For the past 50 years, Brian Eno has been at the forefront of musical creativity, technology, and artistic innovation. The hugely influential British musician, producer, activist, visual artist and self-described “sonic landscaper” began his career as an original member of the legendary Roxy Music in the early 1970s. He left the band to release a series of solo records and later pioneered the genre of ambient music with his 1978 album Ambient 1: Music for Airports. As a producer, Brian Eno has helped define and reinvent the sound of some of the most important artists in music, including David Bowie, U2, Talking Heads, Coldplay, and dozens of others. He also composed what may be the most heard piece of music in the world: the startup sound for Microsoft Windows. Undeniably, Eno has changed the way modern music is made.
Rich with access to hundreds of hours of never-before-seen footage and unreleased music, Gary Hustwit’s forthcoming documentary Eno employs groundbreaking technology to accomplish something that’s never been done before: a feature film that’s never the same twice. Hustwit and creative technologist Brendan Dawes have developed bespoke generative software designed to sequence scenes and create transitions out of Hustwit’s original interviews with Eno, and Eno’s rich archive of hundreds of hours of never-before-seen footage, and unreleased music. Each screening of Eno is unique, presenting different scenes, order, music, and meant to be experienced live. The generative and infinitely iterative quality of Eno poetically resonates with the artist's own creative practice, his methods of using technology to compose music, and his endless deep dive into the mercurial essence of creativity.
Hustwit’s collaboration with Eno first began in 2017, when Eno created an original score for Hustwit’s film Rams, about the German designer Dieter Rams. Says Hustwit, “Much of Brian’s career has been about enabling creativity in himself and others, through his role as a producer but also through his collaborations on projects like the Oblique Strategies cards or the music app Bloom. I think of Eno as an art film about creativity, with the output of Brian’s 50-year career as its raw material. What I’m trying to do is to create a cinematic experience that’s as innovative as Brian’s approach to music and art.”
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: An interesting idea for a film indeed, but to what shall we listen while we watch? This soundtrack features a number of Big Brian's collaborations and a few unreleased numbers too. You might know some of these pieces, you might not but it wouldn't be over the top to say it's all genius, and it's all worthwhile to have on your record shelf.
TRACK LISTING
1. Brian Eno - All I Remember *Previously Unreleased*
2. Brian Eno With Daniel Lanois And Roger Eno - The Secret Place
3. Brian Eno & Fred Again - Cmon
4. Brian Eno & Cluster - Ho Renomo
5. Brian Eno - Sky Saw
6. Brian Eno & John Cale - Spinning Away
7. Brian Eno & Tom Rogerson - Motion In Field
8. Brian Eno - There Were Bells
9. Brian Eno - Third Uncle
10. Brian Eno & David Byrne - Everything That Happens
11. Brian Eno - Stiff
12. Brian Eno With Leo Abrahams And Jon Hopkins - Emerald & Lime
13. Brian Eno - Hardly Me
14. Brian Eno & David Byrne - Regiment
15. Brian Eno - Fractal Zoom
16. Brian Eno - Lighthouse #429 *Previously Unreleased*
17. Brian Eno & Roger Eno - By This River (Live At The Acropolis) *Previously Unreleased.
