The Lark Ascending by Richard King

Author:Richard King [Richard King]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571338818
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2019-03-10T16:00:00+00:00

Eno felt confident that despite the low profile New Music experienced as an abstruse or academic genre, he knew of enough people working in the field whose output was engaging and melodic and capable of reaching an audience, albeit a small one that would respond with interest to experimentation. It was also an approach Eno himself was taking to his own release on Obscure Records and the label’s third, Discreet Music: his earliest attempt at producing a record of generative music. The liner notes to Discreet Music contain a diagram of how the title piece was created, accompanied by detailed descriptions of the equipment Eno utilised and an explanation of the process of repetition, echo and delay by which he was able to produce the melodic, contemplative sound forms on the record.

Once Eno had established his methodology he allowed the music to create itself by a theoretically endless pattern of repeating itself, with each repetition producing a subtle change in character and tone. The track ‘Discreet Music’ lasts for 45 minutes, as that is the maximum length of audio that can be contained of one side of vinyl played at 33 rpm. The system Eno had established in his studio would have allowed the music to continue for as long as he was prepared to keep the machines running. On subsequent recordings he would develop and modify these methods and, by coining the term ‘ambient’ to define them, pioneer an entire genre.

Side two of Discreet Music consists of another long piece, Three Variations on the Canon in D Major by Johann Pachelbel. For its recording Eno asked Bryars to act as the conductor. Members of the ensemble, which included many of the same musicians who had performed on The Sinking of the Titanic / Jesus’ Blood Has Never Failed Me Yet, were each given brief excerpts from the score, which were repeated several times, along with instructions to gradually alter the tempo and other elements of the composition. ‘Obscure itself was not a big label,’ Bryars pointed out. ‘At first it was only available on mail order, it was never promoted.’

Eno’s burgeoning career as a record producer also hindered the label’s momentum. ‘As Obscure developed from 1975 to 78,’ said Bryars, ‘during that time Eno became increasingly involved in working with Bowie, and there was always a problem, because Brian had to supervise everything, he had to proof everything, he had to verify everything, so if Brian was away, nothing happened. “Can we do this?” – “Sorry, no, Brian’s in Berlin for a few weeks with David.” So that was what limited it. Over the four years, we got ten albums, which is not bad and it’s actually an interesting document as a whole.’

To test his intuition that recordings of the modern instrumental music usually written about in specialist publications, and played in the side rooms of distinguished concert halls such as the Purcell Room on London’s South Bank, could prove accessible, Eno had selected an album containing The Sinking of the Titanic and Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet as the debut release for Obscure Records.

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