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: updated 19th december 02000 :


100 years of solitude -- Looking for a last-minute present or a treat to brighten up your new year? Then music journalist Mark Prendergast has just the thing. His new book The Ambient Century : From Mahler To Trance - Sonic Evolution in the Electronic Age is now available in the UK and is due to be published in the US on January 21st 02001. The book's 500 pages are preceded by a foreword written by Brian in which he no doubt ambiently drones on about something or other. The book also includes excerpts from Mark's many interviews with Brian plus pictures from Brian's private collection. I'm sorry, that last phrase sounded a bit Edwardian- gentleman- twiddling- his- moustache... let me make it clear it's not that picture collection -- it's his photo archive. Or does that sound worse? Umm... er... hey, what's that link down there?

Slide over here -- Future Trust has a slide-show page with pictures of contributors to Net Around the Planet, Mostar and the Pavarotti Music Centre. Brian appears twice as the camera loves him so.

Fripp, Fripp, hooray -- Johannes Korn points out that Robert Fripp mentions meeting up with Brian in his on-line diary (December 12th 02000). EnoWeb respects the fact that Robert holds the copyright in his work and so we are not going to repeat his words here. Just follow the link and let Robert tell you himself. (Actually this diary entry scrolled off soon after we posted the story. Basically Robert said he met up with Brian and they had fun and possibly he might return with a guitar. Later in the week they had a telephone conversation too.)

A picture paints a thousand Enos -- David Brighton writes: "I am sure you have seen this, but if not..." Well no actually; until now EnoWeb had been blissfully unaware of this meisterwerk of the painter's art, and still does not quite believe it.

Remember my name -- Not Eno-related, but you might like to know that following up Over Heard [see story below], Big Eyes Media has developed the FAME Music Capsule which will play a darkly meditative generative music piece for you.

Sikter Sector -- Bommel writes: "The band Sikter have just released a new album titled Now, Always, Never. Brian Eno is credited for keyboards on tracks 2, 3 & 9, vocals on tracks 2 & 3, and whistling on track 4. He is also credited for co-production of these tracks. People can order this CD from Sikter's web-site, which also features some MP3s from the album. Eno provides backing vocals and plays keyboards on 'Time and Space' and 'Devil's Drive' is the one with him whistling."

The Write Stuff -- Well-known ostrich-plumed former glam rock star Eno has received the ultimate accolade, with the news that a set of writing instruments has been named after him. This is a feat that not even Mick Hucknall or Barry Manilow have achieved and confirms that Eno can still mix it with the big boys. According to its publicity material, "Color Eno is a new concept in mechanical pencils - erasable, coloured writing in 8 translucent barrel colours." EnoWeb contacted Eno's managers for a statement on this major recognition and they said "This is nothing to do with us. Please leave us alone." N.B. Pens contain small parts. Keep out of mouth.

Part 1 -- On October 20th Lisa Linn from WXDU-Durham and Isaac Trogdon from WXYC-Chapel Hill interviewed Brian about his Blisses & Koans exhibition. Brian discussed generative systems, his enthusiasm for his Korg Kaoss pad, and the current state of technology. The interview is now available in RealAudio.

Part 2 -- those whose appetites for generative/algorithmic matters have been whetted by thoughts of Bliss & Koan may well be further stimulated by Over Heard. Described by its creators as "a world's first wholly Flash-based visually and aurally algorithmic installation supporting dual algorithmic formats in the same installation", Over Heard features a choice of listening through FAME (the new Freedom Algorithmic Music Engine, which requires no additional plug-in apart from Flash) or SSEYO's Koan. The visual elements take the form of undated journal entries in different combinations in the style of non-interactive hypertext, if that makes any sense. There is no connection with Brian, by the way -- EnoWeb just thought you might be interested.

Stone me -- on 11th November, Brian and Alexander Rose spoke at the Doors of Perception "Lightness" Conference in Amsterdam, showing off the Rosetta Disk, according to Wired. Brian's Bio on the site states "He also expects to release an album of his own music in the coming year"... hmm, wonder which year that'll be? Thanks to Richard Joly.

Contamination Congratulation -- The saucy and ebullient David Bowie has spoken once more about doing something for 2.Contamination. Thanks to Richard Joly for this one too.

Take a NAP -- The Future Trust reckons it will have a streaming webcast of its "in.site" concert soon. This will be our chance to see Brian taking on all comers with his Kaoss pad.

Trust me, I'm a Future -- Sometime on Saturday 28th October, Brian will be taking part in the "in.site" event, a webcast combining live performances and visual contributions from artists across the world. It's all in aid of Future Trust, a charity developing some of the ideas of War Child. Future Trust supports the work of the Pavarotti Music Centre in Mostar, music therapy, education and community reconstruction.

Parts on display -- The Partobject gallery is currently displaying hundreds of screen grabs from Brian's Bliss artworks (see 3rd story below for more information about the current exhibition). Also of interest is the biography of Brian, which in its shorter version claims "he also expects to release an album of his own music later this year".

Wired for sound judgement -- The Wire magazine's 200th issue surveys 200 music-related web-sites and says of EnoWeb: "The continuing absence of an official Eno Website should not cause concern when there's a online resource as comprehensive as EnoWeb...". How kind of them. And how vain of EnoWeb to mention it.

Technical Hitch(hiker) -- The first part of the BBC Radio 4 series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future is now archived on the BBC's site. There are also extended versions of Brian's answers in audio.

Save All Your Blisses For Me -- On Saturday, October 7th, Brian's new exhibition will be opening at the Partobject Gallery in Carrboro, North Carolina. The exhibition, titled Blisses 1-87; KOANS 1-29, will be the international premiere of computer-generated screen and audio works made by Brian over the past decade. Partobject is proud to premiere these visual works for video screens called Blisses by the artist.

Blisses derive from a computer program designed by Greg Jalbert originally made for consumers to design their own screensavers. It is possible then to "specify interacting sets of instructions which govern color generation." The nature of the program is that they never precisely repeat themselves. So, one can view a particular Bliss program and never see the same thing twice, infinitely.

The title of the exhibition specifies "1-87 and 1-29" and refers to the fact that three new Bliss programs/works and one new KOAN (Sseyo® KOAN® Interactive Audio Platform) program/work will be presented each day in the gallery during the twenty-nine days of the exhibition.

In addition to the screening of the Bliss visual works, Eno will present 29 KOAN audio works as an aural backdrop for the viewer. The KOAN works are the audio equivalent of the Blisses, in the sense that they also allow the artist to "specify a large number of musical parameters and let them interact. The computer then 'plays' several internal sound synthesizers according to the instructions generated in KOAN. The music in this exhibition, like the visual Blisses, is non-repeating."

The exhibition will open on Saturday, October 7, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. and continues until November 25. Partobject Gallery is located at 103-C West Weaver Street, Carrboro. Gallery Hours are Wed-Fri 12-6 p.m., Sat 11-7 p.m. For more information call 933 2225. Hmm, maybe there should be a code for those outside NC.

Each day of the exhibition the gallery will be putting a different shot of one of Brian's Bliss works on its web-site. Here's an example of what to expect from the exhibition invite card.

Thanks to Diego.

HHG for DA & BE -- On Wednesday 4th October, just after 11:00am, BBC Radio 4, Brian will be appearing in Douglas Adams' new series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future which aims to make sense of the digital world. The two will compare notes on how long it takes them to produce a new solo album/novel when there are so many other distractions out there. Oh dear, I seem to have mistyped that. What I should have said was of course The focus of this programme is music on the Internet. Many Radio 4 programmes are broadcast on the Net so you might get lucky and hear it.

U4 -- the U2 site now has MP3 excerpts from 4 songs appearing on the band's new album, All That You Can't Leave Behind, available for download. Others may well have been added bythe time you read this. There's the video for Beautiful Day too.

Manchester City -- Brian was interviewed at In The City, the annual Manchester-based conference for the music industry, on Monday 25th September. Although this A&R beano is not open to the public the chat was filmed, and previous years' sessions have been made available on CD in MP3 format, so we may yet find out what he was saying about us behind our backs. I mean, what his views are about the music industry and stuff.

Trans-former -- For those of us who missed the garageband.com chat with Brian Eno, the transcript is now available. Typing from Frankfurt, Brian discusses working with U2, art, his earlier work, his current projects, and says that next year Virgin will be releasing remastered versions of his albums including some previously unreleased material. He also plans to publish the 5th Edition of the Oblique Strategies.

To read the transcript, just join garageband.com (free). Then when you're a member of the site, click on the "go backstage" link, then click on "Blast from the chat" and then click on "Brian Eno chat transcript". Brian's been giving advice to hopeful bands on the site this week, and you can read his comments there too. EnoWeb thanks visitor Timothy Andrew Edwards, who explains: 'production "chops" = production "skills".'

All talk -- Andrew Nicholas pointed out this information from garageband.com: "Brian Eno will be chatting LIVE on garageband.com on Wednesday, September 20th at 3:00 p.m. PST. Check out the homepage on September 20th and log on! Brian will be available to discuss The Birth of Modern Music, including his role in pioneering ambient music, the glam rock of Roxy Music, and his production chops with artists like David Bowie and Talking Heads." Brian joined the board of Garageband.com, a site for unsigned talent, last year. EnoWeb wonders what production chops are, but is not prepared to ask.

Luke from Garageband.com has been in touch with EnoWeb and is keen that we should use their official wording: "I am writing on behalf of garageband.com and I was going to ask you to post a little note and link about our upcoming live online chat with brian eno--which is causing us all to bounce with anticipation. I see that someone else has beaten us to the cookie jar and you already have a posting about it BUT..... we would love it if you wouldn't mind posting this text and the official link for this chat. Huge thanks in advance. . . I'm also planning on telling a large number of friends about your site- if they havent already seen it. I think it's pretty dope. [...]

Brian Eno chats LIVE on garageband.com Wednesday, September 20th at 3:00 p.m. PST! For more information on Brian's chat on The Birth of Modern Music shimmy on over to garageband.com."

He's a TV lover -- Late on Wednesday night (or early on Thursday morning), 7th September, UK Channel 4 broadcast a 4MUSIC: PIONEERS feature on Brian's life and work, with contributions by The Orb, U2, David Byrne and David Toop amongst others. Brian did not get a chance to mention the Clock of the Long Now, which is a shame as it means we can't turn his words into a plug for our exclusive pictures of the clock prototype being assembled at the Science Museum. But anyway, EnoWeb was excited to see Brian at last getting the peak-time coverage he richly deserves... What's that you say, hmmm? 12.35am is peak-time for The Young People? Wouldn't have happened in my day.

Sloppy treatment -- Bommel writes: The forthcoming Slop Shop album Makrodelia 2 includes one track with contributions by Brian, "So Nah". It features excerpts from the Sushi! Roti! Reibekuchen! concert with Brian Eno and Peter Schwalm's group Slop Shop in Bonn, August 1998. The CD is released in September 02000 by Poets Club Records (PCR016). An EP marking a collaboration between Brian and Peter is under way, and Brian is working on a remix for the next Slop Shop single.

James tomorrow -- Richard Joly points us towards this NME story which says that Brian's working with James again for a new album due next year.

Social Call -- David Coper Orton writes: The August 19th edition of New Scientist (p49) mentions The Book of Inspirations, published by The Institute for Social Inventions, and with (apparently) an enthusiastic introduction by Brian. Not finding it listed at amazon.co.uk, further investigation reveals that it seems to be available only as part of a £15 subscription, which includes a: 'book-length Annual in July/Aug each year. The annual until July 15th 2001 is called The Book of Inspirations - A directory of Social Inventions. 320 pages. The musician and writer Brian Eno writes: "Civilisation is embodied social imagination. This is a book about it."'

Dream Team -- EnoWeb is interested to hear that Maurizio Dami's new album Lucid Dreams (aka Awake Dreams) has a rather nice track called "The Conscience Of Eno". Of course, the Eno in question isn't necessarily Brian, but the track is well worth a listen.

Cam-Eire -- As Brian, Daniel Lanois, U2 and their team put the finishing touches to the new U2 album (estimated release date sometime in 2005), you can watch their every move -- or some of them, anyway -- on two web-cams at the official U2 site. The site aims to have other material relating to the album including previews of tracks; you'll currently find a 30-second extract from the track 'Beautiful Day', which is destined to be the first single. As some people find this site a little difficult to navigate, a number of U2 fans are collaborating on a site of their own, where they chronicle the events in the studio 25 hours a day. They also keep an archive of the web-cam pictures so you can spy on Brian even if he's hiding behind the settee at the time you visit.

Punctum Rocked -- The Punctum project trailed below appears to have come to a premature full stop: Opal had never heard of it, Brian is not involved and the Year of the Artist people claim to "know notheeng". The story calls to EnoWeb's mind a line from a Stephen Fry sketch: "We are artists. Con artists, admittedly..."

Order, order -- In response to many requests, Opal has now decided to add CDRs of Civic Recovery Centre and Lightness to the list of installation soundtracks now available to order from its London Office. Price is the same as Kite Stories & I Dormienti. EnoWeb doesn't currently have dedicated order forms for these CDs but you could grab a crayon and just scribble over the bits that don't apply on one of the original forms.

Seven (1) -- Rory Walsh writes: "I happened to be in the UK on the 24th June 2000 and while flicking through the Timeout on the train to London I came across a small ad for a performance of the 'Great Learning' that evening at which Damon Albarn, Michael Nyman and one Brian Eno were due to perform. The concert was at the Union Chapel off Upper Street Islington. Although I did not know it at the time -- I had to call the box-office number three times for them to even acknowledge that the performance was on -- you could perform at the event if you attended at the rehearsal earlier that day. At first I thought that Eno would not show - I have been to two events advertised in Timeout where Eno was to appear but did not. But he did show just before the start of Paragraph VII. This part is for a large group of untrained singers and he was just one of the singers. In good minimalist tradition his performance was minimal in that he stood at the back of the stage singing the lines from the scores. He sat on the floor looking at the details on the pulpit. Half way through he got up and walked to the pews by the side of the stage sitting down next to Nyman, singing 'If the root be in confusion, nothing will be well governed' all the while. Along with the 'names' some other obscure English artists were there such as Guy Evans, Christopher Hobbs and Eddie Prevost."

Seven (2) -- David Bowie has released the song "Seven" from his album hours... on three different singles. In the UK, CD2 includes a cover of the Bowie/Eno song "I'm Afraid Of Americans" by Nine Inch Nails, together with a video of the same piece. As single releases frequently differ from country to country a dedicated Bowie site would be your best bet for editions in the USA and elsewhere.

Get to the point -- BBC News Online reports that as part of Britain's Year of the Artist initiative "Pop music pioneer Brian Eno and anthropologist Noam Chomsky" will be collaborating on Punctum. The plan for the piece, "to be broadcast in 30 three-minute slots on Radio Lincolnshire", is "to compose a musical score by imagining the rhythm or emotional emphasis given to punctuation marks in specific pieces of great literature" -- starting with something by Tennyson. But when EnoWeb went looking for more information, it transpired that the main-man artist creating Punctum is Gary Wood, with Noam advising on the language and Brian overseeing the music side.

Charity case -- EnoWeb's search on the BBC News site also turned up a story from 3rd May: apparently "avant-garde rock musician Brian Eno has been honoured with the Montblanc Arts Award in recognition of his work for the War Child charity's music centre." He donated his £9,000 prize money to the Koestler Awards which, an arts scheme for inmates of UK prisons and special institutions.

It's about time -- London's Science Museum has always had a reputation for looking towards the future, but this time it could be looking further ahead than ever before... ten thousand years in fact. As part of its new Making the Modern World gallery, the Museum will be exhibiting a beautifully engineered working prototype of The Clock of The Long Now.

The Long Now Foundation (of which Brian is a member of the board of directors) has conceived the Clock as a project to encourage long-term thinking and responsibility. In Stewart Brand's words, its aim is to act as a "corrective" to the way that "humanity is revving itself into a pathologically short attention span". Designed by Danny Hillis, the Clock of The Long Now is designed to run for ten thousand years; the Foundation hopes that the concept will influence the way we think about time in the same way that photographs of Earth from Space changed the way we think about our planet.

Making the Modern World is a cultural history of industrialisation from 01750 to the present day. The gallery traces the technological and scientific successes and failures which have shaped the world we live in. Complementing the Clock prototype are over 1800 objects from the Museum's collections including Stephenson's Rocket, Crick and Watson's DNA spiral model, the Apollo 10 command module, plus a series of studies that explore the stories behind the exhibits and highlight their historical context.

Making the Modern World opens to the public on 3rd July 02000.

Koan goes soft -- The new version of SSEYO's Koan generative music software, used by Brian for his Generative Music 1 album and installations at Bonn's KAH, Amsterdam's Stedelijk & London's Hayward Galleries, features for the first time a powerful integrated software synthesizer. This will enable musicians to create Koan pieces incorporating instrument sounds and effects that can be played by on any PC or Mac regardless of the audio hardware. Brian is quoted as saying: "The coupling of a powerful software synthesizer to Koan's existing compositional software opens up an amazing set of opportunities for generative music. Really promising."

Light Touch -- Oliver Lowenstein tells us that the fourth edition of Fourth Door Review "features an in-depth piece on Brian Eno's ambient videowork of the eighties and onwards. It is written by Kevin Eden of the Wire music label, and is part of a themed section on luminosities and the built environment (architexts), which also includes the Technolace work of Finnish light sculptress Helena Hietanen and the work of leading German Holographer, Dieter Jung, and developing holography in urban design contexts."

Long Talk -- According to the Longplayer site, Brian will be in conversation with Danny Hillis and Stewart Brand for an event titled The Long Now: A Different Kind Of Clock. It takes place on Sunday 25th June at 17:00 at at The Chainstore, Trinity Buoy Wharf, 64 Orchard Place, London E14 OJW. See the Longplayer site for booking details -- click on its Developments link and scroll along the page.

Standard answers -- Brian was interviewed for the Evening Standard in April when he was preparing his installation for Sonic Boom. To find the article, click here then type Brian Eno in the Search box. Thanks to Alex McCourty.

Sonic Boom Boy -- Civic Recovery Centre Proposal (The Quiet Club), an installation by Brian combining 12 musical and 10 visual light sculpture generative elements, has now finished its run at Sonic Boom: The Art Of Sound. The musical flavour when EnoWeb visited was predominantly Ikebukuro & Kite Stories. The exhibition of 30+ artists' work curated by David Toop is at the Hayward Gallery, South Bank, London, until 18th June 02000. EnoWeb urges you to visit this excellent show if you get the opportunity. For complete information visit here.

Wire oh wire -- There is an interview with Brian in the May edition of The Wire magazine.

Wish upon a star -- The Wishful Thinking site has a transcript of the Toop/Eno discussion which took place in early May plus other fun stuff.

Phil up -- Manzanera.com has some RealAudio extracts from an interview with Phil Manzanera, and you can hear him reminiscing about early post-Roxy work with Brian here. While you're at the site, check out the re-release of the classic Listen Now album as well.

O'Connor artist -- Sinead O'Connor is due to release a new album, Faith & Courage, on June 13th. This should include "Emma's Song", the track that she and Brian worked on for the soundtrack of The Avengers film. Thanks to Robert Phan.

Seven days in May -- ARTISTdirect network and UBL.com have selected EnoWeb as their "Cool Site Of The Week". Apparently our exciting moment of fame began on Tuesday 2nd and we became old hat on the evening of Monday 8th. You could have seen our link on the right-hand side of their page. Tom Boon, EnoWeb's long-suffering writer, said: "This is the culmination of a series of disasters that have wrecked my personal life. I mean, the culmination of all my hopes, dreams and aspirations, but for one week only! That's right -- everything must go in my biggest ever sale! Prices slashed! I think I'll just go and have a little lie-down under my desk now." ... Former EnoWeb head honcho Malcolm Humes said: "Well, Ah'm pretty much retired, now, boy, and the only rocker Ah'm interested in is the one Ah sit in on ma porch, where Ah watch the tumbleweeds roll by, shootin' the breeze with some of ma mates and rememberin' some of the good times at EnoWeb." ... Gary Chen, List Editor, ARTISTdirect, said: "Thanks for choosing UBL.com as your source for music entertainment on the net and congratulations again for standing apart from the rest! Sincerely."

Shop, Look and Listen -- A CD of Brian's Civic Recovery Centre music is on sale in the Hayward Gallery shop (running time 44+ minutes). Also available is the Sonic Boom catalogue which includes some comments by Brian on his installations. The catalogue features 2 CDs with music by the contributing artists; the example from Brian's work is an extract from Kite Stories.

Recovery Position -- EnoWeb asked Opal if they would be selling the CD, and they explained: "The Civic Recovery Centre CD was produced because we thought that visitors to the installation at Sonic Boom might enjoy a souvenir of their visit. However, because the music for this installation draws on elements from musics already released, we believe that it would not be fair to release the CD on the scale of I Dormienti or Kite Stories, as it may disappoint fans." So the Hayward Gallery shop will remain the only source for this CD. Good news, however, as Opal finished on the following positive note: "Rest assured that there are big projects in the pipeline for later this year."

Toop of the pops -- David Toop and Brian Eno were in conversation at the Chelsfield Room, London (above the Royal Festival Hall, South Bank) on Tuesday May 2nd at 18.30pm-19.30pm. More information, price & booking details here. Thanks to David Cooper Orton & Richard Mills.

Fly me to the Moon -- Record label Materiali Sonori is due to release Arturo Stalteri's album Cool August Moon: From the music of Brian Eno in May. It explains: "Pianist and composer Arturo Stalteri leads an ensemble of violins, cellos, bassoon, electric bass, keyboards and percussions in a series of remarkable chamber-music arrangements of selected ambient-music tracks by Brian Eno. Music ranging from 1973's Here Come The Warm Jets to his most recent productions such as Nerve Net and Spinner, through the ambient period of Apollo and Music For Films II." Thanks to Robert Phan & Joseph Buck.

Get the picture -- There is a scan of an artwork by Brian recently auctioned in aid of the charity Dress For Success at Ramoana's Bowie Vault. Thanks to Richard Joly.

Fast and loose -- Michael Staley writes: "Brian Eno has contributed at least one track to the soundtrack of new Irish film, Accelerator, directed by Vinnie Murphy. Apparently Vinnie sent Brian the scene he wanted music for, Brian sent some music back, Vinnie suggested some changes, Brian then sent him a CD with 11 different versions of the track. The majority of the score was written by Adrian Utley of Portishead, although the film also contains tracks from Howie B, David Holmes and Eno. This doesn't necessarily mean that Eno's track(s) will be on the soundtrack album (see: Heat). The film has already been shown at this year's Dublin Film Festival - I don't know when it might be getting a general release. I wish I could say I had insider information - I don't - I saw an interview with Vinnie Murphy in Irish CD ROM magazine Enter..."

Interesting Tamms -- Eric Tamm's book Brian Eno: his music and the vertical color of sound is now available as a FREE downloadable Zip file from Eric's web pages here. Thanks Eric!

Head Boy -- NPR's All Things Considered on 27th March included interviews with Talking Heads and Brian about recording Remain In Light and Once In A Lifetime. It's archived here in RealAudio. Thanks to Jeff Webber for this information.

Sign(ing) o' The Times -- Camille Davila writes: "Previously The Long Now Foundation has been offering signed copies of A Year with Swollen Appendices as a thank you gift for donations of over $500. We only have 4 copies left so we thought it might be an opportune time to inform Enoweb of this offer." Time, time, that's all they ever think about over there. Anyway, The Long Now Foundation's donations page is here.

No place like OHM -- Perfect Sound Forever's Jason Gross has co-curated OHM: the early gurus of electronic music with Thomas Ziegler and people from Ellipsis Arts. This 3-CD collection of pieces stretches from Clara Rockmore's "Tchaikovsky: Valse Sentimentale" to Brian Eno's "Unfamiliar Winds (Leeks Hills)", taking in Sonic Youth, Olivier Messiaen, Lamonte Young, Jon Hassell, Raymond Scott and many many more. Available 24th April. Further information here.

Music for Onmyoji is now available from CDnow which lists it under Brian Eno and Peter Schwalm.

More on Music for Onmyoji -- Brian Eno & Peter Schwalm contribute one CD of six pieces, running at just over 28 minutes in total. The other CD consists of Japanese music played on traditional instruments. The tracks on the Eno/Schwalm CD are as follows: 1. star gods (7:43) 2. six small pictures (6:06) 3. connecting heaven to earth (3:55) 4. little lights (4:33) 5. the milky way (2:33) 6. faraway suns (3:21). Some tracks also feature the voice of Kyoko Inatome, the waitress at Brian's favourite sushi restaurant who spoke the words for Kite Stories. As well as ab-cd.com and artist-shop.com the album is listed at cdzone. As for packaging it has lovely plumage, with prismatic foil, a hologram and a transparent wrap-around.

Million-dollar question -- U2's Bono had an on-line chat with fans to promote the Million Dollar Hotel film and soundtrack album (which features Brian, Jon Hassell and Daniel Lanois amongst others). Bono also talked a little about the album the band is currently working on, and roped in most of the other people in the room to answer fans' questions. You can read the chat transcript at Yahoo!. If you've got time to spare after that, you can find out about the film and listen to musical excerpts at milliondollarhotel.com -- EnoWeb recommends "Tom Tom's Dream", "Bathtub" and "Amsterdam Blue". Those are track titles, by the way, not banned substances or the latest coffee sensation from your local café conglomerate...

Take a Bow(ie) -- BBC Radio 2 is in the throes of broadcasting a 3-part series on David Bowie's life & music. The second part -- on Saturday 18th March at 19:00 GMT -- takes a look at the Berlin albums, so Brian might get a mention. If you live outside the UK, you may be excited to know that the BBC is starting to webcast much of its output (only at time of broadcast, not archived) and this might be one of the programmes that makes it. Visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/ to find out.

Moonshot -- Joe Renzetti writes: "I received and viewed the newly released DVD For All Mankind. The re-mastered work is stunning visually and aurally. The DVD presents a new Dolby 5:1 sound mix and audio commentary track by Al Reinert and Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan, the last man to set foot on the moon. There's also a gallery of paintings by Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean with audio commentary. There's NASA audio highlights and liftoff footage, optional on screen identification of astronauts and mission control specialists. The features are laid out in interactive menus with Eno's music playing and JFK sounds layered. Overall a very well put together package. I'd strongly recommend it for any Eno or Space fan!"

Left them in Japan -- Music for Ommyo-ji, a double CD with music by Brian Eno & Peter Schwalm, is scheduled to be released in Japan by JVC at the end of February. EnoWeb has no information regarding release in countries outside Japan although the album is presumably available as an import. And we aren't sure whether the whole album is down to Brian and Peter, or just part of it. On-line sources offering pre-orders include ab-cd.com and artist-shop.com. Peter Schwalm is the guy behind Slop Shop, with whom Brian jammed at the Sushi! Roti! Reibekuchen! gig back in 01998.

Boom town -- Brian is one of 26 artists involved in Sonic Boom: The Art Of Sound, an exhibition curated by David Toop which will run from 27th April to 18th June 02000 at the Hayward Gallery, South Bank, London. Described as "the largest group exhibition of sound art ever staged in the UK", the event will also feature installations from Russell Mills, Thomas Köner, Scanner and Greyworld plus many, many more! For a full run-down, visit www.sbc.org.uk/visualarts and click on the Sonic Boom link.

Garage Glitterati -- Brian has joined the 35-strong Advisory Panel of garageband.com, "the Internet music company dedicated to identifying and signing the hottest of the emerging bands". The Board is chaired by George Martin and Brian's fellow music industry movers-and-shakers include Steve Lillywhite and Steve Earle. Unsigned bands can upload their music to the site and have it reviewed by other music-lovers. The most popular band in one of your earth time-periods stands to win a recording contract worth $250,000. The Advisory Board members can also sift through the music and contact any of the bands themselves. Thanks to Richard Joly for this story, sourced from here.

"I Dormienti" -- Richard also turned up this review of Mimmo Paladino's two installations last year, the second of which included Brian's music.

Synth Something Simple -- A Mini Moog synthesizer used by Brian is currently at auction on eBay here. According to the description, it was featured on numerous 01980's recordings including Apollo, Music for Films II, The Pearl, On Land, Fourth World, Textures, Plateaux of Mirror, The Catherine Wheel & Thursday Afternoon. Bidding started at $1,000. And as EnoWeb visitor David Davis pointed out, the EMS Synthi-AKS auctioned at Vemia last year fetched £16,000.

HU2L -- The Zoonation U2 site has Variety's review of Million Dollar Hotel here.

On Some Faraway Beach -- The soundtrack of the new film The Beach includes a cover of the Eno/Cale song "Spinning Away". Thanks to Robert Phan for this information. EnoWeb notices that Beach star Leonardo DiCaprio's name can be forced into the film-inspired anagram "Eno a cop droid? Liar!" but is uncertain what this may mean, if anything.

See what 2.con do -- In a recent web chat, David Bowie included "trying to piece together 2.contamination, the follow up to 1.Outside" in the list of projects he is hoping to tackle this year. He also hinted he could be playing at Glastonbury -- so it looks as though he's going to be back on Tor sometime during 02000... To read the transcript, click here. Thanks to Richard Joly for this information.

Ferry Nuff -- Bryan Ferry has a new web-site, at bryanferry.com. He did a web-chat too.

Play along -- Brian is a trustee and think-tank member for Jem Finer's new Longplayer project. Longplayer is a musical composition which is intended to play continuously and without repetition from 1st January this year until 31st December 02999. Yup, 1000 years. For more information visit longplayer.org. Longplayer was commissioned and produced by Artangel, with whom Brian collaborated on the Self Storage installation a few years back.

Go fly a Kite -- Brian Eno's new "Kite Stories" CD is now available direct from Opal, on the same basis as "I Dormienti". For ordering details including a new mailing address, please visit EnoWeb's dedicated page located at our annexe.

Missing you already -- CD Two of James' new single, we're going to miss you, includes "we're going to miss you (eno's version)", mixed by Brian. It's on the mercury label, jimdd 24, 562 568-2. Thanks to Bommel for this information.

Heartbreak Hotel -- Brian's been working with U2, Jon Hassell, Daniel Lanois, Wim Wenders and others on the soundtrack for the film Million Dollar Hotel, which had its première on February 9th at the Berlin Film Festival. For more details, visit Sonicnet. Thanks to Richard Joly for this information.

Chime, gentlemen, please! -- To amuse his friends, Brian's been "inventing some new types of bells and chimes" for the Clock of the Long Now. For an update on this project, see this news story from The Dallas Morning News. Thanks to Richard Joly for this information.


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