“Reflection is the latest work in a long series.”
Ambient music pioneer Brian Eno has announced that his next release, Reflection, will continue the experimentation with ambient music that “started (as far as record releases are concerned) with Discreet Music in 1975″.
Discussing ambient music in a short statement provided with the announcement Eno admits, “I don’t think I understand what that term stands for anymore.”
“It seems to have swollen to accommodate some quite unexpected bedfellows – but I still use it to distinguish it from pieces of music that have fixed duration and rhythmically connected, locked together elements.”
Maybe he’s talking about “power ambient”?
Eno describes Reflection as a piece of music that makes him think back. “When I make a piece like this most of my time is spent listening to it for long periods – sometimes several whole days – observing what it does to different situations, seeing how it makes me feel. I make my observations and then tweak the rules.”
He goes on to say that he can divide artists into two categories, farmers and cowboys. While he used to see himself as a “cowboy” – “excited by the sheer fact of discovery” – he says that after 40 years making ambient music, maybe he should consider himself a farmer. Either way, we can’t wait to hear Eno going back to what he does best.
Reflection is due for release on January 1 via Warp and can be pre-ordered from Brian Eno’s site.