Who inspires me 7: Brian Eno

It’s been a long time since that first time when I heard the music of Brian Eno and was completely captivated – and there began a lifetime obsession. We are talking the mid 70s. Of course, I had heard Roxy Music before that – but it was his solo work that really began the journey. It’s a journey that I could spend thousands of words describing. But let’s begin with a few headlines.

‘Discreet Music’ was arguably the first album to be called ambient music. It’s not a straightforward case of novel invention – there were many things before it that led to this album. Eno himself refers to the music of French composer Erik Satie whose piano pieces which were minimalist and repetitive and called furniture music by the composer. Eno talked of wanting to make music that could be played in elevators or large open spaces and ignored, but that would be really interesting to listen to as well. Eno was also very interested in systems theory, citing the work of Stafford Beer. He drew on this to develop ideas for repeating patterns that would create gradually changing music with loops of different length.

For this early album, the Discreet Music track itself which filled an entire side of a vinyl album, he was inspired by listening to a piece of classical music that was turned right down low on a record player with only one channel / speaker working. This gave him the idea for a piece of music which should be played so that it is barely audible.

The piece of music he produced was extremely minimalist – another influence was Terry Riley – using simple loops that constantly shifted. It’s a beautiful piece of music. On first hearing it, I was really inspired. Within a few months I had also heard the albums of a friend in the village where I grew up – this included Eno’s earlier solo albums which were a mix of vocal and instrumental, and the albums he made with German musicians Roedelius and Moebius (known as the band Cluster). This was beautiful, stark music heavily influenced by Kraftwerk. I loved it.

Since those early years the journey of listening to Eno’s music has taken me through to places and influences that have created obsessions in their own right. The music of Jon Hassell for example (he will be the subject of another ‘Who inspires me’) – he made an early album with Eno called ‘Fourth World: Possible Musics” which whilst being ambient also included music from Africa. I fell in love with the sounds of Jon Hassell’s music – his trumpet playing heavily influenced by Miles Davis, but also drawing on being taught Indian Raga forms by Pandit Pran Nath. Then there was the work he did with Talking Heads and David Bowie (the Berlin albums for example). The album he made with David Byrne from Talking Heads called “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” took field recordings of voices from around the world and set them to backbeats. This was at least 20 years ahead of its time. When Eno works with artists he is never just there as a producer. He gets involved in composition, idea generation, plays instruments and sings too. The influence he has on musicians is really profound.

He developed an innovation generator with artist Peter Schmidt called ‘Oblique Strategies’ in the mid 1970s – a deck of cards that helps to shift thinking when the artist gets stuck. It really works. These cards have been incredibly widely used over the years. There are now online versions too.

So, the obsession with everything that Eno did continued. In the 1990s he released a book called “A Year with Swollen Appendices” – a diary of the year 1995, some of which he spent in Russia. It captured beautifully the sheer breadth of his curiosity, his open minded pursuit of so many interests. There is even a section on his interest in perfumes. The book was a huge influence on me. I still dip into it from time to time for inspiration.

Over the years he has created record labels. Obscure Records – with albums by the unheard of at the time Gavin Bryars, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Michael Nyman amongst others. After 10 albums he ended this project and moved on. Then there were 4 ambient albums, including the sublime “Music for Airports” which I played until it was worn out when it first came out. There was another record label called Opal which produced much of his material in the late 90s and early 2000s. He has created computer programmes for Generative Music and more recently has developed Apps that create music.

Even now, his music pushes boundaries and is always exciting and new.

I love the way he keeps pursuing the new, pushes boundaries and is not afraid to try things that may fail. Some of the things he has tried haven’t worked – but so many have been astonishing, and have opened up new areas for others to follow.

Brian Eno is not just someone who has inspired me. He has influenced my thinking, been a massive influence on my listening habits since my early teens, and has encouraged me to take risks when creating.

As I said at the beginning of this piece, it would be really easy to expand this piece to a whole book on the work of Eno. Others have already done that (see “On Some Faraway Beach” by David Sheppard for a good example)! His direct influence on me could have been described with countless other memories, routes through ideas, pursuit of specific influences and associated thoughts. Suffice to say that I owe the man a big debt for the musical pleasure he has given me and for the impact he has had on my own work. Thank you, Brian!