Brian Eno

Biography

Brian Eno ( EE-no; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948), also known under the mononym Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, sound designer and political activist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambient and electronic music, and for producing, recording, and writing works in rock and pop music. A self-described "non-musician", Eno has helped introduce unconventional concepts and approaches to contemporary music. He has been described as one of popular music's most influential and innovative figures. In 2019, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Roxy Music.

Born in Melton, Suffolk, Eno studied painting and experimental music at Ipswich Civic College's art school in the mid-1960s, and then at the Winchester School of Art. He joined Roxy Music as their keyboardist in 1971, recording two albums with the group: the self-titled 1972 debut and For Your Pleasure (1973). Eno left the band after their tour promoting For Your Pleasure amidst conflict with Bryan Ferry. During his time in Roxy Music, he befriended King Crimson's frontman and virtuosic guitarist Robert Fripp, and recorded what would become Eno's first post-Roxy album, the Fripp & Eno credited (No Pussyfooting) (1973). The album was one of the first commercialised non-classical albums to experiment with tape-delay and reel-to-reel electronic looping.

After recording (No Pussyfooting), Eno recorded and released his rock-oriented solo debut Here Come the Warm Jets and its sequel, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), in 1974. After recording the album throughout July and August 1974, Eno released the genre-fusing Another Green World (1975) the following year, which has been described as "a universally acknowledged masterpiece". Concluding his pop and rock run, he released the Oblique Strategies-inspired album Before and After Science in December 1977. At this time, Eno began to compose and release minimalist music via classically-constructed electronic composition. Several albums exemplifying this approach include Discreet Music (1975), Fripp & Eno's Evening Star (1975), the Moebius-Roedelius collaborations Cluster & Eno (1977) and After the Heat (1978), and Music for Films (1978).

During 1978, Eno recorded electronic music intended to be both compositive-friendly and "as ignorable as possible". The result was the start of the Ambient series, Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1979), an album credited with coining the term "ambient music", and described as the greatest in the genre's history by Pitchfork. He went on to record the second part with Harold Budd, The Plateaux of Mirror (1980). After producing the Laraaji-released third instalment Day of Radiance (1980), Eno released On Land in 1982, the last of the series. Eno, along with his brother Roger and Daniel Lanois, released Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks (1983), the ambient-driven soundtrack of the delayed NASA film For All Mankind (1989).

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