Eno: one small word, three letters, huge connotations: Ambient music; Roxy Music; the shape of modern music; the shape of analogue and digital electronic music; forty years of pop music; forty years of experimental music. Brain Eno has laid the touchstone of groundbreaking pivots in noise and pop: his mystical, omnipotent presence on U2 albums in the transcendent negative space between notes or the darkened figure appearing in the back of Roxy’s early music videos, subtly ego-battling the front man with subversive, futurist synth. Even the droning notes that colour the opening credits of the classically long-standing BBC profile show Arena are Eno’s.
To mark these achievements, Arena has explored a linear and lovingly attentive reflection of the man’s journey. Brian Eno: Another Green World is an insightful, selective account of the events that shaped Eno’s idiosyncrasies and particular musical brand. Rather than focussing on topic staples such as his notoriously tempestuous relationship with Brian Ferry in the early 1970s, director Nicola Roberts leads Eno into a-typical and occasionally awkward territory as a means of revealing unexplored aspects of his persona.
It delves deep into his early fascination with fashion and glamour: “I love the idea of selecting various clothing styles - references from moments in culture and time - and putting them together,” and his self confessed under-achievements with the fairer sex. More pertinently, Eno discusses how his music is ultimately rooted in industry ideals: if a record hasn’t sold well, he attests, he avoids using similar methods twice.
For many veterans, Eno’s commitment to commercial projects, most recently Coldplay’s Viva La Vida, has sparked confusion and dismay. Crucially, the show explores this topic in detail. Eno fuses his innate interest in gospel music; its ability to reach people on a communal and transcendent level, with Chris Martin’s obsession with uniting large masses of people in song at festivals and in arenas. It sets in contrast his own understanding of music as an ideological reason d’etre to the modern day fascination with music as a means of sharing: blogging communities, mp3s and music television.
Viewers are treated to revealing archive footage of Eno at the mixing desk during the recording of The Joshue Tree. “I like the moment when your voice fades to an eerie whisper” you hear him tell Bono. Interviews with he, and dusty industry hacks like Paul Morley offer insightful asides, tacked onto the side of the footage. “U2 didn’t go to art collage, we went to Eno. He is a mind-expanding drug,” the singer asserts.
But Another Green World’s real strength resides in the space it leaves for reflection. Philosophical conjecture is neatly broken up by long segments of Eno’s music, cast against beauteous shots of sand canvasses, sprawling deserts and caves. In totem, Roberts’ hour long documentary is a vital and deeply revealing update to a wonderfully attuned and unique story; full of wonder and awe. Her method of drawing the subject into unconventional territory provokes feedback worthy of any ardent collector’s entranced attention.
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