Eno, Brian
Entry updated 26 October 2021. Tagged: Music, People.
(1948- ) Influential UK musician, associated with the invention of minimalist "ambient" musical styles. Much of his work is instrumental, and identifying it as sf is an unsure business, although there is a spacious and material "otherworldliness" about the best of Eno's ambient compositions that are certainly evocative in the same way that some sf is evocative. Another Green World (1975) perhaps filters perceptions of the Earth through an imaginary other planet. Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks (1983) was written to accompany a documentary about the NASA moon landings, and the music expertly evokes the mood of slow, serene, weightless space travel (several of the pieces were co-composed with Daniel Lanois). Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics (with Jon Hassell, 1980) has a Martian strangeness in its shuffling, left-field ambient-synth pieces. In 1979 Eno and Peter Sinfield (1943- ) recorded the low-key background music to a limited edition book/CD release of Robert Sheckley's novella In a Land of Clear Colors (in New Constellations, anth 1976, ed Thomas M Disch and Charles Naylor; 1979). "How Many Worlds" (in Another Day on Earth, 2005), co-written with Michel Faber, is explicitly sf in its vision of multiple universes and possibilities. In 2006, Eno and Faber collaborated on a recording of the latter's "The Fahrenheit Twins" (in The Fahrenheit Twins, coll 2005) read by the author with music by Eno. In 2019 an Asteroid was given his full name as below but will be called Eno for short. [AR/HW]
Brian Peter George St Jean le Baptiste de la Salle Eno
born Woodbridge, Suffolk: 15 May 1948
works
- A Multimedia Album Based on the Complete Text of Robert Sheckley's In a Land of Clear Colors (Santa Eulalio del Rio, Ibiza, Spain: Galeria el Mensajero, 1979) with Robert Sheckley [novella: chap: "In a Land of Clear Colors" first appeared in New Constellations (anth 1976, ed Thomas M Disch and Charles Naylor): music by Brian Eno: narration by Peter Sinfield: illus/hb/Leonor Quiles]
further reading
- Geeta Dayal. Brian Eno's Another Green World (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2009) [nonfiction: pb/]
links
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