Small Craft On A Milk Sea＜限定盤＞

2010年にリリースされたイーノの〈Warp〉初リリース作品。

イーノは今作を「sound-only movies」、すなわち「音のみの映画」と呼んでいる。しかし、今作に限らず、これまでもイーノの作品は非常に映像的なものを喚起させるものでもあった。(中略)たとえば、リュック・フェラーリやミュージック・コンクレート、アコースマティックの作曲家たちが言う「耳のための映画」は、具体音や意味的な音と象徴的な人工音を用いて、ひとつの完結した世界を音によって作り上げるものだが、イーノのそれは音楽が絵画や映画と同等の喚起力を持つという以上に、リスナーの想像の余地を残し、それを補完することでさまざまにイメージされる映画的情景によって音楽をより深く印象づけるものだろう。そして、そうした創造性をリスナーに発揮させるようにうながすもの、それが「sound-only movies」なのだ。(以上、解説より一部抜粋)

Uncut (p.89) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "To get humans to recreate some of the world's most complicated computer programmes must, in Eno's world, presumably rank as a triumph." Alternative Press (p.111) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[With] everything from delicate melodies, driving post-punk ferocity, dark ambiance and wicked percolations that remind generations of electronic rockers exactly who paved their way." Mojo (Publisher) (p.95) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "'Slow Ice,' 'Old Moon' and 'Lesser Heaven' settle into an immersive, ethereal drift....Aficionados will hear a master ambient craftsman in his element." Record Collector (magazine) (p.81) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he dreamier pieces stand out for their delicacy....SMALL CRAFT should certainly buoy your spirits." Clash (Magazine) - "Things move from melodic ambience to galloping sci-fi workouts and back again, the highlight being the sublime 'Emerald And Stone'."

Brian Eno's best recordings are timeless. Even his great recordings are practically timeless. His recordings after the '80s, however, gradually acquired a different description: dated. Released in 1992, Nerve Net attempted to cross both his ambient and pop records of the '70s with faddish techno, while The Drop invoked his ambient period to a sterilizing effect. (Even ambient records need some ambience.) His work of the 2000s was heavily collaborational, fortunately showing him to be still curious about the varieties of musical expression -- beyond what he's been able to display while producing for U2 and Coldplay. Small Craft on a Milk Sea regains the timeless, ageless feel of his best ambient work. It stands as his first record for Warp, a label that has long worshiped at the altar of headphone electronica, although much of this album is the fruit of sessions originally recorded (but declined) for the Lovely Bones soundtrack; some of it was written and recorded by Eno and frequent collaborator Leo Abrahams while they were touring Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, Eno's 2008 pop album with David Byrne. Warp has been known for quality control for over 20 years, and this one is no different -- it's the best Eno record in 20 years (although that's not saying much). The opener, "Emerald and Lime," is a piece of bright ambience -- as close to a Starbucks soundtrack as a stereotypical Eno work can get. The title track has the dark textures of the later ambient works (Ambient 4: On Land), while the middle section has nods to contemporary electronic music -- "Flint March" is pummeling, percussive techno, and the next track, "Horse," also indulges -- then it's back to opaque, spacious ambience with "Calcium Needles" and "Emerald and Stone." Here too, some tracks have the earthy bass of Ambient 4: On Land, others the formless but inviting void of Discreet Music, still others the heart-stopping piano isolationism of the original Ambient 1: Music for Airports. Eno may be trading on his earlier developments in ambience to a small degree, but Small Craft on a Milk Sea is a good and proper balance of curiosity and expression. ~ John Bush