Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Classic Rock SUMMER 2025 - by David Stubbs

BRIAN ENO & BEATIE WOLFE: LUMINAL & LATERAL

Dual release comprising "dream music" and "space music".

Recorded on and off throughout 2024, this collaboration between Brian Eno and environmentalist/musician Beatie Wolfe arose from their meeting to give a talk on Art And Climate at the SXSW festival. They use as prompts words from other languages that have no equivalent in English, such as Ailyak (Bulgarian) - going slow, enjoying the process - and Commuovere (Italian) - the experience of being moved.

This has resulted in an album of textural uniqueness, a sonic fabric hitherto unknown. Tracks on Luminal such as Hopelessly At Ease are almost unsettling seductive, while Wolfe's every sung syllable on Shhh looms large and expansive.

The second disc, Lateral, consists of Big Empty Country, an eight-part piece, an ambient suite based on a two-note motif, as if homing in on a detail from Luminal, dwelling on it, tenderly bleeding it dry.

A wholly pleasurable, wholly original album.