News update: 17th June 02017

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

Brian Eno's "big four" rock albums will be re-released on vinyl by UMC/Virgin/Astralwerks on 4th August. Here Come The Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), Another Green World and Before And After Science have all been mastered at half speed, which provides a better dynamic sound range than the original records. Long-term Eno fans will recall those utilised the wax phonograph cylinder technology popularised by Mr Thomas Edison. The new-fangled Long Players will be heavyweight 180g vinyl and need to be played at 45 revolutions per minute. This means there are two records per album, presented in gatefold sleeves. You also get an Obi strip*, an Abbey Road half speed master certificate, and a download voucher.

*N.B. This is not a Star Wars thing, saving Sir Alec Guinness' blushes.

hypnotisedBrian Eno and Peter Chilvers have created Coldplay : Hypnotised, a new Bloom-type generative music app to accompany Coldplay's song "Hypnotised". It's free, available for iOS and Android, and you can play it on its own too (or leave it running).

RTE recently uploaded a video of Brian Eno answering questions from Sinead Gleeson in June last year, after Brexit but before the US election, and backed by 2017's Reflection.

INSTALLATIONS

Lightforms / Soundforms runs at Arts Santa Mònica in Barcelona, Spain, until 1st October 2017. Described as "the world's most comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the work of Brian Eno as an artist", Lightforms / Soundforms is part of the Sónar Festival and includes installations of New Space Music and 77 Million Paintings, plus exhibitions of Lightboxes and some of Eno's notebooks. Until 18th June there is a tie-in Reflection to bewilder frazzled air travellers at Barcelona El Prat Airport's Terminal 1 baggage claim area.

Ivorypress has a video of its Light exhibition.

I Dormienti, the 1999 Mimmo Paladino installation with music by Brian, has been revived in Florence, Italy. This also runs until 1st October 2017.

An article about the UK Pavilion at Astana Expo 2017, Kazakhstan, for which Brian wrote a soundtrack; no music samples though.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

A track by Brian will appear as one of Adult Swim's 52 weekly streaming singles in 2017 or 2018. He will also be collaborating with Tom Rogerson on the forthcoming album Failing Shore, and contributing to the track "Some Kind Of Love" on the next record by The Killers, Wonderful Wonderful.

Straying off-topic now

Good Housekeeping

Regular EnoWeb visitors will know that this site aims to have a redesign every two decades. Now that most of that is complete, the Tangents section has been expanded with the reinstatement of the popular Ask Eno page, a new explainer on Eno's approach to production, an archive of some stuff that's disappeared from other sites, and a slightly expanded Links page.

Previous update: 29th May 02017

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

The Gift are touring with their new album Altar, and Brian appeared on stage with them on Thursday 25th May at Bush Hall, London, UK.

Installations

The Ship installation is running at The National Gallery in Prague, Czech Republic, until 10th September.

A Light Music installation runs at Trani Castle (Bari, Puglia, Italy) until 30th October.

Brian's similar-sounding Light exhibition of Lightboxes will be appearing at Ivorypress in Madrid, Spain, from 30th May to 15th July.

The Ship sails the seven seas and then makes landfall at Wynwood, Miami, USA, for the III Points Music, Art & Technology Festival, over 13th-15th October.

Interviews

Comedian, broadcaster and award-winning podcaster Adam Buxton interviewed Brian last year and this, and released the result in a 2-part podcast. He managed to get some new answers, too.

The BBC's technology programme Click visited Brian in March for a short feature, and recorded so much that they decided to release an extended version.

Grazia France interviewed Brian.

Miscellanea

Brian's composing a continuous sound work for the visualisations of "We Are Energy" – the UK pavilion at the 2017 International Exposition in Astana, Kazakhstan from 10th June to 10th September.

A review of the Brian Eno — Light Music book.

Reflection is the app that keeps on giving (in return for its hefty price). To mark the arrival of Spring, it was updated with some new sounds. That's in addition to a limited edition extra album that we forgot to mention in our previous news update, Sisters (no longer available), compensating purchasers affected by Apple's app price increase. The updated version can also be heard on Spotify and Apple Music. Roll on Summer!

Brian provided the theme for the new BBC Radio 4 programme Only Artists.

Prospect Magazine has gathered together all the old columns that Brian wrote for it over 2009-2010.

Ramona Jan reminisces about working as a sound engineer for Brian.

Brian is one of the contributors to Fovea Hex's new EP, The Salt Garden Part 2.

Time to call in at the video shop

Previous update: 13th March 02017

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

Light MusicPaul Stolper has announced the publication of Light Music, a new 100-page book that presents a comprehensive overview of Brian Eno's exhibition at the gallery last year.

Light Music features colour photographs of Eno's lightboxes and lenticulars, graph paper drawings, etchings, plus installation shots of the exhibition. There's a major essay by Brian charting his work in light and its influence on his music, plus a short commentary by Michael Bracewell.

Light Music is limited to 1,500 copies, each individually numbered by stamp. The first 250 copies will be accompanied by "Lapis Center", a signed, numbered and dated lithograph print measuring 29x29cm, and will be sold on a first come, first served basis starting at £295.00. Numbers 251-1,500 don't include the print and will be priced at £45.00.

Light Music

Light Music

Light Music

Lapis Center

The book will be officially launched at the gallery with a signing on Monday 20th March. For more information and ordering information, visit Paul Stolper.

The National Gallery in Prague will be hosting The Ship and Brian's video works Thursday Afternoon and Mistaken Memories of Mediaeval Manhattan from 17th March to 10th September.

Meanwhile, in another part of the planet, Michael Benson's Otherworlds: Visions of our Solar System with music by Brian is running at Queensland Museum, South Brisbane, Australia, until 2nd July. Even without the Eno soundtrack, this comes highly recommended by EnoWeb.

"If you want to live a longer life you need to live more dangerously." Those were Brian's words to Flaunt magazine in January, and one plucky Guardian interviewer apparently thought he would give it a go. This is not a particularly edifying read. Interviewers are routinely told that Brian prefers not to answer questions about the past (as he has already done that multiple times earlier in his career), and it's a pity that Simon Hattenstone didn't get the memo.

Brian took issue with The Guardian's headline and wrote a message posted on his Warp Facebook page to explain what he really thinks about the US Prez.

Two days after the interview was published, The Guardian picked ten of the best Brian Eno tracks. Odd timing.

Philip Sherburne shows how it should be done with an interview at Pitchfork.

What makes us human? Brian answers this poser, plus lots of questions about his life and career. It all depends on the interviewer and the context, y'see.

German-language magazine Galore also interviewed Brian. This good interview can be read free if you don't mind signing up to Blendle, though it's a bit of a faff then to get Google to translate it.

Mastering engineer Mandy Parnell recently spoke to Cerys Matthews, including mention of working with Brian and Rick Holland on Drums Between The Bells just after 1:17:00.

Brian appears in a couple of videos for OpenDemocracy.

Continuing his revolutionary campaign to bring down World Government and Stick It To The Man, 28th January saw Brian speaking at the launch event for DiEM25 UK at Conway Hall in London.

On 23rd February it was Barcelona's turn to tremble, as Brian and Evgeny Morozov discussed technology and sovereignty.

It was a different story on 21st February, when Brian was interviewed by Professor Tanya Byron for one of The School Of Life's Life Lessons events. This appears to have been quite a personal discussion. The post-interview audience Q&A was streamed on Facebook for those who miss NYPD Blue's hand-held camerawork... EnoWeb's advice is to look away from the screen and just listen to the audio.

Altar, the Gift's album with Brian, is out on 7th April/5th May.

Other videos to fill up more of your time.

Previous update: 18th January

Thanks to Dario, John, Nenad Georgievski, Alex, and EnoWeb's own newsbot Tom Boon for these news links in no particular order.

Brian's new album Reflection was released on 1st January as a CD, LP, digital download and Apple app, accompanied by a small snowmaggedon of publicity. The app has just been updated with improvements including a sleep timer and new colours.

  • Jarvis Cocker – Reflecting on Ambient Music with Brian Eno (available until 30th January) – keep listening after the interview, as near the end of the show Brian reads new output from Mister Chilvers' Patented Electric Word Mangle, this time using old pop songs as the source.
  • Flaunt Magazine: "Time passes quickly when you're not having fun or when you're not paying attention. So if you want to live a longer life you need to live more dangerously."
  • Start Making Sense with Jehnny Beth – Brian is interviewed in programmes 39 and 40 for this Apple Radio Beats 1 show, which has the super-power of only being able to be heard by Apple Music subscribers (new listeners can get a free 3-month trial). Seen Star Wars, Brian has not.
  • The Next Track podcast talks to Peter Chilvers about the Reflection app
  • brian-eno.net
  • There's still time to hear The Life of Brians with Shaun Keaveny, Brian Eno and Brian Cox, even if Brian (Eno) resolutely refuses to promote Reflection during it (stream expires 24th January)

A few reviews.

Although he has not been seen in public for several years because he is conserving his energies for the coming battles against our enemies, Chairman Eno has issued a new year message to motivate the fortunate citizens of Enoland and ensure another year of record-breaking productivity in our lucky and blissful nation. Workers unite!

This year's Edge.org question is "What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely known?" Brian's response makes real sense, and at EnoWeb we couldn't help nodding vigorously in agreement at something that is so much in accordance with our own opinions.

"At this time, you could think of me as a Syllannibal: someone who eats their own words." Several years ago, about 20 minutes of extracts from the recording sessions for David Bowie's album 1.Outside escaped – but when some miscreants started selling them on eBay, the bootlegger stopped leaking... although from what we understand, he compiled a CD-R of longer pieces for a few trusted contacts in the Bowie fan community. We thought that the low-res MP3 extracts were all we would ever hear of this material, but it appears that during 2016 Bowie fans merrily started trading copies of the CD-R recording under the title The Leon Suites. It consists of over an hour of alternative takes and previously unheard creativity: music, wordplay, fun, chaos, darkness, dystopia, and characters old and new, as Bowie plays his Eno-ordained role of Griot. There's even a shout-out for one of Brian's albums: "I think we're stuck in a web. A sort of... Nerve Net." Unlike Windows 95, this doesn't sound anything like 22 years old.

Brian's work with The Gift continues with the release of the new track "Clinic Hope".

It's 40 years since Low was released.

Lunch with Laurie Anderson.

Other news sources

  • Warp Records' Brian Eno Facebook page, which occasionally has postings by Brian.
  • Radiocitizen's Dark Shark Facebook Page. EnoWeb has been the sole updater of that page since late January 2014 owing to a problem; while we always hoped normal service would be restored soon, it didn't happen -- so there are fewer updates than in yesteryear and days of yore.
  • There is also a Brian Eno Facebook Group which may need an invitation to join.


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EnoWeb's Newsbot is Tom Boon.