Brian Eno, J. Peter Schwalm - Drawn from Life
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CD Details
Artist: Brian Eno, J. Peter SchwalmEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Import
CD Release Date: 2001-06-12
Music Label: Astralwerks
Product features:
- ENO BRIAN & SCHWALM PETER DRAWN FROM LIFE
- From This Moment
- Persis
- Like Pictures Part #1
- Like Pictures Part #2
- Night Traffic
- Rising Dust
- Intenser
- More dust
- Bloom
- Two Voices
- Bloom
Music reviews of Drawn from Life
Music Review: Drawn from life, some things are just... pineapples.
Rating: 5 Stars
The thing I have not liked about a lot of Eno's recent output was the lack of an essential ingredient that makes his top drawer records so great: The organic. The records that you can hear (feel) the people on, that are not simply the well crafted output of machinery running in the background. "Nerve Net" and "Spinner" are wonderful examples of the organic coming through.
"Drawn From Life" sounds, figurative and literally like The onE went back and listened to some of his older records. On "Drawn From Life," he has a living, breathing drummer. I hope there is further collaboration with J. Peter Schwalm, because the results are excellent.
About the tracks...
"From This Moment" is a very "Discreet"-like introduction that segues beautifully into "Persis," which sounds like a track that should have been on "Spinner."
"Like Pictures Part #1" sounds like we came in toward the end of... something. Barely distinguishable voices in the background segue into "Like Pictures Part #2." Starting with mildly treated drums, backwards tape loops, handclaps, and a violin surface, stretching the time to somewhere between Middle-Eastern and a One-Drop.
And Laurie Anderson, telling us, "Some things are just pictures. They're scenes before your eyes. Don't look now. I'm right behind you." As an aside, I wish Brian and Laurie would stop, er, Pussyfooting around and make an entire record together.
"Night Traffic" and "Rising Dust" are mid-tempo and dark, and would fit nicely with Bill Frisell's "Blues Dream." "Rising Dust" has some way cool background drum loops, beautiful piano, and heavily processed vocals (the phrasing makes me think it's Laurie again). Whoever it is, you can't understand a single word (well, I can't). "Rising Dust" almost fades out completely before segueing into "Intenser." This track includes another processed vocal, this time very understandable.
"More Dust" fades up, and in a way to suggest that we've arrived in the middle of something again. There is an odd sense of closure on this track, having "Night Traffic" through "More Dust" sounding like the soundtrack to a short film that may or may not exist.
"Bloom" takes a page from the Jethro Tull / Pink Floyd School of Culinary Arts. The track includes a very detailed, but slightly buried in the mix "field" recording of The onE and a Younger onE in the kitchen getting something to eat (breakfast?). I get the impression the field recording sort of moves through a day in the life. All of the instrumentation is *very* analog. with headphones on, you can hear the electronics misbehaving, etc. "Bloom" closes with a request for pineapple, and about two and a half minutes of silence.
At first listen, "Two Voices" and "Bloom (Instrumental)" sit very much like encores. There are two very processed vocals on "Two Voices," and by using headphones at low volume, the vocals are surprisingly understandable. It becomes apparent that "Two Voices" is a companion to "Bloom." There is almost four minutes of silence tacked to the end of "Two Voices," Before the instrumental version of "Bloom."
While there are 11 tracks on this disc, arguably, you are listening to four multi-part works. In the case of "Bloom" through "Bloom (Instrumental)" The two sections of silence are two of the most important parts of the record. Good thing Eno didn't give them separate track numbers, because most people would have programmed them out, discarding an important part of the work: Negative space.
This disc works very well in a variety of listening contexts. It is great on the big speakers at moderate volume, it works very well at low volume, even on a pair of 4 Ohm A/C Delcos. Under headphones, it qualifies as the best sounding record I've heard, from anyone, since "Spinner." You can work to it, and you can nod off to it. This is truly environmental music.
Long time listeners of The onE should be very happy. If you are new to Eno's work, this is a very good place to start.
Description of Drawn from Life
'Drawn from Life' sees Brian Eno collaborating with German DJ J. Peter Schwalm. This collaboration produced soundscapes of jazzy, shuffling rhythms and strings that sway from cutting to sighing lay the foundation of most of the tracks. Laurie Anderson lends her voice, on 'Like Pictures Part #2,' This Astralwerks release has 10 tracks.Picking up where such seminal Eno recordings as Music for Airports and Another Green World left off, the inveterate innovator-producer's first recording in four years is a surreal tableau of loping beats and eerie sounds enveloped in dark yet serene atmospherics. With German percussionist Schwalm contributing softly swinging drumming, Eno is free to dabble in sounds ranging from Middle Eastern string quartets to crying machines and Vocoders to happy, babbling babies. One of Life's many highlights is Laurie Anderson's cameo on "Like Pictures Part #2," as she enunciates her words above the song's spooky, soothing ambiance. "Bloom" contrasts happy baby chatter against distorted heartbeats and sinister samples; "Night Traffic" paints an empty urban center at dusk with shifting shapes and '70s jazz percussion and piano. Throughout Drawn from Life, Eno and Schwalm cast a spell of spectral dislocation and foreboding. It's like what dying prostrate in the snow must be like--slow, sleepy, beautiful, and chilling. --Ken Micallef
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