Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Cult Following AUGUST 19, 2024 - by Ewan Gleadow

BRIAN ENO AND FRED AGAIN: SECRET LIFE

Ambient compilations from one of the great producers of music history and one of the musicians of its popular, festival and stadium apex, should make for an interesting collaboration. Secret Life, from Brian Eno and Fred Again, is the former charming their way through lush soundscapes and half-expecting the latter to break it up with some button-mashing tech explosions. It does not come. Not quite. A touching minimalism washes over this one, a chance to feel like the songs are popping out of everyday noise and commotion. Such is the quality of sound, and the efforts Eno provides here in articulating elusive, soft string work is incredible. Fred Again adds little to this collaboration.

But what little he adds is not terrible. The likes of Radio do not suffer from his involvement, yet every track could do without his vocals. Vaguely close to the subtlety Eno provides but not as convincing, Fred Again is present and learning through this. So too does a listener if they tune their ears properly and get over the teething issues of ambient music being made for, well, ambience. It does the mind no good to ask for additional instrumentation. This is it. This is the point. You get as much out of an ambient album as you put into it. Secret Life has enough variety to it to be inclusive of the very first ambient experiences to those desperately searching for more names in the genre. Follow and Enough define the joys of this one and the real fascination from it is Fred Again doing something completely different to his live work. Hopefully, he busts Secret Life out at Leedsfest.

Enough is likely the best part of Secret Life because it throws minor keys of personal conflict into a mixture of what could have been straight-shooting, calmer noise. It is as bold a move as it gets but credit to Eno and Fred Again for making it work. For those still on the fence about Fred Again and the responsibilities of an artist to leave memorable works behind, there may be some justification and convincing materials found on Secret Life. The flow of any solid ambience album is to find not a consistency but moments of interest. Those particulars recapture your attention. Play it back and understand the tone better. It happens with Cmon and Trying, two spectacular pieces.

Go into Secret Life curious and questioning the involvement of two artists from different sides of the field. Yet Eno and Fred Again show they have much more in common than first thought. There is a shimmering joy to their collaboration and their ambient creation features the best of those out-there Eno instrumentals and a truly essential, modern spin from the Fred Again additions. Should it work? Probably not. Yet it does. A powerful ambient album with enough in there to feel something, to be moved by its tempo and the consistent, floating tone it sets. Never a better time to listen to than at six in the morning on a Sunday, watching a Nissan sit in your parking spot, waiting for it to move. Become neutered by the tones of Eno and Fred Again, they are as relaxing as can be.