
The delightful cover of the delightful CD by the delightful Brian Eno, the delightful Lux.
Brian Peter George St. John Le Baptiste De La Salle Eno, better known to Roxy Music, U2 and Coldplay fans as Brian Eno, is one of the most multi-faceted art creators in modern society today. His most recent accomplishment is completing an installment of a ‘comfort room’ at the Montefiore Hospital in Hove England which is comprised of some comfy chairs and a few wall mounted tablets arranged in an artful pattern, a large screen TV which is synched to the tablets and all display colorful, mutating patterns that change with the music which is piped in. All of the music is Ambient in nature.
What is ambient music?
For the uninitiated, Eno created a genre of music which is best compared to ‘New Age’ in that the music subtly changed and the changes were often unobtrusive. Usually in ridiculously slow tempos, and minimalist arrangements, Eno pioneered the Ambient movement with his development of Frippertronics with innovative guitarist Robert Fripp. Eno strung together two Revox multi-track tape recorders with one length of tape running through the two sets of heads onto which Fripp would record individual guitar parts and bounce them down and continue to add parts to a piece.

The Frippertronics rig that launched a thousand loops. Photo courtesy of The King Crimson Collectors Club.
Eno further pioneered the genre of Ambient music by composing a series of pieces which were groundbreaking in that they were so minimalist, sound so subtle, they were often introduced into normally stressful situations such as airports, etc., in an effort to calm stressed-out travelers.
Much akin to what Eno is doing at Montefiore…
His latest album, Lux, is said to be a watered down version of the earlier Ambient series but with some significant differences. The main difference being everything is now done digitally. Eno is not one to eschew the new technologies of the times. Although he does enjoy analog instruments, having said that he marvels at how in the second decade of the twenty-first century much of the music being made is with analog instruments.
So I am prepared to launch the disc for it’s flagship journey in the player. I have juiced myself full of caffeine in case this is too soothing, too mellow, too ambient for such an early listening in the day, I don’t need to be lulled to sleep before the sun sets. I’m not THAT old…
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