New Composers (sp. Guest Brian Eno) Smart

The New Composers who set standards in the Russian Techno and Ambient scene now collaborate with a man who invented Ambient music in the early 80ies, Brian Eno. The music varies between the piano - charme of a russian ballet studio, pure ambience and environmental music as well as 80ies electronic instrumental and 50ies "Fokstrot" music. Simply incredible how homogenous this mixture of different musical influences sounds and which kind of special atmosphere and sound this music out of Russia has.

A pioneering work for countless styles connected to electronics, ambience, and Third World music, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts expands on the fourth-world concepts of Hassell/Eno work with a whirlwind 45 minutes of worldbeat/funk-rock (with the combined talents of several percussionists and bassists, including Bill Laswell, Tim Wright, David van Tieghem, and Talking Heads' Chris Frantz) that's also heavy on the samples - from radio talk-show hosts, Lebanese mountain singers, preachers, exorcism ceremonies, Muslim chanting, and Egyptian pop, among others. It's also light years away from the respectful, preservationist angles of previous generations' field recorders and folk song gatherers…

According to several of the seven mixes on the CD EP Ali Click, "Brian's been amusing his friends by chewing on some plastic flashbulbs." "Ali Click" the tune, originally released on Eno's superb Nerve Net, is a groovy, rhythmic techno rocker perfectly suitable for creating dance mixes. Eno's sound-over-sense lyrics, presented in rap-like rhymes, heighten the composition's appeal. The closing track, "I Fall Up," is the real climax here. Originally recorded for Eno's unreleased My Squelchy Life (1993), this cut is also included on the three-CD box set, Brian Eno: Vocal. Like "Ali Click," "I Fall Up" is abundant with choice phoenetic jabberwocky ("More volts/I'm sucking the juice from the generator/Burn up/turn into a lanky housemaid/Sail up/I'm cackling off to the Congo")…

Following four years after The Drop, Drawn From Life sees Brian Eno collaborating with German DJ J. Peter Schwalm. (Music for Onmyo-Ji, a previous Eno/Schwalm work from 2000, was released in Japan only.) Those who soured at the distant crispness of The Drop will find this to be a more inviting listen, even more so than Eno's 1996 collaboration with bassist Jah Wobble on Spinner. Jazzy, shuffling rhythms and strings that sway from cutting to sighing lay the foundation of most of the tracks, with some repetitive nonmusical effects often falling somewhere in the mix. If there is a fault of the record, it's that the vocals often get in the way of some fine background listening. If you don't have an affinity for Laurie Anderson's voice, you might be troubled that "Like Pictures, Pt. 2," which otherwise happens to be one of the record's most melodic and tranquil tracks, is interrupted by her intonations…

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.

Continuing the twisted pop explorations of Here Come the Warm Jets, Eno's sophomore album, 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…

The latter part of 1975 was a remarkably creative period for Brian Eno. With his masterpiece Another Green World, Eno began moving away from the structure and sound of pop music toward a more static instrumental model, influenced in part by Erik Satie and strongly informed by his prior collaborations with Robert Fripp. Recorded just a month after Another Green World, Discreet Music is his first full foray into what has become known as ambient music. Using the same system of two reel-to-reel tape recorders as No Pussyfooting and Evening Star, Eno was able to layer simple parts atop one another, resulting in a beautiful piece of music that never really changes but constantly evolves with the addition and decay of different parts…

Recorded in 1976 - after Brian Eno had proclaimed them one of the best groups around - but for whatever reason not released until 20 years later, Tracks & Traces is a fascinating release not merely for Eno's participation but for the hints of music that would become mainstream in the future. Indeed, opening cut "Vamos Companeros" has an intense guitar line from Rother that in its nervous, choppy way suggests everything from Wire to Bauhaus, not to mention Eno's own noted production clients, U2. Having already created two excellent albums, the core Harmonia trio was easily placed to whip up a third, with Eno the wild-card factor who turned out to be a perfect addition. While contributing some lyrics and singing at a time when he was steering away firmly from both in his own solo work, most of the time Eno lets the band speak for itself musically, most notably adding snaky, quietly threatening basslines…