Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Uncut DECEMBER 2020 - by Michael Bonner

BRIAN ENO: FILM MUSIC 1976-2020

Diverse selection of brainiac's immersive OST material

For a man as forward looking as Brian Eno, lately his back catalogue has been brought into focus. After the Installations boxset and the half-speed remasters of his solo albums comes this seventeen-track collection of film compositions spanning forty-plus years. What this compilation reminds us is how wide an audience his film music reaches - for every Arena documentary or Derek Jarman film he's soundtracked, you'll also find contributions to Trainspotting, Dune or Married To The Mob. At one point, I misread the tracklisting and thought he'd written music for Cool Runnings - which, weirdly, wouldn't surprise me. As it is, of course, the standard is uniformly high, from the sinister pulse of the Top Boy theme to the haunting majesty of Dune's Prophecy Theme. These are stunning, ethereal studies in sound - immersive and often dramatic, despite their inherently passive nature.