Think inside the work – outside the work
BRIAN ENOThink inside the work – outside the work
BRIAN ENOMusic in itself carries a whole set of messages which are very, very rich and complex, and the words either serve to exclude certain ones or point up certain others.
BRIAN ENOIn fact, quite a lot of what I do has to do with sound texture, and, you can’t notate that. You can’t notate the sound of “St. Elmo’s Fire.” There’s no way of writing that down. That’s because musical notation arose at a time when sound textures were limited.
BRIAN ENOThe most important thing in a piece of music is to seduce people to the point where they start searching.
BRIAN ENOMost of those melodies are me trying to find out what notes fit, and then hitting ones that don’t fit in a very interesting way.
BRIAN ENOAmbient music is intended to induce calm and a space to think.
BRIAN ENOLet’s do something else.”And you always think “Oh my God I’ve never done anything at all like that before.” But, of course, in retrospect, and to an outsider, they’ll say, “Oh, yeah that’s typical Eno.
BRIAN ENOThe artists of the past who impressed me were the ones who really focused their work.
BRIAN ENOI often work by avoidance.
BRIAN ENOWhen I’ve finally got the title, I think, “Okay, yes, now I know where we are. Now I know what it is. Fine, that must be finished or nearly finished.
BRIAN ENOIf you think of the way a composer or say a pop arranger works – he has an idea and he writes it down, so there’s one transmission loss. Then he gives the score to a group of musicians who interpret that, so there’s another transmission loss.
BRIAN ENOPeople who are very confident in themselves aren’t hurt by criticism. They make use of it.
BRIAN ENOIt infuriates me that stuff from the Internet routinely doesn’t include all the credits. Because as soon as I listen to something, if I like it, I want to know, “Who’s the bass player?” “Who did that?” “Who’s the engineer on this?
BRIAN ENOAmerican television really is pathetic.
BRIAN ENOPeople in the arts often want to aim for the biggest, most obvious target, and hit it smack in the bull’s eye.
BRIAN ENOIt’s actually very easy for democracy to disappear.
BRIAN ENO