Manafonistas

on life, music etc beyond mainstream

2022 14 Okt

Meditation with a sense of upheaval

von: Michael Engelbrecht Filed under: Blog | TB | Tags: , , | 3 Comments

From the first sound to the last, „Foreverandevernomore“ grabs me with horizons unknown and words (enigmatic, wondering, romantic, sorrowful, archaic) sparsely put in scene. What an album putting in perspective the end of times, disturbing and human, or should we say post-human? Fire is in its element here, from fireflies to flames and man-made hell. Not forgetting all things lost in the fire of our own lives (as far as we can remember). Sometimes, from a distance, everything (losses first, and hands still to hold) falls into place. No catchy songs, no singalongs, no fairytale searches of parallel worlds, no hooks, no future evergreens, oh, hold on, in their own peculiar way these songs which could be coined as modern day lamentations, a collection of future „everblues“ at least, striking quite a special, different note and corner in Brian Eno‘s song works. His singing has aged well, reaching out for the deeper spectrum. The voice has lost some of its playfulness. But so it goes: if some gates are closing, others open up. Every song is fuelled with a different voicing and mood: reflective, hymnal, on the verge of falling apart, persisting, sceptical. A different persona in every track. Isn‘t it wonderful, for example, that the singing one (at one, and only one time) is adressing „my love“?! The seeds of hope can perhaps be detected in the alien murmuring of the closing track. The album is haunting, uncanny, ethereal, anti-nostalgic, beautiful in a dark way, and strangely consolating (despite all its eeriness). To call the sounds of Eno and his inner circle (working here) „otherworldly“, would be a bit of a cliché. Maybe the boldness of it all lies in the collision of the intimate and the faraway, the yearning and the mourning. I think „Foreverandevernomore“ is (as Leah Kardos wrote to me), „a fantastic album, up there with his best work ever. Profoundly moving, and beautifully executed.“

This entry was posted on Freitag, 14. Oktober 2022 and is filed under "Blog". You can follow any responses to this entry with RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Comments

  1. Ian M:

    Meditation with a sense of upheaval sums it up perfectly.

    Only one listen so far, using Amazon „Ultra HD“ streaming on Sennheiser phones. I’ve just ordered the CD though: for the new hi fi set up in my small home office room – the acoustics are amazing – stone walls in a Victorian building.

    One listen to something like this though amounts to not much. It’s like reading the first page of Dubliners by James Joyce. It’s only the glimmers of what’s to come.

    Cheers,

    Ian.

  2. Brian Eno:

    Dear Michael

    Thank you so much for this lovely review. The release is today so I look forward to seeing how it is received. Your comments make a very good start -and, as often, give me a sense of what I was doing in this music.

    People often think that artists know where they’r going before they set out. Perhaps some do – but I usually don’t. I start out and feel a magnetism to travel in a certain direction (and a sort of repulsion from other directions), and then I keep rowing until I reach a shore. Once there, I’m grateful for any help I can get to find out where I now am.

    (….)

    Brian

  3. Michael Engelbrecht:

    Going backwards to Eno singing in the 21st century, here the links to my texts and interviews with Brian starting with ANOTHER DAY ON EARTH:
     
    Another Day On Earth
     
    Someday World (with Karl Hyde)
     
    The Ship (written with Ian‘s icing on the cake)
     


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