There are few musicians whose words on music are as exciting as their music. Brian Eno is one of them. Paul Schütze's interview with him in The Wire 139, September 1995 is full of interesting insights.

Eno, the electronic/recording wizard comes up with a surprising explanation why synthesizer music is often so pale in comparison with real instrumental music. The player simply has no physical relation to his instrument:

The way he sees music programming tools like ProTools (or Cubase in 1995) is that they give everyone the skills to create music and therefore move the focus from skill to judgement. Nowadays every idiot has the technical skill to make music and the important question now is what to do with the skill. Where to go. And this is the first question to ask yourself before starting with beats and stuff.

Another interesting idea concerns the value of a piece of music. He thinks that it is not intrinsic but coming from the interaction with the listener. That there is a I Ching quality to music. It only has a meaning if the listener can connect to it, can integrate it in his universe. It is even possible that the listener embellishes the music. That it can become better than when it was created by him listening to it.

I also liked the reflections on artists who don't censor their output and who let the market decide if it is good. Eno names Picasso, Miles Davis and Prince:

A weird thing: the interviewer mentions a track on Another Green World with children's voices in the background. Eno says that he had completely forgotten about them and that they were from a playground. I just relistened to that album and I didn't hear those children anywhere. Anyone an idea where they could hide?

Mp3 over here from Fluxblog:

I am getting totally hooked by this new single (release date February, 16th) of Blonde Redhead which is very different from the noisy and arty stuff similar to Sonic Youth they have made before. They have signed to 4AD and Elephant Woman has this dreamy ethereal flair which stands for 4AD artists like Cocteau Twins or Lush. It is an opulent pop tune descending right from heaven with Kazu Makino's angelic soprano. Her vocals are extraordinary. Hers must be the purest most innocent voice in pop music and at the same time it is extremely erotic. This may be a cliché-ridden male phantasy but I can imagine her uttering those high-pitch tones when making sex. There is a screaming quality to them though they do not feel out of tune at all. On past albums her voice used to be more like Yoko Ono's shrieking; now it evokes the sensuous Jane Birkin in her prime time. Makino's singing sounds as if she was having a permanent orgasm. In the second half of the song there is this keyboard sequence going higher and higher. It is like a carpet moving up towards the sky rolled out for her voice to return back to where it came from. The new album Misery Is a Butterfly will be out on March, 9th.

Another brilliant pop song of theirs: In Particular featuring an amazing clapping intro from the last album Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons at Epitonic.