Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

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Boston Globe DECEMBER 18, 2012 - by Steve Morse

BRIAN ENO: LUX

Brian Eno is best known for more high-profile gigs as co-producer of U2 and co-founder of Roxy Music, but on his own he has released cryptic sets of synth-processed music that have been historic as well as baffling. His minimalist, massage-table sound falls somewhere between pacifying and narcoleptic, depending on one's taste. This new album is a marked return to the avant-garde experimentalism of his Music For Airports (1978) and parts of Discreet Music (1975). It's an acquired taste, but is undeniably calming with its softly vibrating, reverb-rich piano and synth improvisations, enhanced by exotic Moog guitar from Leo Abrahams and treated violin-viola textures from Nell Catchpole. The seventy-six-minute opus is spliced into four sections: Lux 1 is the most meditative (the album was originally conceived to be played at an art installation at the Royal Palace of Venaria Reale in Italy), followed by the more emotive Lux 2, the bass-heavy Lux 3, and the gentle climax of Lux 4. Is everyone still awake? If so, you'll like this.