Intuitive Music

Brian Eno

Brian Eno has been considered the father of modern ambient music. He is one of the most innovative artists of contemporary music who is also a key influence in the glam rock scene.

Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, aka Brian Eno, was born in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, on 15 May 1948. Eno was raised in rural Suffolk, in an area close to an U.S. Air Force base. The proximity to the U.S. culture made him grow enamored of the sounds of doo-wop and early rock & roll broadcasted on American Armed Forces radio. Eno went to art school where he got introduced to the works of contemporary composers such as John Tilbury, Cornelius Cardew, John Cage, LaMonte Young and Terry Riley. During this period Eno began experimenting with tape recorders, under the influence of Steve Reich’s “It’s Gonna Rain”. An authentic self-taught musician, Eno is a self-declared “non-musician” and he declines his interest in the complexity of the technical and electronic world, finding it only useful when it is possible to establish of a straight and intuitive approach to the devices.

As a teenager, Brian Eno joined the avant-garde performance art troupe Merchant Taylor’s Simultaneous Cabinet and collaborated with vocals and “signal generation” with the improvisational rock band Maxwell Demon. In 1969, he joined Cardew’s Scratch Orchestra and later joined the Portsmouth Sinfonia as a clarinetist.

In 1970, Eno was founder member of pop band Roxy Music, playing the synthesizer and electronically treating the band’s sound. Brian Eno recorded two of the most important and creative works of the glam rock era: “Roxy Music” (1972) and “For Your Pleasure” (1973).

In 1973 Brian Eno left Roxy Music due to their musical interests (Eno said he once found himself thinking of the laundry in the middle of a show) and he increased his interest for the exploration and experimentation, starting a solo career in 1974 with the album “Here Come The Warm Jetsâ€?. Brian Eno singed and played guitars and keyboards in the album, with the collaboration of a number of excellent musicians including Phil Manzanera and Andy MacKay from Roxy Music, guitarist Chris Spedding, and King Crimson´s guitarist Robert Fripp. The result was a collection of extremely personal and androgynous songs where the ghosts of the melodic music from the 40’s and 50’s co-habitates with the memorabilia sound portraits of Brian Wilson, the naughty sexual energy of Velevet Underground, the immediate punk breath of the newborn krautrock scene, and the smashing utra-glam guitar orchestra of Fripp, Manzanera, and Spedding.

The album reached the U.K. Top 30 and he started a short tour that was cut in less than a week when Eno’s lung collapsed, spending the early part of 1974 hospitalized. In 1973, Brian Eno and Robert Fripp joined together in 1973 to work on a system based in the manipulation of tape machines to create delays, this being the introduction of loop techniques and ambiental works in the world of popular music. The duo recorded with this system the albums “No Pussyfooting” (1973) and “Evening Star” (1975). Fripp & Eno were probably the first British rock artists to enter the avant-garde music world as the krautrock scene did in Germany a few years ago. The whole concept was an experimentation based on a system invented by Eno of long echoes creating feedback with a Revox tape recorder. The results was as brilliant as they idea and the whole album was possibly the birth of the “loopâ€? music as well as the later so called “ambient musicâ€?.

For the second album “Taking Tiger Mountain By Stratyegy“ Eno was surrounded again by a crew of wonderful musicians, using the studio as a laboratory of sound experimentation with very succesful results. “Taking Tiger Mountain” can be considered another milestone from the 70’s, half way between the pre-punk and the glam rock, a 30 years ahead of the later electroclash in tracks like “Third Uncle”, under the influence of the krautrock avant of Faust, Neu! and Can.

Brian Eno, Nico, Kevin Ayers and John Cale

In the same year, Eno played a serie of four concerts with by Kevin Ayers and Velvet Underground’s John Cale & Nico and also including Soft Machine’s Robert Wyatt on drums. The last show at London’s Raimbow was released in “June 1st 1974â€? album. That same year, Brian Eno also collaborated in the Genesis legendary double album “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadwayâ€? creating sounds and effects that were credit as “Enossification”.

In 1974, Brian Eno was convalescent in a London hospital after having being run over a taxi. One day, while his confining on the hospital, he was one day listening a classic harp record with difficulties to turn up the volume so the music got mixed with the ambience sounds of the city and the rain. This inspired him to create a kind of music that could provide to the listener with similar ambience sensations using abstract musical structures and ambient sounds. This way he coined himself the name of “ambient Music�, which he first used in 1975 with the release of the album “Discreet Music� where Eno used techniques of loops and delays to creates different layers of sound inducing feelings of physical distance and spatial movement. In this album is very noticeable his conception of music as a cross between an impressionist and an abstract painting.

Brian Eno

“Another Green Worldâ€?, released in 1975, is one of the most aclaimed in Eno’s discography, considered a milestone in sound experimentation and well as being a pioneering work in the use of ethnic rhythms and drum machines in pop music. Another Green Worldâ€? is considered one of the pre-electronica master pieces of modern music, featuring rich musical passages influenced by the pre-ambient works of Neu! and electronic sequences pieces that takes kraftwerk’s synth pop rhythmics one step further.

In 1975, Eno surprised the musical press by publishing a cards gameâ€? with the name of Oblique Strategies, a set of problem-solving cards for artists inspired in the I Ching oracle. Roxy Music’s Phil Manazanera recruited for his new band 801, apearing in “801 Liveâ€? album playing vocals, synthesizers and guitars. That same year, Brian Eno founded the Obscure label to release the works of experimental composers like John Adams, Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars, and John Cage. He was also active in the Fluxus movement, which would give life to a later work with the Portsmouth Sinfonia.

1976 would bring the definittive jump to ambient music with “Music for Fimsâ€?, where Eno created a series of musical landscapes playing with the concepts of time and spaces. It was concieved as a humble edition for film makers who could be interested but hopefully it became a success in the press media and acclaimed by the audiences. The success of this album was followed up by “Before and After The Scienceâ€? (1977) where Eno used vocal collages. During the same time, he recorded two albums with some of the most important German explorers of the decade. The first with the band Cluster, releasing the album “Cluster & Enoâ€? (1977), featuring Holger Czukay from Can and Asmus Tietchens. The second with Moebius and Roedelius, releasing the album “After the Heat” (1978). also featuring Holger Czukay.

With Eno absolutely involved in ambient music a long serie of works by the name of ambient started in 1978 with the release of “ambient 1: Music For Airportsâ€?. From this moment on Eno’s career became even more prolific, releasing numerous works as a solo artist and with a number of different musicians.

“Brian Eno, Robert Fripp and David Bowie, 1977.

During the late 70’s, Brian Eno started a very succesful career as a producer. He is also one of the most requested record producers of our times, having worked for Talking Heads “Remain in Lightâ€? (1980), and Devo “Q: Are We not Men? A: We Are Devoâ€? (1978). Of all the artists David Bowie was the first to hire his services as a producer, for whom they moved to Berllin under the influence of the krautrock scene to record the trilogy of albums “Low”(1977), “Heroes” (1977), and later “Lodger” (1979) in France. He would later produce Bowie’s album “Outside” in 1994.

In 1978, Brian Eno began a long union with Talking Heads, producing the albums “More Songs About Buildings and Food” (1978), “Fear of Music” (1979) and “Remain in Light”, this last featuring Eno’s co-writing. Brian Eno also pioneered sampling and the use of found sounds on “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts”, a collaboration with David Byrne and released in 1981. In 1983, Brian Eno was comited to record the music for “Apolloâ€? film along with his brother Roger Eno and Daniel Lanois, releasing the album “Apollo-Atmospheres and Soundtracksâ€?.

In 1980, Brian Eno started a series of collaborations with minimalist composer Harold Budd, including the albums “The Plateaux Of Mirror” (1980), “The Pearl” (1984), and with the avant-trumpeter Jon Hassell, including the album “Possible Musics” (1980). Another Brian Eno’s celebrated production was the one for the Irish band U2 in 1993 when he designed and produced the gigantic technologic show for the Zooropa Tour. After having produced U2’s “Unforgettable Fireâ€? (1984), “The Joshua Treeâ€? (1987), “Achtung Babyâ€? (1991) and “Zooropa“ (1993), he formed a loose collective with members of the band and other artists (including Luciano Pavarotti and Howie Bernstein) to write and record “Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1“, released in 1995. Brian Eno won the Best Producer Award at the 1994 and 1996 BRIT awards.

In 1993, Brian Eno collaborated in the curious project of the writer Robert Sheckley project that joined in the album “In the Land of Clear Colours” the music by Brian Eno, the narration by Pete Sinfield (King Crimson), and the illustrations of Leonor Quiles. Apart from these activities Eno resleased the solo instrumental works “The Shutov Assembly” (1992) and the minimal masterpiece “Neroli” (1993).

In 1996, Eno started collaborating in the creation of the Long Now Foundation to educate the public into thinking about the very long term future of society. He is a patron of War Child and in 1995 he collaborated with the Help benefit album and singing with Bono, The Edge and Pavarotti at Modena Festival to benefit War Child. He has also working as a columnist for the British newspaper, The Observer. That sma year Eno was involved in a new producing concept called Generative Music : the creation of a PC floppy-disc using Sseyo Koan software that has as a result that music is never heard the same way twice. He has also collaborated on the development of the Koan algorithmic music generator.

In 2004, a new work in collaboration with Robert Fripp and produced by Eno was released on the Opal/DMG label, titled “The Equatorial Stars”, which was followed in 2005 by the solo album “Another Day on Eart” where he recovers his love for black American doo-wop.

As a visual artist, Brian Eno’s video installations have been exhibited at galleries around the world, including the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Venice Biennale; the Pompidou Centre in Paris as well as a permanent exhibition opened October 1995 in Austria’s Swarovski Museum. Combining sound and Cinema, Eno’s works create an alternative environment for the gallery-goer, just as his ambient albums create a sense of space for the listener. Now visiting professor at the Royal College of Art, Eno collaborated with Laurie Anderson and some of his students earlier in ‘95 for the Self-Storage installation in Wembley, London.