You can hear Brian Eno's not-yet-released new album Small Craft on a Milk Sea, a collaboration with Leo Abrahams and Jon Hopkins, in its entirety, for free, streamed on NPR. The album is selling out in Japan and is slated for release on Nov. 2 in the U.S. and Nov. 15th in the U.K. It's already made the Top 100 in the U.S. just on pre-orders.
Mike
(Thanks to Bob 'n' Kim)
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Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.
I´ve only just started listening to it, I´m enjoying quite a bit, thanks Mike. Reminds me quite a bit of Vangelis.
Paul
Posted by: Paul | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 01:51 PM
Doggone NPR, when will they enter the 21st century for us mobile folk. This is Flash rant.
Posted by: Dennis Allshouse | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 03:09 PM
Can't wait.
Posted by: charlie | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 03:19 PM
"slated" ... too right ... and no mention of Bryan Ferry's efforts?
Posted by: Steven House | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 04:22 PM
Skipped through it I'm afraid. I really don't understand the attraction of this sort of music, which of course says more about me than the music.
Sad old reactionary contrarian that I seem to be becoming, I still think Warm Jets is Eno's magnum opus.
Posted by: Nathan deGargoyle | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 04:34 PM
P.S.We both had better hairsyles in those days ;-(
Posted by: Nathan deGargoyle | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 04:35 PM
Wow!
Posted by: Marco Venturini | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 05:19 PM
Mike,
Thanks for the note. i was not aware of his popularity in Japan, but listening to the NPR stream, I can see why.
Just to pass the word, there is an iPhone app "Bloom" that is apparently authored by Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers. It allows you to create simple tunes by placing "drops of sound" that echo. (The app visually looks like water drops on a still pond.) A great way to find some peace of mind in the "sardine can" trains during the morning rush hour.
Alex
Posted by: Alex Vesey | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 05:55 PM
Steven,
I've never been a big Ferry fan.
Mike
(P.S. If anybody wonders what this is about, Brian Eno's Roxy Music co-founder Bryan Ferry also came out with a new album a couple of days ago, called "Olympia.")
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 07:09 PM
Sorry Mike (I'm also a huge Eno fan) but the Ferry album is fantastic. His best since The Bride Stripped Bare. I'm old enought to have bought For Your Pleasure on vinyl in 1973.....and feeling every year of it. NPR had the new Ferry as the preview last week. Eno "performs" on it.
Posted by: jsb | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 07:36 PM
Mike,
my comment was also about the use of the word 'slated' which in English English generally means to criticise (heavily). But I think you knew that.
This made me smile http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/oct/28/bryan-ferry-brian-eno which contends "Nobody really expects innovation from Bryan Ferry. Strangely, that means his album works better as mood or background music than Brian Eno's does"
Steve
Posted by: Steven House | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 08:03 PM
Dennis,
I share your rant. It wouldn't kill them to offer a redirect or a link to a non-Flash content alternative. Except that it might. Flash offers them an easy way to limit the ability for unscrupulous downloads---in order to satisfy record labels. Also, there's added infrastructure of offering another stream.
Also, here's a link from their mobile site: http://m.npr.org/news/front/130670962
Got no clue if it'll work for a desktop OS.
Posted by: David | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 08:38 PM
I just ordered a cd via TOP's Amazon link.
Posted by: Bob Burnett | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 08:50 PM
"my comment was also about the use of the word 'slated' which in English English generally means to criticise (heavily). But I think you knew that."
I didn't! Honest. Here it simply means "scheduled or planned."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 08:53 PM
Good background,elevator,mood music.
Nothing exceptional though well done.
Of course nothing can compare to
Beethoven's ninth symphony/the third
movement.
Posted by: paul logins | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 09:37 PM
Sad old reactionary contrarian that I seem to be becoming, I still think Warm Jets is Eno's magnum opus.
That's a great album, true. But IMO Ambient 4: On Land is even more of a milestone.
Posted by: Semilog | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 10:45 PM
Yaaawwwwnnnn....
Posted by: Luc N. | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 10:46 PM
>>Sad old reactionary contrarian that I seem to be becoming, I still think Warm Jets is Eno's magnum opus.<<
I'm voting for "Another Green World" or maybe "Taking Tiger Mountain"...
--Darin
Posted by: Darin Boville | Saturday, 30 October 2010 at 12:34 AM
I have to go with Nathan on this one. Eno's treading water.
Speaking of Ferry, on this side of the Pond there have been a number of interviews to coincide with his new release. The man seems to be going to the same health club as Keith Richards, from the look of him.
Sorry. That was just the bitterness of an old Roxy fan (first 4 albums only, of course), who saw one of his heroes commit the ultimate betrayal of any rock icon - the man married into the aristocracy and took up fox-hunting. If he'd joined the Osmonds it would have been more palatable.
Posted by: Jim McDermott | Saturday, 30 October 2010 at 12:35 AM
Hmm, I may have imagined Jean Michel Jarre while listening to it.
Posted by: paugie | Saturday, 30 October 2010 at 02:26 AM
I wonder what became of 'Muzak',....this reminded me of it...... Strange that I assumed TOP's proprieter was more cultured based on what gets written and displayed here.
Posted by: Bob | Saturday, 30 October 2010 at 05:53 AM
Well I did give it 5 minutes, but "it ain't rock'n'roll".
I love most of Ferry's early work but he lost my support with that soulless Dylan album a couple of years ago (and he has a badly behaved son).
Posted by: Robin P | Saturday, 30 October 2010 at 08:32 AM
Warm Jets, Green World, Tiger Mountain, Before and after Science - while he still wrote songs - were my favourite albums - although Ambient 1 (Airports) with Robert Wyatt on piano was lovely.
Thanks for the link.
Posted by: Jerry Lewis-Evans | Saturday, 30 October 2010 at 08:35 AM
Great album - particularly the ambient pieces. Seems to be almost Ambient 5 following the genius Ambient 1, 2, 3 and 4 (my favourite) albums. The slow parts remind me of a picture I took a few days ago in Scotland.
Posted by: Michael Stringer | Saturday, 30 October 2010 at 11:24 AM
I can only hope to some day ride an elevator that is playing Eno.
Posted by: charlie | Saturday, 30 October 2010 at 06:18 PM
I haven't listened to the album yet, but I quite like this photograph.
If we're praising Eno albums let's not forget Bush of Ghosts!
Posted by: Robin Dreyer | Saturday, 30 October 2010 at 06:28 PM
Ideally, and I am sure that Mr. Eno would agree, is that this style be invented, recorded and mastered by machines, only.
Posted by: peter | Sunday, 31 October 2010 at 10:17 AM
Well, that's quite weird... I just got back from Japan, having bought a copy of this CD after seeing it purely by chance in Tower Records, Akihabara. I'm listening to it right now for the first time and I see an article right here, while catching up on the last couple of weeks of TOP. I like it when life throws things up like that.
Posted by: Ben | Friday, 05 November 2010 at 01:37 PM