NEWS UPDATE: 8TH JUNE 2021
Thanks to Martina, Richard, Samantha, Dan, John, Janne, John, and EnoWeb's own newsbot Tom Boon in no particular order for these news items.
Today sees the launch of The Lighthouse, a new radio station for Sonos Radio HD which will beam out 300+ unreleased tracks from Brian Eno's archive.
"The music that will be broadcast from The Lighthouse covers a pretty broad period," Eno told an eager (though socially-distanced) young Press Release. "The earliest track we have at the moment is from 1990. We will be adding more pieces as time goes on. New pieces will be entering the mix and some of that will go back even further. You will be listening to a sequence of tracks which will be randomly generated, chosen by chance so there is the possibility of odd, I hope exciting collisions – things that are very slow next to things that are very fast next to things that have no tempo, no pulse at all."
"I have no pulse at all myself," said the Press Release, "for I am made of paper, so those tracks in particular sound right up my street. I take it that The Lighthouse will be exclusively available on the Sonos Radio HD channel, which is exclusively available through Sonos speakers on a subcription basis (€/$/£7.99 per month), exclusively available in the United States, United Kingdom, and now five new territories – namely Austria, Canada, France, Germany and The Netherlands? Oh, he's gone."
Eno will host a series of three programs related to The Lighthouse, starting with Program 1, where he discusses the unreleased material and why he’s finally decided to dig into the archive and share it with the world.
Mustard The Tortoise: That's disappointing. I would have expected him to start with Program 3 or 2. Beginning with 1 seems far too conventional.
"On Sonos Radio, we strive to provide a creative outlet for the artists we collaborate with," interrupted Joe Dawson, Director of Content and Brand Platforms at Sonos. "For months, we’ve been working with Brian Eno to bring his creative vision for The Lighthouse to life, redefining the possibilities of a radio station. With this living archive, fans can continuously immerse themselves in decades of Brian’s unheard music. This project is a testament to how we approach partnering with artists and will continue to evolve the listening experiences on Sonos Radio."
- Sonos Radio HD
- Program 1: Introducing The Lighthouse on Mixcloud (available to everyone)
- Sonos Radio Hour with Brian Eno on Mixcloud (available to everyone)
HOMINID
The Summer/Autumn 2021 issue of Arena Homme+ features a long interview with Brian conducted by Paul Stolper, eliciting some reminiscences from Eno about his Art School days, Stafford Beer, New York, Surrender, and his working practices.
Mustard The Tortoise: But it's still 99% men's fashion ads, right?
The 400+ page magazine is available in print on some newsstands that can bear its hefty weight, or alternatively as a digital subscription that you'll forget to cancel.
- Extract Editions digital subscription
RETURN TO SURRENDER
From 4th June to 2nd July 2021, Paul Stolper Gallery is hosting The Surrenderer, an exhibition of Brian's latest work including new lightboxes and "Malva", a ceramic vase with an ambient soundtrack played by speaker flowers.
Mustard The Tortoise: Never mind speaker flowers, are there any dandelions involved? Otherwise there's no way I'm going to slog up to London for that.
SPOUTING FORTH
- Broken Record – Rick Rubin interviews Brian (including talk about The Lighthouse)
- Brian's May 14th Stop The War statement
- Brian's MeRA25 Congress statement
ART
Brian participated in I Love You, Moi Non Plus, an exhibition of artists' responses to the new relationship between the UK and Europe.
The London Design Biennale runs at Somerset House until 27th June. In the the courtyard of Somerset House, Forest for Change – The Global Goals Pavilion features the sound of birdsong curated by Brian and Cheryl Tipp from recordings in the British Library Sound Archive.
Brian will be the 2021 Helsinki Festival’s theme guest, with 77 Million Paintings, The Ship and more running from 19th August to 5th September at Helsinki Music Centre.
- The Guardian – you can also get Brian's artwork on a T-shirt
- Amour Fou & Art
- London Design Biennale
- Helsinki Festival
FINAL FRONTIER
Brian spoke to the i newspaper about protecting space, in the run-up to a live discussion called Losing the Sky from the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh on 15th June, 19:30-21:30 BST. Tickets are free.
