Brian Eno: Lux

When we interviewed Brain Eno [Tape Op #85] one of the questions surrounding Eno and Peter Chilvers' iPhone app, Bloom, was whether one could record their own instance of the generative music Bloom creates and call it their own. We may have been joking that day, but I believe Eno carried on with the thought and Lux is the result. No, it's not simply hitting "Listen" in Bloom and waiting for sounds to come out. Rather much of the texture and mood of this new album resides in the same territory as that generative app. Lux was originally commissioned for a show at the Great Gallery of the Palace of Venaria in Turin, Italy, and, for a pre-release peek, it was appropriately played at Tokyo's Haneda Airport for several days. Music for Airports indeed! Though it's mostly Eno on synthesizers and production tweaks, longtime collaborators Leo Abrahams and Nell Catchpole show up (briefly) on Moog guitar and viola/violin respectively. I've given Lux the late-night-fall-asleep test while on the road for a few nights in a row now. At over four tracks and 75 minutes, it presents a bright, twinkling soundscape that simultaneously relaxes and intrigues, which, to me, is what the best of Eno's ambient works achieve. It's a different beast, and I can't compare it directly to other works of his; but it might be in a similar vein as Neroli or Thursday Afternoon. Yet it's lighter sounding and, perhaps, strangely happier. In the end, it's a beautiful piece of music. Thank you, Brian. (brian-eno.net) -LC