Brian Eno in a 25 minute interview with BBC-Radio 3 on his new project the Clock of the Long Now -- a clock planned for the Nevada desert that will run for 10,000 years (via G3RM).

He starts talking on the differerent cultures of bell ringing. The English tend to strike single bells. One advanced technique is change ringing, i.e. to play all possible permutations (orders) of the different bells. The Germans and Russians on the other hand hit all bells at once in their churches giving a full "heavy metal" sound.

What I didn't know before was that Brian Eno is a big fan of mathematics. For his record January 7003 he was working with ten bells. The factorial of ten (10! = 3,628,800), the number of permutations of ten bells, is almost exactly the number of days in 10,000 years (last ice age). In two tracks (soft bells version 1 min. sample) on the record the 31 permutations for January 7003 according to an algorithm are played. Two more one minute samples from the album:

• 2 harmonic studies
• Large bell change improvisation

Further reading: Transcript of a talk given by Brian Eno as part of The Long Now Foundation's series of Seminars About Long Term Thinking.

You can stream the whole new Tortoise album which will be released on Thrill Jockey on Tuesday by clicking on the cover (via parallax view via slatch). This seems to be a return to their calmer more impressionist soundscapes of their classic Millions Now Living Will Never Die. It sounds surprisingly airy with an ambient touch. Quite slow-paced with Jim O'Rourke's discrete electronic effects well embedded into the mix. Even the more menacing atmosphere of a track like Dot/Eyes or the harder rocking closer Salt the Skies cannot really disturb the overall rather bukolic mood.

P.S. Mmm. I still haven't decided if I find the cover horrid kitsch or a great photo collage.

P.P.S. Reviews at Almost Cool (8/10) and The Guardian (3/5). Both via DJ Martian.