Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

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The Guardian NOVEMBER 8, 2012 - by Caroline Sullivan

BRIAN ENO: LUX

Brian Eno's first solo album since 2005 is a seventy-five-minute wash of keyboards and strings nominally divided into four parts, though it's so seamlessly soothing that it's a struggle to distinguish one segment from the next. It grew out of a sound installation he made for a gallery in Turin, and, aptly, is the kind of contemplative sound-cloud that could be titled Music For Galleries. In fact, Lux owes something to his Music For Airports; it similarly glides along, rarely demanding your attention, until a splash of trumpet, three seconds of mandolin or a sudden guitar chord interrupts the tranquillity. Of the four sections, the last is most striking: the pace slows a bit and a glockenspiel chimes in, creating a stately procession akin to classical music. But it's only "striking" compared with the rest of the album, on which piano figures endlessly loop and divide and there's nothing below the surface. Eno now makes iPad apps, allowing anyone to construct Enoesque soundscapes; chances are, a dedicated amateur could come up with an ambient piece that has more heart than Lux.