Brian Eno

Free Music from Brian Eno: Fans of ambient music and Brian Eno will want to watch for a new album on the new Amazing Sounds label, Harmonia & Eno ‘76 Remixes.

The album features remixes of tracks from the classic album Tracks & Traces by Shackleton, Appleblim & Komonazmuk.

It will be available on limited white vinyl & as a download starting Monday, November 2nd.

Download the remix at the rcrdlbl site.

Brian Eno has had a career as producer, musician, sonic innovator and experimental artist that spans four decades.

He’s produced, arguably, the most important recordings by U2, Talking Heads, David Bowie, Robert Fripp, Devo and others. He also pioneered the genre of “ambient music.” More recently, Eno’s helped create “sonic-art” app Bloom and the video game Spore.

Eno sat down with Minnesota Public Radio’s Steve Seel to discuss the recording studio as canvas, the idea of discovery and risk in music making, as well as his recent reunion with longtime collaborator David Byrne. The interview includes a discussion of Eno’s forays into “generative music,” his concept of composer as gardener, and his ongoing interest in the idea of surrender in music.

Artscape – Brian Eno In Conversation 2009 features some great vintage footage of Eno, then goes on to look at the last 30 years of his work and his work curating for the Luminous Festival.

Ambient Music pioneer Brian Eno, along with musician/software designer Peter Chilvers, have released a new iPhone music app, Trope, that expands on ideas introduced with their previous generative music app, Bloom:

Darker in tone, Trope immerses users in endlessly evolving soundscapes created by tracing abstract shapes onto the screen, varying the tone with each movement. Recommended for headphones and external speakers.

“Trope is a different emotional experience from Bloom – more introspective, more atmospheric,” explains Eno. “It shows that generative music, as one of the newest forms of sonema, can draw on a broad palette of moods.”

Trope is available for $3.99 in the iTunes App store.

In a Trouser Press interview from 1982, Brian Eno shared his thoughts on ambient music:

Brian Eno On Ambient Music

I like it as an ambiguous term. It gives me a certain latitude.

It has two major meanings. One is the idea of music that allows you any listening position in relation to it. This has widely been misinterpreted by the press (in their infinite unsubtlety) as background music. I mean music that can be background or foreground or anywhere, which is rather a different idea.

Most music chooses its own position in terms of your listening to it. Muzak wants to be back there. Punk wants to be up front. Classical wants to be another place. I wanted to make something you could slip in and out of. You could pay attention or you could choose not to be distracted by it if you wanted to do something while it was on. I can’t read with a pop record playing, or with most classical records. They’re not intended to leave that part of the mind free – my mind, anyway. Ambient music allows many different types of attention.

The other meaning is more pronounced on On Land: creating an ambience, a sense of place that complements and alters your environment. Both meanings are contained in the word ambient. Read more…