LUX

I just had to get that "Music for" line in the title. The sounds on "Lux" really do recall Eno's "Music for Airports" (Ambient 1, 1978) and his "Discreet Music" (Obscure no. 3, 1975) releases. Simple, slowly moving, sketches, based around, what I presume is a treated piano (credits just say "Written and Produced by Brian Eno", specifying "Additional Musicans" Leo Abrahams on Moog Guitar, and Neil Catchpole on Violins and Violas). The sustained dissolves and fades of single notes, at times bring to mind "Apollo", with its sense of calm and accompanying suspense.The four tracks are almost anonymously titled, "Lux 1", "Lux 2", "Lux 3" and "Lux 4", each being close to 20 minutes long, with none actually hitting that mark. The disc could pleasantly run as a continuous loop, achieving the desired background music effect Eno descibed in the liner notes to "Discreet Music" (1975). "Lux" is taken from a composition by Eno for The Great Gallery of the Palace of Venaria, Turin, Italy. According to the website Volumina, "Brian Eno's sound installation '12 Seasons, Music for the Great Gallery of the Palace of Venaria' was created expressly for the Great Gallery of the Reggia di Venaria. The sound installation created by Brian Eno explores the possible aesthetics offered by new technology in relation to the ambient, with a series of musical movements which stratify into each other. To take full advantage of the acoustic characteristics of the Great Gallery, Eno worked directly inside the room in order to obtain the proper balance between the sounds and the acoustic reverberations. The twelve movements are played over the speaker system, with two speakers located at the entrance and two at the exit of the Great Gallery, surrounding visitors with sounds that vary according to their position inside the Gallery."From this, Eno distilled the four parts found on "Lux". Of some interest, Peter Chilvers performs the task of "Additional Mixing". Chilvers is know for his work on the Burning Shed label with Tim Bowness and Theo Travis among others, his solo piano album on that label, his recent work with Eno, and his recent band with Bowness, Slow Electric.There are four cardstock "exclusive prints" (by Eno) in the "First Edition" of the CD (and the LP), bringing to mind the fact that Eno included four prints by artist Peter Schmidt in early UK editions of "Before and After Science". The whole package is attractive in an LP-style, gatefold sleeve, the prints in one pocket and the disc in an inner sleeve in the other pocket. The whole presentation appears as a genuine and successful effort by Eno to revisit his early experiments in ambient and minimalist music. I was more than pleasantly surprised to hear that, after 38 years, Brian Eno is still able to achieve the necessary restraint to craft music of such unimposing and subtle qualities.

Lux is the newest release from Brian Eno. Eno is known primarily for his musical experiments and collaborations in ambient music, a melange of tonal soundscapes, tape loops and electronic remixing effects. Eno is a pioneer in ambient music, composing some of the best examples of this genre, such as Music for Airports, Discreet Music and Apollo.His recent output, however, has been spotty. The word "ambient" is derived from the French word for "furniture," and like furniture should not be noticed or noticeable. Some of Eno's recent releases have been completely contrary to the spirit of ambient music. The music in Small Craft on a Milk Sea, for example, is "in-your-face," loud and cacophonous.Lux, however, is a tour de force. The synthesizers provide a soft, sweeping musical background as spacious as those present in Apollo. The tone of the music is meditative. The mood is quiet and gentle. As in all good ambient music, the tonal structures and signatures cascade one after another, unobtrusively, unnoticeably, and take the listener on a musical journey without the listener even being aware of the music's effect.There are four pieces in this album, appropriately called, Lux 1, Lux 2, Lux 3, and, you guessed it, Lux 4,which total approximately one hour. The album plays as a single composition, and the listener is not even aware when one piece ends and the other begins. That is real ambient music. This is the best, most authentic piece of ambient music composed in years and is one of Eno's best albums.Limited first editions contain a bonus of four prints, much like the first releases of Eno's Before and After Science, which contained a limited release set of lithographs. These prints appear be computer generated images produced by Eno himself.If you are a fan of Eno's music or ambient music in general you will not want to let this one go.

The media could not be loaded. Brian Eno is a genius. Some of his ambient music is more accessible than others - this is not for casual consumption - It is Life in Slow Motion. You must be patient. It is not, however, good background music. I tried playing it in my car and found it irritating. Wrong domain. This ambient music project was conceived as an art installation - so what's missing from the experience on CD or download is the visual component - that would add a lot to the piece(s) as a whole. As an exercise, I created a short video using the artwork from the CD, and I'll experiment with looping it and slowing down the transitions while playing the accompanying music. I'm already enjoying it more! (hope Brian doesn't mind). In summary, this is a worthy addition to the pantheon of Eno Ambience, with flawless sound as one would expect, but if you are new to this genre, you might want to start elsewhere, such as Music for Airports or Thursday Afternoon.