Review of Brian Eno: 14 Video Paintings

Introduction

I`ve been a fan of Brian Eno`s work since 1972. Roxy Music in their original (and best) incarnation were like some strange alien force, and Brian Eno was the most alien of all, androgenously clad and creating the strangest noises I`d ever heard.

His life with Roxy Music was short lived (just two albums) and he then released a series of solo albums that featured his oblique and surreal view of the world set against elementary melodies that were almost nursery-like in their simplicity. I loved them.

His first departure from vocal songs to instrumentals happened with his first collaboration with Robert Fripp, `No Pussyfootin`(1973), which confused and confounded me so much that I was unable to listen to it properly again until the early eighties. He also hinted at new directions with his contributions to Genesis`s finest hour, `The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway` (1975) - credited as `enossifications` on the sleeve, these were abstract and dreamlike noises that defied easy description.

His artistic epiphany happened whilst lying in a delirious and feverish half-sleep following an illness when a friend had visited and left a piece of classical music playing on his record player. The volume was so low that the melody could hardly be heard, and as the LP repeated again and again in the distant background, the concept of `ambient music` was born. This was music that was merely atmospheric and mood enhancing, devoid of distinct melody and structure. Eno delivered his first ambient album in the form of `Discreet Music` in late-1975. This was his version of the almost inaudible classical piece that had inspired the genre.

His real ambient break-through though was `Music for Airports` (Ambient 1) (1978) which was written to accompany an art installation at an airport. With its simple echoed piano notes, like Erik Satie on downers, it remains as popular today as it was on release.

In the early eighties, Eno acquired a video camera - something of a rarity at the time. He took to filming out of his apartment window, leaving the camera on its side due to the absence of a tripod. The results were a happy accident as they highlighted the possibility of filming in portrait format, rather than traditional 4:3. The TV format, Eno insisted, mimicked the Proscenium arch of a theatre and set up the expectation that `something would happen`. His portrait format suggested just the reverse; that, like a painting, nothing would happen. Seeing the congruity with his musical work, he set about taking a series of almost `still` video paintings for his own amusement.

When a friend saw the `paintings` he suggested that they were exhibited with some of Eno`s ambient music as their backdrop. The results, considering their humble origins from an inexpensive three-tube lo-band camera, are quite impressive.

I originally bought both of these sets on VHS when first released here in the UK (1987). Because they were portrait format, to view them with any meaning, you had to turn your TV set on its end which I duly did every time I put the `paintings` on.

I`d leave them playing in the background - ambient video, moving paintings, a high-brow version of the `real-fire` or `fish-tank` videos that did the rounds a few years later.

The music, culled from `Music for Airports` and some new material later to surface (remixed), as `Thursday Afternoon` is really relaxing - chill-out for the soul. The images, whilst no white knuckle ride, were certainly `painterly` and the views across the Manhattan skyline, with the constantly changing cloudscape, perhaps most impressive of all.

Included on the DVD are both sets, originally released separately.

MISTAKEN MEMORIES OF MEDIAEVAL MANHATTAN includes some seven pieces filmed from various apartment windows during 1980-1981, totalling 47 minutes. These were essentially unedited extracts that have been heavily colourised. The music for the pieces is a selection from `Music for Airports - Ambient 1` and music that would later be released as `On Land`.

THURSDAY AFTERNOON features seven video paintings of Christine Alicino, a child-like figure, filmed semi-naked. Unlike the previous set (devoid of edits), these were heavily worked on in post to create impressionistic video paintings that would create something good enough to watch again and again (unlike the glut of disposable pop videos being played on MTV).

Video

You can view the images in horizontal aspect (with the TV tipped up onto one side) or vertically, an option not available on the original VHS releases. The problem here is that the advent of 16:9 has accentuated the difficulties with assimilating Eno`s portrait video format yet further. When you select the vertical format (as you`re bound to do) it looks extremely forlorn, lost in the middle of that wide-screen TV. The images are what they are, very digitised on occasion with pushed colour saturation and occasional dropout. That said, it`s impossible to know what is intentional and the images do look splendidly impressionistic which is probably the artist`s original intent.

Audio

Disappointingly some analogue tape-hiss seems apparent on the first set when you pump up the volume. `Thursday Afternoon` fairs a little better though is far from perfect. Maybe I`ve just got so used to perfectly recorded digital pieces that I`ve forgotten what good old-fashioned tape hiss sounds like.

Features

None, except for a nice booklet containing interview extracts inside the digi-pack.

Conclusion

When Eno termed his intellectual take on `Muzak` `AMBIENT` he spawned a monster. Despite the lasting impact of his own seminal ambient works (`Music for Airports` Thursday Afternoon` - both included in part on this DVD), he has recently abandoned ambient music making himself, claiming that there`s a global-glut of the genre. Everybody and their brother is dragging and dropping endless samples and loops into their own ambient pieces. There isn`t enough time in the world to listen to it all, to distinguish the good from the bad, and the bad from the ugly.

But Eno`s music has always been far from ugly. It represents some of the most played music in my own collection.

For fan`s of Eno`s music, these video paintings represent the perfect `pop video` accompaniment; the logical translation to the TV screen. Barely moving impressionistic paintings that don`t demand to be watched at once, in order or even at all. They can be left on and enjoyed in the way that the virtual fish-tank or fire videos can, although these are far less kitsch.

Finally available on DVD, both sets of paintings can be viewed vertically now without upending the set. The only disappointment is that, when viewed this way, they get a little lost in the 16:9 space, and certainly lose some of their impact as a result. For the very brave, it may be worth viewing them with the horizontal option and turning the set on its side.

Whatever the case, these are strictly for the initiated.

This may well be the least exciting DVD you ever see. But then that`s not necessarily such a bad thing.