Eno By Association (Eno and associated terms)
musique concrète, krautrock, minimalist, texture music, Darmstadt School, plunderphonics, ambient, Cagean, proto-sampling, regenerative musics, oblique strategies, dada, kosmische musik, atmospherics, vertical music, punk.
**CAST YOUR VOTE NOW: GO TO: http://www.twosevens.net/bryanVbrian.html
and participate in "The Competition of the Bryans/Brian: Eno Vs. Ferry"**
FYI, Survey results were announced on April 4 live on Bsides the Radio Show on CKUT 90.3 fm. Listen HERE to find out who won!
It's not with ease that anyone foolhardy enough to tackle a *Brain(*I'll leave this typo in tact. Some would argue that he is a musical genius!) Eno bio conjures up a description of his expansive career…And, you'll see no such bravery here.
His most renown role as a rock star, albeit brief, was the flamboyant sound technician in the Bryan Ferry lead, Roxy Music. Since his departure in 1973, Eno's had his hand in just about everything. Possessing, a voracious appetite for music, Eno' s produced everything from, no wave, free jazz, to pure unadulterated pop. One of his longest standing projects early in his career on the Obscure label stemmed from Eno's relationship to contemporary experimental musicians such as Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars and Cornelius Cardew as well as the influences of Steve Reich and his experiments with phase shifting.
Eno's continued experimentation with tape looping, pre-recorded sounds, and cut-up techniques presaged the widespread use of sampling by a decade and can be heard in succeeding sample pioneers such as Public Enemy and Big Audio Dynamite. Eno also has earned accolades for his bold use of the VCS3 synth and his notorious "treatments" and inventions such as the snake guitar. Whether on a Bowie album, John Cale or Talking Heads, his production style has become trademark.
Oftentimes employing Oblique Strategy, a set of actions roughly inspired by the Cageon notion of "create parameters, set it off, see what happens" Eno's production techniques, whether direct Oblique strategy or simply steeped in anti-orthodoxy, seemed to set the tone for a prolific career that would span decades as well as genres.
A ridiculously eclectic resume found him in the company of David Byrne, Scott Waker, Grace Jones, Jah Wobble, U2, Coldplay and Liberace.
Contemporaneously, Eno's artistic ventures in experimentation with video and light coalesced naturally with his music, a gap that was originally bridged when he heard the Who. Although Eno would migrate away from any traditional form of rock toward 'vertical music', his inherent sensibilities for rhythm and strong sense of melody can be traced to his formative years growing up by an an American army base where he would be enchanted by the sounds of doo-wop and r&b. It's these influences that have lead him full circle from the very Europeon-Krautrock sounds of his work with Cluster and Harmonia to diasporic sounds of central and North Africa on David Byrne and Talking Heads albums, My Life in A Bush of Ghosts and Remain in LIght. His cumulative life experiences have, in one way or another, allowed him to channel music beyond any one geographic location that has culminated in a highly regarded canon in the history of contemporary 20th century music.
Whatever your opinion of Brain Eno, it's a safe bet that he offers something out there for everyone.
Listen HERE to the the Eno/Ferry edition of the radio show broadcast last night (April 3) on CKUT 90.3 fm.
