Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK
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The 405 NOVEMBER 19, 2018 - by Tom Harvey

DISCREET MUSIC SAW BRIAN ENO TESTING THE WATERS OF AMBIENT

To celebrate this past Friday's reissue of four ambient classics from Brian Eno's vast discography, The 405 is proud to present a reflection on each album. Read on for words on one of his earliest forays into the sound he'd come to define, introducing our review series.

Brian Eno is gifted with titles including renowned producer, composer, keyboardist, vocalist and ultimately a pioneer in the creation of the genre of ambient music. Eno began experimenting with genres including electronic music before developing his solo career from which he developed his engineering of sound to create ambience. The resulting products were the groundbreaking ambient works we know today and undoubtedly the most settling and immersive worlds of the genre.

On November 16, Eno issues four deluxe remasters of his integral ambient albums throughout the years: Discreet Music (1975), Music For Films (1976), Music For Airports (1978) and On Land (1982). The albums are remastered at normal speed and half speed by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios.

Discreet Music comes as the first reissue and his first foray into ambient music as a marker of the evolution of the genre before Eno truly perfected his creations on albums such as Music For Airports. This album was more borne of necessity, created in a time of healing when Eno was hospitalised and listening to eighteenth century harp music simultaneously with rainfall from outside his window.

Title track, Discreet Music evokes a calming and serene nature by the lightness and spacial use of the mix. Eno uses two reel to reel tape recorders, so as to layer his simple melancholic repetitive synth parts that never particularly change, but evolve and fade like decaying atoms. Spanning almost thirty two minutes; the track is a layering foundation of what was to come from Eno before later works with Robert Fripp that had more dissonance.

The next half of the album comes first with Fullness Of Wind, following this movement of repeating themes with parts of the score of Pachelbel's Canon in D major. Eno uses the same thematic structure to create an emotional relay from the first track using each change in differing intervals with the phrasing and sections slowly melting into each other in layers played by The Cockpit Ensemble.

French Catalogues and Brutal Ardour outline a continuity but with a contrasting tonality that seems to become increasingly minor and thus emotionally dissonant as they roll onwards. What first came as beauty in 'Fullness Of Wind' seems to respond to me as a drawing sadness. The raw emotional construct of the strings is elevated without any use of the tape delay like in the title track.

Discreet Music is undoubtedly a vital marker in the evolution of the ambient world. Through the varying degrees and timbres of the work perceived as similar yet so intrinsically different. You'll be glad to immerse yourself amongst Eno's world from start to the fantastical end.


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