eno e-mail blogging - I took out all the ordering info at the end...
you can find the DMG site if you wanna order from them though I'm sure...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Downtown Music Gallery"
To:
Sent: Friday, March 25, 2005 4:39 PM
Subject: DMG NEWS FLASH! 4 MORE BRIAN ENO ALBUMS REMASTERED, INCLUDING ONE
NEVER BEFORE AVAILABLE ON CD!
BRIAN ENO'S CLASSIC ALBUMS: FOUR MORE ENTRIES IN THE SERIES OF REMASTERED
REISSUES BEGINS WITH ONE THAT'S NEVER BEEN ON CD BEFORE! - AND WAS ONLY IN
LTD RELEASE ON VINYL WAY-BACK-WHEN TO BOOT...
BRIAN ENO - More Music For Films [aka Music For Films II...Plus]
(Astralwerks 63649; USA) NEVER BEFORE RELEASED ON CD! (With Robert Fripp,
Fred Frith, John Cale, Phil Manzanera, Phil Collins, Percy Jones, Dave
Mattacks, Paul Rudolph, Bill MacCormick, Rod Melvin, Rhett Davies, Daniel
Lanois, Roger Eno) This a new compilation combining all 14 tracks from the
'Music For Films The Director's Edition' promo (1976) [only 500 were issued
for distribution to film directors] which didn't subsequently appear on the
commercially released album 'Music For Films', plus the 6 tracks from 'Music
for Films Volume 2' [the LP that only appeared in a boxset of Eno's Lps]
which did not subsequently appear on the Apollo album.
CD $15.00
BRIAN ENO - Music For Films (Astralwerks 63646; USA) 2005 Remaster (With
Robert Fripp, Fred Frith, John Cale, Phil Manzanera, Phil Collins, Percy
Jones, Dave Mattacks, Paul Rudolph, Bill MacCormick, Rod Melvin, Rhett
Davies). Recorded intermittently between 1975 and 1978 and originally
released only privately as a library edition (with a somewhat different set
of cuts) for the film industry, Music for Films compiles moody, instrumental
electronic pieces intended as soundtrack material for imaginary motion
pictures; the songs are brief and fragmentary, ranging from the haunting
"Sparrowfall" to the luminous, densely layered "Quartz." -- Jason Ankeny AMG
CD $15
BRIAN ENO With DANIEL LANOIS & ROGER ENO - Apollo: Atmospheres And
Soundtracks (Astralwerks 63647; USA) 2005 Remaster. An exquisite experiment,
Apollo is Eno's spacescapes [commisioned for a NASA documentary] arranged
with some heavenly pedal steel guitar by Daniel Lanois and dreamy piano
motifs from brother Roger's Satie-esque sensibilties . The recording engulfs
the listener and captures the feel of space travel, weightlessness, and
other sensations vividly. It's also perhaps Eno's warmest record ever. In
the end, it comes off sounding not unlike a Grateful Dead experiment, with
Lanois ' lazy pedal steel sounding quite similar to Jerry Garcia 's playing
on David Crosby 's "Laughing." An excellent nighttime vehicle. -- Matthew
Greenwald AMG
CD $15
BRIAN ENO - Thursday Afternoon (Astralwerks 63648; USA) 2005 Remaster Eno's
creative endeavors shifted in the mid-'80s to sound-and-light installations,
involving unconventional use of video monitors. This CD-only 1985 album was
conceived as the soundtrack to one of his experimental videos, which,
believe it or not, can be viewed properly only with the TV on its side. This
uninterrupted 61-minute piece is probably the first recording created
specifically to take advantage of the length of the CD format. Muted piano
notes hang suspended in the air, while a soft monochordal synthesizer
ambience slowly and subtly unfolds. Perhaps more than any other of his
works, Thursday Afternoon epitomizes what Eno calls his "holographic"
compositional style, where any brief section of the music is truly
representative of the whole. The mood here is spacious and distinctly
contemplative. -- Backroads Music/Heartbeats AMG
CD $15
ALL THE ABOVE REMASTERS...AND THE EIGHT PREVIOUS ONES BELOW. WERE REMASTERED
IN THE FOLLOWING WAY...
"Using Brian Eno's original analogue masters as the source, remastering
engineer Simon Heyworth has employed Class A' Analogue Electronics combined
with the most advanced Analogue to Digital conversion techniques available.
Using an ATR analog mastering deck with Aria Reference Series class A
discrete electronics, Simon Heyworth was able to coax a higher level of
fidelity out of these recordings than ever before heard, while keeping the
orignal mastering intact. The result is a clarity and depth of sound to
these albums not heard since their initial playback in the recording studio.
And more important, no attempts have been made to re-equalize, remix or in
any way tamper with the original EQ'ed analogue production masters. These
"Original Masters" sound just as Brian Eno originally intended them to be
heard."
The previous eight remasters from 2004 in reverse chronlogical order
BRIAN ENO - On Land: Ambient 4 (Astralwerks 66499; USA) 2004 Remaster
(With Bill Laswell, Jon Hassell, Michael Brook, Alex Gross, and Dan Lanois).
On Land represented a significant move away from the strategies Brian Eno
had employed in earlier ambient releases such as Discreet Music and Music
for Airports . Instead of using a specific process to generate music with
minimal interference from the composer, he here opts for a more gestural and
intuitive approach, creating dreamy pictures of some specific geographical
points or evocative memories of them. It's quite easy to imagine these works
as soundtracks to mysterious footage of imprecisely glimpsed landscapes. On
Land is an album that would become highly influential with the rising tide
of new age composers, though few if any would capture the chilly beauty or
latent romanticism that is part and parcel of Eno. The first piece, "Lizard
Point," includes an early recorded performance of Bill Laswell on bass, and
one imagines that his association with Eno was a crucial factor in the
ambient directions his later work would sometimes take. On Land remains a
landmark event in the genre, as well as one of its high-water marks, and
sounds entirely up to date 20 years after its initial release. A superb
effort. -- Brian Olewnick AMG
CD $15
HAROLD BUDD/BRIAN ENO - The Plateaux Of Mirror: Ambient 2 (Astralwerks
66497; USA) 2004 Remaster The second in Brian Eno 's ambient series, The
Plateaux of Mirrors fuses the fragile piano melodies of Harold Budd and the
atmospheric electronics of Eno to create a lovely, evocative work. In sharp
contrast to the exaggerated pieces found on his debut, The Pavilion of
Dreams , this record finds Budd delivering sharp shards of piano notes
pregnant with meaning and minimal in the best sense of the word. Eno 's
unobtrusive electronics add a resonance and atmosphere that draw from the
ambient textures found on Discreet Music ,Music for Films , and Evening Star
. The album's best moments evoke their subject matter efficaciously and
effortlessly; "First Light" creates an audible early morning chill, "An Arc
of Doves" employs flights of Frippertronics , "Not Yet Remembered" seesaws
between sleep and consciousness, and so on. Although neither artist is a
musician in the usual sense of the word -- Budd's piano playing is still
somewhat limited here -- they excel as musical painters. The wisps of
synthesizer that snake through the rattling percussion of "Wind in Lonely
Fences," the wistful melody held at a remote distance in "Among Fields of
Crystal," the unbounded edges of the piano notes on "Above Chiangmai" --
these wash over the listener in a suffusion of sound. The Plateaux of
Mirrors remains a fascinating hybrid (as are many of Eno 's collaborations),
reflecting the uniqueness of both composers in a most flattering light. --
David Connolly AMG
CD $15
BRIAN ENO - Music For Airports: Ambient 1 (Astralwerks 66495; USA) 2004
Remaster (With Robert Wyatt on piano, and the voices of Christa Fast,
Christine Gomez, and Inga Zeininger). Four subtle, slowly evolving pieces
grace Eno's first conscious effort at creating ambient music. The composer
was in part striving to create music that approximated the effect of visual
art. Like a fine painting, these evolving soundscapes don't require constant
involvement on the part of the listener. They can hang in the background and
add to the atmosphere of the room, yet the music also rewards close
attention with a sonic richness absent in standard types of background or
easy-listening music. -- Linda Kohanov AMG
CD $15
BRIAN ENO - Before And After Science (Astralwerks 77292; USA) 2004 Remaster
(With Robert Fripp, Fred Frith, Phil Manzanera, Phil Collins, Percy Jones,
Dave Mattacks, Paul Rudolph, Bill MacCormick, Jaki Liebezeit, Brian
Turrington, Achim Roedelius, Mobi Moebius, Andy Fraser). Before and
After Science is really a study of "studio composition" whereby recordings
are created by deconstruction and elimination: tracks are recorded and
assembled in layers, then selectively subtracted one after another,
resulting in a composition and sound quite unlike that at the beginning of
the process. Despite the album's pop format, the sound is unique and strays
far from the mainstream. Eno also experiments with his lyrics, choosing a
sound-over-sense approach. When mixed with the music, these lyrics create a
new sense or meaning, or the feeling of meaning, a concept inspired by
abstract sound poet Kurt Schwitters (epitomized on the track "Kurt's
Rejoinder," on which you actually hear samples from Schwitters '
"Ursonate"). Before and After Science opens with two bouncy, upbeat cuts:
"No One Receiving," featuring the offbeat rhythm machine of Percy Jones and
Phil Collins (Eno regulars during this period), and "Backwater." Jones '
analog delay bass dominates on the following "Kurt's Rejoinder," and he and
Collins return on the mysterious instrumental "Energy Fools the Magician."
The last five tracks (the entire second side of the album format) display a
serenity unlike anything in the pop music field. These compositions take on
an occasional pastoral quality, pensive and atmospheric. Cluster joins Eno
on the mood-evoking "By This River," but the album's apex is the final cut,
"Spider and I." With its misty emotional intensity, the song seems at once
sad yet hopeful. The music on Before and After Science at times resembles
Another Green World ("No One Receiving") and Here Come the Warm Jets
("King's Lead Hat") and ranks alongside both as the most essential Eno
material. -- David Ross Smith AMG
CD $15
BRIAN ENO - Another Green World (Astralwerks 77291; USA) 2004 Remaster
(With Robert Fripp, JohnCale, Phil Collins, Percy Jones, Ian McDonald, Phil
Manzanera, Brian Turrington, Paul Rudolph, and Rod Melvin). A
universally acknowledged masterpiece, Another Green World represents a
departure from song structure and toward a more ethereal, minimalistic
approach to sound. Despite the stripped-down arrangements, the album's
sumptuous tone quality reflects Eno's growing virtuosity at handling the
recording studio as an instrument in itself (a la Brian Wilson ). There are
a few pop songs scattered here and there ("St. Elmo's Fire," "I'll Come
Running," "Golden Hours"), but most of the album consists of deliberately
paced instrumentals which, while often closer to ambient music than pop, are
both melodic and rhythmic; many, like "Sky Saw," "In Dark Trees," and
"Little Fishes," are highly imagistic, like paintings done in sound which
actually resemble their titles. Lyrics are infrequent, but when they do pop
up, they follow the free-associative style of albums past; this time,
though, the humor seems less bizarre than gently whimsical and addled,
fitting perfectly into the dreamlike mood of the rest of the album. Most of
Another Green World is like experiencing a soothing, dream-filled slumber
while awake, and even if some of the pieces have dark or threatening
qualities, the moments of unease are temporary, like a passing nightmare
whose feeling lingers briefly upon waking but whose content is forgotten.
Unlike some of his later, full-fledged ambient work, Eno's gift for
melodicism and tight focus here keep the entirety of the album in the
forefront of the listener's consciousness, making it the perfect
introduction to his achievements even for those who find ambient music
difficult to enjoy. -- Steve Huey AMG
CD $15
BRIAN ENO - Discreet Music (Astralwerks 66493; USA) 2004 Eno's first
instrumental album [not counting the two Fripp & Eno releases] from 1975
The Pachelbel piece [2nd half of the album] features the Cockpit Ensemble
conducted by Gavin Bryars. Taking a cue from Satie 's idea of "musique
d'ameublement" (furniture music), music that just exists like furnishings in
an apartment, played so as not to draw attention to itself (not really
Muzak, a company which seeks to produce a more intentional work-product
effect), Eno created several albums of what he termed "ambient music" which
combined a softer style of pattern music (influenced by Bryars ,Nyman
,Harold Budd ) with environmental noises. Discreet Music is probably the
best of these, using an Oliveros -style tape delay arrangement to slowly
change patterns of repeating sounds. -- "Blue" Gene Tyranny AMG
CD $15
BRIAN ENO - Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy (Astralwerks 77288; USA) 2004
Remaster Continuing the twisted pop explorations of Here Come the Warm Jets
, Eno's sophomore album (with backing from an all star lineup including Phil
Manzanera, Robert Wyatt, Andy Mackay, Phil Collins, Brian Turrington et al),
Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) , is more subdued and cerebral, and a
bit darker when he does cut loose, but it's no less thrilling once the music
reveals itself. It's a loose concept album -- often inscrutable, but still
playful -- about espionage, the Chinese Communist revolution, and dream
associations, with the more stream-of-consciousness lyrics beginning to
resemble the sorts of random connections made in dream states. Eno's richly
layered arrangements juxtapose very different treated sounds, yet they blend
and flow together perfectly, hinting at the directions his work would soon
take with the seamless sound paintings of Another Green World . Taking Tiger
Mountain is made accessible through Eno's mastery of pop song structure, a
form he would soon transcend and largely discard. -- Steve Huey AMG
CD $15
BRIAN ENO - Here Come The Warm Jets (Astralwerks 77293; USA) 2004 Remaster
Eno's solo debut from 1973, Here Come the Warm Jets , is a spirited,
experimental collection of unabashed pop songs on which Eno mostly reprises
his Roxy Music role as "sound manipulator," taking the lead vocals but
leaving much of the instrumental work to various studio cohorts (including
ex- Roxy mates Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay, and Paul Thompson, as well as
Robert Fripp, John Wetton, Chris Spedding, Busta Cherry Jones, Bill
MacCormick, Paul Rudolph, Nick Judd, Lloyd Watson, Nick Cool). Eno's
compositions are quirky, whimsical, and catchy, his lyrics bizarre and often
free-associative, with a decidedly dark bent in their humor ("Baby's on
Fire," "Dead Finks Don't Talk"). Yet the album wouldn't sound nearly as
manic as it does without Eno's wildly unpredictable sound processing; he
coaxes otherworldly noises and textures from the treated guitars and
keyboards, layering them in complex arrangements or bouncing them off one
another in a weird cacophony. Avant-garde yet very accessible, Here Come the
Warm Jets still sounds exciting, forward-looking, and densely detailed,
revealing more intricacies with every play. -- Steve Huey AMG
CD $15
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