Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Electronic Sound OCTOBER 2022 - by Mark Roland

BRIAN ENO: FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE

The voice is back. No, not that tele programme with the spinny chairs. This is the first Eno album since 2005's Another Day On Earth in which he has starred as a solo singer. Here, he ruminates on humanity's uncertain future as strings lull and skies thunder. Not one for half measures, then.

His soft vocals resonate with lament. On the fizzing and unstable Garden Of Stars, he becomes an incanting choir, envisioning our planet of "rock and fire, gas and dust" ending after a billion years. Brief blazes of sinister static say it all. He's a storyteller, too, as his attention charmingly switches from the moon's endless motion to microscopic worms.

For extra oomph, also included is the elegiac There Were Bells, his Acropolis performance with Roger Eno. Other stars also shine brightly here, including Leo Abrahams, Jon Hopkins and Clodagh Simonds. But it's Eno's perfectly pitched voice that lingers, albeit in orbit around an ever-present abyss.