enoweb

Get notified when this page is updated

news

: updated 25th November 02010 :

 

Good news! Brian's full 16-ish-minute Keynote Speech from the Rolex Young Laureates Programme Awards on 11th November can now be viewed at Vimeo.

Some more info about the Yota Space Festival at which Brian will be speaking (29th November) and 77 Million Paintings will be shown (6th-19th December, official opening 5th December).

Brian gets interviewed by New Scientist. (Thanks to Dario and Richard Mills.)

Brian biographer David Sheppard offers up some more magniloquent mutterings of murmurosity regarding Small Craft On A Milk Sea.

Bono chooses his 15 best 10 Bowie songs including some to which Brian contributed. (Thanks to Richard Mills.)

Our previous update was on 22nd November when we wrote:

Next up in the 7 Sessions setlist is "Allen Loop". (Thanks to Dario.)

Sire! A Dispatch from Owain Glyndwr's Court in the Welsh Borders, delivered by our trustie and wellbeloved servant Richard Mills.

The Crunch Festival 2010 in quaint Hay-on-Wye was not just a diverse collection of performances but a fascinating melee of famous and relatively unknown arts opinionists, all getting a chance to talk about their take on contemporary arts. Bianca Jagger got to argue the importance of art as political tool, especially in the human rights arena in which she now toils, against Raymond Tallis who believes that there is no place in politics for art. Matthew Collings discussed with Julian Spalding whether art that shocks actually does and, if it does, is it still art?

But the event that had ticket holders queueing in icy cold outdoors, while extra chairs and benches were carried into the meeting space, was the conversation between Brian Eno and Paul Morley on "Seizing the Means of Production". In the warm, comfortable stable-like atmosphere of the Globe, the fortunates with tickets finally settled down and were witness to a remarkably accessible, rambling chat about what's happening recently (Eno talked at length about the recent Rolex Awards in Lausanne) and how will art develop in the future.

Both Eno and Morley who had travelled up by train realised en route that neither of them could remember the talk's title that they had hurriedly come up with and so chose to improv the whole thing.

Might sound disappointing to some, Eno didn't talk so much about things he's not mentioned before: he talked again about his devising of the word 'Scenius' to describe a generational scene in which art has a growth spurt, for example. But the air was of a very relaxed Brian Eno (Morley had his usual anxious and grumpy aura that I put down to nerves) who would also talk of the breakdown in civilisation that they'd experienced once they'd tried to change trains at Newport, missed one and then witnessed an 18-year-old girl kicking an old woman lying down, screaming "Bloody get up, Mum, you're drunk and causing a scene". Not a scenius, note; a scene.

Paul Morley alleged that Brian Eno was the second British person after Douglas Adams to use the Internet and e-mail; Brian looked askance and Paul Morley said "We can pretend". And Brian Eno proceeded to ask if people would be interested in the history of the Internet. While many of us took the Internet to have military origins, Brian Eno described the Well which preceded the Internet as a discussion group between Grateful Dead fans to exchange bootleg tapes of concerts in which he became actively involved, due to the "spirit" of the community rather than any love of Jerry Garcia or Bob Weir's music. He also said that all accounts were in people's real names and blames the option of anonymity for many of the negative aspects of the current Internet.

The hour fair flew by and Brian, having taken a question from Richard Strange, seated among the audience, announced that his need for the loo could not be contained beyond the scheduled end of the talk. And he flew.

But whereas on many an occasion, it's been Eno's wont to flee and stay fled, he returned to sign CDs (something he truly hates), meet stalkers and have his picture taken. Sharing a laugh with festival goers of both genders and seeming truly content to be there, Brian Eno must be invited to Hay-on-Wye more often.

The Sunday Telegraph interviewed Brian. (Thanks to Richard Mills and David Klimek.)

A review of Small Craft On A Milk Sea from Les Inrockuptibles. (Thanks to Richard Joly.)

Brian has some kind of involvement with Seun Kuti's new album. (Thanks to Dario.)

Brian continues to look on the bright side for Prospect Magazine, though only the first two paragraphs are available to nonbelievers. Subscribers get the whole three or four paragraphs.

Richard Mills, yes him again, e-mails: Bryan Ferry shows Eno how to do a TV spot.

Daniel Lanois speaks once more.

Our previous update was on 16th November when we wrote:

German magazine Groove recently interviewed Brian, and sources apparently close to Mr Eno's apparent press office have released the apparent transcript to apparently interested parties.

Much of Brian's BBC 6 Music chat with Jarvis Cocker is included in its Joy Of 6 podcast, though sadly they miss out Rick Holland's poem.

Warp Records has continued with its threat to release one music track on video per week if its conditions are not met. This time it is a version of "Written, Forgotten" called "Written / Forgotten / Remembered".

While he is in Canada, Brian will be pretending to be "in residence" at the High Performance Rodeo festival in Calgary, when in actual fact he will be giving a lecture in Vancouver on 10th January 2011. Or perhaps his doppelgänger-in-residence will be doing the honours? (Thanks to Kaon Koo.)

Before then, Brian will be giving a lecture in St Petersburg too, to tie in with his 77 Million Paintings installation. That's on 29th November 2010.

We've tried to put it off but without success, so here are some more Small Craft reviews for you to slog through.

Have you found yourself wondering if somebody would stump up at least $799.99 for a previously £250 ($397.32) Collector's Edition of the new album? Let's find out.

Our previous update was on 13th November when we wrote:

Some film of Brian talking to Jarvis Cocker during the radio programme...

The last three minutes of Brian's Keynote Speech at the Rolex Awards for Enterprise: Young Laureates Programme are included in a video of highlights from the event. (Thanks to Rory Walsh.) As part of his talk, Brian put together a newspaper featuring positive news stories, complete with his own ad for Small Craft On A Milk Sea. Judging from the morphology, the quotes appear to say:

"It’s one small craft for Eno
but one giant Sea for mankind" - Bono
"We may as well give up ...
this says it all" - The Edge

What you really want is yet more reviews of Small Craft, we can tell.

Joseph Arthur is currently giving away a 6-song sampler. One of the tracks is his 1996 song "Mercedes" which includes backing vocals from Brian and Peter Gabriel (oohs mostly).

Coverage of Daniel Lanois' book Soul Mining.

We have updated the discography.

Our previous update was on 10th November when we wrote:

Warp has started sending out the Limited Edition box sets of Small Craft on a Milk Sea (Thanks to Rory Walsh). For those wondering, the bonus tracks run to a total of just under 12 minutes. A few more reviews have surfaced. Not online but worth mentioning is a negative review in The Wire (the December issue of the magazine, not the television series [although that would have guaranteed critical acclaim]). Reviewer Ian Penman says it is "crushingly dull" and "may be the first solo Eno work that is entirely without interest ... I just can't type the title, I can't." (EnoWeb has been doing it successfully for months, so perhaps he might try a little harder). He also says he has been writing about Brian Eno "the past few weeks", so we eagerly look forward to the results of that research. (Thanks to Goran Vejvoda.)

Geeta Dayal writes about meeting Brian. (Thanks to Dario.)

Microbunny e-mails: During the remastering sessions for the re-release Fripp & Eno's classic Evening Star record, DGM discovered Eno's original stage tape loops of Fripp's improvised guitar from the duo's rare live show at the Paris Olympia on May 28, 1975. Part of "Wind on Water" consists of a section from this concert with additional overdubbing by Fripp in the studio. These stage tapes are being synchronized to be used to enhance the wildly circulated bootleg of this infamous live appearance and released for public consumption possibly by the end of the year. Many versions of this bootleg exist, mostly largely incomplete, so this should be a real treat for anyone who has heard it before (or not) as much of it consists of otherwise unavailable material. This is reported in Robert Fripp's Diary Entry and on the DGM forum response from Alex Mundy, the engineer performing the task.

Daniel Lanois is NPR Guest DJ and gets asked about the Apollo track "Weightless".

Steven Johnson talks.

No connection with Brian, but Steve Roach has a new ambient iPhone/iPod app called Immersion Station.

Our previous update was on 9th November when we wrote:

Warp is releasing weekly videos of Brian and chums in the studio -- the first such footage since Curiosities Curator Marlon Weyeneth's Dark Jam film was released webwise in 2001 to support Drawn From Life. EnoWeb is famed for wearing its knowledge lightly. (Thanks to Dario & Richard Mills.)

Brian is interviewed for issue 17 of VOXPOP, a magazine of the French persuasion. It should be available for purchase in digital format as well as the printed edition, but currently only last month's Bryan Ferry issue is up for grabs. (Thanks to Goran Vejvoda.) Bryan one issue, Brian the next, it's like the 1970s all over again.

Last weekend the Süddeutsche Zeitung had an interview with Brian. Rather naughtily, they began by talking about the list of subjects that interviewers were asked not to raise. We are indebted to the somewhat ropey Google translation for this question: "Let apocalyptic scenarios are not breastfeeding also pleasant shiver in - as long as they remain abstract?"

A few more reviews of Small Craft On A Milk Sea.

The Radio 2 and 6 Music programmes featuring interviews with Brian are still available to hear.

On 11th November Brian will be the guest speaker at the Rolex Awards for Enterprise: Young Laureates Programme, at the new Rolex Learning Center at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. (Thanks to Dario.)

Tom Phillips' work A Humument will be released as an Apple iPad app on 15th November, though of course currently iTunes swears blind that it's never heard of the app in question. It will include 39 completely new and unpublished pages and The Oracle, a randomiser (Thanks to Lucy Shortis.)

Daniel Lanois' book Soul Mining: A Musical Life was published today.

Icebreaker's James Poke is interviewed.

Our previous update was on 7th November when we wrote:

Here's something that hasn't had much publicity... but no hidden Eno-related event can elude the baleful Eye-Of-Sauron type gaze of Richard Mills and Rory Walsh. On 20th November, Brian and Paul Morley will be discussing Seizing the Means of Production: How The Future Got Made at Crunch 2010, the art and music festival at Hay-on-Wye, UK. The small amount of information on the site suggests the two are collaborating on this future project (Brian and Paul that is, not Rory and Richard).

For us Small Craft-deprived folk in the UK, The Daily Telegraph has SoundCloud streams of the entire album.

Before it visits Calgary 77 Million Paintings will be pitching its tent at the Yota S.P.A.C.E. Festival in St Petersburg from 4th to 19th December. (Thanks to Alex Rubli.)

Some online stores are selling Japanese vinyl versions of early Eno albums, though nobody seems quite sure of their provenance. (Thanks to Phil Burford.)

Roger Eno's site has been updated. (Thanks to Richard Mills.)

A report on Long Now talks by Stewart Brand and Bruce Sterling.

Our previous update was on 4th November when we wrote:

WNYC's New Sounds has a "Sound and Music" themed programme including some tracks from Small Craft.

A few months ago we mentioned that 77 Million Paintings would be heading to Calgary in January 2011. Now it has been announced that Brian will be the Artist In Residence for the 2011 High Performance Rodeo -- Calgary’s International Festival of the Arts. Brian will give one of his popular illustrated talks and then be holed up at Cantos where nobody can get to him.

Back to Small Craft reviews.

Daniel Lanois is interviewed.

Our previous update was on 3rd November when we wrote:

With Small Craft On A Milk Sea now available throughout the known universe (apart from here in the UK, and France), Brian has embarked on a punishing publicity schedule of at least five interviews.

First up is a chat with Pork Magazine's Dick Flash. (Thanks to Ben House, Alex Rubli, Justin Anthony Knapp, Michael Poché and Steven Hill.)

NPR -- Brian Eno: Improvising Within The Rules. Also includes a link to a 1991 interview. (Thanks to Mark Alberding.)

Pitchfork. (Thanks to Nenad Georgievski.)

Brian will talk to Jarvis Cocker on BBC 6 Music on 7th November sometime between 16:00 and 18:00 GMT. It should be available for 7 days thereafter.

There are several reviews and tie-in articles, too.

Have you looked at your new copy of Bryan Ferry's Olympia album and wondered who the performer "Radar" is? Find out in a tale of terror from "Rockin' Robin" Rimbaud, the artist known universally as Scanner (unless you're Bryan Ferry's management, apparently).

Steven Johnson talks about his new book, Where Good Ideas Come From.

Stewart Brand appears in a Channel 4 documentary What the Green Movement Got Wrong on 4th November at 21:00 GMT, and also in a discussion afterwards.

Our previous update was on 27th October when we wrote:

Brian will appear on The Radcliffe & Maconie Show on BBC Radio 2, Wednesday 3rd November. The programme runs for two hours from 20:00 GMT and will be available for 7 days thereafter. (Thanks to Alan Knight).

Creative Review has some pictures of the Collector's Edition of Small Craft On A Milk Sea, including a few of the screenprints.

Seems Brian and Nick Robertson have turned the attention of 77 Million Paintings to Solaris, scored by Brian's Rolex Protégé Ben Frost and Daníel Bjarnasson .

...Ology looks back at Original Soundtracks 1. Not to be confused with Generative Music 1 or 1.Outside, other Eno-related albums that promised sequels but have so far failed to deliver. Mustard The Tortoise says: Perhaps the numbering convention was adopted simply so that Brian could talk loudly in pubs about having "yet another Number 1 Album out at the moment".

Brian has bigged up Kevin Kelly's new book, What Technology Wants. (Thanks to Richard Joly.) KK's page reckons Brian is a "muscian", no doubt a reference to Brian's interest in perfumery.

Our previous update was on 25th October when we wrote:

Warp's Brian Eno site has added two more tracks, "Horse" and "Emerald And Stone". (Thanks to Richard Mills & Micha Jakob).

NPR is streaming the entire album until 2nd November. (Thanks to John Diliberto & Stephen Miller.)

The iTunes version of Small Craft On A Milk Sea will include a bonus track called "Loose Rein". If one can judge from the iTunes sample, it might be viewed as a different take on "Horse". Release date is apparently 7th November, putting it between the worldwide and UK launches. All tracks are album-only, so no cherry-picking (or pussyfooting). What with this and the Japan-only bonus track "Invisible", Brian seems to have plenty of unreleased music hidden away at Opal Towers. Who would have thought it?

Actually, it seems "Invisible" will be available outside Japan on a bonus CD available with purchases of the album from Rough Trade. The CD also includes two of the tracks from the 4-track bonus CD available with the Limited and Collectors' editions. (Thanks to Mark Alberding.)

Mark continues:

Japan certainly isn't the UK but it is part of the rest of the world so I wonder why Small Craft on a Milk Sea was released today [19th October] in Japan well ahead of the stated release dates. I'm not complaining of course.

There is a bonus track (Invisible) as is usually the case for Japanese releases (to make up for the higher price). I've only listened through once but there won't be any big surprises for people who have heard the three samples currently on the brian-eno.net site: it's a mixture of atmospheric soundtrack like pieces and harder edged, faster compositions--and then some in between, not so easily classifiable, which is a good thing. For me, it's by far the most satisfying release by Eno in years, broadly reminiscent of the second Curiosities CD but of a higher standard overall.

P.S. I've attached some very hastily taken images just in case you are interested.

Music-news says the brian-eno.net site will feature video after the release of the album.

The December 2010 (Take 163) issue of Uncut magazine has an interview with Brian and reviews Small Craft.

Paste magazine reckons it has selected Brian's 10 best pop songs (thanks to Richard Mills). EnoWeb isn't convinced, but did enjoy making a generative track by playing all 10 streams simultaneously. "Here Come The Warm Jets" wins out in the resulting cacophony, with top-notes of "Back In Judy's Jungle".

Richard Mills writes: Brian Eno's Discreet Music and Fripp & Eno's Evening Star will be performed live at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival on Sunday 21st November by the Canadian CONTACT Contemporary Music ensemble.

Bryan Ferry's new album Olympia has now been released. Richard Mills writes: For info, Brian Eno is credited with the rather pedestrian "synthesizer" on tracks "Alphaville", "Me Oh My", "Song To The Siren" and "BF Bass (Ode To Olympia)". On the Collector's Edition, there's a remix disc which includes "Alphaville (Time And Space Machine Mix)", "Me Oh My (DJ Cleaver Mix)" and "BF Bass (Ode to Olympia) (West End Wolf Mix)". So 7 tracks in all?

Sean Costello has developed ValhallaShimmer, a reverb plugin for Mac and Windows that amongst other effects enables musicians to recreate that Eno-Lanois Apollo-type sound.

Talking of Lanois, you can hear his new Black Dub project streamed on NPR.

He also released a revisitation of "An Ending (Ascent)". (Thanks to Andrew Bunny Dalio.)

D. Petri e-mails: We recently posted a free mp3 of a cover-homage of "The Fat Lady of Limbourg", and thought it pertinent to send it your way.

Our previous update was on 30th September when we wrote:

Warp's Brian Eno site now includes a stream of the track "2 Forms Of Anger", a tracklisting for both CDs, and pictures of Brian at the screen printers. (Thanks to Steven Hill & Richard Mills.)

Michael Engelbrecht will be playing a plenteous variety of tracks from Small Craft On A Milk Sea on two Klanghorizonte programmes. These will be broadcast on DLF-Nachtradio in Germany, on 11th & 25th October, at 1.05 Uhr to 2.00 Uhr Germanically speaking. Which is very early in the morning. Indeed, some people might regard it as late on Sunday night, unless they are located in other parts of the world when it might count as early evening, or failing that, breakfast time.

Brian is interviewed in Mexico. (Thanks to Alex Rubli.)

Lev 'Ljova' Zhurbin e-mails: I'm not sure if you compile this info - but here's a sort-of cover version of "Spider and I" we've recently recorded with string quartet.. it's twice as slow as Eno's original – enjoy here.

Our previous update was on 27th September when we wrote:

NPR has a few tracks from Small Craft On A Milk Sea. (Thanks to Radiocitizen, Michael Engelbrecht and Bernd Kretzschmar.)

Some comments from Brian, Leo and Jon about SCOAMS appeared at The Quietus. We imagine this material accompanied the review copies of the CD that were sent out. (Thanks to Brendan Boyd.)

And here's the first review.

The Japanese version will have a bonus track. (Thanks to Radiocitizen.)

It had been several years since Brian last performed live; at this point in his career he was heavily influenced by Gene Simmons of Kiss, as evidenced by the protruding tongue J. Peter Schwalm has uploaded some videos of his band Slop Shop performing with Brian and Holger Czukay at the KAH in Bonn in 1998, plus many other tracks.

Brian's appearance on the BBC Radio 4 series The Museum Of Curiosity is included on the CD release The Museum of Curiosity: Series 2 (Amazon and other online stores) or alternatively download release The Museum of Curiosity: The Complete Gallery 2 (Audible, iTunes).

Nothing you haven't already read about the upcoming Eno album, but we liked the joke...

Bryan Ferry's forthcoming album Olympia will be available in a variety of versions. The most expensive includes remixes plus a hardback book including an essay by Michael Bracewell. Bryan's site has streaming audio, though for some reason EnoWeb's IE choked on it and Firefox complained it ddn't have the player. We hope you have better luck.

Incidentally, it looks as though Amazon has a handy tie-in product in case you are unhappy with your purchase:

David Byrne is releasing Bicycle Diaries as an Audiobook. He also spoke about his musical career on the wireless, including references to Mr Brian Eno.

Coldplay's next album is no longer due to be released this year. (Thanks to Richard Mills.)

Roger Eno has some updates. (Thanks to Richard Mills.)

James sing some songs for NPR, bringing us full circle.

Our previous update was on 24th August when we wrote:

Wired has the track listing for Small Craft On A Milk Sea. (Thanks to Radiocitizen.)

Our previous update was on 23rd August when we wrote:

I am on an open milk sea, just drifting as the Coco Pops go slowly by. They used to be called Cocoa Krispies when I was young, you know. They had Sweep on them from The Sooty Show.The title of Brian's new album has been revealed as Small Craft On A Milk Sea. The release date is 2nd November 2010 for the entire world except the UK when it is 15th November, the logic of which passes EnoWeb by. There is a choice of formats: download, CD, limited edition double vinyl/CD with a print of the cover picture and four bonus tracks housed in a slipcase, and collector's edition of 250 that augments the limited edition contents with a unique screen print signed/numbered by Brian plus an engraved copper plate on the spine. (Thanks to Jane Geerts and Francesco lo Forte.)

Francesco Lo Forte also e-mails: Brian was interviewed, along with Noam Chomsky and many others, for Article 12 - Waking Up in a Surveillance Society. This is a documentary movie by Juan Manuel Blaiñ looking at "the current state of privacy and the rights and desires of individuals and governments". It was premiered at the recent Locarno film festival. No snippets on YouTube or Vimeo yet, but but there is an official website.
Mustard The Tortoise says: Those cameras get everywhere. Brian probably didn't even realise he was being filmed! He'll be furious when he finds out.

Sotirios Papavasiliou writes: Just wanted to pass along a link to a recent podcast, called WTF, where host Marc Maron interviews vocalist Reggie Watts, who discusses his recent time with Eno in studio. It's brief, but interesting, especially when you find out more about Watts. It's available free on iTunes, and directly at wtfpod. The interview with Watts begins just after the hour mark in the podcast, following a brief interlude clip of Bowie's "Sound and Vision."

Now That's What I Call An Album Cover, Even Though It Is A SingleContinuing EnoWeb's quest to waste time less and less productively, we burned a few more minutes off the wicks of our lives by looking at Corbis and then clicking through eil.com's album of Eno albums.

Richard Joly says: Daniel Caux, a French journalist, unknown to me, published a book called Le silence, les couleurs du prisme & la mécanique du temps qui passe, a group of articles and interviews he did from the 70s on - for European newspapers and magazines - with all the big names, many many of which worked with BE, and the others, well, are all names BE mentioned at some point or other. Well done overall, with insights and fabulous historical details. I can't think of any book in English that resembles this one. A bit expensive, and comes with a CD, with one BE track. The CD is a recording of his radio show broadcast. File in your library, next to D Toop, Richard Williams, Kyle Gann, Julian Cope, that sorta crowd.

Our previous update was on 8th August when we wrote:

Brian Eno on Warp RecordsWarp Records has set up a microsite where you can sign up and be even firster with the news than EnoWeb -- you need never visit here again!!!! (thanks to Steven at Warp).

Icebreaker has a new site dedicated to Apollo in support of its new tour, complete with videos of several tracks, audio extracts and sheet music for "An Ending (Ascent)" (thanks to Ed McKeon of Third Ear).

Microbunny writes with regard to Tony Fisher's picture from our previous update: Hi Enoweb, If I'm not mistaken... isn't that Phil Collins and Percy Jones beside Eno in that photo ? Would make sense too (i.e. Sky Saw, Over Fire Island etc...) This has got to be the only photo I've ever seen of them working together...

Bernd Kretzschmar turned up these pics of Brian.

FACT magazine offers an opinion on the top 10 Eno albums (thanks to Radiocitizen).

Gavin Burrows reviews Eno events at the Brighton Festival.

Revolutionary Rhythm-meister Rick Holland has a new blog and website.

This has been a quiet year for Eno releases so far, but we've just got round to updating the EnoWeb discography.

Our previous update was on 2nd August when we wrote:

Tony Fisher has turned up another photo from the recording sessions for Another Green World (you may recall he kindly sent EnoWeb a few pics in 2006).

A new book, The Producer as Composer: Shaping the Sounds of Popular Music by Virgil Moorefield, has some coverage of Eno music (thanks to Richard Mills).

Michael Turner e-mails: I'm a regular visitor to enoweb and thought this might be of interest to some of your readers. Laura Sheeran is a contributor to Fovea Hex and has just recorded her solo debut which features contributions by Clodagh Simonds and other Fovea Hex folks. As I'm sure you are aware Brian Eno and Robert Fripp also contributed to the Fovea Hex EPs. There is a pledge drive for Laura Sheeran on the Pledge Music site to raise funds for the manufacture of CDs and LPs and also to raise money for a charity in Ireland. I'm not affiliated with Laura Sheeran or Pledge Music, I'm just a fan of her music and I'm trying to spread the word. p.s I first heard of Fovea Hex via enoweb so I owe you big thanks : )

Our previous update was on 30th July when we wrote:

In the self-help book Why We Hiss, Why We Hide: Empowering The Tortoise Within, one can discover much wisdom from the shelled fraternity. Today's ancient truth is:

Do not tread on ant-hills. For although their denizens cannot hurt your scaly skin, in numbers they may attract the attention of crows.

Brian presses his reset buttonHere's a video featuring extracts from Brian's press conference and lecture in Mexico (thanks to Alex Rubli).

Icebreaker will be touring the UK performing Woojun Lee's arrangement of Apollo from August to November, including two nights at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall (thanks to Richard Mills and Caroline Sawbridge).

77 Million Paintings will be coming to the Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Canada, from 4th January to 11th March 2011 (thanks to Dario).

Lumen London has a picture of Making Space on its news page, describing it as "The New Studio Album". Still only available at installations though. We might also quibble at the description "previously unheard and unreleased", as some tracks appeared in Spore and "Hopeful Timean Intersect" is largely "Hopeful Timean" from The Cotwold Gnomes/Beyond Even (though on Making Space Robert Fripp doesn't get a credit)...

After a break, Brian has returned to Prospect Magazine's Dr Pangloss column (thanks to Richard Mills).

Here's one of those frightfully badly behaved robot blogs that nicks an article and then replaces the original words with close or not-even-close synonyms. Its interview with David Byrne is well worth perusing if you want a nonsensical laugh; just don't click on any links. "In 1981 Byrne and Eno collaborated on the LP My Viability in the Bush-league of Ghosts, an rare put together of fourth-world quail and organize vocals" and "Mr. Eno hasn't antiquated that purely bang since "Aflame Airlines Joint effort You So Overmuch Writer" [1974]" set the tone. Byrne is quoted as saying, ""Youth, you're gonna hit the gas!" or, "It's gonna settle into the thrash shaft!"" -- which (like Brian's quotation from China we mentioned a few months back) could actually be lyrics...

Cory Doctorow points out an Oblique Strategies type thing on Design (thanks to Richard Joly).

Our previous update was on 22nd July when we wrote:

Roberto Granados-Ocon of Exclaim.ca e-mails: Hi, we got this story, thought you'd be interested.

EnoWeb advisory: the report is only a fragment from a probe droid in the Hoth system, featuring words like "source", "sources", "the word is", "rumour" and "tentative", but we can only hope. The bit that says "Eno recently teamed up with David Byrne to pen songs for the upcoming film Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" looks a tad inaccurate, though, as those Eno-Byrne songs come from 2008's Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. Update: Exclaim has corrected that.

Radical Rhymester Rick Holland wrote about his book Story The Flowers, the Speaker Flowers installation and the Brighton Festival (thanks to Bernd Kretzschmar).

More about Brian's protégé.

How much does a 1st Edition deck of Oblique Strategies go for these days? (Spotted by Jim Owen)

Our previous update was on 14th July when we wrote:

See, he's making himself comfortable on Eno's sofa already. Image Copyright: © Rolex/Kirsten HolstBen Frost has been announced as Brian's new protégé in the Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative. According to the Rolex site, Ben said: "I want things to get uncomfortable and dangerous and I want to push my work into scary new places."

"I do like a man with a taste for the more dangerous aspects of life," responded Brian with an unnerving smile. "So many of those I encounter have such... closed minds." Brian took a creased photograph from the inside pocket of his purple satin smoking jacket, and sighed melodramatically. "This was the last protégé I took under my wing. We shared such wonders together! He was so beautiful then, don't you think? And so full of hopes and dreams... to begin with..."

Right, EnoWeb has even scared itself with that flight of fancy, so let's change the mood quickly. Roving Reporter Rory Walsh writes from Brighton In The Past:

Last night's This Is Afrobeat! concert [14th May] was, according to Eno, his birthday present to himself and like a good host he appeared on stage to introduce the guests.

He said that many decades ago he was in Sterns in Tottenham Road (the store was near Warren Street underground station and called Sterns Electrical which was the only place for African students and visitors to hunt down the popular music of their continent; though it has moved it is still going today).

"Sterns was one of the first stores to sell World Music and on the wall there was a record called Afrodisiac, spelt A-F-R-O, by Fela Kuti which caught my attention. I bought it and it changed my way of looking at music for ever. I bought more copies and sent it to my friends -- Robert Wyatt wrote back saying it was like 'Jazz from another planet'. When I first met Talking Heads I took them back to my flat and played it for them and it influenced everything they did after that, especially their next record Fear of Music. Fela is the only artist whose entire output I own -- it is about 60 records, in fact it they make up almost half my collection".

Mustard The Tortoise says: Forget home taping and file sharing: it's millionaires with tiny record collections who are killing the music industry!

Eno went on to talk about Tony Allen saying, "He is, in my opinion, the greatest musician alive today".

The night then kicked off with a set from Tony Allen who, though now 70, played drums and sang for an hour, effortlessly without even breaking into a sweat.

Prior to Seun Kuti and the Egypt 80 coming on stage Eno and his daughters joined the 'guests' on the floor of the Brighton Dome. Eno danced for three or four numbers before retiring only to return later in the evening at the side of the stage to see Tony Allen join Seun Kuti and the Egypt 80 for a rip-roaring encore.

Part of the Seun Kuti set was filmed by the BBC so no doubt it will be aired at some time, sadly they had packed up and gone home before the final few numbers which were by far the best of the night.

Rory also attended the This Is Reasons For Optimism talk [16th May]:

Eno was joined by James Thornton, the CEO of ClientEarth (Eno is a patron), Paul Ingram of the British American Security Information Council (BASIC for short again Eno is a Patron) and a representative Kids Company (which is a children's charity - No Eno connection as yet), for his Reasons for Optimism talk.

Eno was on good form and his section was very enjoyable however the others were a bit lacklustre - the representative Kids Company just plugged the work of her organisation which was tiresome but went down well with the folks from Muesli Hill.

And of course there were the three linked This Is Pure Scenius! concerts [9th May].

Roving Rory Walsh says:

The pretext for the concerts was that this was the late 21st Century; after the Great Pulse no electronic records were left, so people had to rely on written text and a few old Doowop records to understand what people were listening to in the early part of the Century. We were students (Year 1 was the first performance, Year 2 was the second etc.) and the band played what they thought things like Ambient Trash Lounge would sound like.

Michael Kemp e-mails:

Pure Scenius – experimental improv fun at The Dome w/ Brian Eno, Karl Hyde (from Underworld), Jon Hopkins, Leo Abrahams, and The Necks. Coursework Reference & Keypoints: Ikebana Noise Clubs (Black noise hardcore hate crimes), The Art of Food, Niigata Machine Techno and The Information Wars 2000–2030. Superb, thought-provoking stuff.

Don Pennington writes:

Here are a few pics I took from my circle seats at This is Pure Scenius! last week.

Attending all three performances as I did, didn't ensure a passing mark in 'Cultural Reconstructions' but I'm hoping I aced the final. Great fun and enjoyment time travelling and listening to the prodigious musical talents of all.

This Is Pure Scenius! 1

^ The Brighton Dome

This Is Pure Scenius! 2

^ The ensemble (l->r) Peter Chilvers, Brian Eno, Tony Buck, Karl Hyde, Chris Abrahams, Lloyd Swanton, Jon Hopkins, Leo Abrahams

This Is Pure Scenius! 3

^ Chris and Jon 'duel' while the others look on and listen

Here's Raving Rory!

Eno and Peter Chilvers 'played' at tonight's This Is Tales from the Afterlives. They sat at the back of the stage like two Statler and Waldorf characters with Peter cueing up pre-recorded tracks to which Eno added some textures.

A picture of 77 Million Paintings being set up at Fabrica.

That just leaves the Speaker Flowers installation at Marlborough House. In a change to our advertised schedule, newcomer Rory Walsh gives us the low-down.

Brian Eno and I have only spoken at any length twice. On the second occasion he told me: "There is no time to look back; there is just so much to do". With this in mind I entered what was once the most beautiful house in Brighton (sadly now a dilapidated shell) with a sense that I was about to experience a quantum leap into the future. Instead for the Speaker Flowers Sound Installation Eno trots out what Yeats called his Circus Animals, well used themes and techniques.

In the entrance hall sits a volunteer at a table framed by a scar in the wall where once a magnificent fire stood. She hands me a card and suggests that I go upstairs. On the wall hangs a sign which tells us that we are "on a lab-visit, looking at some experiments in progress. None of them are presented as completely finished – they’re ideas I’m working on." The volunteer confides in me that when they came for training the previous week it had looked totally different and that Eno had revamped the whole installation hence the reason they were late in opening. The 'second' venue was to have been in the old post office in Ship Street (opposite Fabrica) and was to contain a few of Eno's Installations but mainly work from art students from the University using Holland poems in their work with sounds by Eno - a similar set-up to the 1995 Artangel Self Storage installation. Alas they could not secure the building and so the idea had to be abandoned, with Marlborough House replacing the venue.

Climbing the bare stairs, while overhead float strange but familiar sounds, you come to a landing which splits to go three ways, a domestic dilemma that could be straight out of a Peter Schmidt watercolour.

Entering the first room sitting on a large carpet of fake grass are four ghetto blasters arranged in a square with a pile of stones in the centre. A fifth sits at the back of the brightly lit room. Classic Eno ambient sounds seep out of the speakers. More visitors arrive and unlike the more reserved locals, seated neatly on the benches at the edge of the room, they sit on the fake grass.

Perhaps Eno is planning to take up golf?

The next room is called the Purple Room and contains four soft red chairs; next to each one is placed a ghetto blaster with headphones. Standing like some forlorn passengers on a crowded commuter train are 16 leylandii trees in pots. On entering the small room they seem unnecessary. A sign on the wall lists the twelve Rick Holland poems that are being played on the CD players and who is reciting them over Eno’s music.

Purple Room, Purple Room

Sitting on one of the chairs I listen to "Pour it Out", with Spagnuolo’s soft voice over what sounds like the music from a cheesy shampoo advert. Sitting down the hidden intention of the mini-forest becomes clear as it gives a false sense of privacy from your three neighbours. A little girl appears in front of me insisting that I swop seats. "Pour it Out" is also playing on this player followed by "Glitch" – with its Nerve Net like "Ju Ju Space Jazz" beat. The impromptu game of Eno musical chairs continues and each time I keep getting "Pour it Out". The volunteer assures me they are on ‘random play’ – I guess I am just lucky.

Moving to the adjacent room I am struck by the silence – a technical hitch I am informed. The silent 42 speaker flowers arranged on concrete blocks and in vases look silly – Eno used these at the Self Storage Installation and they had been my favourite piece. As all else had failed the decision is made to turn the machine off and then on again. As usual this works and the room is flooded with sound and the beauty of the flowers is restored.

Speaker Flowers      Close-up

Down the corridor and into a darkened room I go to find 25 glitter balls suspended from a wooden grid. Below the spheres hangs a standard Eno 25 mini-speaker grid and in the fireplace the ubiquitous ghetto blasters in the grate. On Land springs to mind as I listen to the music and the volunteer tells me that last week this installation was in the other room and was much bigger.

The Glitter Band

Prior to entering the next space we are told that the instruments in this room are delicate and if you "have to touch them please do so carefully" as they are "not built to rock and roll standards ... The idea is that you spend more time listening than fiddling… and if there's someone already listening, please don’t fiddle." Eno, we are told, calls these instruments Sustenuto Monochords and they are built by Jon Dickinson. They comprise large planks of timber not unlike railway sleepers supported on concrete blocks. Fixed to the timber are Sustainer pickups connected to a small amplifier. Over the pickups is a single wire fixed at one end and at the other hangs a metal basket containing stones of various sizes. You are encouraged to add, remove or replace the stones to change the pitch. I am informed that Eno wants people to walk around the room to get the full effect.

Can't see these replacing MP3 players on public transport

On the ground floor is an exhibition of the Eno prints which are taken from 77 Million Paintings. There were 9 on show (six in landscape and two in portrait) each entitled From 77 Million Paintings from an edition of 50 with each one signed Brian Eno and dated 2010. The prints were difficult to photograph as there was too much daylight in the room.

A print.      Another print.

And another one.Looking at the pictures the thought occurs to me that Eno's reluctance to talk about the past is down to the fact that he is just not finished experimenting with it – the past is just full of ideas he is still working on, so why try to preserve it?

Enquiring about the price of the prints I am given an order form which shows that there are actually nine prints in landscape and four in portrait. No one knows where the missing prints are. The prints retail at £450 each unframed and will be delivered within six weeks of purchase. Asking about the CD and the book of poems I am told that they will be available later in the week as they are trying to get a "shop" up and running.

Brian Eno and I have only spoken at any length twice, on the first occasion he told me "I am so bad at marketing – I really am." He is not wrong about that.

Making SPace? Making money for eBayers, more likely...The CD Rory referred to above is called Making Space. It's a Curiosities-style collection of 9 tracks, some taken from the Spore soundtrack. As we previously reported below, this CD is only available at Eno installations and events (recent examples have included Brian's lecture in Mexico and the Speaker Flowers installation) -- not directly from EnoShop or Lumen London. While EnoWeb appreciates the value of having merchandise available for sale at these events, it strikes us as odd to prevent its sale through Brian's own online store. After all, the last new exclusive Eno release sold through EnoShop was Curiosities Volume 2 six years ago (not including 2005's The Fahrenheit Twins digital audiobook, which isn't available any more), and it's not as if EnoShop sales would compete with "official" releases... even if there were any.

Bryan Ferry's album Olympia will be released in October, with contributions from Brian and current Roxy Music members.

Steven Berlin Johnson writes about his new book Where Good Ideas Come From, which includes coverage of one of Brian's good ideas and from whence it came.

Mexiceno! Thanks to Alex Rubli, who writes:

The second press conference was crowded and a little chaotic, nevertheless very interesting and intense although the translation was bumpy ( I wrote something about the conference in the nervenet page).

Maybe I missed telling the part, on the press conference, that before it begun, there were too many photographers crumbling at the podium table, so this smart lady told them to back off a little, as no one did, he asked them to go to another room where Brian will show up at any minute, and make a photo session. And so he did, but he didn´t know if he has to pose or just stand there, so many funny fotos were taken...

I went today to the installation (due to close on Sunday, unfortunately) and had a conversation with the museum manager, and told that one day (I guess it was a day before the conference) Brian showed up in the Anahuacalli, without any notice. He found that the installation was running a little fast, and asked for bringing up the lights a little, he stood on the front and said "Hi, my name is Brian Eno, I am sorry for the interruption, but I would like to make an adjustment to the installation..."

People took photographs with people from the audience, and after that he asked for a tent in the roof as he wanted to see the city from there, afterwards he did an interview for "Ibero 90.9".

The Observer had a long article on War Child with some old quotes from Brian.

Reggie Watts might record with Brian.

An update on Coldplay's recording sessions with and without Brian, from Roadie #42 (who wrote while holidaying in Budapest, leading to some sites stating that Coldplay were recording there).

A miscellany of links from Herr Bernd Kretzschmar. Actually 5 probably doesn't qualify as much of a miscellany, does it?

Michael Savage tracked down an old article about Eno's early video piece 2 Fifth Avenue from OMNI in November 1980. Yes, that's almost 30 years ago, but videotapes will never go out of fashion.

Remixes/video.

Geeta Dayal sends this handy link to her podcast on Another Green World (we previously only had a RealAudio version).

A 22 avril 1933 French-language ENO ad from Pierre Glesser.

The Quietus has an article on Phil Collins referring to his work with Eno (thanks to Ben Hewitt, News Editor/Staff Writer Of The Quietus).

Finally a round-up of what just four of Brian's many friends and collaborators are up to.

Our previous update was on 13th June when we wrote:

Just a quick update... Brian's event in Mexico will take place on Tuesday 15th June. Also the 77 Million Paintings installation run has been extended to 4th July. (Thanks to Alex Rubli.)

Marcus du Sautoy's 10-part radio series on Mathematics starts on Monday 14th June. It's at 15.45 BST each weekday on BBC Radio 4. Brian contributes to the programme on Wednesday 16th June which looks at the work of Fourier.

Our previous update was on 19th May when we wrote:

There will be a very short programme with Brian talking about Life on BBC Radio 4, Monday 24th May at 16:55 BST.

The Guardian has some pics of 77 Million Paintings being set up at Fabrica.

Digital Planet interviewed Malcolm Le Grice about Berlin Horse.

Our previous update was on 17th May when we wrote:

Here are two flyers for This Is Tales Of The Afterlives, which will be performed at the Brighton Dome Concert Hall on 22nd May.

Brian will appear on The Culture Show on Thursday 20th May at 19:00 BST to talk about the Brighton Festival, which ends on 23rd May. It's repeated in the wee small hours too. (Thanks to Rory Walsh).

Some Brighton stuff.

Rolex has announced the shortlist of people for Brian to mentor... one of whom was included in Brian's Observer picture round-up.

77 Million Paintings at Museo Diego Rivera Anahuacalli.

George Cole interviews John Potoker, who talks a bit about working with Eno & Byrne. (Thanks to Richard Mills).

Our previous update was on 6th May when we wrote:

Click to download a big jpeg versionHere's the poster promoting This Is Pure Scenius which will be taking place at the Brighton Dome on Sunday 9th May 2010.

One day, three unique concerts, at which Brian Eno, Karl Hyde, The Necks, Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams will improvise totally new music. Each concert will run for about 2 hours -- book a ticket for just one or all three, and experience the way the ensemble discovers and explores new musical ideas.

"I really don't know what will happen, how it will pan out," says Brian in a short MP3 interview at the link below. "There will be amazing sections and there will be boring sections, and there's nothing I can do about that," he jokes... never a man you could accuse of over-hyping his work! For an alternate point of view, the first Pure Scenius concerts took place at last year's Luminous Festival in Sydney, and received voluble praise from many audience members afterwards. One wrote to EnoWeb:

"The range and style of the music played, although able to be inferred from a knowledge of the individual musicians' work, was nevertheless surprising in its breadth and style: at once classical, free jazz ,music concrete, electronica and ambient blended into one unique whole like nothing you have heard."

That sounds more like it.

(Thanks to Andy James and Jane Geerts for the poster)

The Speaker Flowers installation is now open at Marlborough House. According to a review on Brighton Festival Radio on 5th May, there is more to it than Speaker Flowers, including poems from Rick Holland. It may actually be called Speaker Flower, by the way.

77 Million Paintings at Fabrica.

On the day of the UK General Election, The Independent had an article looking at "celebrity" supporters of political parties. Here is their bit about Brian.

Haveasync.com is a new site that licenses music for film-makers, and its catalogue includes two pieces from Terror At The Opera.

A kind of remix.

A while back, Daniel Lanois talked about Apollo and his steel guitar.

Our previous update was on 4th May when we wrote:

A little more coverage of the This Is For All Mankind concerts at the Brigton Dome, and 77 Million Paintings at Fabrica.

The Speaker Flowers installation at Marlborough House in Brighton was still closed for business today, but they are hopeful that they will be open on 5th May. Brian often likens Generative Music to growing things from seed, so maybe the speaker flowers are not yet frost-hardy.

Peter Kawalek writes about Stafford Beer.

Our previous update was on 3rd May when we wrote:

The Brighton Festival Icebreaker This Is For All Mankind concerts concluded with a performance of four songs sung by Brian, arranged by Woojun Lee and played by Icebreaker.

Gary Mcleod writes:

Just thought I had to let you know that I've just seen Brian at Brighton Dome, Sunday May 2, where he introduced a performance of Apollo by Icebreaker, which was sublime. When the gig finished, we were getting ready to leave when Brian came on and asked "do you want to hear some songs?" and sang 'Julie With...', 'Just Another Day', 'By This River' and 'And Then So Clear'. I never expected to hear any Eno oldies in the festival, so I'm thoroughly chuffed to bits!

Some bloggers have reviews.

James Poke of Icebreaker has a few tracks from the arrangement of Apollo played at last year's Science Museum concerts on TotallyRadio.com's Experimental programme.

Brian bigs up the Liberal Democrats.

Leo Abrahams pronounces the Pure Scenius album done to a turn. And apparently some off-cuts from the sessions for The Lovely Bones soundtrack are heading for an album too.

Rory Walsh trekked through the rain to the Eno installation at Marborough House on Saturday...

I got very wet and when I got to Marlborough House there was a sign saying that it will not open until the 4th May (looking in the window they seem to be still clearing up so Tuesday may be optimistic).

The gateways to the city have ‘Eno’ banners and Revamp, a dress hire firm in Sydney Street, has a Here Come the Warm Jets era window to welcome The EEN (who he ?).

Shop steward, a shop shop steward? Een bygone? It's as if he never went away.

Our previous update was on 30th April when we wrote:

Gearing up for the Brighton Festival, Brian gives some interviews.

Rory Walsh sends this information from the Brighton Festival, though we can't currently find much about it online:

New Brian Eno event just announced! Speaker Flowers Sound Installation

This sound installation consists of fifty Eno-designed speaker flowers, each with its own sound created in response to the once-magnificent Grade 1 listed Marlborough House.

There will also be an opportunity to buy exclusive prints and a specially commissioned CD of Eno’s music.

Throughout the Festival, 12noon – 6pm, FREE – Marlborough House, Old Steine (Brighton)

EnoWeb believes that the CD is called Making Space and will be sold exclusively at Brian's installations.

Other items of interest from the Brighton Festival...

"Would you like your ashes raked?" is something that the volcano Eyjafjallajökull might well have asked Eno. A big fan of Brian's early music, Eyjafjallajökull lost interest when he released Music For Airports and has been planning a way of getting back at him ever since. Anyway, its cloud of invisible volcanic ash was responsible for preventing Brian from flying to Mexico for his 77 Millones de Pinturas and lecture combi. With the lecture postponed until he can set foot on Mexican soil, Brian conducted a press conference via video link.

Alex Rubli writes:

The press conference was fun, we had a (skype) videoconference with Brian, he was amused, with good humor, he once said that his nose is not what it looks like in the screen, it is smaller... Somebody asked him, why he started to show his installation in Mexico (it will be presumably be shown in South America), he answered, that he was here, some time ago, he was in a small town and on one afternoon there was a dance at "the plaza", and saw a 90 year old couple dancing, " I want to be in a place where you see such things !!"

A banner for the event appears to have featured EnoWeb's URL rather prominently -- what with that and Fabrica using print-outs from the site at its 77 Million Paintings installation, it almost makes us feel like an officially recognised site. But not entirely.

Stereo Eno -- blows Avatar out of the water if you get the parallax right. Much hilarity ensues at EnoWeb. We suspect the correct version may have been www.enoSHOP.co.uk. Outside the installation.

Alex has a page on his Nerve Net site with links to information on the Mexico events.

Robert Dansby writes: Thought you'd get a kick out of this.

Brian at the National Portrait Gallery.

It's time for the Geeta Dayal Hour! Adam Bartell writes: My wife recently heard this interview with Geeta Dayal and I thought you might like it. EnoWeb adds: and here she is again at the 2010 Pop Conference.

Nick Day e-mails: Marcus du Sautoy tweets about a Radio 4 programme he has recorded with a contribution from Brian.

Lib Dem news.

Arnoldcorns e-mails: If interested, check out the video I put together for the Bowie/Eno composition "African Night Flight.".

Francesco Lo Forte says: this video was created by digital artist Glenn Marshall by an iPad running his app "Eyegasm", reactively paired with the Apollo soundtrack.

Brian is interviewed for a book about the impact of Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue.

Here's a review of the Rory Bremner show in which Brian participated.

A trip back to 2006 for a previous BASIC event.

A rundown of Brighton Festival stuff.

It's not just the Festival that will see some Icebreaker Apollo Action this year -- they're taking it on tour in July and during the Autumn, visiting Camp Bestival, Brighton, Birmingham, Bracknell, Gateshead, London, Bristol, Manchester, Nottingham and Oxford.

The Quietus interviews Cluster.

Let's take a quick look in the postbag.

Haus of Alexander writes: Warehousing is the debut production from Theatre Company Haus of Alexander. Warehousing is a Drama centering around a group of sales associates working at a retail supercenter. Together the associates expose the daunting struggle living paycheck to paycheck longing a life of deeper purpose. Haus of Alexander takes a bold new insight into this story of the lower middle working class of America.

Mustard The Tortoise replies: I must say that all sounds jolly exciting, but I can't quite see what it has to do with the main focus of this site, which is the location and consumption of the tastiest dandelions.

Robert Pryde asks: Eno's festival / performances at Sydney Opera House last year were remarkable. I hope he comes back, as he said he would. I contacted the Opera House to ask if the performances were being recorded, and they replied that all of them were. My source also said that Eno had all the "tapes" and was planning on editing / remixing them, for future release. Was the information correct? If so, any indication of the release date?
Tom replies: All the Pure Scenius concerts were recorded and filmed. Leo Abrahams has been editing a subset of the music. No idea of a release date.

Ben Hudson writes: Dear Sir, Please could you forward the attached letter on to Brian Eno. I would appreciate hearing from you regarding any progress. Thank you. Yours sincerely, Ben Hudson.
[Letter:] Dear Mr. Brian Eno, My name is Ben Hudson. I am from Brighton, presently hoping to get an idea off the ground. I am writing to you to ask whether you would like to originate a political party in the U.K- the party is: the Anarchist Party. Imagine it, the Anarchist symbol emblazoned on billboards across London, advertising the new political party. My single idea is that the party would present bills for the discontinuance of government. This is the 21st Century- Britain deserves an alternative to vote for. My email address is: [deleted] or I am on the phone at [deleted].

Tom replies: WHAT IS IT WITH YOU PEOPLE? A couple of months a bloke called Nick wanted Brian's help in facilitating Britain's biggest traffic jam to force the people of Britain to take notice of something or other. Last year some guy who had had an affair wanted Brian to write a piece of music that would make his wife fall back in love with him, and then the music could be played to heads of state to encourage world peace.

Thinking you can involve Brian Eno in your pet project just isn't rational.

Thinking that you can ignore the text on our site feedback page is just ill-mannered. Let me just repeat it for this year: We've said it before, and we'll say it again: if you want to send a message to Brian Eno, please do not send it to EnoWeb. Brian has no association with this site, and we have no way of passing messages on to him.

From EnoWeb's observation, Brian Eno is a very busy man, and a supporter of the Liberal Democrats. What in the world makes you think he would have the time, let alone the inclination, to impose a new political constitution on the people of the UK? There's no evidence that Brian has any interest in seeing lots of Anarchist symbols anywhere, though like EnoWeb he probably remembers seeing them scrawled on walls during Ye Tyme of Punke. Let us remember that nowadays even Sir Jonathan Rotten confines his anarchic tendencies to selling butter in return for an honest day's pay.

It is also important to remember that if you use the salutation "Dear Sir", your letter should end "Yours faithfully". If you know the addressee's name then you can sign off with "Yours sincerely", or alternatively "Strength Through Oi".

You say, "I would appreciate hearing from you regarding any progress". As EnoWeb has no way of contacting Brian Eno, I think you should probably resign yourself to there being no progress on your project. Ever.

Stars Casino e-mails: Want to know where that legendary pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is?
Mustard responds: I'd hazard a guess that it is at the end of the rainbow.
Stars Casino: We have it at our casino, and we want you to play to win it!
Mustard: I'm not visiting you, it's clearly always raining inside your building.

Renee Shirley: Have you always rushed to look stylish and odd?
Mustard: Uh... no...
Renee Shirley: Now you have such an opportunity.
Mustard: I'd rather not, really.
Renee Shirley: You will always stay irresistible and unique if you wear exclusive accessories that look really expensive. Our online accessories shop will help you to achieve the wonderful result and to stay odd throughout your life.
Mustard: Next!

Royce Vickers: We offer you best replica scarfs of the greatest designers.
Mustard: I find only genuine scarves keep me warm in the winter.

Drew Decker: What does the real man should have to become different from other people?
Mustard: The ability to write fluent garble-ese?
Drew Decker: These are the Swiss watches that allow the one to single himself out the crowd.
Mustard: Yeah, nobody's going to want to be associated with you if you insist on wearing that tat.

Edna Bright: You are able to impress any girl with the expensive-looking jewelry!
Mustard: Oh really, does it give off magic rays or something?
Edna Bright: Our watches really do magic things!
Mustard: I'm not convinced your sales claims can be substantiated.
Edna Bright: The upper class society will adore your new Swiss watches.
Mustard: I got thrown out of the upper class society for talking during tiffin.

Our previous update was on 12th April when we wrote:

Brian appeared on the BBC 2 programme The Review Show on Friday 9th April to talk about 77 Million Paintings and his cultural week.

Brian contributed to Rory Bremner's stage show when it hit Oxford.

Coverage of Brian's BASIC event at his studio earlier this year.

A snap of Eno.

An article about Brian's forthcoming Mexico activities.

Roger Eno has some fresh music and a blog posting on his MySpace page. (Thanks to Richard Mills.)

Our previous update was on 8th April when we wrote:

Rory Walsh attended the opening of 77 Million Paintings in Brighton:

Breakdown in the "Fabrica" of SocietyI went to the opening of 77 Million Paintings on Thursday evening last. I passed by Fabrica about 4:30 pm and this was the only person waiting outside.

It started out as a low-key event as only the Festival Friends were invited in from 5:00 pm. When I got there about 5:20 pm there were only a handful of people there, conspicuous by his absence was Eno himself.

Fabrica, a deconsecrated church and former bar, is on the junction of Duke Street and Ship Street - two small but busy thoroughfares. The main entrance in Ship Street is, as you would expect, at the eastern end of the building. Along Duke Street the building is partitioned on one side to form a second entrance area. In this entrance area were shelves, fixed on the walls on either side, upon which were books by the likes of John Cage, Sol LeWitt and Eno’s former tutor Roy Ascott, whose Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology and Consciousness had been included as well as other more ‘conventional’ art books. Also available for public consumption were several large folders, each with a different theme – 77 Million Paintings, Brian Eno, Oblique Strategies and Religious Art etc. These folders contained printouts from various websites (including a number from EnoWeb) to give the visitor access to related information on the subjects covered by the event (I have not seen this at an event before but it is a fantastic low cost resource for the casual visitor).

The installation is located where the altar once was and is pretty similar to the one in Naples except the centre piece looks even more like a St Brigit’s cross, the two conical shapes are made from ballast and there is a large square shaped diamond box to the left. There are several sofas and an assortment of chairs towards the front and to the rear is a large open area.

I whiled away three quarters of an hour with a glass of wine (only available on the opening night) sitting at the front. The music, when I was there, was very reminiscent of On Land and emanated from a series of CD players hanging from the balconies on either side. The only criticism I would have of the show is the acoustics, which due to a combination of the music being played too low and there being no ‘air lock’ between the installation and outside, are pretty poor. Ambient noise from outside can readily be heard inside. On a Maundy Thursday evening there was little activity except the boisterous Brighton seagulls but this may be a problem particularly on busy weekends.

Returning to fill my glass I came across Eno in a corner checking his iPhone (there again he could have been playing Bloom). Asked by one of the organisers if, in the time honoured fashion, he would like to say a few words he replied “Good Lord no !” Eno then mingled at the back of the room answering questions and admiring his handiwork.

Eno was interviewed by the Brighton Argus on Saturday. The only thing that got my attention is the fact that The Books have been added to the This Is lineup – not that you would know from the website as the Festival have not put it in the Brian Eno section despite being entitled "This is The Books with Anna Calvi and more".

"I'm gonna finish tonight with a little song..."Brian's 5x15 talk on global nuclear disarmament and the Dawning Of The Age Of Aquarius Third Millennium is now available to view online.

A shocking tale of hijinx during the recordings for 1.Outside. (Thanks to Richard Joly.)

Here's a slideshow from the Self Storage installation of the 1990s. Admittedy, it doesn't slide unless you move the slider manually, and the audio doesn't work, but you can see pictures of three Eno bits: the pyramids-with-dogs setup, a stethoscope-hammer combi, and the speakers-on-stalks.

A slo_mo mix with some manipulated Eno. What are ownership and copyright coming to these days? (Thanks to Kelvin L Smith.)

Mark Alberding writes: Not that this is any big news or anything but it seems someone forgot to renew the domain name for the Another Day On Earth official website. Oops.
EnoWeb: Perhaps they decided to "call it a Day" after 5 years, hahahahahahah!
Mustard The Tortoise: What will it take to get a bit of peace and quiet around here?

Our previous update was on 1st April when we wrote:

Brian will be interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Front Row at 19:15 BST on Good Friday, 2nd April 2010. "In his West London recording studio, Brian Eno talks about early experiments with cassettes, American radio preachers, saying no to Bono and reasons to be optimistic about the future of the world" plus, no doubt, the Brighton Festival & 77 Million Paintings. It'll be available via BBC iPlayer after broadcast until 9th April, and maybe longer if it gets added to Front Row's permanent online archive.

Radiocitizen rocks the Eno world to its very foundations by spotting this revelation about the guitar soloist on "Baby's On Fire".

Not to be confused with Charlie Gillett's "The Sound Of The City", of course. With Brian planning some open-air installations in Brighton, EnoWeb hadn't realised that the British Council produced a book to commemorate "The Sound and the City" event in China from 2005. Published in 2007, The Sound And The City includes an excerpt from Brian's Ritan Park Bells installation (quite harsh and stark, without the mollifying influence of Lydian Bells' drone), sound art from the other artists involved including Scanner, and some favourite sounds chosen by citizens of Beiing, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. There are still some web pages about it including the public interview with Brian that appears in the book. (Thanks to Jeroen Groenewegen).

The interview reads as though it has been translated into Chinese and then back to English; EnoWeb particularly liked this bit:

Alarming...

Hundreds of audience members chanting that in unison could almost come from a lost Taking Tiger Mountain song...

Eno demonstrates his stringless cat's cradle method - it's so simple!How do you fancy a 1.47Gb download? Brian's press conference at the UAM in Long Beach last year, previously an MP3 podcast and clips on YouTube, is now downloadable as a QuickTime movie. (Thanks to Alex Rubli).

Alex also writes: It seems that the closing date for 77 Million Paintings at the Museo Anahuacalli in Mexico City will be 13th June and not the 30th, at least that is what all the information on the event here says.

The Press Release says it's meant to represent a skull-like face, apparently. The O's are the eyes, the H is the nose, and the rest of the words make up a grin.Brian Eno -- musician, artist, producer, cultural theorist, political campaigner... and now celebrity chef? Those of us who've been waiting for Brian's Big Book Of Surrender And Cultural Theory (or whatever he plans to call it; it might still get combined with Jon Hassell's The North And The South Of You, after all) must wait a little longer, because it seems Eno has been spending his time whisking up a book of his favourite recipes instead. Can you say "displacement activity"?

Anybody who has read 1996's A Year With Swollen Appendices will remember Brian's enthusiastic musings on food and cooking and now we're getting a whole book of his personal favourite recipes: Cook The Leather Put It On Me. Sadly (or maybe just as well) while the cookbook title takes its theme from an Eno lyric, the recipes do not, so we won't get a "Baby's On Fire" cocktail or "Crow Of Desperation" stew made up of leftovers at the back of the fridge.

Let's hope the 172-page contents are more flavourful than the somewhat dull cover. EnoWeb's first assumption proved rather ill-founded, luckily: all that white space struck us as unwise in the kitchen environment, but according to the Press Release, Eno hopes the cover will act like "a new kind of generative canvas" that will acquire a unique set of splashes and daubs of sauces and wine for each cook during its years of use.

Team EnoWeb roving reporters Richard Mills and Rory Walsh attended the 5x15 talk and texted EnoWeb to say:

The evening was really stimulating with not a poor speaker of the 6, a performance poetess was added to the billed 5x15. Brian's talk was billed as Welcome to the Third Millennium but was basically a recruitment drive for British American Security Information Council (BASIC) of which he is a board member. Adding to BE's assertion that he is changing the meaning of words like Passion for Passive, Action for Active, etc, he has decided that the last Millennium won't end 'til this year, due to the 20th Century style thinking adopted by world leaders!

Grant Flesland e-mails: Hey there, thought you'd enjoy this blurb on Brian Eno.

Giles Maunsell has set up an exhaustive Spotify playlist for Eno music.

YouTubery time.

Leo Abrahams briefly mentioned working on the Pure Scenius album again (17th January entry)

What are Eno collaborators up to?

Richard says Jane Siberry is playing at Tide Tables Café in Richmond on 15th April & 2nd May.

Harold Budd has a new album out with Clive Wright, Little Windows, released on 31st March.

Daniel Lanois' new project, Black Dub, is a-movin' and a-groovin'.

Intermorphic, the generative music team behind SSEYO Koan all those years ago, has released Mixtikl 2 for a variety of platforms including iPhone/iPod Touch.

Our previous update was on 29th March when we wrote:

Despite being part of the May-based Brighton Festival, 77 Million Paintings at Fabrica Gallery will kick off on 2nd April.

Also on 77 Million Paintings, Brian was interviewed for the BBC World Service programme Digital Planet on 23rd March (Thanks to Radiocitizen, Richard Mills & Peter Chilvers). They played the wrong type of "Bloom" though.

Also on the World Service, Brian also contributed to a tribute to his friend the broadcaster Charlie Gillett, who died on 17th March -- apart from Dick Emery, surely the only man during the 1970s to use the words "Honky Tonk".

Back to 77 Million Paintings: seems Brian had a bit of spare time before his Brighton residency and decided to nip off to Mexico. The installation is going to be running in Mexico at the Museo Anahuacalli from 24th April to 30th June 2010 [UPDATE: now 13th June]. Brian will be giving a talk as well on 23rd April at Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris... although the title An Evening With Brian Eno does give the probably inaccurate impression that he'll be reeling off a few anecdotes about his days in Showbiz... (Thanks to Dominic Norman-Taylor, Radiocitizen & Alex Rubli).

Brian at Gresham College pretends to be that Japanese woman on the video billboard in "Blade Runner"The Long Now discusssion of finance at Gresham College is available to view at Fora.tv. (Thanks to Radiocitizen).

Join the Long Now Foundation for 10,000 years now and get a free Eno print. Still, if you can afford to stump up 10 grand for membership, you could probably afford to buy a print anyway, you cheapskate.

Here are some visual elements tying in with the Exploratorium's podcast Eno interview we linked to in January. (Thanks to Bernd Kretzschmar).

A podcast with Eno biographer David Sheppard. (Thanks to Bernd.)

An interview with AGW analyst Geeta Dayal.

A journal entry from David Byrne discussing collaborations including work with Eno.

Brian talks Liberal Democrat.

Melita Dennett talks to Brian about Brighton.

Our previous update was on 25th February when we wrote:

Eno dozes, unaware that a tiny spaceship is orbiting his headThe programme for Brian's Brighton Festival has been revealed. Along with 77 Million Paintings and outdoor installations there are performances of the Jun Lee/Icebreaker Apollo, Sum, 3 Pure Scenius concerts, and talks. (Thanks to Dominic Norman-Taylor.)

Brian will be talking for 15 minutes at 5x15 on 15th March, at The Tabernacle in London's Fashionable Notting Hill District.

Brian's Dr Pangloss column continues. (Thanks to Radiocitizen).

No nukes is good nukes, says Brian. (Thanks to David Whittaker).

Pete Marsh writes: we've made a wee film about the Arena title sequence which includes a brief chat with David Toop about Another Green World, plus a chance to hear some one-off 'reversions' of the theme in blues and ska versions (who knew?) hope you enjoy...

David Evans writes from his iPod Nano: Saw The Lovely Bones yesterday. Story OK, effects very good, music mostly worked very well. You may be interested to know that apart from the original music, we get "1/1" from Airports, and instrumentals from "Third Uncle", "The Great Pretender", and "Baby's On Fire". Also a bit of "The Big Ship" and one of the Eno/Budd tracks.

Michael G. Wiles writes: Ambient Sausage Roll.

Ever wondered how Brian fills his time between record releases? Well, in January he was shooting the breeze about the purpose of Art (thanks to Radiocitizen), and in February he attended the the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year shortlist party.

Martin Brennan writes: Without her knowledge my mum's front door was filmed at the start of the documentary Brian Eno - Another Green World and made to look as if it was Brian Eno's (they cut to the inside and there he is collecting his mail). She has had a few callers today - she is still seeing the funny side. What would you do? You think this could snowball?

DJ Food has put together a mix called More Volts: The Funky Eno.

Before we go, here's some stuff relating to Brian's collaborators and/or influencers.

Our previous update was on 20th January when we wrote:

It's Eno Audio Week at EnoWeb! Actually this is probably the last one. On 10th January Minnesota Public Radio's The Current broadcast Brian Eno: Theory and Practice, a documentary on/interview with Brian. Listen online. (Thanks to Richard Mills).

The BBC Music Blog has a very brief interview with Brian about the Arena programme.

Here's an article on the Bristol Brand talk.

Our previous update was on 19th January when we wrote:

EnoWeb shows how hip, happening, down wi' da kids, street, and really gear it is, with this first-ever review by txt msg about the Brand-Eno event in Bristol. Yes indeedy, this site is the icest, there's no doubt about it. Richard Mills thumbs:

Very good talk in a large hall that was once a church. About 5 or 600 people there. Eno gave an introductory talk about nuclear power and Stewart Brand. Brand spoke about nuclear and there was a short Q&A. Afterwards in the crypt cafe there was a signing by Brand while Brian tried to drink red wine and avoid autograph hunters.

Hear for yourself with a podcast courtesy of the Bristol Festival of Ideas site.

Eno is back -- and this time it's sandwiches. The 02010 Long Finance Conference takes place on 1st February at Gresham College in London, with the usual Long Now Foundation suspects in attendance using up the Earth's precious resources by adding an extra 0 to everything. The event is sold out though.

A year ago the Sound On Sound podcast had an extract from the speech Brian gave when he received the Joe Meek Award For Innovation In Production. EnoWeb, first with the news.

YouTube has some film of the Eno-Paladino I Dormienti installation at London's Roundhouse, and the J. Peter Schwalm concerts in Naples on 26th May 2007 & PUNKT08.

Random thought: beginning to think that 15-year-old album 1.Outside was so far ahead of its time that it represents the first album for the iPod Generation... for truly, its track sequence sounds as if it is running in shuffle mode.

David Byrne is giving away "Please Don't", a track from his new album with Fatboy Slim, Here lies Love.

Our previous update was on 17th January when we wrote:

The Observer has an article about Brian by Paul Morley, with quotes from some of the conversations recorded for the Arena documentary.

Following the BBC4 Arena documentary, Brian Eno: Another Green World, at 9-10pm on Friday 22nd January, the "All Eno, All The Time" programming will continue with Brian Eno: Hits, Classics and Tracks presented by Paul Morley at 10-11pm, then another outing for The Roxy Music Story at 11-11.55pm, then For All Mankind from 11.55pm-1.10am, then a repeat of the first three programmes.

To celebrate its 40th Anniversary, The Exploratorium in San Francisco is releasing a set of podcasts from its archives, including programming from a series called Speaking of Music co-presented by the Exploratorium, Charles Amirkhanian and KPFA radio. Brian appeared on the show in February 1988.

February 1998, you say? Here's a Music Technology interview from that same month.

And here's an interview from a French magazine called Technikart from July/August 2005.

The Stop The War Coalition has decided to collect questions for Tony Blair's appearance before The Iraq Inquiry, though whether the Inquiry would entertain these is unknown. Anyway, Brian has some.

Our previous update was on 11th January when we wrote:

The Arena documentary about Brian will be broadcast on Friday 22nd January on BBC4 at 9pm. There will be a repeat on Sunday 24th January at 10.30pm. (Thanks to Opal).

Just a reminder that Stewart Brand will be talking to Brian in Bristol, UK, at 6pm on Monday 18th January.

Here's an interview with Stewart Brand. (Thanks to David Honigmann).

This year's Edge.org question is "How Has The Internet Changed The Way You Think?"

Brian's score for The Lovely Bones won't be in the Oscars. (Thanks to Richard Joly).

The full text of the December Dr Pangloss article is now available. (Thanks to Radiocitizen).

So, what else do we have to look forward to from Brian in 2010? Positive: The release of The Lovely Bones in cinemas; a cover of a Peter Gabriel song for I’ll Scratch Yours, part of Peter's Scratch My Back project; curating this year's Brighton Festival; production work for Coldplay; being a Rolex Mentor. Probable: A release of some of the music recorded at the Pure Scenius concerts. Possible: The collaboration with Herbie Hancock; Brian's book if he finishes it. Mind you, we did list those two last year...

02009's Enews


02008's Enews


02007's Enews


02006's Enews


02005's Enews


02004's Enews


02003's Enews


02002's Enews


02001's Enews


02000's Enews


01999's Enews


01998's Enews


Other news sources

The Nerve Net e-mail newsletter. Subscribe to this, and you'll get all the news and views from Eno enthusiasts across the globe, delivered free to your e-mail inbox. Operated by Alex Rubli, Nerve Net is a lot more focused than the alt.music.brian-eno newsgroup and you don't have to put up with any spam. Subscribe today!

The alt.music.brian-eno newsgroup. You can subscribe using many e-mail / newsreader packages, or visit from web-sites like groups.google.com. But it really doesn't have much in the way of news.


EnoWeb's Newsbot is Tom Boon.


home