Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Prog APRIL 2023 - by Jeremy Allen

BRIAN ENO AND ROGER ENO: LIVE AT THE ACROPOLIS

A special one-off performance from the brothers Eno in Athens.

As a world-famous producer, thinker, activist, ambient musician, oblique strategist and all-round polymath, it's sometimes easy to forget that Brian Eno used to be a bona fide rock star. Certainly he doesn't do many gigs these days, which makes Live At The Acropolis - released for one night only at cinemas in early March, and hopefully followed by a DVD or streaming release this year - all the more special. The show does little to shake the present-day impression of an articulate and endearing national treasure, though his engaging in the act of singing does strangely have the power to disarm.

The movie captures a show at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus Amphitheatre in August 2021, where Eno and his brother Roger performed together for the first time, set against the breathtaking ancient citadel. It's certainly not all about Brian - younger brother Roger plays warm-up man, running through highlights from 2020's collaborative Mixing Colours album, with the older Eno twiddling conspicuously from behind a laptop. For the assembled, though, the biggest thrill comes in the form of Foreverandevernomore, with Eno unveiling tracks from that 2022 album more than a year before it was released.

Roger's daughter Cecily also brings her impressive vocals, adding to what at times feels like a posh wedding in a spectacular location, especially when (Third) Uncle Brian stands to deliver his turn in his crisp white shirt. When he announces the end of the world at the outset of There Were Bells, it's done with an air of gentility. There's even a nod to the '70s with a moving rendition of By This River - the song he co-wrote with Hans-Joachim Roedelius - which, at the time, stood as Before And After Science's most thoughtful moment and signalled that Eno's rock star days were behind him.

The sense of occasion is heightened by the present-day circumstances in which the concert was filmed: the environmental focus of Foreverandevernomore in the face of impending catastrophe for all mankind, for one. Then there's the audience, enjoying an outdoor concert for perhaps the first time in more than a year, following strict lockdown rules. Then, add the spectacular mise-en-scène of the surrounding ancient structure built more than three thousand years ago, and suddenly one's place in the great scheme of things begins to diminish.

There's a sense those involved with Live At The Acropolis - performers and audience - are imbued with that feeling of their own transience - where stolen moments of transcendence are all we can really hope for.