Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Brooklyn Vegan JUNE 6, 2025 - by Bill Pearis

BRIAN ENO & BEATIE WOLFE: LUMINAL / LATERAL

Brian Eno knows how to pick 'em. These two connected albums are collaborations with "musical weirdo and visionary" Beatie Wolfe, with whom he shares a lot in common - from outside-the-box approaches to music to climate change activism. Luminal is song-based, credited to Wolfe first and described as "dream music," while Lateral is ambient, credited to Eno first and described as "space music."

Luminal is the more interesting record, with Beatie's spare guitar playing and smoky voice sent into the Mariana Trench (or another galaxy), as Eno draws a warm sound bath around her, enveloping it all in layers of his harmonies. (He should make an Eno Harmonies mellotron plug-in.) This is your new Sunday morning music.

Lateral, meanwhile, is an album-length composition - Big Empty Country - that delivers the kind of drony sunbeams we've come to expect from Eno over the last decade. He may be known as an ambient icon, but he's at his most inspired when matching his skills to an equally talented voice.