Ambient pioneer Brian Eno teams with like-minded musicians Jon Hopkins and Leo Abraham on Small Craft on a Milk Sea, an album that both recalls and rivals his innovative works of the ’70s.
Eno has said that Small Craft was born out of improvisations intended to conjure sonic “landscapes,” which may explain the songs’ transportive powers. “Slow Ice, Old Moon” evokes an ancient, glittering tundra, while the muted “Written, Forgotten” gives the sense of calling, faintly, across a great distance. Elsewhere, the glitchy “Horse” really does gallop, while the title cut is the perfect accompaniment to a late-night voyage over silent waters.
As a musician and a producer, Eno has always been energized and enhanced by his collaborations, with everyone from his Roxy Music bandmates to Robert Fripp and David Byrne, and this album is no different. Small Craft is 21st-century ambient in its best and truest form — not a soundtrack for coffee shops, but music that enhances and transforms the atmosphere around it.
Listen to the full album here until November 8 »
Visit Brian Eno’s official website, read what Eno and his collaborators have to say about the album, become a fan on Facebook, buy the album
, or choose from two limited-edition box sets.
Click through to gawk at images of the Small Craft on a Milk Sea box set.
