Album of the Week: Brian Eno, Small Craft on a Milk Sea

Album of the Week: Brian Eno, Small Craft on a Milk Sea

5 November, 2010 | 11.04AM

• Written by: Alex Hughes
• Filed under: Videos: album of the week, brian eno, warp

This week, Warp Records released Brian Eno’s Small Craft on a Milk Sea. If it feels like a significant occasion, it’s not only because it’s Eno’s first major, predominantly solo venture in some time. It’s also because its appearance on Warp records feels like a process of coming full circle. Here’s an artist whose albums from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s were essential guideposts in the formation of Warp’s own aesthetic, 20 years later; and now, 20 years after that, he turns up on Warp itself, obviously having learned from their own model in the time being.

It’s not a completely solo album; Eno was was assisted by guitarist Leo Abrahams and the multi-instrumentalist Jon Hopkins, with the group’s collective improvisations being re-edited into the album’s final form. And if the album begins, rather deceptively, with placid ambient tones reminiscent of Eno’s classic albums from the late ‘70s, the situation quickly becomes more complicated, borrowing ideas from contemporary leftfield dance music—"Horse," in particular, reminds me of T++—before disappearing down a darkened rabbit hole of its own design.

Pulling together dark ambient, glitch music, rhythmic experimentation, free improv, and an uncompromising spirit that could almost be described as “punk,” it’s really a stunning album. Bizarre as it may seem, the tongue-in-cheek video interview we’ve posted above actually goes a long way towards illuminating Eno’s philosophy and process, once you get past the unexpected yuks. And if you’re after something a little more traditional, check out Mark Richardson’s interview with Eno for Pitchfork.

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