I’m a total news junkie. Always reading, listening, scanning; it’s fun for me. And I’m a music geek — that’s practically a religion. So of course I was interested in this story about Brian Enoreported by MarketPlace Tech Report, available via SoundCloud.
Photo: Brian Eno | Edit: rsmithing | Click for original
Eno has just launched a musical app, Scape, that gives listeners a new system for interacting with the sounds. Interestingly, Eno & his team developed the concept for this years before we all had smartphones and tablets. He describes it as:
…the move from one type of composer to another: the “let’s push the boat out together & see where it lands” type.
Scape App
So as listeners, we have the opportunity to be something more, while using an artist’s input to make our own creation. Not unlikeInstagram, or audio mashups like those by John Boswell, aka Melodysheep.
Who is Brian Eno?
I’ve never listened to much Brian Eno music, but I thought I’d give this interview a chance. Wow, am I glad I did. Eno is a deep musical thinker, which makes for a highly interesting listen, especially considering his perspective, having worked on such a breadth of projects. Many of my favorite artists have eitherworked with or referenced him regularly (Depeche Mode, NIN, Devo).
The guy is quite eloquent. Here are some quips from the full interview:
- On his new album: “A closely-guarded secret launched onto an ocean of indifference.”
- On using Scape: “You’re making an ecosystem of sounds. You’ve got quite a few creatures you can put into this little garden here.”
- On curation: “We’re going to have to come up with this type of system to short circuit the vast amount of material that’s out there for us to look at now.”
Putting curation into practice, Eno has a friend whose taste he admires send him a mix CD of new music each month… but doesn’t get the list of artists and songs until one month later, in order to “listen without prejudice,” since as a professional musician, he isn’t necessarily listening to as much music as he might be creating. It’s an interesting concept, especially to hear Eno himself describe it (at about 15:32)…
SoundCloud: I Like It
Besides the content, what really motivated me to blog about this interview was the opportunity to explore SoundCloud at the same time. SoundCloud is a site I’m becoming more pleased with every time I interact with it.
I started listening to the interview on my iPhone through iTunes, having subscribed to the podcast previously. In the brief 4-minute story from the podcast, the host referred listeners to the extended version at the MarketplaceTech.org site. I keyed that in and found a link to the full interview, which played on my phone effortlessly over 3G, streaming through SoundCloud. Having previouslyregistered at the site, I was able to add it to my list of “likes,” and embed a clip here on the blog afterward, since I emailed myself a link and tweeted about it from the site’s mobile page:
It’s great to discover and interact with something new — successfully, enjoyably and consistently like SoundCloud.
What do you think? Are you a fan of Brian Eno’s music? What other collaborative art examples does this bring to your mind? Do you have any experience with SoundCloud or similar sites? Let us hear from you in the comments.
Related articles
- Brian Eno and His New App (superradnow)
- Scape: the Brian Eno album that you create (telegraph.co.uk)
- Brian Eno Back to Ambient Roots, in iPad App with Peter Chilvers, Upcoming Album (createdigitalmusic.com)
- Brian Eno’s New App Redefines The Concept Of An Album (businessinsider.com)
- Feed Your Ears // Lukid, Stott & Eno (beatsandbobs.com)
