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: updated 21 december 02004 :

 

If you're quick, there's a chance to hear a repeat of Stuart Maconie's programme Brian Eno: A Quantity of Stuff split into two parts. It ends with an excerpt of "And Then So Clear." (Thanks to Paul Chisnell and Barry/Judas Slidetackle).

Stephan Decroo writes: I found on the Japanese HMV site that reissues of Music For Films, Apollo, Thursday Afternoon and also More Music For Films are due for release on 28th February 2005. (EnoWeb imagines that last album might be a translation of Music For Films 2, but who knows?)

Resolving to keep an eye on the passing time? An e-mail from Michael Miller gives a link to a Long Now-style calendar offering "any year, out to 10,000".

Richard Joly points out that Brian gives a testimonial for Kevin Kelly's collection of Cool Tools...

James Perry writes, somewhat formally to EnoWeb's mind: To whom it may concern: [Yup, we're very concerned] I've recently started a musical project in which I'm covering various songs suggested to me by my friends just for fun and as a musical challenge / experiment. The first song I finished was Brian Eno's "Baby's On Fire." I thought you might find this interesting or amusing, or perhaps even insulting. Anyway, if you'd like to give it a listen, go to:

Like Diana Ross, Brian finds himself in the middle of a chain reaction soon. How so, you ask? Why, on 14th December at 12:45pm he will be interviewed in London by Alan Moore for the Radio 4 series Chain Reaction. As the final interviewee in this series he may have the chance to interview somebody of his choice in the future if the Chain isn't pulled. [If you'd like to be in the audience for this event where Alan will definitely have the hair & height advantage, you can apply for free tickets from the page linked below. If you do get tickets, it might be wise to turn up earlier than the time stated -- a Feedback report revealed that more tickets tend to be issued than there are seats, and holding a ticket won't necessarily guarantee your place.] Alan Moore's interview with Brian should be broadcast on 5th February 02005. Prior to that Jenny Eclair (comedienne) interviews Jimmy Carr (comedian) interviews Matt Lucas (comedian) interviews Johnny Vegas (comedian) interviews Stewart Lee (comedian/Jerry Springer opera librettist) interviews Alan Moore (amongst many other things, the owner of an "amazingly carved front door" according to Neil Gaiman). (Thanks to Tilusha Ghelani)

1 Giant Leap's site is flogging the 1 Giant Leap DVD for just £15. Brian appears in the Time sequence, talking in front of the prototype of the Clock of the Long Now in the Science Museum.

Michael Flaherty e-mails: According to the All Saints web page, Music for Films III is subject to "up-dating and improvement" and will be back in stock in January.

Robert Fripp's diary describes another visit to Brian's studio and mentions that he will be playing on a track in January ...sounds as though Brian's teletext-imposed end of October deadline has whooshed by... (Thanks to Livio Nimmer, Sean Hewitt and Michael Flaherty)

Robin Bunce writes: Have you seen these photos?

Brian provided some new music for the BBC Natural World programme Hammerheads broadcast on BBC2 in early December. (Thanks to Andy Wilson)

Michael Ricci e-mails: This message is to let you know that the following article has been published at AllAboutJazz.com - Brian Eno: Ambient Forefather by John Kelman.

Trevor Haldenby says: Just wanted to chime-in, more-than-slightly-delayedly, that my Reviewobservatione of Eno's lecture at the CUNY a few-months-past is up-and-at-them on my blog.

Brian has released Curiosities Vol 2 - available now from Enoshop just in time for the Christmas market. Why give socks when you can give Curiosities? There's more instrumental/ambient material this time round and even a Koan piece, so it should be well received by those who found Vol 1 to be a little Drop-heavy. Running time just under an hour. The inside cover lists Curiosities to come on future releases including most of the tracks that Brian's been trailing in radio interviews over the years, from "And Then So Clear" to "Cross Crisis in Lust Storm" & "Warnography".

Meanwhile Brian has been formenting dissent by plotting the impeachment of Ye Prime Ministere. The Guardian has the details (Thanks to Sean Hewitt).

Paul Op den Kamp writes: I was looking on Adrian Belew's website and found this link to a list of 100 most progressive artists. Our man of course is on it.

Sometime photographer of Brian and other Opal stable worthies, Curtis Knapp, has a new web-site.

Brian was spotted at the Burning Shed gig according to this message to the Nerve Net mailing list.

Looks as though Brian contributed to this new book.

Brian wrote to The Independent to take issue with a journalist's view of the re-released Band Aid single. (Thanks to David Barnes)

Charly, EnoWeb's faithful correspondent in San Jose, writes: "Yes, the Enorchestra has scheduled yet one more performance of Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy). Again, at the delightful shoebox "Bottom of the Hill" (where it really is) in San Francisco, USA. It takes place on December 03 2004 at 10:00pm (doors at 8:30pm), cost $10.

Bernd Kretschmar turned up these links:

Brian gets a few mentions in this round-up of comments on U2's new album:

Spotlight on Eno Collaborators 1: Harold Budd's new album Avalon Sutra/As Long As I Can Hold My Breath has now been released. Apparently it's going to be Harold's final album ever - he reckons he's said all he has to say. Naturally EnoWeb was first on the scene and managed to grab this exclusive interview with the Grand Old Man of Ambient Music.
ENOWEB: "Harold, we'll begin with the question on everybody's lips: Why are you giving up releasing music?"
HAROLD BUDD: "                                   ."
ENOWEB: "Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us at such great length. It really is most appreciated, and I'm sure our site visitors will treasure the secrets you have revealed to us."
As well as the new album, a piece from Harold's Living Room Concert for Echoes last year is included on Passages: The Echoes Living Room Concerts Volume 10.

Spotlight on Eno Collaborators 2: J. Peter Schwalm has a new web-site, with copious audio samples and references to new Schwalm/Slop Shop releases. Needs your pop-up blocker to be switched off, but that's okay as there aren't any ads.

Following the grievous loss of John Peel on 26 October, Brian discussed his unique contribution to music on Radio 4's Today programme (thanks to Nick Day).

Brian has been working with Travis on their new album (thanks to Nick Day again).

Roger Eno will be playing a set at a gig on November 8th at The Spitz, 109 Commercial Street, Old Spitalfields Market, London E1 6BG. The headlining act is Tim Bowness, who will be playing a selection of songs from his debut solo album My Hotel Year (released on 25 October on One Little Indian Records). Tim's set will also include material from No-Man and he'll be backed by a full band featuring Peter Chilvers, Pete Morgan (UXB), Stephen Bennett (Henry Fool), Michael Bearpark (Henry Fool/Samuel Smiles) and Andrew Booker (Pulse Engine). Other artists on the bill are Rothko and Gamine. Tickets are £8 on the door, advance tickets £9 (inclusive of booking fee). Set times - Gamine: 8.20-8.40; Roger Eno: 8.50-9.10; Tim Bowness & band: 9.20-10.05; Rothko: 10.15-10.45. (Thanks to Brent Kirkham & Burning Shed).

There's a chance to see Malcolm Le Grice's short experimental film Berlin Horse at the Cork Film Festival on 14th October. This film was the first "release" for music by Brian in any medium, from way back in 1970. An installation of Malcolm's new film Cyclops Cycle is also running during the event. (Thanks to Richard Joly)

Michael Staley says: David Byrne and Eno went to see Patti Smith and Television in New York while Eno was there recently.

News on sometime Eno collaborators: Daniel Lanois has joined the Internet-only album revolution, with a new platter called Rockets. And Flash-only site samadhisound.com says Harold Budd's new album (retitled Avalon Sutra) will be available in the next few weeks.

Dan Winckler writes: I posted some notes about Eno's dialogue with Todd Haynes to my blog.

EnoWeb is pleased to present an exclusive interview with sometime Eno-collaborator and Opal stablemate Laraaji, supplied by Eno fan Kevin Eden. You can read it here!

Brian was due to give yet another talk in New York at Terminal 5 of JFK airport on October 5th, but the event was moved when the whole gallery area was closed after some Opening Night partying (we don't know if Brian was involved). The New York Times has a story on Brian's current thinking on lyrics. (Thanks to Ashley Warren, Jason Lader and David Shibler).

Judging by this article, it looks as though Brian's Ohio activity is simply someone playing one of his albums...

Astralwerks has a new section on the new Ambient Original Masters, with descriptions by Paul Morley.

Daniel Phillips writes: Channel 4’s teletext music pages recently reported on the Mercury music prize filthfest (I can't remember who won even now). Presumably in support of Robert Wyatt and his album Cuckooland, BE was there schmoozing with Franz Ferdinand (did they win by any chance??) and others. Alex, the lead singer, told BE that they had asked their producer to make the record sound like the first two Roxy Music albums (he failed there by the sound of it), he then admitted that he hadn't recognised the legendary sweet-domed one.

On the following day they ran a brief interview with the professor himself, who was full of chat about his next album. 3 years in the making, he’s given himself till the end of October to finish it or he was considering binning it. He also went onto say that a 'very famous singer/songwriter friend' had been round to visit the previous week and he'd played him two songs. The quality of these songs had 'scared' the friend so much that he’d decided to start over on his own l.p.

Anyway, we can’t have another My Squelchy Life debacle, so let's start the petition to save this one now!! The first step is to stop him yapping so much in the States. EnoWeb adds: Hear hear! If only Brian had specified which year the October relates to...

Brian did some Additional Production for U2's forthcoming album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. (Thanks to Sebastian Böcking).

Goran Vejvoda writes: Here is a funny shot of Rachid Taha meets Mark Knopfler in the Parisian Metro, just look at those two faces!

Amar Bouchibane writes: There's a Sample-CD out there (I don't know the exact release date) from drummer Neil Conti: The Dark Side Of The Groove. This CD contains drum samples and mixes for producing music. On the Samples4.com catalogue I read that Brian Eno had produced this CD: "This collection was recorded over many years and carefully processed through the finest available analogue processing by Brian Eno and Daniel Lazerus". The front cover of this CD says "Special Remixes by Brian Eno".

Not content with chatting to Todd Haynes on October 7th (see news story down the page a bit), Brian is also a Keynote Speaker at the Tokion Magazine Creativity Now Conference. Strangely, this involves him being interviewed, by Carlo McCormick. He's on from 12:30 to 1:30 on Sunday October 3rd 2004. The event takes place in the Great Hall of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Cooper Square, New York, NY 10003-7120. Thanks to David Firmin.

It's not all talk, talk, talk, you know. Brian's been filling in time down in Cincinnati, Ohio, by making some kind of contribution to Nothing Compared to This: Ambient, Incidental and New Minimal Tendencies in Current Art at the Contemporary Arts Center. Don't know exactly what, though -- perhaps some Ohio-based Enothusiast can enlighten us? The exhibition runs from 25th September to 28th November 2004. Thanks to Richard Joly.

Mark Prindle would like you to read his reviews of Eno albums, written in his thankfully inimitable style.

In a desperate attempt to fill out the news page, EnoWeb has put up a copy of Extracts from Music For White Cube up for auction...

The next four Original Masters - Discreet Music, Music for Airports, The Plateaux of Mirror and On Land - will be released by Virgin EMI in the UK on Monday 27th September and Astralwerks in the US on 5th October (Thanks to Kevin Eden, Rory Walsh and Colin).

Rory Walsh also directs our attention to War Child's new music download site, where you can buy the HELP! album from a few years back, put together by Brian and Britpop chums.

Richard Joly turned up another review of the first four re-releases

Judging by a recent eBay auction of advance CDs, the next batch of four "Original Masters" CDs will be Discreet Music, Music for Airports, The Plateaux of Mirror and On Land. Let's hope there aren't any mastering errors or track listing typos this time around.

Robert Phan points out that All Saints records has the lyrics for Nerve Net on its site, to accompany its re-release. At last an end to not-knowing-exactly- what-Brian-is- singing-on-"Fractal-Zoom" misery. The Shutov Assembly page also has some new art selections.

Robert Phan also reveals that the Rachid Taha site is now up, where, if you click on the Discographie link, you can hear a brief sample of the track "Rock el Casbah" from his new album Tékitoi? which had some involvement from Brian.

Pitchfork Media chose Another Green World and Low in its line-up of top 10 albums of the 1970s. Thanks to abcdvitamin.

Sue Grant e-mails: We are putting on a club night called WE SALUTE ROXY MUSIC/BRIAN ENO AND FRANZ FERDINAND on October 8th 2004, 8pm to 2am, £4, at the Albany, 240 Great Portland Street, London W1. We will play DJ sets of lots of Roxy and Eno, and it will be a rare chance to hear/dance to Baby's On Fire, Seven Deadly Finns, Backwater, etc alongside music such as Talking Heads, Devo, Can, Bowie. All in a club, loud! We would love fans of Eno to know about this event...

David Buckley's book on Roxy Music, The Thrill Of It All, is now out. You an currently read reviews of it at these links:

Perfect Sound Forever has compiled a tribute to Robert Quine, and Brian has contributed his memories:

Coming on 7th September from All Saints Records: remastered and repackaged versions of Nerve Net, The Shutov Assembly, Neroli and The Drop. These will be available from all good record stores and eventually the All Saints site. For the first time Nerve Net will include Jerome Lefdup's video of "Ali Click". As in days of yore, there will be separate versions of some albums for the UK, Japan and US (e.g. the Japanese version of The Drop will include the 3 bonus tracks). (Thanks to Stephan Decroo, and Dominic at All Saints).

Robert Kennedy and Richard Joly draw our attention to the fact that Brian will be talking to Velvet Goldmine's Todd Haynes on October 7th in New York -- and you can listen in. It's all part of a Music and Media event at CUNY Proshansky Auditorium (365 Fifth Avenue at 34 Street). Tickets are $15, $10 members, $8 students.

Moving swiftly on to Tuesday May 17 2005, Christoph Bull will be playing on the historic 1930 Royce Hall Skinner Organ at 8pm in UCLA's Royce Hall. Amongst his repertoire will be "unusual arrangements of popular music by writers such as Brian Eno and Bob Dylan". (thanks again to Richard Joly).

Out now, we believe, is the first CD release of The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads, their live album on two CDs with three bonus tracks. EnoWeb has no data on any involvement from Brian. Thanks to Robert Phan.

Brent Kirham writes: Just came across this. Thought it may be of interest to some readers...

More information on the Eno & Rachid Taha collaborative track has come in from Robert Phan, Richard Mills, Sebastian Böcking and Renzo Pietrolungo. It also features Skin formerly of Skunk Anansi, has the title "Still Standing", and appears on the album Unity: The Official Athens 2004 Olympic Games Album. Release date August 2nd.

Rory Walsh writes with more information on the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition: Two of Eno's notebooks are included as part of the show. "2 Pages From Paris Late '83 Series Description Pages 3 & 4" explores an idea for generating a series of notes in complex sequence and includes a simple but lovely sketch in pencil and crayon. The second Notebook "June '81-November '83" appears to be a diagram for one of his installations. The guide from this part of the show includes the following quote from Eno "I've always used drawings to try to visualise processes - including musical ones. These are working diagrams really - not made to be 'beautiful !" The writing and diagrams are a lot neater than those included in More Dark Than Shark so were probably transcribed rather than being the 'actual' working notes. The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition runs from 8 June until 16 August and admission is £7.

Levent Ozgur says: I just discovered an Eno-penned article in Zembla Magazine called "War of Words." To reach the article, you have to launch the Flash window [by clicking on the word Open], and on the A-Z menu press E to select essays. The article then appears. EnoWeb adds: Isn't that a simple and intuitive approach to web-site navigation!

Richard Joly and Santiago A. Calvo Ramos point out that Brian is credited for "processing" on the track "Milkshake Roadmap" on BJ Cole's new CD Trouble in Paradise.

Phil Manzanera's 6PM, which has contributions from Brian, is now out.

Pete Marsh has a review of The Equatorial Stars here:

Nothing to do with Brian, but Clive M says: I hope you don't mind the e-mail but I just wanted to alert you to the fact that there is now an official site for Russell Mills. Much more will be added over the coming months so you might want to continue checking the site for the latest additions. EnoWeb adds: actually I see now that there is an Eno connection down at the bottom of the page.

Dannie Suzanne writes to try and sell EnoWeb some curious medication, promising that by "...WEEK 9: Your MANHOOD will have taken on a new body..." EnoWeb responds: Now that is just plain scary. Admittedly my manhood doesn't generally see a great deal of action attached to the one it's got (otherwise I wouldn't wile away the time running a web site), but the idea that I can take a pill and cause it to migrate to some new (cloned?) entity is a deeply disturbing one. Am I to conclude that your spamming activities are simply part of the spearhead for an alien invasion?

Peter Schmideg e-mails: Just letting you know that I created a humble tribute to Brian Eno in the form of a web animation on my website, Illumination Gallery.

According to Matt, "An Ending: Ascent" continues its bid to become Brian's most-licensed track with an appearance in a US commercial for Subway. Matt Primak says: The commercial features young children who are recounting their experiences losing weight with the help of Subway. At the end of the ad, everyman-cum-spokesman Jared Fogle comes onscreen.

Doug Hilsinger & chums performed Taking Tiger Mountain live for the second and last time on Friday 2nd July at 10pm, venue: The Bottom Of The Hill, 1233 17th Street (17th @ Missouri), San Francisco, CA 94107.

Nothing to do with Brian, but Harold Budd will be giving a concert in Los Angeles on September 18th at 8.30pm, venue: REDCAT.

The new Fripp & Eno album, The Equatorial Stars, is out now from Enoshop and Discipline Global Mobile. Thanks to Bruce Showalter, bjensen, Phil Toudic, Michael Madden, John Walliser, Michael Flaherty, Sebastian Böcking, Paul Ramsay, David Firmin & John Neilson.

Brian contributed to Vox Pop: Beating Art, presented by Paul Morley, on BBC Radio 2 on Tuesday 29th June from 20:30 to 21:30 BST. Other contributors include David Bowie, Mark Mothersbaugh, David Byrne & Peter Hamill. Actually this was just an extract from a previously broadcast interview.

Prospect magazine is running a poll to identify Britain's top 5 public intellectuals ("public" intellectuals? Is that like public nuisance, or public enemy number one, or public toilet??? "Why, my dear, he may be an intellectual in public, but let me tell you in private he is a very beast!"??? Sorry, EnoWeb is rambling again... get to the point...) Ah, look, here's the point, Brian is in its shortlist of 100. Prospect's readers can vote on who gets to have a lovely day out in London, seeing the sights and shopping in glamorous department stores and getting to meet important people like a Cabinet Minister and a Newspaper Editor into the bargain.

Richard Joly sends word that 1.Outside is due for a re-release on 27th September 2004. It will include a bonus disc with several remixes that previously appeared on various singles, but apparently nothing extra from the 1.Outside recording sessions, not even the bits that leaked out onto a bootleg last year. EARTHLING is also being re-released with remixes of the Bowie-Eno track "I'm Afraid of Americans".

On Saturday 19th June from 21:20 to 22:00 on UK digital television channel BBC4, Brian contributed to a Time Shift documentary, Art School, discussing "the British art school's reputation as the engine of 60s counter culture" according to the Radio Times. Other contributors included Mary Quant and Kim Howells. Later in the week he also briefly appeared on screen in another documentary, Here's A Piano I Prepared Earlier, during a section about the Portsmouth Sinfonia.

Nicolas Winding Refn's film Fear X gets a Region 2 DVD release on 28th June. As it features music by Brian & J. Peter Schwalm, it may represent the only chance to hear "new" Eno music this decade...

More reviews in for the re-releases. There's a 2-page feature in print in WORD magazine, plus some on-line...

Following up on EnoWeb's references to the film CLEAN, we are indebted to N. Onnymous who writes: "I thought I'd mention that I saw CLEAN in Cannes. Eno's music is used so beautifully - not like some semi-mysterious, darkly tinted background, which is the way his music is often used in movies, but as a kind of redemptive aura around Maggie Cheung's character, and around her little boy. If I remember correctly, the tracks used are: The Lost Day, An Ending, Stars, Spider and I, Taking Tiger Mountain (Assayas does something wonderful with that one - in a way, it's the little boy's theme), and a tiny bit of The Jezebel Spirit."

Thanks to Richard Joly & Tim Church who say that Paul Simon is working with Brian on an album. It's just a one-line reference in an AP feature about Simon & Garfunkel's reunion tour.

Steve Duffy writes: Thought this was maybe worth a mention on the EnoWeb news section: the sad news of Robert Quine's death.

Virgin has issued an official statement regarding the problem on the Original Masters version of Another Green World:

"Subsequent to approval of a correct version of Another Green World on reference CD, there was a DDP image file corruption which has affected the track 'Everything Merges With The Night'. Please take your CD back to where you bought it, and the retailer will exchange it for you. Although working as fast as possible to remanufacture, the new discs won't be ready until the end of next week."

So if you plan to buy the reissue, it looks as though you should wait until 11th June at the earliest. The problem has been succinctly described by EnoWeb visitor Feline1 thus: "If you haven't heard one of these discs yourself, lemme try and explain what happens - it's quite odd - 'Everything Merges With The Night' fades in for some several seconds, it's not like it just abruptly begins with a chunk missing from the start... but the first vocal line is 'I've been waiting all evening' - it's like they've seamlessly removed the 'Rosalie' and digitally spliced the join back together." Thanks also to Dave Shibler and Justice Bahrychuk who have been helping EnoWeb monitor the situation. Hmm, DDP = what? Dog's Dinner Protocol?

UPDATE: We recommend purchasers of the Astralwerks release in the USA to contact Astralwerks direct as the company is adopting a proactive solution to the situation -- the e-mail address can be found on this page.

There are some pictures of Brian's Quiet Club installation by Karoline Siber at the Quiet Club site. No music though.

Astralwerks has a microsite dedicated to the new Original Masters CDs. There are long essays from Paul Morley and RealAudio streams of some of the tracks so you can hear the new sound quality. I found myself thinking "I've never heard that before! You can't hear that on the previous version..." and then playing the CD and finding the detail was on the original if I knew to listen for it. More than anything, the new issues encourage us to listen to the albums with a fresh pair of ears, and emphasise just how strange this music is.

Some odd choices with the packaging though. None of the albums I've seen here in Britain has special quotation stickers on the plastic sleeve, the images of Peter Schmidt's watercolours have been removed from Before and After Science (the subtitle has been reinstated but reduced in number to Ten Pictures), and the artist/title label on the spines is in non-standard orientation.

While we're on this topic, Richard Joly says there's a review in the June issue of UNCUT, Richard, Radiocitizen & David Buckley say there's a review in the June issue of MOJO, and Paul Ramsay says there's an ad for the reissues in the June edition of The Wire. George Hook adds "More high marks for classic Remasters in both Blender and Rolling Stone this month."

David Buckley mentions in passing: My new book on Roxy Music, The Thrill of It All, will be published in September by Andre Deutsch: 400 pages, three picture sections, and plenty of material on Eno (but, sadly, no interview with him).

Robb van Sintemaartensdijk points out that Robert Fripp gives Fripp & Eno III a title in his 26th May 2004 diary entry: The Equatorial Stars. He also speaks of hiss.

Richard Joly offers up this Guardian article which says some of Brian's notebooks will make a rare public appearance at this year's illustration-themed summer exhibition at the Royal Academy.

Richard Joly and David Firmin send further links regarding the Olympic album which includes Brian's collaboration with Rachid Taha.

Mr.ANTHONY JAHN of BANK GIRO LOTERIJ SECURITY AGENCY writes: "You have been approved for a payment of 500,000.00euros(FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND EUROS.) in cash credited to file reference number:IPL/4249859609/WP1.This is from a total cash prize of (FIVE MILLION EUROS) Shared among the ten international winners in second categories. congratulations!!!!!" EnoWeb responds: Your petty scams and dubious punctuation shall have no dominion over me, insect.

Alex McCourty writes: Just thought I'd pass on a link of a recent Eno pic which shows him and 6 others (including Anita Roddick of Body Shop) as part of an Our World Our Say delegation handing in a petition at Downing Street, London. This petition demands a full and independent inquiry into the Iraq war. More info about the non-party political organisation is available on the About Us section of the site.

Richard Joly again: Brian provides soundtrack music for Olivier Assayas' new film CLEAN.

An e-mail in from Doug Hilsinger himself:

First of all, thanks for the great site! I am the guy who made the Taking Tiger Mountain remake CD that Mijmunyum wrote to you about, and I wanted to let you know that I put up a small webpage that has mp3s of all the songs. I also want to let you know that when we were recording these songs, we referred to your site for all the lyrics. So, who knows if they're the right ones, but we went with 'em anyway, cuz they sounded good enough to us. Thanks for making it so easy! Being the Enoweb guru, I hope you enjoy my versions of those classic songs. Eno got to hear it just days after we finished tracking, and was very excited about it. He wrote liner notes for the cd booklet, and it should be available in the US, England, and Europe after May 18th. The label info you posted from Mijmunyum is correct.

Leela Corman yodels to us about a Brian Eno Tribute in New York: Come join the 801 for an encore performance! We're doing one last performance of the early songs of Brian Eno, the great musician, essayist, artist, and world-class perv. It's for a great cause - it's a benefit for Rock and Roll Camp for Girls. We go on first, followed by a bunch of other great stuff! Where: The Knitting Factory main space; When: Wednesday May 19th at 8pm; Who: The 801 (Douglas Wolk, Leela Corman, Lisa Gidley, Liz Bustamante and Jess Bruder), Naysayer & Ida.

Robb van Sintemaartensdijk says: Robert Fripp talks about Fripp & Eno III again in his diary on 6th & 7th May, mentioning a rediscovered track and the cover... so it is coming!

Mijmunyum writes: Just wanted to let you know about this new up coming release... BRIAN ENO'S TAKING TIGER MOUNTAIN BY STRATEGY by DOUG HILSINGER with CAROLEEN BEATTY. By the way Amazon (at least here in the USA is taking preorders on it)
and their site has a great photo of the cover....i can't wait to hear it !!!

"Additional Musical Category Notes: Folk rock vocalist/chanteuse Caroleen Beatty (Bedlam Rovers, Waycross, Jon Langford) meets up with multi-instrumentalist Doug Hilsinger (Bomb, Bill Laswell, L.D. Beghtol of Magnetic Fields) for a complete re-interpretation of Brian Eno's 1974 classic album Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy. Hilsinger plays all the instruments (using no keyboards, synths or samplers), combined with Caroleen's expressive voice -- leads to a very organic and original take on this Eno album. Eno heard the album and remarked 'I was very moved by your versions of my songs...It's strange and enlightening...I enjoyed your version of my LP'."

We missed the auction, but apparently there was a 4th edition Oblique Strategies deck up on eBay earlier in April. The listing's still there and has some interesting information about how this edition was put together.

Not strictly Eno, but Richard Joly points out that Michael Nyman's original Obscure release Decay Music has been remastered and rereleased with an extra track.

Vince Berani e-mails: Eno working with New Order! Hopefully these sessions will prove to be more fruitful than that one day session with the Pet Shop Boys...

A Brian Eno Quiet Club installation formed part of this year's Luminale in Frankfurt each evening from 18 to 22 April. The music was remixed each time by a different musician.

Goran Vejvoda writes: French weekly Les Inrockuptibles, issue n°436 7th-13th of April 2004, in their news section page 14, announces that Brian appears on Rachid Taha's new album Tékitoi? which is due to be released on June 2nd 2004: "There's another nice surprise on Tékitoi? -- the presence of Brian Eno on keyboards and backing vocals on the cover version of The Clash's 'Rock the Kasbah'. Rachid Taha explains: 'We met at a concert and discussed a collaboration. We first worked together with Steve Hillage on a piece for the Athens Olympic Games which will be published on a special compilation, and then we did it again for the album, co-writing a track called Dima'."

Talking of albums on which Brian guests, a release date has been set for Phil Manzanera's new 6PM -- July 2004.

Robert Fripp's Diary once again refers to his work with Brian (6th April) and in a previous entry, now gone, also mentioned visiting a new Eno homestead in Oxfordshire (Brian is slowly moving closer to Borsetshire).

"Round in circles like The Archers", Brian once sang, and so perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised by the story reported by Today and The Independent at the start of the month. Thanks to Mark Williamson, Nick Day, Dean Loughran, David Squires, Robin Bunce & Stuart Corrin.

Bruce Showalter writes: Bobby Fripp mentions collaborations with Eno in another recent diary (March 31st) entry. It even has a picture of the two of them as they wait for their audition for Men In Black 3.

Tim Church e-mails: I stumbled across these two article/interviews this afternoon, and thought that you might be interested. In the first article, Eno is said to be working with David Byrne again.

David Firmin reads: I haven't seen it, but this review of Mel Gibson's flick "The Passion of the Christ" mentions an Eno-like character: 'The film begins in Hammer horror mode, with the Garden of Gethsemane lit up by a full moon, and the appearance of a pale and slithery bald head who is apparently the devil, but looks for all the world like Roxy Music-era Brian Eno. Hooded and serpentine, he taunts Christ, who is shortly afterwards arrested by pug-faced Roman soldiers.'

Richard Joly has been scanning the Webwaves again and has turned up for your delectation and delight: firstly a reference to the equipment that Simon Heyworth is using on the 22 Eno re-releases, and secondly some information dating back to 2002 regarding novelist Jeff Noon.

Bob Pearce says: The talking-heads.net news page reports David Byrne telling Virgin Radio that My Life In The Bush of Ghosts will be re-released this year with some additional tracks. EnoWeb says: Having now heard the first bit of the interview, we can report that David tells interviewer Captain America "Yeah, probably later this year, we... re-release it with some... other stuff in other forms, with some... all that sort of thing."

Andrew Cox on the newsgroup points out: The BBC reports that Virgin will be re-releasing many of Brian's records over the coming year.
UPDATE 1: David Firmin directs us to a news story on NME.com - release date is May 17th and format is digipack.
UPDATE 2: There is some information on Virgin's The Raft site. Apparently the re-releases "will not be 'remastered' but instead will be re-transferred by Simon Heyworth from the original analogue masters". EnoWeb recalls that Simon was half of the team responsible for the Eno I & II box sets, so the music should be in safe hands.
UPDATE 3: 3 promos were listed on eBay in April, labeled "Original Masters". Their release date was stated as May 31st. No extra tracks were included.

Mark Marshall writes: I found a GREAT 2 hour interview with Brian From February of 1980 at the Internet Archive. EnoWeb adds: This is the full version of Charles Amirkhanian's wide-ranging KPFA Ode To Gravity interview with Brian in excellent audio quality (a truncated several-generation version has been in circulation for a few years). It's in 2 parts, recorded when Brian hadn't completed My Life In The Bush of Ghosts, and he plays a few tracks during the second part including a slightly different version of "America Is Waiting" before the vocals were added -- at that time, it had the title "Garbage Disco". Thanks for making it available, Charles!

James Beard e-mails: Empire magazine reports that Fear X (which features original music by Brian and J. Peter Schwalm) is due for theatrical release in the UK on 26th March.

Rory Walsh is back to say: Brian will be appearing on a panel at The Winchester Festival of Art and the Mind (which the web-site subtitles How art effects the human brain -- presumably making people confuse effect and affect, sneers EnoWeb pedantically; odd biography too). His appearance is on Sunday 7th March 2004 from 4.00pm to 6.00pm discussing Science and the Arts: the Emergence of a New Consciousness from the 60s to now, In Association with Arts Council England.

Mark Graham writes: Just snoozing off after an agreeable scotch when I hear David Dimbleby announce that Brian Eno "ex-Roxy Music" is to be a guest on next Thursday's Question Time (BBC1 10.35pm 26th February). No, don't laugh - for it is true. There could be warm jets and feathers amongst the politicians. It's a must-see!!!!!! (EnoWeb explains to its global audience: Question Time is a current affairs television programme where politicians, pundits and people famous for leaving a glam rock band over 30 years ago give their views on topical political & social questions. Not to be confused with the Radio 4 programme Gardeners' Question Time which refuses to have Brian as a guest because of his experiments involving bombarding plants with X-rays in the early 1990s [the resulting mutants -- "Part Plant, Part Human, All Attitude" -- are rumoured to have taken over most of Woodbridge. Ever wondered why Brian moved back to London? That's right, it got too "hot" for him in Suffolk when he found out that the plants were out for revenge. Ever wondered why Brian suddenly fled to St Petersburg? Yup, he spotted one of them getting onto an Underground train and realised they had tracked him down. Ever wondered why Brian never orders salad in a restaurant? You got it: just in case one of the mutants has disguised itself as a piece of lettuce.].)

 

Robert Fripp's Diary makes copious references to his collaboration with Brian (especially on February 14th). Interestingly Robert calls this Fripp & Eno III which suggests that even the inclusion of "Healthy Colours I-IV" on The Essential Fripp and Eno doesn't make that III in his book. Is EnoWeb making any sense here? Probably not. Thanks to Michael Flaherty, Richard Nensel, Bruce Showalter and John Walliser.

Trevor Haldenby writes: Just to once-again post a rather superfluous tidbit of news... the longnow.org site has Brian's November lecture up for audio download in a number of formats... the general quality of the recording is quite subpar, with a great deal of echo and reverberation involved (perhaps Brian intended it this way... given his alleged new interest in the qualities of the human voice?).

John Neilson e-mails: I was just poking around on your Taking Tiger Mountain lyrics page, and thought you might be interested in the page I put together.

Steve Wilson points out: Frieze, the art magazine, has an article/cover story on Brian Ferry, with some typically bizarre photos of Eno-period Roxy Music included. I haven't read the thing yet. (no photos at the website though).

Richard Joly forwards: CBC Radio’s Brave New Waves is celebrating its 20th anniversary and will be airing highlights from its history including an old interview with Brian on Tuesday February 24th. A date Twin Peaks fans will recognise, of course.

Rory Walsh writes: February's Future Music magazine features a nine-page spread on Eno including photographs of him in his studio (padded out with a page and a bit of album reviews). We learn that he has just got back from jamming with Jarvis Cocker when the interviewer arrived. Also Eno Shop seems to be a nice little earner so we may get some more goodies! More importantly Brian tells us that "The next big explosion for me in music, I think, is what people do with voices. The rhythmic era ... I think has passed a little bit now." Brian also demonstrates sending blues vocals through a chain of Kaoss Pads. EnoWeb adds: This is a useful interview for people who want details of the hardware and software Brian uses. There is also a reference to Brian's new album, but as is traditional no title or potential year of release etc. In addition, Brian bandies the word "hierarchicalise" about and is subjected to a Freudian misprint: "I'm always thinking: 'how do you bring the most intelligence to bare on this?'"

The BBC reports from this year's Word Economic Forum meeting in Davos that on Monday "Rock legends Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno" will be launching MUDDA. The acronym stands for Magnificent Union of Digitally Downloading Artists and the aim of the organisation is to give musicians a voice in The Age The Ancients Predicted Would Be Known As Digital (EnoWeb never understood why its rival acronym TATAPWBKAD failed to catch on). Peter is quoted as saying, "We need a model partnership [with the music industry] where every artist should have a controlling influence in the whole production process - if they want it." Thanks to David Firmin & Nick Day.

Onur Azeri e-mails: Two links for Eno at Rolling Stone's top 500 rock albums of all
time...

Robb van Sintemaartensdijk points out: Robert Fripp mentions another visit to Brian's studio on 9th January.

Brian's interview with Korg magazine from last year is now up on the Korg site. Thanks to TOny Ballinger.

Radiocitizen writes: Hello Tom, my translation of a review of Eno & Schwalm's concert in Cagliari, Italy, in May, 2002, is available at the More Dark Than Shark site.

Brian contributes to the 2004 Edge Annual Question, What's your Law?, which requires Big Thinkers such as His Nibs to suggest two laws. We like the idea of Brian saying "I am the Law", Judge Dredd stylee. Avoid flippancy, says the Edge site, so that's EnoWeb told. Thanks to Mike Nagy and Onur Azeri.

Rory Walsh e-mails: The February issue of MOJO features a Buyers Guide to Brian Eno by Mike Barnes. Although there is nothing new for the enthusiast it is an excellent introduction to the Eno canon stating that "a newcomer to Eno's solo recordings might expect an intellectually rigorous, forbidding body of work, but this is anything but the case. No amount of theorising, contextualising and pontificating on the composer's part alters the fact that almost all of his creations are vivid and impressionistic, and some are even romantic." It only suggests you avoid The Drop and Drawn From Life. EnoWeb adds: I find its lack of Apollo disturbing. UPDATE: The January issue had an in-depth article on the recording of the 1978 compilation, No New York, produced by Brian Eno (thanks to radiocitizen).

TechTV's Screen Savers interview with Brian is back on! If you can get it you can catch it at Monday January 12 at 7 p.m. Eastern; Tuesday January 13 at 12 a.m., 8 a.m., and 12 p.m. Eastern; and Saturday January 17 at 2 p.m. Eastern. Thanks to Bob D'Aprile on the Nerve Net list.

The unique Prague CD auction is running again after problems with the bidder.

We don't usually bother to cover eBay auctions at EnoWeb, but this one is interesting: one CD from Brian's 12-CD Music For Prague installation, previously auctioned in aid of South London Arts. Comes complete with signed luggage tag and catalogue. Starts at one penny but you can always "Buy It Now" for £2,475.00! Thanks to TOny Ballinger. UPDATE: Someone did indeed go for the "Buy It Now" option on 7th January.

Radiocitizen writes: Radio National in Australia is repeating A Quantity Of Stuff - The Brian Eno Story on January 23 at 8.50PM local time (Sydney). An audio stream will be available from the Radio National site.

 

Stories from last year which are still current:

 

David Whittaker writes: I was a good friend of the cybernetician Stafford Beer and I have just published a memoir on him. Brian made a unique contribution with a lengthy interview about Stafford. He was very keen to contribute (including a new photo), as Stafford was a major influence/mentor on how he made his records; particularly in the '70s & '80s. A good deal of what he has to say is on record (no pun intended) here for the first time and it emphasizes just how unique and isolated he was in those years (which, of course, is why we love him). Brian makes clear why he had such confidence in the early ambient records thanks to Beer's ideas and how they differed from contemporary work by Mike Oldfield and Steve Reich. He still believes Beer to be hugely undervalued and unacknowledged as a progenitor of current thinking on chaos and complexity. Robert Fripp has also contributed to the book by allowing two interesting letters to be reprinted here. Fripp and Eno brought together at last!

Stephan Decroo & Enoshop report that All Saints Records has a new web-site selling its catalogue of albums by Brian & Roger Eno, Jon Hassell and others.

David Buckley writes: This is David Buckley - the author of a new book called The Thrill Of It All: the Story Of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music. The book is being written now, and is due out next spring. I would love to hear from any fans with their Roxy/Eno memories (concerts, anecdotes, anything!). My deadline is 31 January so, I won't have too much time to incorporate new material now though. EnoWeb adds: He can be contacted here.

 


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