Customer Reviews

January 07003 | Bell Studies for The Clock of The Long Now

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Twenty five years ago, I awoke on a Sunday morning in Cevio, Switzerland. The previous night, a dinner party featuring fresh ravioli, butter sautéed Sage, beets and shell beans provided the background for strangers and friends to come together. After dining, the party walked down to the river to watch the full moon rise over the mountain valley while singing Italian Folk songs accompanied by a mandolin. The old caretaker with his pet crow sat quietly passing two bowls of coffee, one bowl bitter and one bowl sweet. Long after everyone had gone to bed, the church bells peeled in the dark damp early morning, bouncing giant waves of sound off the stone buildings and the rocky walls of the valley. Where the bells originated was indecipherable - the source indeterminate. Sound oozed in through the thick walls and rolled around the room in slow motion, reverberating deep and long, layer upon layer. This CD reminds me of the timelessness of that morning, in the foothills of the Italian Alps, slowly waking to the bells which seemed to resonate inside my mind, rippling through my awakening body as if my being were immersed underwater, my submerged self gradually surfacing. Eno's CD is a great addition to his catalogue - music for caverns, echoes of long now.

One had never considered the bell, cast in metal, hung from a church tower, as a musical instrument at all. It was something more in the nature of a warning device, a chronogram, a delivery valve for sonic information. When carillons--massed bells--played Carols or Hymns or Alma Maters from a belltower, there was an element of novelty, as with musical saws or wineglass harmoniums, that seemed to preclude the idea of serious composition, let alone by a composer versed like Brian Eno in algebra and fire. But this record, a series of studies for possible bell-tones and carillons to accompany the slow ticking of the Clock of the Long Now through to the year 12006--music for the Future, that is--creates a sound structure that feels paradoxically old-fashioned, nostalgic, even ancient. There is a lot of urban space in it, old urban space in which you can't help inferring the presence of ox carts in the road, swifts diving above the bell tower, costers' shouts in the marketplace. And yet many of the bells you hear are entirely new creations, distortions, amalgamations that no bellsmith before Eno has ever cast, let alone considered. This music give a sense of the history of bells as something that runs far off in many directions, to past and future, to Europe and Asia, to real and imaginary. You feel, listening, that it is a lazy morning in a great city on some planet that is the local hub, the crossroads of a dozen strange races and cultures. You are lying in bed, listening to bells old and new, thinking about the churches, cults and temples scattered all across the city. It's a Sunday. You feel hopeful. Through amalgamation, through invention, through the preservation and repurposing of old casts and broken bells--through this bellmaker's craft--you hear, as no other instrument can quite get it across, the undertone of hopefulness, those optimistic words of a metal mouth, that are the special information of a bell.

I find this new work of Brian Eno's as compusively relistenable as his famed "Music for Airports." I've observed others having the same response. Like all of Eno's ambient work, the music can provide a soothing background yet at the same time reward close and intense attention.

My bias is that I'm a friend of Brian's and have been around for the two years of research and composition that went into the CD. Furthermore all proceeds from sales goes to The Long Now Foundation, where I'm president. The foundation is building the 10,000-year mountain Clock for which Brian created his bell sounds.

This was issued under the Long Now Project, with which Brian Eno is very involved. In fact, the monies raised through this cd go straight to that foundation. It is a series of different bells, with an explanation provided in the insert as to the tonal differences and how bell sounds have developed over the centuries. This lines up well with the fractals and loop projects with which Eno has been involved in the past, as he studies the points of intersection and variations/differences as the sounds progress. Not really ambient but the kind of sounds that don't dominate a given setting. Would expect to hear this in a museum or performance art setting. Recommended, if not only for being so unusual.

This CD is wonderful- one of Brian Eno's best works. Using both realistic and imaginary bell-like tones throughout the 15 pieces, "Studies" creates a beautiful and meditative space for one to reflect and relax. It is ambient music at its best. It is pricey but the proceeds from its sale benefit The Long Now Foundation and it is definitely worth the cost in terms of artistic merit. Whether you're new to the works of Eno or an existing fan, this is essential Brian Eno.

Eno has captured my attention and imagination with a number of his diverse works. I never expect to find the same thing from him yet, with this particular departure, I never felt that it was a musical work but, rather, a series of bell studies. The title indicates this, so I wasn't surprised.

Listening to the CD, found myself distracted by the slightest thing yet, when my attention was focused, the material is wonderfully beautiful. I think my biggest reason for purchasing this frighteningly expensive disc is that the proceeds go to support the Clock of the Long Now foundation. Their efforts are, in my humble estimation, very important.

If you're new to Eno, this is not the place to start. If you're an avid fan, you might feel compelled to have this disc in your collection. For me, in the context of his other works, this felt, somehow, unimportant.

Very niche work, but one of a kind. Hard to explain, if you like reflective music/sounds, give it a try. Plus it benefits the Long Now Foundation (look it up).

Sonic perfection for watching wild snowstorms from behind warm windows, taking bubblebaths at midnight and/or days when u just wanna call out sick from work and lie there in your bed drenched in late morning sunlight drinking unlimited cups of coffee, getting free and unfolding from the inside out. It's THIS beautiful. If you're a poet, painter, sculptor or other kind of artist, these "bells" would enhance the quietest inspirations. I'm so happy to have added this to my Eno collection. This CD could very well have been included in the Ambient Series, but that series predates this release, sadly. If the sounds of bells, gongs, crystal bowls and the like are pleasing to you (a la Ikebukuro from his Shutov Assembly,) then you'll LOVE this. I only wish that he (Eno) would put out MORE projects like it.

At once haunting and pleasant. Invigorating and comtemplative, the ideas behind the pieces are thick with math and logic, and some are trimmed with humor. A great undertaking of music and science and time.

This CD is outstanding and very nice to fall asleep to. Been a fan of Mr. Eno for quite some time. This almost sounds like a sparse Ambient 4. Tis a bit pricey but well worth it.