Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Mojo OCTOBER 2004 - by Mike Barnes

BRIAN ENO

Discreet Music / Music For Airports / On Land / The Plateaux Of Mirror

Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream.

These four remastered CDs (all available separately) represent the Big Bang (with the volume turned down, admittedly) of Ambient. Alongside his song-based albums, Eno was intent on making environmental music to be played at low levels, but ended up producing the most musically satisfying muzak you could wish for. Discreet Music (1975) is one half mesmeric tape loops, the other a delicate and gorgeous deconstruction of Pachelbel's Canon, while the classic Music For Airports (1979) is, almost despite itself, an affecting work of great beauty. These early albums have a satisfying organic feel to them, none more so than On Land (1982), a succession of soundscapes, some lush and twitching, others passed over by dark clouds. Some people were destined to work with each other and on The Plateaux Of Mirror (1980), pianist Harold Budd's singular mix of lyricism and minimalism finds its perfect foil in Eno's own style - and vice versa.