Review | Brian Eno - The Ship

As a reining king of ambient composition, Eno’s gift for crafting near-visual soundscapes is unmatched. The Ship, Eno’s latest work, is to be released in North America on April 29. The 43-minute record takes shape in four parts: The Ship, Fickle Sun (i), Fickle Sun (ii) The House Is Thin, and Fickle Sun (iii) I’m Set Free (a cover originally written and performed by the Velvet Underground). Let’s dig in:

Along with the release of The Ship came a detailed statement on the meaning behind the music: “One of the starting points was my fascination with the First World War,” Eno explains. “That extraordinary trans-cultural madness that arose out of a clash of hubris between empires.”  Listening to the record, this influence is apparent. During track 1 titled “The Ship”, the tones and space between create a lush, melancholic atmosphere that provoke a reminiscent feeling similar to that of his earlier work, like in Music For Airports, Discreet Music, or Thursday Afternoon. This is the Eno we know and love. A master of space, time and experimental instrumentation. This lasts for 6 minutes and 35 seconds before we are introduced to a new, harsher layer of sound -- the low, vocoded voice of British actor Peter Serafinowicz (well-known for his parts in Guardians of the Galaxy and Stars Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.) Sarafinowicz loudly recites poetry over the ambience in a way that makes the listener recognize the serious nature of this composition. It is now clear that The Ship was not made to make the listener feel good. It is hauntingly dark. There is a stillness in this music. A grass-in-the-gentle-wind type of serenity. Jarring synths and samples add an evil edge to the calm. Croaking noises, low humming male vocals and swelling metal sounds swirl. As Eno described in an interview with the Guardian earlier last year, The Ship is “a record of songs that didn’t rely on the normal underpinnings of rhythmic structure and chord progressions but which allowed voices to exist in their own space and time, like events in a landscape”.  In that same interview it was revealed that this record would be ‘loud and brassy’. Does notifying your audience that your upcoming work will be unsettling and challenging make it more enjoyable? In this case, the answer is yes.

Track two, "Fickle Sun (i)", carries the album forward in a similar manner. Every aspect of the first song continues while growing louder and more intense. Serafinowicz begins to sing while buzzing guitars and beating drums pound. Eno’s impression of war and industrial revolution peaks here in a precise, cinematic style.  It feels like you’re watching Gandalf approach the eye of Sauron in Lord of the Rings. Kind of cheesy, but if you can get past that, it’s very well done.

Track three, "Fickle Sun (ii) The House Is Thin", is a featured full-length poem recited once again by Peter Serafinowicz. This time, his voice is paired only with a light, drifting piano melody.  “With the women waving at war and the news that war is faith, filled with tremendous cheering, leaping, night rings, ding dang and gongs, who did not feel any purpose?” The poem is intense to say the least. The least appealing thing about this poem is how much it sounds like a poem when spoken -- but there's a reason for this. It was created by Eno feeding key subject-related phrases -- from recounts of the sinking Titanic to WW I imagery -- into a computer and piecing together the result.

The album ends with the only true “song” on the album -- a cover of “I’m Set Free” by the Velvet Underground. It’s nice to see this finally come out, as Eno has been working on a final version it since 2005. This song fits into The Ship oddly well for something written so long before the rest of the record. It’s a perfect rendition of an already beautiful, classic track. This is surely the choice cut that we will hear on rotation upon the release of this record. 

We recommend you listen to this album alone with a pair of hi-fidelity headphones or speaker system. Allow The Ship to take you on a journey, or you may miss the boat entirely.