Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Electronic Sound DECEMBER 2017 - by Mat Smith

TOM ROGERSON WITH BRIAN ENO: FINDING SHORE

When you read that this latest Brian Eno album uses a piano as its principal sound source, thoughts immediately drift to the soothing textures of his Music For Airports. However, in typical Eno fashion, the piano in question - played by Three Trapped Tigers' Tom Rogerson - was predominantly deployed for a software package to convert the signals into MIDI for Eno to manipulate, leaving you pondering who the principal composer here actually is.

The result is one of Eno's more melodic recent outings. Designed to evoke the sound of the Suffolk countryside that both musicians call home, Finding Shore is a supremely beautiful collection of sounds (bells, glitchy synths, reverb, scratchy digital strings) fusing Eno's keen ear for atmospherics to Rogerson's austere classical piano note clusters. Pieces like Motion In Field and the dramatic March Away have a determined, strident lilt, like express trains scything their way through the fens of Suffolk.