Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Prog OCTOBER 2022 - by Julian Marszalek

BRIAN ENO: FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE

Ambient innovator voices concerns over humanity's future.

Brian Eno's campaigning on humanitarian issues has been running for almost as long as his work in the realms of ambient music and electronic exploration. For his twenty-ninth solo studio album, the venerable pioneer and producer brings together his concerns for the ecology with his ever expanding musical vernacular.

What's immediately apparent is that, while welcoming him behind the microphone, Eno's lyrical concerns move in tandem with the ethereal music that he creates. This is less to do with hectoring and more in line with subtle persuasion. The sublime Icarus Or Blériot is a case in point wherein Eno explores the dichotomy at the heart of scientific exploration: the benefit to the wider community versus the cost and profit for the few.

The lachrymose There Were Bells is tempered by soothing and comforting sweeps that sweeten the lyrical pill. Indeed, the soundscapes and grand strokes are easy to escape into for this is an album that undulates, ebbs and flows like a gentle river through a quiet and glorious countryside. But through it all runs Eno's plangent voice, which is as much a part of the instrumentation as it is a vessel for his message.