Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Classic Rock JUNE 2024 - by Stephen Dalton

BRIAN ENO - ENO: ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK

Avant-rock icon shares riches old and new on classy, career-spanning compilation.

Squeezing Brian Eno's half-century-plus career as composer, collaborator and sonic explorer into a single compilation was never going to be easy. Billed as the soundtrack to Gary Hustwit's experimental documentary portrait Eno, which remixes itself with each viewing, this anthology is more selective overview than definitive 'hits' collection. That said, it covers an admirably broad range, from scouring proto-punk bangers like Third Uncle to lush ambient reveries, glitchy sci-fi lullabies and warm-blooded electro-gospel spirituals. Guest players include krautrock legends Cluster, fellow soundscaper Daniel Lanois, modish trance-pop DJ Fred Again, and more.

Inevitably there are major omissions here. Nothing from Eno's immortal Roxy, Bowie, Talking Heads or U2 collaborations, for example, although David Byrne features on the twitchy ethno-funk number Regiment from the duo's landmark 1981 avant-world album, My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, and again on the radiant Everything That Happens from 2008. Three previously unreleased tracks are all excellent, especially the sonorous, heart-tugging, wistfully nostalgic ballad All I Remember and the brassy, percussive, wonk-jazz Lighthouse #429. A softly tumbling By This River, performed live at the Acropolis with Eno's brother Roger on piano, makes for a luminous finale.

Rightly resisting the temptation to highlight a single genre or era, this is a rich, classy, forward-thinking collection.