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: updated 6th may 02008 :

The NME has a short audio clip of the Coldplay track "A Spell A Rebel Yell", produced by Brian, which will appear on its exclusive 7" single.

Marianne Faithfull's new album Easy Come, Easy Go will include a cover of Brian's song "How Many Worlds". It's due out on 26th September. (Thanks to Richard Joly).

Darla's new compilation CD includes a track from the forthcoming Harold Budd & Clive Wright album A Song For Lost Blossoms: "Forever Hold My Breath".

Daniel Lanois contributes to "Wounded", Chapter 2 of 1 Giant Leap's film What About Me?

UN PEACE KEEPING TROOPS LARRY DICKSON writes: DEAR SIR/MADAM, THIS LETTER MAY BE STRANGE TO YOU AS WE HAVE HAD NO PREVIOUS CORRESPONDENCE. MY NAME IS CAPTAIN LARRY DICKSON, THE ASSISTANT TEAM LEADER (UN) PEACE KEEPING TROOPS IN SUDAN. WE INTEND TO AIR-LIFT (USD 20.5M),TO YOUR COUNTRY THROUGH A DIPLOMATIC MEANS.THANK YOU.
Mustard responds: No, really, thank you. Thank you for sending a 419 fraud message that completely forgets to ask us to get involved. Good luck with your air-lift.

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

On Some Faraway Beach, the biography of Brian Eno by David Sheppard, should be out in May. Amazon UK reckons it's due on 1st [which was wrong] while Amazon US and Blackwells think it'll be 29th. Brian Eno's "Another Green World" by Geeta Dayal looks as if it's been shunted to 30th June next year though.

More book news. Tore Pettersen writes: DJ Spooky's new book Sound Unbound has just been published. DJ Spooky describes it thus -- "It's a manifesto about sound art, digital media, and what I like to call contemporary composition. It has essays and interviews from people as diverse as Brian Eno, Pierre Boulez, Moby, Chuck D, Saul Williams, Jaron Lanier, Pauline Oliveros, Naeem Mohaiemen, and others." It's published under his name Paul D. Miller. Brian's contribution is a 10-page essay titled Bells and Their History, so maybe there's some crossover with the booklet in January 07003.

Coldplay's playful Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland were interviewed by BBC Radio 1's Jo Whiley. Brian got a mention and the new single was played.

Absolutely nothing to do with Brian, but fans of electronic music might enjoy this trip to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop -- you can see a suitcase synth like the one Brian used to perform with.

Our previous update was on 28th April when we wrote:

Over at Nerve Net, Richard "Total Recall" Mills gives a blow-by-blow account of the Royal Academy event.

Coldplay will be providing their first single "Violet Hill" as a free download on their site for a week from April 29th. It will also be included on a free 7" vinyl single with the NME on 7th May, together with a track unavailable elsewhere, "A Spell A Rebel Yell".

Magda e-mails: hi! I'm wondering if Brian Eno is involved in any way in Peter Jackson's upcoming The Lovely Bones movie. I know a few of his songs have been listed in the script of the movie, but I have also found a little piece of info that refers to Jon Hopkins working with him on the soundtrack.

Kelvin L Smith says: Harold Budd has a new album coming out. Long wait though!

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

Echoes will be running a series of features in May to celebrate Brian's 60th birthday (thanks to John Diliberto).

Monday 12th May -- AN INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN ENO: ZELIG IN THE MACHINE
Look in any corner of contemporary music, and Brian Eno is there. Brian Eno celebrates his 60th birthday this week. Rarely has an artist made such a monumental impact on modern music with such subtlety. As part of a week long celebration of Eno's music, we look back at his career with interviews from Eno, Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera, and members of Bang on A Can.

Tuesday 13th May -- AN INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN ENO: ON AN AMBIENT JOURNEY
The avatar of ambient music tells us the joys of quiet. Ambient music is all around us. Mark Prendergast even wrote a book called The Ambient Century. All of that comes down to Brian Eno, who coined the term "ambient music" in the 1970s, and released his sonic manifesto, Music for Airports. Eno talks about his concepts for ambient music.

Wednesday 14th May -- THE WIT & WISDOM OF BRIAN ENO
We hear thoughts and musings from the thinking person's musician. Brian Eno is one of the most profound minds of modern music. He's a conceptualist who applies avant-garde principles to pop music by U2 and Paul Simon, and pop principles to the avant-garde. In this wide-ranging meditation, one of the provocateurs of electronic music talks about the virtues of live performance as well as Abba and heavy metal.

Thursday 15th May -- TOUCHED BY ENO
For some musicians, being touched by Eno is like being touched by God. Musicians who weren't even born when Brian Eno recorded his seminal albums have been touched by his music. Artists from across genres, from pop to avant-garde, African to Asian, have found their music shaped by Eno, sometimes directly, often as a life-changing influence. On Brian Eno's 60th birthday, we hear from some of them including Harold Budd, Loop Guru's Dave Muddyman, David Toop, BT and Bluetech.

Friday 16th May -- THE WORLD OF BRIAN ENO
A two-hour soundscape of Brian Eno's music. In this special edition of Echoes, we hear an Echoes soundscape of Brian Eno's music, from his ambient works, pop songs, collaborations and productions.

According to Opal, Brian will not be touring with David Byrne, so it looks like wires getting crossed at Daily Swarm's source.

The first single from Coldplay's new album -- produced by Brian -- will be premiered on BBC 6 Music on 29th April.

Bob Pearce e-mails: Not sure if this has been shared before -- it's a video to accompany the Eno-Byrne track "Moonlight In Glory".

Our previous update was on 18th April when we wrote:

There are some updates further to last December's news item about Brian and David Byrne working together. David describes the type of music and there's a suggestion of a tour -- though who knows if this would include Brian (Paul Simon's Surprise tour line-up didn't feature Brian, after all). (Thanks to Richard Mills, Gerard Devine, Michael Flaherty, Steve Wilson & Jeff Baena).

Coldplay have announced a track listing and release date for their new album, Viva La Vida (thanks to Richard Mills).

On YouTube now: the 1.Outside EPK, made up of behind-the-scenes studio footage. This was originally Real video format circa 1995, so the video quality is somewhere between Tetris and Brian's Ambient videos. Rather than straightforwardly promoting the album, the EPK includes extracts from various recording and discussion sessions, with some music that didn't make it to the released album. You can see Brian dancing too.

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

Eclectic "quarterly" music publication Unknown Public sends word that having looked for alternatives to its hardback-book-and-CD format (formerly cardboard-box-and-CD-format), it has joined forces with a "technology partner" -- seemingly wanting to become a musical social network and store. One of its first wares is "The Unknown Zone", a previously unreleased track by Phil Manzanera with Brian, Robert Wyatt and Yaron Stavi.

J. Peter Schwalm recently wrote a bit about recording Music for Onmyo-ji.

Over on Nerve Net, Bernd Kretzschmar describes the Swarowski Krystallwelten exhibition.

Not much new or notable Eno-wise on YouTube, but these might while away a coupla minutes for you...

Over 10 years ago Brian spoke of wanting to write a big theory of culture (here & here). Since then we have wondered when that space on our bookshelves next to the Rev. Casaubon's The Key To All Mythologies would be filled. It seems that moves are afoot, though not a release date or anything.

The Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity have chosen Daniel Lanois' song 'The Maker' as their song for April.

Award nominee Rachid Taha is due to perform at the 2008 Awards for World Music on Thursday 10th April (broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 11th April at 19:00 BST)

The Long Now Foundation has a box in a Self Storage exhibition at 300 Treat Avenue in San Francisco, Wednesday to Sunday, 18th April - 18th May. Not to be confused with the 1995 Eno-Anderson Artangel event of the same name.

Mustard, The Tortoise Who Came In From the Cold, has just got time for a look in the postbag...

Tor writes: brianeno.com says "experiment appearing shortly". Is this his own site?
Mustard replies: We're getting this question a lot at the moment. The domain was registered in 1997 by an Eno fan who we understand was so horrified by the thought that somebody might cyber-squat on Brian Eno's domain that he altruistically decided to safeguard and protect it for evermore. For several years he had a still from Mistaken Memories on the site rather than this new message.

ubeh ben writes: Dear Friend, I'm happy to inform you about my success in getting those funds transferred under the cooperation of a new partner from paraguay. Presently i'm in Paraguay for investment projects with my own share of the total sum. meanwhile,i didn't forget your past efforts and attempts to assist me in transferring those funds despite that it failed us some how. Now contact my secretary in Nigeria his name is Mr Chinedu Obi on [deleted] ask him to send you the total of $2.5.
Mustard replies: How tragic! Nigerian 419 spammers have fallen on such hard times that they can only afford to scam us with a measly two-and-a-half bucks!

Nannie Bourgeois e-mails: Re: the secret to bedding her... She let out a silent scream when I told her that I can go 9 times a night.
Mustard quibbles: As a fierce wild tortoise, I have excellent hearing -- but even I would find it impossible to hear what you describe as a "silent scream". Without noise, how could you tell she was screaming? I think you'll find that she was in fact yawning. For the second part of your question, I would advise that in future you no longer drink 6 litres of water before going to bed in the evening. That will help you avoid having to nip to the loo on quite such a regular basis. Good night!

Our previous update was on 26th March when we wrote:

Scanner samples: Just thought I'd draw your attention to a fine event that I'll be chairing at the Royal Academy in London on 21st April. It includes a performance of 4' 33" and discussions with Brian, Tom Phillips and Vesna Petresin Robert. Looks to be a very entertaining night...

Would you like to sit on Brian Eno? We hope that nobody would dream of suggesting such a thing. However if you're keen, it appears that Brian has named a seat at The South Bank Centre. (Yes, we know somebody's decided to try rebranding it "Southbank Centre" without a "The", but those renamings seldom work: Reading's natives still refer to The Butts Centre rather than The Broad Street Mall, and that was changed years ago.) Perhaps Brian's action is a reference to his suggestion in A Year With Swollen Appendices: "I mean, you should be able to advertise 'Man seeks position as sofa for large lady' and get lots of sensible replies, for example."

Brian is listed as a participant in the Experiment Marathon Reykjavík on 16th May, probably in the Reykjavík Art Museum's Hafnarhús.

Jeffrey Morgan enthuses about Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy).

Francesco Lo Forte e-mails: Daniel Lanois is taking part in a Q&A for GearSlutz until 31st March. He answered a question on Apollo.

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

Richard Mills opines:

Fabio Anile e-mails: Thanks for hosting this huge web site about Mr. Eno. If you're interested, I have posted some photos I took at the recent exhibit "OPERA PER L'ARA PACIS" on my web site.

Bernd Kretzschmar writes: I just found this video excerpt with unreleased Eno / Schwalm music Heart Pulse, composed and recorded by Brian Eno and J. Peter Schwalm.

Onur Azeri e-mails: Thought you’d be interested in a nice mention of Brian over at the New York Times today regarding music he did for a film called Boarding Gate. It’s at the end of the movie review. EnoWeb adds: Maybe this is the soundtrack Leo Abahams mentioned recently. However, the Press Kit & IMDB don't mention who is responsible for the music.

Kaon Koo says:

Have something new that Mark Harrop and I hope you will enjoy.

I have been working with Mark on a pair of related non-commercial video productions since mid-January, 2008, and am pleased to announce the public launch of these extended length productions, presented in full screen high definition HD resolution 1280 x 720P progressive scan format, each about 37 minutes total running time, at Vimeo:

These productions are, to the best of my knowledge, probably the first extended length derivative works (in high definition quality and all original music) that are based on Eno's 77 Million Paintings, made possible by the non-commercial images usage permission as included / stated in the 77-MP software (both 1st and 2nd editions, i.e. versions 1.0 and 1.1). I am happy to say that it has been yet another enjoyable production experience collaborating with Mark Harrop again, who has, through my audition and selection of some of his recent unreleased works, brought forth one of his original algorithmic / generative pieces titled Porthemeor Evening for use with the first video in this pair - 7 Hours in 77 Million Paintings. We are both very happy with the final result of the audio track for 7-HOURS, providing a very different aural mood for the entire piece.

For the second video in the pair, I've decided to revisit Mark's minimalistic ambient piece Dusk Bells, originally released in the Flash based FAME Music Capsule back in 2000.

Rory Walsh writes: I just got back from a cold but enjoyable weekend in Bath. Whilst there I read that Harold Budd will be performing at the Bath Music Festival. Even better it's free! Even better than that you can follow in the footsteps of Brian and Roger Eno, Robin Guthrie, Hector Zazou, Andy Partridge, Bill Laswell, John Foxx, Jah Wobble, Bill Nelson and loads of others by performing with the man himself. For those of us who trekked down to Brighton in 2005 for his farewell concert and jammed the Harold Budd Retires helpline afterwards for comfort, this must be a pavilion of dreams come true. And another thing, at the Here Comes Everybody talk at the ICA Eno appeared fit and well and during the course of the discussion talked about the website Flickr. I checked it out and it has it a number of Eno related pictures including Eno at the Eno Wines.

Our previous update was on 15th March when we wrote:

Brian spoke about the Clock of the Long Now on the Radio 4 programme Nowhere Fast? on Saturday 15th March.

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

Here's some info on the Eno/Paladino installation at the Museo dell'Arra Pacis in Rome. (Thanks to Renzo Pietrolungo & Francesco Lo Forte)

Bernd Kretzschmar writes: There was some Italian radio coverage of Eno's & Palladino's new collaboration.

Daniel Lanois' film Here Is What Is, which as you'll remember includes chats with Brian and an alternative version of a track from Apollo, is released on DVD by Red Floor Records on 17th March. This is an "exclusive Goldtop Edition" with CD and the DVD includes over an hour of extra footage, including alternate versions of songs from the film, plus other stuff.

Ellen Mallernee e-mails: Hey, I’m an Editor at Gibson Guitar, and we just posted a really great story about Brian Eno and Ambient Guitar, and I thought you might to link to it from your site.

Niki van Schnabel alias Bulli Pulver writes: Hello Great Brian Eno Webmasters! The last time I mailed you to give you the chance to see the sweet Paintings of famous Popstars from Herrn Bulli Pulver (bullipulver.de). Today I would like to show you some of the delicious Paintings of his friend Herrn Niki van Schnabel (Dutch Ornithologist). He has painted his special “Top of the Pops 2008”. Among those great songs you will also find one great song of our friend Brian Eno. Now you have to find out – which one:

Leo Abrahams keeps mentioning Brian.

Here's a bit more information on Brian's involvement with the Spore game music.

In a shock move, EnoWeb has updated a page other than this news page. The discography and film, video & tv pages are now up to date. Ish.

Just a reminder that Peter Schmidt Web has plenty of intriguing stuff.

Neil Gaiman, writer of Neverwhere for which Brian wrote the music, has made his novel American Gods available to read for free on the site of his publisher Harper Collins.

Our previous update was on 18th February when we wrote:

On 17th March, Brian will be in conversation with Clay Shirky, discussing "The Power of Networks" at the ICA in London. (Thanks to Richard Mills).

But before that, Renzo Pietrolungo writes: Nine years on from their first collaboration, Brian and Mimmo Paladino are again joining forces for a collaborative project at Rome's Museo dell'Arra Pacis. It runs from 11th March to 11th May.

Bernd Kretschmar writes: The Swarovski Kristallwelten site now has full information about its new installations. Brian's is called 55 Million Crystals and he also contributes to another installation in Crystal Worlds.

Paul Callanan e-mails: I recently emailed Canongate asking for an update on The Margin: A Canongate Diary and A Year With Swollen Appendices. Here is the response I received:

Hi there,

These two titles have unfortunately been canceled for the time being. We have no date.

Best Wishes

Bang on A Can All-Stars have released (digitally) a live recording of Music For Airports.

A date of 7th September has been set for the release of Will Wright's new game Spore, which includes a generative musical soundtrack by Brian. (Thanks to Bernd Kretzschmar).

On the same topic, Brian's Long Now chat with Will, Playing With Time, is available on DVD in the USA. (Thanks to Kevin Eden).

On a similar topic, further to 2007's coverage of Noatikl, the new generative music software follow-up to Koan, Tim Cole e-mails: With the release of V1.5 of noatikl, its generative music engine has been transformed into a powerful trans-generative music engine through the addition of functionality allowing it to be totally controlled by a combination of Lua scripts and external MIDI events, either live -- e.g. from MIDI keyboard, MIDI guitar or other MIDI instrument --or from a MIDI file. This major extension means that noatikl can now harmonise and flux around an overall external musical structure, creating MIDI notes and events which can be used to drive samplers, synths and FX units.

John Diliberto says: I thought you might be interested in Avant to Pop, a web article I wrote on the flow from avant-garde music into popular music, including Eno. At the end there's links to a quintet of 5 minute meditational interviews with Eno, Stockhausen, Cage, Keith Jarrett and a bunch of Minimalists that's in a series called Thoughts in Sound.

Michael Staley points out that Leo Abrahams once again mentions his work with Brian in his Webdiary (23rd January 2008 entry).

Leo's new album The Unrest Cure was released in January, featuring a host of stars from stage and screen including Brian on "No Frame" and "2000 Years from Now" (backing vocals). (Thanks to Michael Staley & Leo Abrahams). Michael adds: When you buy the album on iTunes (at just over a fiver - bargain!), it comes bundled with a music video for "2000 Years from Now" (Brian isn't featured) and a 10-minute documentary video about the making of the album (Brian is mentioned).

Scrooby says that in our round-up of news on Brian being given a day job by Nick Clegg last year, we missed an article in The Independent.

More recently in the Indie, Brian was one of the signatories for a letter about curbing nuclear arms on Saturday 16th February.

Richard Joly writes: Here's a very thorough interview with Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO. GREAT STUFF. Some way down he talks a bit about woring with Brian. (Thanks also to Rich Lindsay).

Rupert Loydell e-mails: There's a review of David Whittaker's book Stonelight, which - as you know - includes Eno and Stafford Beer stuff, up at Stride in a review entitled 'Mapping Out the Terrain'; also covered is Michael Bracewell's Remake/Remodel.

Rich Henderson says: Just wanted to let you know, The Thing Is... An Interview, Paul Morley's 1992 Channel 4 interview with Brian is up on YouTube in three parts:

Theodor e-mails: We are radio producers from Greece with a morning show in best radio (92.6) (www.bestradio.gr for liveradio every morning 06.00-08.00 english time). Last July (7/7/2007) we released our first collection with EMI records with our favourite songs by the title God Save the Kings - with a Brian Eno song (Deep Blue Day). You can visit our blog for the cd cover and more details.

Our prevous update was on 3rd January when we wrote:

What do we have to look forward to this year, Eno-wise? On Some Faraway Beach, David Sheppard's biography of Brian, will be published in May, and Geeta Dayal's Brian Eno's "Another Green World" is out in September. Canongate's The Margin and re-release of A Year with Swollen Appendices are still currently Missing In Action. It seems possible that Brian's projects with Herbie Hancock and David Byrne might come to fruition; the new Coldplay and U2 albums and the DVD of Daniel Lanois Film Here Is What Is should be out anyway. January 21st sees the release of Leo Abrahams' album The Unrest Cure which features Brian on one track. As 2008 marks Brian's 60th birthday we might see some media coverage, bunting, public holidays etc in May as well.

Will Cate writes: I just ran across Edge.org's "World Question Center," which asks, to several interesting people, "What have you changed your mind about?" Here's Brian's response.

David Evans e-mails: You may have heard this -- Brian talking about nuclear weapons (he's against them) as part of Damon Albarn's guest editorship of the Today programme on 27th December 2007.


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