Roger Eno: the skies, they shift like chords (CD Review)

by Karl Nehring

Chordal Drift; Tidescape; That Which Is Hidden; Illusion; Above and Below (Crepuscular); Through The Blue (St. Swithin’s); Mind The Gap; Arms Open Wide; Strangely, I Dreamt; Japanese Rain Garden; If Only For A Moment; Where Does This Lead Us?. Roger Eno, piano, keyboards, synthesizer, organ, programming, electronics, conductor; Christian Badzura, percussion, synthesizer; Cecily Eno, vocals; Jon Goddard, noctilucent guitar; Alexander Glücksmann, clarinet, bass clarinet; Vocalconsort Berlin, vocals; Scoring Berlin, strings. Deutsche Grammophon 486 3022

We have previously reviewed a couple of releases featuring the British keyboardist and composer Roger Eno (b. 1959). The first was an album titled Mixing Colours (you can read that review here), which he recorded together with his well-known brother Brian (co-founder of the rock group Roxy Music, record producer, and noted ambient music pioneer), while the second was an album he recorded under his own name, The Turning Year (see review here). The album with Brian (b. 1948) not surprisingly has ambient music sonic leanings, but musically speaking does not sound all that far removed from what might be considered “classical” keyboard music along the lines of some of the piano pieces of, say, Pärt or Silvestrov. The music that Roger composed for The Turning Year, however, had more of a serious, classical feel to it, even though his piano had a more processed sound than would be expected in a more straightforward classical album. Like this this new release, The Turning Year also featured musical support from Christian Badzura and Scoring Berlin. 

 

However, the music on the skies, they shift like chords has less substance than either of those two previous albums. On the whole, the music on this latest release  is much more in the ambient vein than The Turning Year, but less musically engaging than Mixing Colours. It would be hard to imagine the majority of these tracks delivering much satisfaction to the majority of classical lovers. There are some bright spots, however. The most successful track is Japanese Rain Garden, which really is rather haunting. The closing track, Where Does This Lead Us?, with its clarinet lines and simple piano part, is also quite interesting. Alas, however, too many of the other tracks seem to have no real substance, making this a relaxing but disappointing release from an interesting artist, at least when considered as a “classical” release. Perhaps Deutsche Grammophon should consider creating a separate series, or even a separate sub-label, for music such as this, which is clearly ambient music, music that seems out of place on the Deutsche Grammophon label. The skies, they shift like chords is a perfectly fine ambient album, but surely ambient music is not what classical music lovers have come to expect from the venerable yellow label.