Sydney Kaloustian Dr. Swanson MUSC 224 12/8

Sydney Kaloustian Dr. Swanson MUSC 224 12/8/19 The Techniques and Styling of Brian Eno Songwriter Robert Fripp once said, “Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence,” (“100 Famous…”). This quote is something music lovers can all agree with, whether one enjoys classical, pop, rock, or country music. Music is something that connects people and gives them common ground. What is also known is that music is so much more than notes on a page; music is innovation and style used to compose something more than skin-deep. It can convey a message, feeling, image, and serve a purpose greater than what we initially understand. This is especially true, one can believe, in the case of Brian Eno and Roxy Music. This paper will explore the techniques used by songwriter and musician Brian Eno to draw his audience in and create music that speaks to souls. In studying the various musical techniques of Brian Eno and Roxy Music, it is clear that by the use of loop pedals, pre-recorded samples, and ambience, Brian Eno can construct a cohesive piece of popular music enjoyed by millions of people over the years. Brian Eno was born on May 15, 1948, in Suffolk, England. He grew up near an Air Force base, and was exposed to rock and roll music from the American Armed Forces radio. In the 1960s, Eno became an art student at the Ipswich Civic College and later, the Winchester School of Art. He studied music and painting there, but had absolutely no intention of becoming an artist of any sort. Eno credits his work in art with negative ambition. He explained in an interview,“I think negative ambition is a big part of what motivates artists. It’s the thing you’re pushing against. When I was a kid, my negative ambition was that I didn’t want to get a job,” (Frere-Jones). Regar and ended up joining a rock and roll group, Roxy Music, in 1971. (Eno has stated that had he not joined Roxy Music, he would have been an art teacher, harvesting his love for the arts.) When he joined, he played the synthesiser, an instrument known to be prevalent in 1970s music. For the first little bit of time that Roxy Music was performing on stage, Brian actually refused to get on stage with them, instead wanting to operate the mixing desk for the shows audio. After some time, he came around and would join them on stage. He recorded two albums with the group, but left the band in 1973 in order to pursue a solo career after a series of disagreements and becoming unsatisfied with the rockstar life he was living. From 1973, when he departed Roxy Music, to 1977, he created and released four complete studio albums, with the most popular song of his career coming from these. In the late 1960s, though, Eno developed a tape delay system for creating music, and collaborated with Robert Fripp. What happened to cause this new development, though, not many realize. A friend of Eno’s, a saxophonist named Andy Mackay, asked if Eno could lend him some tape recorders for his band to use. Eno visited them and discovered Mackay had a synthesizer-type piece of equipment operated with a video-game joystick. Mackay told Eno to take the piece of equipment home to try it out and see if he liked it. Eno got the hang of this new “instrument” very quickly, and started using it to create new songs and tracks for Mackay’s band. Fast forward to meeting Robert Fripp, he and Eno took this equipment and developed it to how they liked it. Fripp and Eno named the newly developed musical system “Frippertronics,” (“Brian Eno Biography”). In the early 1970s, together, they co-wrote and co-produced an album entitled “Evening Star.” In addition to creating lyrical and musically creative pieces, Eno was also a member of the Portsmouth Sinfonia. While dabbling in the classical, orchestral music scene, Eno crafted a score for a Herbert Vesely film, further adding to his list of musical credits. Since the 1970s, Brian Eno has been plenty active in the music world, and has collaborated with many artists, with his most recent involvement being in 2019 at the DAU art and film installation in Paris, for which he wrote multiple songs, (“Brian Eno: Biography). He has released a total of twenty-eight albums, not counting those created with Roxy Music, and each one offers something new and exciting to the world of music. To this day, Eno is considered a “non-musician,” (“Brian Eno at 70). Since the 1970s, Brian Eno has brought countless hits, all different and unique in their own lyrical and instrumental ways. Brian Eno has been around and making music since the early 1970s, and it seems that with every song he releases, whether it be a solo-piece or not, brings so many characteristics of both modern and past music styles to create a new, unique piece. When speaking about his image, he says, “[I don’t] bring all of the baggage that comes with expressionistic rock music. It's something else. It's another art form,” (Sherburne). Eno’s recognition of art in music is something unique. Even when Roxy Music had a heavy influence in the music realm, they were constantly evolving. “Roxy Music’s recording career lasted only 11 years, and if you listen to their first two albums, ‘Roxy Music’ and ‘For Your Pleasure,’ and the last two (thus far), ‘Flesh And Blood’ and ‘Avalon’, you might take them for different bands,” (“How Roxy…”). Even though the music Brian Eno took part in was constantly changing, he maintained a crucial aspect to music. Brian Eno has influenced plenty of music out today, but where did he receive his inspiration and influence? He has admitted to being a fan of Steve Reich, specifically the song, “It’s Gonna Rain,” which is a song made of spoken words arranged into beats and phrases. “‘It's Gonna Rain' was one of the most important pieces of music in my life, and the whole idea of generative really came out of that,” (Tingen). Through the years, Eno has gathered inspiration from many artists, and even worked with some of them, namely David Bowie, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon and U2, (“Brian Eno at 70”). Where has all of this taken him, though? Plenty of bright-minded musicians burnout or seemingly fall off of the face of the earth and are never heard of again. Today, Brian Eno is still creating new music. In 2012, Eno released an ambient music album, (one of many throughout his extensive career), but for the first time, allowed it to feature his voice. He called it a “musical novel,” and said that the inspiration came from the tragic sinking of the Titanic, (Kreps). Based on what Eno has said, it is fairly evident that his inspiration comes from experience, whether that be his own or that of someone else’s. He seems to enjoy seeing things through other people’s eyes, and creating a story from that. Repetition and variations have been a feature of music for many years. Songs from time periods as far back as medieval times have feature repetition on music (“The Birth…”). Loop pedals are a very familiar musical tool to many artists. Lately, artists including Ed Sheeran have used loop pedals to enhance and add to songs, and will even perform with the machines on stage. Brian Eno is yet another artist that is not a stranger to using loop pedals in music. The use of tape recorder looping was not invented by Eno. He noted that when attending a lecture in college, he discovered his professor using a tape recorder for music. From then, he decided that music was fascinating and creative, and chose that as his future career. As far back as 1973, Eno has been using tape recorder looping to create music, specifically the song, “No Pussyfooting.” His use of looping continued into 1975 with the album, “Discreet Music,” which featured a thirty minute long track of Eno using his synthesizer with a tape recorder looping sound. This paper, however, is going to look at the album For Your Pleasure, an album released in 1973, considered to be, “their most art-school album, as well as their greatest,” (Tannenbaum). Brian Eno, in this album, uses looping and repetition to create variation in his music. There are two tracks on For Your Pleasure that are heavily influenced by repetition; the songs are “The Bogus Man,” and the self-titled closing track, “For Your Pleasure.” “Repetition is a form of change,” Eno stated when asked about his repeating instruments (Tannenbaum). This is certainly evident in “The Bogus Man,” which is an almost ten minute track feature instruments such as the electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals, and various drums that change slightly and bring about phrases that cycle over and over again, creating one cohesive piece of music. The second loop-heavy track self-titled “For Your Pleasure,” while shorter than the previous song, uses studio mixing to create, “panoramic disorientation,” (Tannenbaum). Each instrument is taken and distorted with aspects such as reverb or echo. There are plenty of songs written by Brian Eno that include looping, but there are definitely ones that feature it more heavily than others. This is not the only characteristic that Eno is keen to, however. Another technique that Brian Eno is no stranger to is the use of pre-recorded samples in his songs.

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