Photo by Shamil Tanna
Four years after releasing his last solo album, LUX, Brian Eno is set to return with The Ship on April 29th through Warp Records. The record is split into just two songs of epic length, and today Eno has revealed almost 50% of the album in the form of the over 21-minute long title track.
Droning synths and ambient noises creep along the length of “The Ship”, background whispers teasing through like creaks on a wooden boat. The lyrics reverberate as if ripples on the water, halfway between a monk’s chant and a sailor’s shanty. That may be because Eno was enjoying a newly discovered vocal talent, as he explained in a press release.
“The piece started as an ambient work intended for a multi channel sound installation in Stockholm,” Eno said, “but during the making of it I discovered that I could now sing a low C – which happens to be the root note of the piece. Getting older does have a few fringe benefits after all. From that point the work turned into an unusual kind of song … a type I’ve never made before where the vocal floats free, untethered to a rhythmic grid of any kind.”
Spotify users can take a listen to the track below.
The other half of The Ship is the three-movement piece “Fickle Sun”. The track features British actor Peter Serafinowicz reading a poem written by a computer, and ends with a cover of The Velvet Underground’s “I’m Set Free”.
