Editorial Reviews
Music Review:
Music Review
You're My World - The 35th Anniversary Collection [Import]
Music: Aristocrat Of The Blues (Chess 50th Anniversary Colle
You Gave Me Love [CD-single] [Import]
Amazon.com
Picking up where such seminal Eno recordings as Music for Airports and Another Green World left off, the inveterate innovator-producer's first recording in four years is a surreal tableau of loping beats and eerie sounds enveloped in dark yet serene atmospherics. With German percussionist Schwalm contributing softly swinging drumming, Eno is free to dabble in sounds ranging from Middle Eastern string quartets to crying machines and Vocoders to happy, babbling babies. One of Life's many highlights is Laurie Anderson's cameo on "Like Pictures Part #2," as she enunciates her words above the song's spooky, soothing ambiance. "Bloom" contrasts happy baby chatter against distorted heartbeats and sinister samples; "Night Traffic" paints an empty urban center at dusk with shifting shapes and '70s jazz percussion and piano. Throughout Drawn from Life, Eno and Schwalm cast a spell of spectral dislocation and foreboding. It's like what dying prostrate in the snow must be like--slow, sleepy, beautiful, and chilling. --Ken Micallef
Album Description
'Drawn from Life' sees Brian Eno collaborating with German DJ J. Peter Schwalm. This collaboration produced soundscapes of jazzy, shuffling rhythms and strings that sway from cutting to sighing lay the foundation of most of the tracks. Laurie Anderson lends her voice, on 'Like Pictures Part #2,' This Astralwerks release has 10 tracks.