Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Uncut OCTOBER 2008 - by Michael Bonner

DAVID BYRNE AND BRIAN ENO: EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS WILL HAPPEN TODAY

Ambient dons' dinner-party songscapes

If, thirty years ago, Byrne and Eno's previous collaboration, My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, broke new ground with its use of sampling, then for their follow-up, they avoid traditional means of distribution by releasing the album online. It is, arguably, the most unconventional thing about the album: this Andrex-soft music has clear antecedents in Another Green World and Fear Of Music. Eno layers on acoustic guitars, organs and horns to create a pretty and seductive soundscape that works as a luxuriant bed for Byrne's warm, gospel-inflected croon. Occasional bursts of guitar on I Feel My Stuff break through, while the slow-motion disco of Strange Overtones and Poor Boy's Afrobeat rhythms stir them from their tranquil repose. It's mostly beautiful, and very civilised.