"Big Empty Country" by Brian Eno and Beatie Wolfe

It is a match made in heaven: a collaboration between ambient pioneer Brian Eno and conceptual artist/musician Beatie Wolfe has produced a pair of albums, "Luminal" featuring Wolfe on vocals, and "Lateral" featuring eight glorious tracks of classic ambient sonics which both describe as "ambient-landscape-dream-music" and "like the familiar, but better." These tracks are a tonic for these ailing days...here are four of them...

https://www.brian-eno.net/
https://beatiewolfe.com/

Brian Eno on What Art Does

https://www.brian-eno.net/

"Bloom: Living World" by Brian Eno

I have loved Brian Eno's ambient music since I first heard "Music For Airports" nearly 45 years ago. Another classic ambient creation of his, "Thursday Afternoon" is one that makes its way into rotation when I am on an ambient kick. And now I can add this glorious new Eno ambient creation, "Bloom: Living World" to my mix.

"As a decades long pioneer of generative and ambient music, Brian Eno instantly saw the possibilities offered by newly emergent phone apps. In 2008, he and software developer Peter Chilvers, collaborated on their first - Bloom, an award winning, generative, visual music app that can be enjoyed on any smart device. Utilising Eno's original music and visuals, it allows the user to explore elaborate patterns and melodies by simply tapping the screen.

Not many apps have remained fresh and relevant after sixteen years in the way that Bloom has. Over the years it has featured in films and television, gained new features, and spawned an extended 10-year anniversary edition, Bloom: 10 Worlds which introduced 10 new realms to further explore. Bloom: Open Space premiered in The Transformatorhuis in Amsterdam in February 2018. The installation was Eno's first foray into augmented reality with a generative music experience in situ using the HoloLens.

In Bloom: Living World, Brian Eno has reimagined Bloom as a studio work, applying treatments to an hour long recording and adding subtle sonic touches. It is accompanied by Bloom: Small World, which encapsulates the whole experience into a concise 5 minutes and thirty four seconds. Originally released in October 2024 as an Amazon Original, it surpassed 17 million streams in its first three months, and will now be released on all digital music services on January 31, 2025.

Accompanying the music is an original video edit, also generated from the app."

https://www.brian-eno.net/

"Secret Life" by Fred Again.. and Brian Eno

I am kind of entranced by this collaborative album from Fred Again.. and Brian Eno called "Secret Life," released a few months ago. It is a fascinating mix of Eno's ambient talents and produciton skills with Fred's soulful approach to music.

https://www.fredagain.com/
https://www.brian-eno.net/

"Garden of Stars" by Brian Eno

New from Brian Eno, "Garden of Stars" from his recent release "FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE." The lyrics say it all. Indeed, we are all stardust.

And all around me
All this is made of me
They will remain in me
My garden of stars

And in the velvet night
In all that crystal light
Shine, shine sweet light
So old and clear

These billion years will end
These billion years will end
These billion years will end
They end in me
They end in me

And how then could it be
That we appear at all?
In all this rock and fire
In all this gas and dust
Are we not each a flame?
All born to live in light
All born to give our light

How could it bе?
How should it be?
And all around me
And all around me
And all around mе
My garden of stars

Brian Eno | Photo: Cecily Eno

https://www.brian-eno.net/

"There Were Bells" by Brian Eno

Brian Eno has been a special, prolific, inspirational, influential genius in his long and varied career creating music and art. Here, he sings his song "There Were Bells" from his album FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE out on October 14th, 2022. This live performance of "There Were Bells" was written by Brian Eno for a performance by him and his brother Roger at UNESCO World Heritage site, the Acropolis in August 2021. It was 45 degrees (113 degrees F) in Athens on the day of the concert with wildfires raging just outside the city, prompting his introductory comment "I thought, here we are at the birthplace of Western civilization, probably witnessing the end of it." This haunting track is taken from Eno’s new album FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE and provides a poignant reminder of the current climate emergency, a theme that is explored throughout the record.

His statement on his website says:
"I'm more and more convinced that our only hope of saving our planet is if we begin to have different feelings about it: specifically, if we become re-enchanted by the amazing improbability of life, suffer regret and even shame at what we've already lost and feel exhilarated by the challenges we face and what might yet become possible. Briefly, we need to fall in love again, but this time with nature, with Civilisation and with our hopes for the future."
--Brian Eno, July 2022

There were birds above, they sang the whole day through
And the sky revolves a pink to golden blue
All the roads through time weave the world's long rhyme
And it all unravels in a sea of pearls and swine

There were bells above that rang the whole day through
And the sky was shot with light and hazy blue
Early days of winter sun, all the days turned into one
All the sirens beckoning the crew

There were horns as loud as war that tore apart the sky
There were storms and floods of blood of human life
Never mind, my love, let's wait for the dove
Fly back to tell us there is a haven showing nigh
There were those who ran away
There were those who had to stay
In the end, they all went the same way

Brian Eno | Photo: Cecily Eno

https://brian-eno.net/

I am not sure I can muster the same cautious optimism that Eno can. I created this blog many years ago now as a way to catalog things that inspired me, caught my eye or ear or heart, things I found beautiful. And it goes without saying, at least in my mind, that these things are products of a wondrous world full of the possibility of creation, a pure expression of the sheer existence of human beings. It all results from an inexhaustible élan toward creating, participating in a cycle that is breathtaking, overwhelming, and even a little frightening if one can stand still long enough to perceive it. It sounds silly but this little blog has been my way to remember this all, and I wrote in the "ABOUT" column to the right that I am dedicated to posting the positive, the fascinating, the beautiful, the interesting, the moving, and the inspiring and uplifting. But I also say that just like life, all of these things may often have a bit of melancholy or even sadness in them, which is what makes our time here so lovely and bittersweet and precious. And I cannot think of anything more melancholy or sad than the impending end of our civilization which, make no mistake, is on the way. I have alluded to these worries we all have in posts through the last many years but my focus, being on beauty, has not allowed me to address it directly.

Maybe like many of you, readers, I am sometimes too weary and worn down from it all to continue to hold it at bay. After all, we still have to carry on with our lives at this moment, in this place and time, for each of us. I still have to earn a living, manage my design company, pay a mortgage, feed and clothe myself. But every so often I just break down and cry. The impending disasters encroaching on us all weigh us all down whether we acknowledge it or not: the constant fires, and extreme heat fronts, and droughts, and storms, and hurricanes, and rising sea levels, and flooding, and burned bodies of humans and animals, and charred ruins of homes and towns, and drowned bodies of humans and animals, and migrants from climate disasters as well as murderous regimes, and senseless wars, and the deliberate cruelty and the denialism from so, so, so many fellow humans whose ignorance perpetuates it all. I was evacuated from my home here in California for almost 2 weeks because of a fire that threatened a large section of the state, and I hold directly responsible anyone who denied and still denies what is happening in front of their eyes, anyone who has thwarted efforts to address climate catastrophe, anyone who has voted for and supports any political figure in a position of power who could enact meaningful change but who simply has not out of misplaced religious fanaticism or willful ignorance and a wish to hold on to power. I was lucky enough to have my home and neighborhood spared but hundreds of my fellow citizens just a few miles away from me were not so lucky. Everything we are suffering now was laid out over 30 years ago and we have had all that time to make plans and changes but no, we are now witnessing the beginning of the end. Actually, it has been going on for a bit now so this is not the beginning, it is well underway. How far will it be allowed to go? How far will the destruction go? Will there be a day when I turn on my faucet and nothing comes out, when I have to leave my home for a migrant camp because the state is no longer inhabitable? Do I die of hunger or dehydration? Dysentery from crowded conditions? What is waiting for us all? And maybe we deserve whatever is waiting for us, if we can't figure out how to do this right. Maybe we all deserve to die. These thoughts and worries are painful and sometimes debilitating. At this moment, I am in a place where I can't be quiet, I have to cry out in a way I allow myself to do in life but have not here in virtual blog-land, until now.

So for this post, readers, I speak to you a tiny bit of what keeps me up at night, what churns my stomach, and what makes me tremble for my future and the future of us all. But I have to do some laundry, and get ready for my upcoming week. And tomorrow I will be back to sharing lovely art and special music with you all. It will make the time go by faster. And maybe, just maybe, it will have some sort of ripple effect...if you are inspired by what I share, maybe you can inspire someone else, and we can all, as Eno suggests, fall in love with civilization and ourselves, and find ourselves worthy of saving. Maybe.

"Ordinary Pleasure" by Port St. Willow

Port St. Willow is the nom de musique of Nicholas Principe and this introspective, dramatic track, "Ordinary Pleasure" is from his album "Syncope." He can cite father of ambient music Brian Eno as a fan!

http://portstwillow.com/

Currently listening to...

...David Bowie's instrumental electronic song "All Saints" from his groundbreaking album "Low."

As the first third of the Berlin Trilogy, "Low" (produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti, with flashes of typical genius from Brian Eno, previously here) was released in 1977, smack in the middle of the disco era. It was an avant-garde, ambient, electronic, and abstract collection of music that stumped even Bowie fans at the time. Upon its re-release on CD, additional bonus material included this track that did not make it to the original release. It actually sounds like it got reworked and became "V-2 Schneider" for his following release, "Heroes."

http://davidbowie.com/

ENO • HYDE

Loving these tunes from the newly released collaboration between the legendary Brian Eno (previously here) and Karl Hyde (Underworld, Freur) called "Someday World."

Arresting, driving, forceful--"The Satellites"

Joyful, exuberant--"Daddy's Car"

http://www.enohyde.com/

Happy Birthday, Brian Eno!

Accidental musician, Glam Rock dandy, experimental composer, alternative pop music front man, producer extraordinaire, conceptual multimedia artist, and father of Ambient Music, Brian Eno celebrates his 65th birthday today. If you are not familiar with Eno, chances are you are familiar with his work. He was a member of Roxy Music from 1971 to 1973, released solo albums of electronic pop music ("Here Come the Warm Jets," "Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)," "Another Green World" and "Before and After Science"), invented a tape delay instrument with Robert Fripp called "Frippertronics" for their release "No Pussyfooting," invented the musical genre known as "Ambient," collaborated on Bowie's legendary Berlin trio ("Low," "Heroes," and "Lodger"), recorded the precursor to the surge in World Music "My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts" which also pioneered the concept and method of "sampling" music, and produced material for Talking Heads, U2, Devo, Ultravox, James, Jane Siberry, Nico, Genesis, Coldplay, Grace Jones, and James Blake. Surprisingly, he created the six-second start-up music-sound of the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system. He has created art work for galleries around the world including video installations as well as a set of divination cards entitled "Oblique Strategies" intended to stimulate the creative process in any medium. Critic Jason Ankeny at Allmusic argues that Eno "forever altered the ways in which music is approached, composed, performed, and perceived, and everything from punk to techno to new age bears his unmistakable influence."

Above, top row: two views of early "Glam" Eno. Middle Row: Eno with Bowie in the studio in Berlin; Eno with the members of U2 recording as The Passengers; Eno in the studio with David Byrne during the recording of "My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts." Bottom row: Eno earlier and later.

Here is one of the four tracks from his iconic Ambient release, "Music For Airports." This track was HUGELY influential to me when it first came out in 1978.

And here are all sixty glorious minutes and fifty-seven seconds of "Thursday Afternoon," Eno's "holographic" Ambient work. A hologram image is visible because each point in the object illuminates all of the hologram. This means that the whole image can be reconstructed from a small part of the hologram. Put another way, a hologram can be broken up into small pieces and each one will enable the whole of the original object to be imaged. Eno used this idea to structure this Ambient masterpiece. Play any fragment of it, and you will hear what the entire piece is like. If you have not heard this, do yourself a favor: close the door, close your eyes, relax in your chair, and let this waft down into your consciousness.

Happy birthday, Brian Eno! Thank you for your imagination and precious body of work. You have enriched my life and I thank you.

http://brian-eno.net.org/artists/brian_eno/