Search - Brian Eno :: Shutov Assembly

One of Eno's Best Ambient Albums

Store Hadji | 02/06/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This one is just a scratch less than Ambient 4 or Thursday Afternoon, but is still one of the great ones...very textured, peaceful, moody and ambiguous. This is one of the albums for which Eno realized he had to place a microphone out the window of his studio, because the birdsongs and other natural sounds had become a part of the thinking process for the music he was recording. Wonderful just to hear Eno solo...without a Lanois, Brook, Hassell, Jones, Laraaji or brother Roger in tow.



This album has had a strange afterlife...the best track on the album, Ikebukuro, was remixed and expanded with additional dubbing for Brian's album "Music for Civic Recovery Centre." Eno has referred to this process as 'composting' - the act by which an older piece is digested into and tranformed by a new one. The original version from Shutov is 16 minutes in length, but the "Quiet Club" version runs 45 minutes and features spooky vocoder-treated voices and other surreal oddities. Actually, I found it a bit creepy for the intended use of playing it for people in rehab...but seek it out as it's the companion album to Shutov Assembly."

On Land And Floating Above It

M. Packo | Stratford, CT United States | 01/05/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A continuation and expansion of many of the moods and textures that made On Land so unusual. Remarkable hypnotic shifting swirling depths and spaces that slowly emerge, coalesce then dissipate - usually around a core sound.

I have been listening to this assembly for over a decade now (Have not yet heard the remastered version), but I can guarantee that if you appreciate On Land you will definitely want to include this marvelous recording in your collection. It just might be Eno's most perfect offering."