Brian Eno: Visual Music

by Christopher Scoates

This comprehensive monograph celebrates the visual art of renowned musician Brian Eno. Spanning more than 40 years, Brian Eno: Visual Music weaves a dialogue between Eno's museum and gallery installations and his musical endeavors—all illustrated with never-before-published archival materials such as sketchbook pages, installation views, screenshots, and more. Steve Dietz, Brian Dillon, Roy Ascott, and William R. Wright contextualize Eno's contribution to new media art, while Eno himself shares insights into his process. Every copy includes a download code for a previously unreleased piece of music created by Eno, making this collection a requisite for fans and collectors.

Genres: Music, Art, Nonfiction, Art History

416 pages, Hardcover

First published September 3, 2013

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Baudrillard cites a story by Arthur C. Clarke called "The Nine Billion Names of God" in which a sect of Tibetan Buddhists have dedicated their life to writing down every name of God, and once they have done so the purpose of the universe will have been achieved and the world will come to an end. Growing tired of their task, they get engineers from IBM to develop a program for them that achieves this in a couple of months, and having done so, the scientists gasp as the stars disappear from the sky. Baudrillard cites this as a part of how technology has the potential to exhaust all of the world's possibilities.

How do I feel about generative art? In principle it is kind of interesting. Eno states "every art object is really a package of possibilities for a kind of world that could exist." While I am truly a fan of Brian Eno's work, I think chance operations, even those he bases around koans, can only provide so much interest before exhausting the potential to generate new meanings around them. But I just got Josopovici-pilled a few days ago, so this entire review is probably just modernist indigestion.

[Barry Hammond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although there have been several books on Brian Eno's music this is the first full-length study which concentrates on his visual art and installations. It's very well-designed and full of photographs detailing the span of his work. The articles are thoughtful and articulate and it contains an interview with Eno himself. Both interesting and beautiful. - BH.

[Mikael Lind · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! So inspirational. I've always been fascinated by Brian Eno the thinker. Yes, I do enjoy his music and his artworks, especially things like Music for Airports, but it's as a philosopher of music and generative art that he really shines!

The book is nicely structured with interesting essays on Eno's work and thoughts followed by images from his art installations and of relevant art pieces. My background is in music and composition, so I'm reading the book from that perspective, but I'm sure many visual artists interested in ever-evolving pieces of generative art would also benefit greatly from reading this book. A landmark achievement!

[Tony Parsons · Rating 5 out of 5]

40 yrs. of Brian Eno’s works as a musician, producer, artist & philosopher. The visual art book includes never-before-published archival materials, sketches, illustrations, screenshots, handwritten journal entries & even music from Devo, the Talking Heads & my fav U2. I’ve never seen a book like this in my life. It also includes a code so you can download a never released piece of his music.

There were words I didn’t learn in Music 101 or Art 101 in undergrad. Fond memories of the 60’s early 70’s music groups (Buffalo Springfield, Jimi Hendrix,) that used this type of visual music

The 1st thing that comes to my mind is Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) (5 senses) class I had in my 2nd. Graduate research class. “Where sounds become visual & visual becomes sound.” For me this sums up his entire book.

I love the book cover, the font, paper & writing style. Great quotes, as well as the 1,000’s of pictures, references & material. A massive amount of mathematical, historical track through time of the pioneers in this field who have come/gone all packed into 1 book. A very well written intelligent informative book. It was very easy to read/follow & never a dull moment from start/finish. No grammar errors, repetitive or out of line sequence sentences. This is a 1 of a kind book. No doubt in my mind a very easy rating of 5 stars for this book.

Thank you for the free book
Tony Parsons MSW

[Justin sabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Imagine, perhaps, an art form that is comprised 10% of music, 25% of architecture, 12% of drawing, 18% of shoe making, 30% of painting and 5% of smell"

I like to think that some of my friends live in small intentional communities that work like that. I very much enjoyed this collection discussing the various art and processes Eno used to create with.

[Ted · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of essays on Eno, one lecture by Eno, and one interview with Eno, mostly regarding his visual works with light, time, and space, but also on the man as a whole artistic entity. Eno's lecture about his interest in perfume and aromas is just one of many examples that show how much more of a thinker and curious man he is compared to the majority of us.

But my favorite essay of the the bunch is by Brian Dillon, regarding Eno's work (music/light work mostly) and re-casting him as a landscape artist, and a particularly British one at that. Having grown up part of the time in East Anglia, although nowhere near any of Eno's touchstones, this spoke to me. But it also made me want to read Sebold's "Rings of Saturn" sometime soon, as Dillon compares the two men and found they were sometimes literally treading the same ground (Dunwich, etc.)

[John Millard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have enjoyed much music by and connected to this artist since the early 80’s. I remember reading a book that came with video and instructions telling the viewer to turn their television ninety degrees. The book talked about 4 or 5 of his solo albums and his thought process behind the songs. I thought I understood many of his songs. I was wrong. I will probably never fully understand an artist like Brian Eno but this book took me further down that road then any other source. I bought the apps Bloom10 and Trope which I foresee as becoming new favorites. The app Reflection will surely be a future purchase.

[Ju · Rating 5 out of 5]

Knyga, įkontekstinanti Eno kūrybą.
Itin gerą įspūdį paliko knygos logika ir struktūra (kad ir pabaigai parinktas pokalbis su Will Wright, leidęs užuot skaičius pompastiškus apibendrinimus įninkti į dviejų smalsių kūrėjų dialogą, pagrindinius akcentus susidėti paties Eno balsu ir skaitymą užbaigti nevartant akių)


'I think we get a thrill from being presented with things at the edges of our experience and watching how our brains perceive it, parse it. We like to watch ourselves think and feel. We like to be presented with new things to have feelings about. We like to be surprised at our own feelings.' p. 380-381

[Jochen Klug · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christopher Scoates/Brian Eno: Visual Music:
En beskrivning av Enos konstnärliga gärning både från honom själv och analytiskt från 3:e part. Ett fascinerande värv.
En befriande pragmatisk analys/förklaring gör det lätt att hänga med i resonemangen. Musiken blir synliggjord.
#kluglæserbog #ebok #kobo

[Danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully presented book that knits Eno’s visual works with his sound and music projects. Thoughtful, comprehensive and inspiring for any contemporary creative folk. Contains some thorough reproductions of Eno’s series-based visual art.

[Marek Kruszkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Main focus here - visual art of Brian Eno and how it is entwined with his other activities.
Not the best book to get acquainted with his art but certainly a good one to enrich one's knowledge in modern art and get some inspiration from it.
'Children learn by playing, adults play through art'

[Kitap · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Nick Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, a book I refer to often, for inspiration in art, music and life.

[Patti Normand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertainment

I just want you to know that I like the ideas in this book and it is inspirational and makes you think

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s definitely about the notes he’s not playing

[Arjun Dhatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shoutout "Perfume, Defence and David Bowie's Wedding"

Gotta be one of my favourite essays

[Mark Peterman · Rating 4 out of 5]

An overview of the visual art and installation work from Enos' career and how it correlates to his ambient music. I enjoyed a more in-depth look at this work.

[Kyle Bebb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly done! Such a great insight into the interesting and progressive world of Brian Eno. The visual work is set out beautifully, was such a great read.

[Khris Sellin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book about one of my favorite musicians. The man is nothing short of genius. The book includes sketches and archival materials from 40+ years of Eno's work. Fascinating how he uses mathematical algorithms as a foundation for much of his work. His visual art, his music, and his words continue to inspire.