theory over practice, serendipity over forethought.
To steal a quote: “This is a machine that is designed solely for the purpose of electronicly creating any imaginable sound that the operator knows how to specify. And he must specify it in a kind of detail that has never been posssible or necessary before. For example a sound such as this.”
This is a short one, just a small realization.
Brian Eno, god amongst men, inventor of all manner of sounds involving echo and texture, also a pioneering voice in the development of synthesis in its infancy.
His musical effect surrounds us, he is the gravity of modern music; not always known, his effect not always felt, but it is there nonetheless. Gravity is believed to be the fundamental force that created the universe as we see it today, by pulling and pushing at crude matter, taking simple elements, hydrogen, helium, quite a great deal of time, building a sky of stars and a planet of humans to look at them. Through his work, Eno has created the modern scope of music in more ways than can be truly named. His fundamental work with effects in the 70’s with Bowie, his powerful molding of U2 in the 80’s and, it is fair to say, inventing The Edge’s signature ambient guitar sound. He worked with the Talking Heads and later just David Byrne, and that relationship of high experimentation continues to this day.
You can pull up a track by Burial, “Forgive” for example, and then listen to “An Ending (Ascent)” by Eno and be captivated for the two works brilliant simplicity, ambient, light touch, then listen to “To Heal” from Underworld, or The Field’s “I Have The Moon, You Have the Internet” and realize, we’re all listening to Eno’s sound, we’re walking through his streets, hearing through his mind. His work, probably above all, has played through our speakers and headphones more times than we could count, yet we would likely never know. Watch Trainspotting, Se7en, Million Dollar Hotel, Lost Highway, 9 1/2 Weeks, Moulin Rouge, Heat, Top Gear (tv I know, but cinematic all the same) and recently, Shutter Island and you’ve heard him.
You may never know he has single handedly pushed music forward, or more accurately, he has invented some of the most enduring forms of modern music. The idea of tinkering in the studio, that inventing sound is as high an art as being a guitar player, or a skilled pianist behind the keys, this is the work of Brian Eno. His use of simple melody, pushed through galactic sized reverb, this is one simple application that still permeates electronic music to this day and still sounds so wonderfully fresh. Try putting an Eno track through iTunes Genius function and you will be pleasantly surprised with receiving back anything involving a synthesizer or artfully produced record. I think whoever wrote code for Genius created a small bit for Eno alone, as it seems, nearly every electronic artist I have, from Apparat to Holy Fuck (yes, a band), is included in this playlist. This is a subtle joke, because Eno really did do this, he invented modern electronic music, also the identity of the producer and engineer as near alchemist.
Read liner notes for your CD’s, check movie credits for Eno’s name, search him and you’ll come to find he’s been tinkering away the whole time, whilst we’ve just been humming the same tunes.
Listen to Eno’s “An Ending (Ascent)” and then check out Vangelis’ amazing Bladerunner score if you are interested in various ambient works. Just depth and mood, palpable, almost visual music. “An Ending” was the song providing late night inspiration for such ramblings.
keep listening.
_backchat.
