Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

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Cult Following NOVEMBER 8, 2025 - by Ewan Gleadow

BRIAN ENO AND BEATIE WOLFE: LUMINAL

Experimentations from legendary producers and songwriters are an inevitable niche. For some, it will be a chance to hear a musician at their unrelenting best, an openness here they could not possibly account for in pop efforts. But Brian Eno has hardly ever pulled his punches when it came to even his most popular albums. That and his production, whether it was with Talking Heads or U2, is a standout. He is a rarity and proves as much with this Beatie Wolfe collaboration, Luminal. Eno, like Peter Gabriel in the last few years, has expressed an interest not in entertaining an audience but in engaging them. There is a crucial difference at play, which few are detailing as well as Luminal. It may struggle to pull itself together, and the lyrics may crash out as feeble, but the sense of the project, the scope of Eno and Wolfe's work together, is felt. That feeling will not be enough for some, and that's okay. Luminal is more of a soundscape than an album.

Luminal is the second of three Eno and Wolfe collaborations from this year. Lateral and Liminal are out there, too, ambient stylings which are pushing the fold of Eno's sound. Luminal offers more than a few moments of interest. The vocal stylings, the soft-spoken flourishes, are what separate it from Eno's previous ambient experiences. A song like Hopelessly At Ease is a tremendous pairing of ambient stylings and those welcoming vocal tones. It's what Eno and Wolfe aim for across Luminal, and the bulk of their work together is a success. You can allow the lyrics to pass over you; they become tertiary to the contemplative mood the pair wishes to set out. Light and sweet only get you so far, though, and as delicate as the ambient mood may be, there is little more for Eno and Wolfe to feature. Conviction in performance is half the battle for Luminal, and it becomes clear on Suddenly. A very light track, but also tremendously sweet.

Eno and Wolfe are keen to display they understand the ambient mood, but can also adapt to the emotional range they're presenting in their lyrics. It's not always the greatest transition but, at the very least, there are moments to reflect on. Suddenly gives way to a darker tone, a sudden switch which doesn't make the ambient experience all that meditative or engaging. Eno and Wolfe struggle with the tone of the piece. Their tempo is just fine and they keep things steady, but this switch to darker temptations is what sinks Luminal. Unconvincing songs like Breath March feature and do very little for either the ambience, the setting, or the artists at the core of this. Moody for the sake of it and uneventful, but it's not like the album has any specifics to it on its earlier, better tracks either.

Luminal begins to sound as though Eno and Wolfe are piecing together a story without characters. A foreboding sense comes through on Never Was It Now but it feels wasted. Its atmosphere is weak, the instrumentals a predictable mesh of tech-sounds we have come to take as stock in the other art forms of today and the puzzling lyrics with no deeper meaning behind their repetition. It's a rough end to what is an interesting project. Back to brightness on album closer What We Are, for closing out on a note of fear and anxiety is not the way to go. It feels a little tacked on, but it does the job for Luminal. Nice spots of ambient sound, and inevitably far from the best of Eno's work, but there is a satisfying heart within this album. It makes all the difference during those latter half lulls.