Brian Eno

In an industry where re-invention is the key to success, it’s rare to ever see anyone actually innovate so much as to create an entirely new genre. Producer and musician Brian Eno was able to do just that. It’s because of Brian Eno that we saw the birth of an entirely new genre known as ambient music in our generation. After testing the waters of the popular glam rock music scene as a keyboardist with the band ‘Roxy Music,’ Eno went off into a different, more artistic, direction with his musical abilities. As his solo career progressed his music began to become more and more experimental until he finally released the milestone of an album known as “Ambient 1/ Music for Airports”. The album was often described as a ‘sonic landscape’ that was able to paint a picture in people’s minds. Eno was a true pioneer in the genre that remains popular to this day.

Ambient music is one of the only genres that doesn’t follow a structure and isn’t about a main hook or a memorable guitar riff. Ambient music was more about being minimal and creating an atmosphere that allowed the listener’s mind to drift into its own imagination. Tracks were often long and simply built on each other to the point where an album felt like one long song. It was unlike anything that had been heard at the time and it wasn’t long before the genre caught on and created a scene for itself. To this day, many popular artists, both mainstream and experimental underground, cite Brian Eno as a big inspiration.

Along with experimenting with songwriting, Eno has also been recognized for his unique production techniques. Brian Eno was one of the first to propose the idea that a studio could be used as an instrument rather than simply just a tool to record music in his essay, “The Studio as a Compositional Tool.” His unique production style has landed him the role of producer with many big name bands such as U2, Coldplay, John Cale, Devo, and Talking Heads to name a few.

Brian Eno did not stop his innovation there, however. Eno is also partially responsible for the further development of generative music, which is now used even more than ever before to create music in video games. Generative music consists of music that is never the same and offers a unique listening experience every time it is played using computer-generated code. Brian Eno composed music for the popular video game, Spore, using this method.

As a listener, I’ve always loved what Eno has done musically and I fell in love with the genre he created before I even heard of who he was. I’ve always been more interested in painting a picture with music than writing a catchy chorus or an impressive guitar solo. I sometimes wonder where music would be right now without Eno’s innovations. His works have clearly indirectly influenced me ever since the day I started playing guitar. As a recording professional, Eno’s production value is stellar. I’m a huge fan of Coldplay’s ‘Viva La Vida’ and part of that reason is because of how big the entire production sounds. The whole album is breath taking and it takes me on a mental ride each time. Using the studio as an instrument is probably one of the best approaches to production I’ve ever come across, in my opinion.