Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. Jean le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (born 15 May 1948 in Woodbridge, Suffolk) is a British electronic musician, music theorist and record producer. As a solo artist, he is probably best known as the father of ambient music.

Producing records and other projects

From the very beginning of his solo career in 1973, Eno has been much in demand as a producer. His lengthly string of producer credits includes albums for Talking Heads, U2, Devo, Ultravox! and James. He won the best producer award at the 1994 and 1996 BRIT awards.

Related Topics:
Producer - Talking Heads - U2 - Devo - Ultravox - James - 1994 - 1996 - BRIT awards

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Despite being a self-professed "non-musician", Eno has contributed to recordings by a huge number of artists as varied as Nico, Robert Calvert, Genesis, Edikanfo, and Zvuki Mu, in various capacities such as use of his studio/synthesizer/electronic treatments, vocals, guitar, bass guitar, and even just as being 'Eno'.

Related Topics:
Nico - Robert Calvert - Genesis - Edikanfo - Zvuki Mu

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He collaborated on the development of the Koan algorithmic music generator.

Related Topics:
Koan - Algorithmic music

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Eno has also been active in other artistic genres, producing videos for gallery display and collaborating with visual artists in other endeavors. One is the set of "Oblique Strategies" cards that he produced in the mid-70s, which was described as "100 Worthwhile Dilemmas" and intended as guides to shaking up the mind in the process of producing artistic endeavors. Another was his collaboration with artist Russell Mills on the book More Dark Than Shark. He was also the provider of music for Robert Sheckley's In the Land of Clear Colours, a narrated story with music originally published by a small art gallery in Spain.

Related Topics:
Oblique Strategies - Russell Mills - Robert Sheckley

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In 1996 Brian Eno, and others, started the Long Now Foundation to educate the public into thinking about the very long term future of society.

Related Topics:
1996 - Long Now Foundation

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Eno is a columnist for the British newspaper, The Observer.

Related Topics:
British - The Observer

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In 1994 Eno was approached by Mark Malamud and Erik Gavriluk, senior designers at Microsoft on the Cairo project. The result was the start-up sound for the Windows 95 operating system (which Eno created on his Apple Macintosh). From an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle:

Related Topics:
1994 - Erik Gavriluk - Microsoft - Cairo - Windows 95 - Apple Macintosh - San Francisco Chronicle

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The idea came up at the time when I was completely bereft of ideas. I'd been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, "Here's a specific problem – solve it." The thing from the agency said, "We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional," this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said "and it must be 3 1/4 seconds long." I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It's like making a tiny little jewel. In fact, I made 84 pieces. I got completely into this world of tiny, tiny little pieces of music. I was so sensitive to microseconds at the end of this that it really broke a logjam in my own work. Then when I'd finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were like three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time.

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In 2003 he appeared on a Channel 4 discussion on the Iraq war with top miltary spokesmen. He was highly critical of the war. In 2005 he spoke at an anti-war demonstration in Hyde Park, London.

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