​The homemade deck of ‘Oblique Strategies’ playing cards that Brian Eno utilized to record his previous album proved itself to be both fun and effective. It was a step toward theorization that started to intrigue him, so for his next solo project, he decided to raise the ante.

Before starting work on “Another Green World,” Eno had already paired with Robert Fripp on a project (‘No Pussyfooting”) whereby Eno experimented with tape loops of Fripp’s guitar work, creating a hypnotic, redundant drone and dubbing the result “Frippertronics.” These multiple creative processes served as a hatchery of ideas for Brian Eno, and he set out to incorporate them on his upcoming album. Rather than entering the studio with the presumed notion of recording a batch of pop songs, Eno decided to let the project unfold with little regard to a preconceived end product. To do this, he invited a few friends to assist him, including John Cale, Phil Collins, and Robert Fripp. With Eno manning the synthesizer, musical ideas flowed in a variety of directions. Some tracks became fully developed pop songs (with a typical Eno twist), while others remained spacious and barren. These ‘atmospheric’ tracks became the basis for his future experimentation with ‘discreet’ music, which would ultimately develop into his ‘Ambient’ series.

​What makes “Another Green World” so unique is the manner in which it straddles the myriad directions in which Eno was headed. “Sky Saw”, “St. Elmo’s Fire”, “I’ll Come Running,” “Golden Hours” and “Everything Merges with the Night” could be categorized as pop songs (though hardly ‘standard’), insofar as they have lyrics, a verse/chorus structure, and a musical ‘hook’. Elsewhere, though, song form and lyrics are abandoned, utilizing the space to suggest a moody sense of intrigue or peace. The entire album has a gauzy texture, lending it the aural equivalent of seeing a landscape through a fogged over window. Desired production techniques of the mid-seventies demanded a crisp ‘one-two’ punch (think The Doobie Brothers or Paul Simon), but Eno used this murky tone to his advantage. The (lack of) sound quality suggests the ephemeral nature of cloud patterns, with sounds shifting and floating as if in a dream. Like a TV weatherperson utilizes color-coded maps to convey weather patterns, Eno does the same thing with sound to convey a sense of space (open or claustrophobic). Aptly titled “Another Green World,” this is the album that opened entirely new horizons for Brian Eno, and those who would eventually follow him.

Featured Tracks:

Sky Saw

Over Fire Island

St. Elmo's Fire

In Dark Trees

The Big Ship

I'll Come Running

Another Green World

Sombre Reptiles

Little Fishes

Golden Hours

Becalmed

Zawinul/Lava

Everything Merges with the Night

Spirits Drifting

September 1975 – Billboard Did Not Chart