ANOTHER GREEN WORLD

Originally starting out as an experiment Brian Eno ended up creating one of his most praised albums. For the first few days the creation of Another Green World was frustrating for Eno as he struggled to produce any workable ideas, compounded by the fact he had nothing written or prepared beforehand. So he turned to his 'Oblique Strategies' for direction. These cards with instructions and prompts allowed Eno to get over his creative block and work the resulting ideas into Another Green Word with the help of guest musicians. Robert Fripp of King Crimson, who had collaborated with Eno on No Pussy Footing and Evening Star (both excellent albums), Ex Velvet Underground member John Cale and Phil Collins on drums! (yes Phil Collins the unlikely eighties pop star who ruined The Supremes wonderful 'You Can't Hurry Love') played on about half of the tracks, while Eno performed solo on the others utilizing such fanciful instruments as the Leslie piano and Snake Guitar.

Eno later said of Another Green World "People tend to think of that as a song record. But it isn't, it's an instrumental record with the odd bit of vocal." The songs are witty with a very English playfulness (check out these lyrics from 'Sky Saw' "Mau Mau starter ching ching da da/Daughter daughter dumpling data/Pack and pick the ping-pong starter") which he shared with contemporaries such as Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt. His songs feature characters who seem to be caught in fixed freezes (like the figures on the album sleeve), with the world moving past, as in 'I'll Come Running' "I'm gonna waste the rest of my days/Just watching patiently from the window" or "Several times I've seen the evening slide away" on 'Golden Hours'. While the instrumentals are like the environments the static characters watch, they unfurl slowly like midweek afternoons when there's nothing to do or evenings when sights and sounds are muted. They are imaginary soundscapes with evocative titles such as my personal fav 'In Dark Trees' (as mysterious as the title suggests), 'Somber Reptiles' (that brings up images of disconsolate dying dinosaurs) and the restful title track which was used as the theme for the BBC2 arts series Arena.

Another Green World is interesting precisely because it is the point between Eno the song writer and Brian Eno the ambient composer. His next album would be purely instrumental fittingly titled Discreet Music.