from 19th to 22nd April 2018.

Rough Trade has a page for the Record Store Day 12" featuring Brian and Kevin Shields.

PREVIOUS update: 2nd APRIL 2018

Thanks to Dario, Rory, Richard and EnoWeb's own newsbot Tom Boon in no particular order for these news items.

Brian has a new installation for a week at Berlin's ISM Hexadome at Martin-Gropius-Bau, ably supported by Peter Chilvers. Empty Formalism runs until Thursday 5th April from 18:00 to 22:00 each day. Brian also took part in a sold-out talk with Thomas Oberender on 31st March.

Eno libraryOn 23rd March Brian gave a talk about his installations at the British Library. Richard Mills writes:

Brian was promoting the soon-come box set of installation music, so I feel we should allow his introductory claim that he has never released installation music on CD before. About half of the music on the 6-CD Music For Installations has been previously released on CD.

He gave an amusing account of the genesis of Discreet Music and demonstrated how the visual "score" developed as the music became more unpredictable and infinite. The colours and sounds have allowed him to achieve his ambition since childhood to be both a painter and someone who creates music. He also demonstrated what happens when two inter-dependent pendulums are started simultaneously. They defy predictability and behave differently each time. This unpredictability is a quality that informs Brian's installation work.

Brian also spoke of his work creating quiet spaces in hospitals, how we are all artists in the ways we dress, do our hair and prepare food and the dichotomy between the reduced attention span we all believe we have and the expanded attention we now afford art, video and computer games and box sets. It was a stretch to claim this was the first time this talk has been given, but it's the debut for a talk on installations specifically and we were treated to the recent Kazakhstan installation music (that features on the box set) and some soundscapes created live in the auditorium based on something Brian played with last night.

Remarkably after a couple of hours spent standing (when not visiting the pop-up Eno Shop or standing in a queue for alcohol), the audience needed to stand for the 75-minute duration of the talk. Brian apologised for the need to stand and craved patience for the last quarter hour.

"My vision for the future is somewhere where people don't worry if something is art or not, but whether it works or not" – Brian Eno

Image composite based on photos by Rory

Here's more information about Brian's new Chord Tritone lightbox from Paul Stolper Gallery:

Brian Eno’s lightbox, ‘Chord Tritone’ 2017, seamlessly phases through a combination of sensuous ‘colourscapes’ using a series of interwoven LED lights, seemingly with no beginning or end, no finality. In this way Eno “encourages people to stay in one place for a while”. “If a painting is hanging on a wall we don’t feel that we’re missing something by not paying attention to it. Yet with music and video, we still have the expectation of some kind of drama. My music and videos do change, but they change slowly. And they change in such a way that it doesn’t matter if you miss a bit”.

The artwork can be seen in the Neon / Light exhibition at Paul Stolper until 28th April 2018. It includes a unique piece of Eno's music, which visitors may be able to hear on an iPod (unlike Light Music, it won't be played on speakers in the gallery).

The Bloom: Open Space installation in Amsterdam garnered some meeja coverage.

Here are some more details about Brian's contribution to the the public lecture series presented by UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose in collaboration with the British Library, Rethinking Public Value and Public Purpose in 21st Century Capitalism. Which is a remarkably long-winded sentence that could have done with some more punctuation, but no matter. If your mind has got its breath back, Planning for a Longer Now will see Brian and Finn Williams asking how the public sector might find a new agency to create long-term public value. Not quite sure what all that rhubarb means, but all will be revealed on Monday 24th September 2018 from 18:30 to 20:00.

Brian and Tom Rogerson talk about Finding Shore.

Winchester School of Art has scanned some 1968 letters from a youthful Brian Eno to Anthony Benjamin.

Moving to the early 1970s... late last year a bootlegged videotape of Alfi Sinniger's film ENO appeared on YouTube, before being removed for reasonable reasons of copyright violation. Now Alfi's company Catpics has made the original film available for rent on Vimeo. There's no trailer, but you can watch the first two minutes free and the full 22-minute film is well worth your time, providing a fantastic insight into early Eno with footage from the recording sessions for Here Come The Warm Jets.

By 22nd November 2017, Brian was appearing on Talk Radio to speak about the economic climate.

Time for a few more video and audio clips.

PREVIOUS update: 13th March 2018

Thanks to Dario, Rory, Ray, Martina, Richard and EnoWeb's own newsbot Tom Boon in no particular order for these news items.

Music for InstallationsYou know that investment you made in steel reinforcements for your music shelves? It's about to pay off, big time. 4th May will see the worldwide release of UMC's Music for Installations, a new box set that collects some of the music Brian has created for his video and sound installations from 1985 through to 2017 and beyond.

Designed by Brian and his long-time collaborator Nick Robertson, the beautifully bound package comes with a 64-page booklet featuring rare and unseen exhibition photographs and a new essay written by Eno. A few pieces were previously released through EnoShop and Lumen London but are difficult to find now, and there is a fair amount of unfamiliar and new material. Here's the tracklisting...

Music From Installations (previously unreleased):
01: Kazakhstan  
Premiered at the Asif Khan-designed installation We Are Energy in the UK Pavilion at Astana Expo 2017 in Kazakhstan.
02: The Ritan Bells  
Premiered at an installation by Eno at Ritan Park in Beijing, China as part of the British Councils Sound in the City series, 2005. [EnoWeb as-a-website-of-record quibble: a short extract of this was actually released with the Sound in the City book]
03: Five Light Paintings   
Premiered at an installation by Eno called Pictures Of Venice at the Gallerie Cavallino, in Venice, Italy, 1985.
04: Flower Bells  
Premiered at an installation by Eno called Light Music at the Castello Svevo in Bari, Italy, 2017.

77 Million Paintings (previously unreleased in audio-only form):
01: 77 Million Paintings
Premiered at the inaugural exhibition of 77 Million Paintings at La Foret Museum Tokyo, Japan, 2006.

Lightness – Music For The Marble Palace (previously only available as a limited-run CD via EnoShop only):
01: Atmospheric Lightness
02: Chamber Lightness
Premiered at the Eno installation Lightness in the Marble Palace at The State Russian Museum in St Petersburg, Russia, 1997.

I Dormienti / Kite Stories (previously only available as separate limited run CDs via EnoShop only):
01: I Dormienti
Premiered at an eponymous installation by the Italian sculptor Mimmo Paladino at The Undercroft of The Roundhouse in London, 1999.
02: Kites I
03: Kites II
04: Kites III
Premiered at an installation by Brian Eno at the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, Finland, 1999.

Making Space (a very good limited-run CD previously only available at Eno installations and on the Lumen website): 
01: Needle Click
02: Light Legs
03: Flora and Fauna / Gleise 581d
04: New Moons
05: Vanadium
06: All The Stars Were Out
07: Hopeful Timean Intersect
08: World Without Wind
09: Delightful Universe (seen from above)
Compiled by Eno for sale exclusively at his installations, this was first made available while guest artistic director of the Brighton Festival, 2010.

Music For Future Installations (previously unreleased):
01: Unnoticed Planet  
02: Liquidambar
03: Sour Evening (Complex Heaven 3)
04: Surbahar Sleeping Music  
Ideal for divination and prophecy as to the likely location of as yet unplanned and uncoordiated events.

There are three different versions, which can be gawped at using these links. As is EnoWeb's tradition, this is not an affiliate thang and will not lead to us receiving revenue from your potential purchase. This keeps us honest. And hungry.

All this probably ties in with Brian's sold-out talk at the British Library on 23rd March.

Pricing varies by store and geographical location. For example, at time of posting Amazon US proffers the standard CD edition for $35.99 while Amazon UK is dishing it out at £70.99, so it will be worth shopping around and grumbling at the vagaries and vicissitudes of The Music Biz.

A 12" record by Kevin Shields and Brian will be released for Record Store Day on 21st April, featuring last year's Adult Swim track "Only Once Away My Son" plus "The Weight Of History".

A new lightbox artwork by Brian called Chord Tritone appears in a new exhibition at Paul Stolper, Neon / Light, from 22nd March to 28th April 2018. There are no pics of it on the site at the moment.

The March 2018 issue of British Airways High Life (available at your app store if you are not a frequent flyer) has an interview with Brian to mark the 40th anniversary of Ambient 1: Music For Airports.

Brian will be participating in a public lecture series presented by UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose in collaboration with the British Library, Rethinking Public Value and Public Purpose in 21st Century Capitalism. Probably between 25th April and 3rd May sometime.

Brian is quoted in a Sunday People report on Universal Basic Income.

Brian is providing a new score for Rams, the forthcoming documentary about German industrial designer Dieter Rams by Gary Hustwit, who has posted a few extracts. The film was supported by a Kickstarter campaign.

An installation by Brian will appear at the ISM Hexadome at Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, sometime between 29th March and 22nd April. As you will no doubt recall, the Hexadome is an immersive 360° audiovisual exhibition combining art and technology, and should not be confused with Tina Turner's cinematic gaff – because with Brian around, We don't need another hero, We don't need to know the way home, All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome.

Previous update: 4th February 2018

Thanks to Dario, Rory, Ray, Rachel and EnoWeb's own newsbot Tom Boon in no particular order for these news items.

Bloom Open SpaceBloom: Open Space is coming to Amsterdam from 21st to 25th February. This new mixed reality collaboration between Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers is a groundbreaking generative audio-visual installation based on Bloom.

Participants wearing Microsoft HoloLens devices will experience Bloom in a completely new way – in a central zone surrounded by screens, they can tap the air around them to create elaborate patterns and unique melodies with the simplest of gestures. The innovative installation blurs the lines between the physical and virtual, exploring uncharted territory in the realms of both applications and generative art. Tickets will be sold in 20-minute increments to avoid overcrowding. Look, here's Peter Chilvers enthusing about it:

Where it's at: The Transformatorhuis (Trafo House) at Westergasfabriek, Klönneplein 2, 1014 DD, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tickets to the future: Click here
More information: www.bloomopenspace.com and www.microsoft.com/inculture/musicxtech

The Winchester Gallery at Brian's alma mater the Winchester School of Art is holding an exhibition of work by British artist Anthony Benjamin. For the Currents exhibition, Brian has created Endlessly Anthony, a customised version of 77 Million Paintings which uses images from Benjamin’s works. The exhibition runs until 23rd March, and is open Monday-Friday 10am to 4pm and Saturday 11am to 3pm.

Although the influence of teaching staff like Tom Phillips and Roy Ascott on Eno during his formative Art School years is well documented, Benjamin is seldom mentioned. However, he was very supportive of Eno at both Ipswich and Winchester, and their friendship continued after Eno graduated. Benjamin created a series of artworks called The Roxy Bias Suite in response to their discussions about electronic music. [Thanks to Rory.]

It is here: The Winchester Gallery, Ground Floor of Westside Building, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, Park Avenue, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 8DL

David Byrne has a new album out on March 9th: American Utopia, which we mention because Brian contributes some of his Mechanical Turk drummers and backing vocals, plus one or more co-writing credit(s). The first song, "Everybody's Coming To My House", is out now. Perhaps because of his current crowded living conditions, David has sallied forth to give lectures and be interviewed.

Okay, back to EnoWeb's All Eno, All The Ruddy Time agenda. Brian himself is not short of the odd word or two, and so it was on 22nd January that he made a repeat visit to the AA School of Architecture for a conversation with Valentin Bontjes van Beek.

On 12th December a chilly Somerset House hosted Future Power(s) #2 presented by Superflux, with Brian Eno, Juliet Jacques, Liv Wynter and Jinan Younis.

Steven Johnson has dug up another bit of video from his 2015 conversation with Brian.

This year Edge.org asks the last of its 20 annual questions: "What is the last question?" Brian's answer is surprisingly not "How can moments go so slow?" or "Can those poor teeth take so much kicking?"

Tom Rogerson has written a track-by-track guide to Finding Shore.

Brian will be visiting Düsseldorf on 12th-13th October for the ELECTRI_CITY Conference, and his Video Paintings will be on show from 13th October to 11th November. He may be holding a student workshop too.

Very few people are aware of this fact, and it's something that you will never hear referred to in press or media profiles of Brian Eno, but he actually began his 1970s musical career as a member of the group Roxy Music. Marvel as EnoWeb brings you another obscure item of Pop'n'Rock trivia! Anyway, the band's eponymous first LP has been re-released as a four-disc 12 x 12 Super Deluxe Edition featuring previously unreleased demos, outtakes, radio sessions, rare footage, 136-page book and a 5.1 remix by Steven Wilson.

Dangerous Minds has some photos of Brian with David Bowie in Austria in 1994.

Brief items about Eno-associated artists.

  • Rockumentary: Roger Eno talks to Gem Rey
  • J. Peter Schwalm has a new album out in May, How We Fall, and has released a preview
  • Roger and Peter also appear on Gaudi's forthcoming Magnetic album
  • Harold Budd will be playing in Dublin sometime between 19th & 21st April, and at the Union Chapel on London on 28th April
  • VV Daily Press: Harold recalls his 1940s boyhood

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EnoWeb's Newsbot is Tom Boon.