Customer Reviews

Neroli

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is a special record.

Taken at face value, I don't think that everyone will say that this stuff on first listen is "great" or "incredible" music or anything like that. It is basically the same scale over and over again, unfolding in a seemingly random, very slow way. However, this is really one of the most successful and truly ambient things I have ever heard. In a way, I imagine that this lives up to Brian Eno's entire concept of what ambient music is about. Two examples of how this record is should be listened to (one involves a short story):

1. Put it on and turn the volume down as low as possible (just barely audible), put the cd player on repeat and lay down (try to sleep, read, etc.). This is most effective if you let it run for several hours (or days). I really think that this is what Eno intended.

2. A couple of years ago I went on a camping trip in a part of extremely rural Southeastern Ohio (Vinton County). On that occasion, I brought a radio (which I don't often do) and at around 3:00 (I imagine, since I don't usually bring a watch with me), I tuned in the only station I could get: some public or college radio station from West Virginia. For an hour I heard the same simple tones over and over, broadcast in a seemingly random, but wholly intentional way. I cannot express the literally overwhelming impact of what I heard as it mixed with the frogs, insects, and whatever else made that night so loud. Pure beauty. As much as any great band on stage, that music on that night drove me to feel something utterly and completely beyond me. I, of course, had to wait for about an hour to hear what it was - Brian Eno's "Neroli". It was awesome (in the real sense of the word) and creepy and comforting and organic and so unbelievably right under that sky that this simple music is still one of the most important musical documents I own.

Most of Eno's work is visionary and important, but for me (a huge Eno and ambient fan), this record really codifies what all of the talk is about (the best part of the experience was that I had no idea that what I was hearing was Brian Eno or even a real radio station).

That's why this is a special record. It needs to be incorporated into your life to be effective and meaningful. Without meeting it halfway, it is necessarily meaningless, like everything else.

"is that the new Brian Eno album or is the fridge playing up again?"...funny that some critic used that line to demean Neroli. Unwittingly, he/she has paid Eno a tribute since the artist intends his ambient pieces to blend in with the sounds of a given environment, to surround rather than come at the listener. Ambient music enhances rather than overwhelms. This is exactly what Neroli does and was created to do. This 58 minute compostition reminds me of a light sprinkle of rain falling on the glassy surface of a pond just before dawn. Neroli is quiet and subtle, very minimalistic and is one of my favorite Brian Eno albums. Other ambient works by Eno that I highly recommend are the lovely "Discreet Music" and "Ambient 1: Music For Airports".

For many listeners, even Eno fans, this disc may be difficult to get into. I bought Neroli in 1999 & I'll confess it sat on my shelf mostly for the first couple months. But after giving the disc repeated listens I find this is one of Eno's most rewarding pieces ever.

This disc is made up of only one track lasting roughly an hour, on a synthesizer (which sounds like a sort of odd processed piano). The opening melody is actually performed (within the first 60 seconds or so), after which the synthesizer breaks up this performance into different segments -- this is basically a digital equivalent of what Eno did with tape loops in the 70's & 80's). Each note is like a small piece turning in a vast, slow moving mobile, with endless variations. It's an odd, constant hovering sensation, with minute textures hiding in the reverb. It reminds me a lot of Morton Feldman's late "pattern pieces" like his "Piano & String Quartet" or "Palais de Mari."

It's unfortunate & also surprising that there are some reviewers that didn't care for this piece. The "obstacles" to many listeners seem to be the sheer size of the piece & its very static character (even more static than most of Eno's work). I cetainly would not recommend this to someone who has only recently become interested in Eno's ambient work-- "On Land" is a better place to start (which is, of course, also an excellent Eno album!).

"Neroli" is the 1993 release from vetran producer and ambient music pioneer, Brian Eno. Throughout his lengthy career, Eno has always strived to create music that is opposite of what is popular or current. Many of his solo recordings such as "Discreet Music", "Music For Airports", "On Land" as well as his groundbreaking work with David Bowie and King Crimson's Robert Fripp have become blueprints for what is now called 'new age' music.
"Neroli" continues with the ambient experiments which Brian began to innovate in the early '70s. The disc follows the same pattern as his 1985 work "Thursday Afternoon" in that it consists of a single uninterupted hour-long piece of music. Unlike "Thursday Afternoon" as well as his previous instrumental work, "Neroli" can best be described as ambient minimalism stripped down to its barest elements. The piece was performed on the lower register of one keyboard and was composed in the Phrygian Mode which gives it a mysterious etherial quality. Throughout its hour-long running time, the piece never shifts in mood nor is anything else added to the sound to give it some form of climax. It creates its mood at the very beginning and stays there for the entire duration without any change in key or pitch.
This is not a CD that one may blast in their stereo while cruising down the highway. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Eno's composed "Neroli" as a piece of background music and this is precisely what it is. It's an unintruding piece which is quite beautiful when heard with the right set of ears. Sure, it may be boring to some. But boring can be beautiful too.

Small footnote: If you enjoy "Neroli", check out Brian Eno's other disc-long piece "Thursday Afternoon". These two pieces make a matching pair.

"Neroli" is the 1993 release from vetran producer and ambient music pioneer, Brian Eno. Throughout his lengthy career, Eno has always strived to create music that is opposite of what is popular or current. Many of his solo recordings such as "Discreet Music", "Music For Airports", "On Land" as well as his groundbreaking work with David Bowie and King Crimson's Robert Fripp have become blueprints for what is now called 'new age' music.
"Neroli" continues with the ambient experiments which Brian began to innovate in the early '70s. The disc follows the same pattern as his 1985 work "Thursday Afternoon" in that it consists of a single uninterupted hour-long piece of music. Unlike "Thursday Afternoon" as well as his previous instrumental work, "Neroli" can best be described as ambient minimalism stripped down to its barest elements. The piece was performed on the lower register of one keyboard and was composed in the Phrygian Mode which gives it a mysterious etherial quality. Throughout its hour-long running time, the piece never shifts in mood nor is anything else added to the sound to give it some form of climax. It creates its mood at the very beginning and stays there for the entire duration without any change in key or pitch.
This is not a CD that one may blast in their stereo while cruising down the highway. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Eno's composed "Neroli" as a piece of background music and this is precisely what it is. It's an unintruding piece which is quite beautiful when heard with the right set of ears. Sure, it may be boring to some. But boring can be beautiful too.

Small footnote: If you enjoy "Neroli", check out Brian Eno's other disc-long piece "Thursday Afternoon". These two pieces make a matching pair.

Perfect minimalism...maximally effective when one is supine, in need of 'the big chill' and ready for big alpha waves. This does not demean the work, but think first and then sleep!! Strangely wonderful, deceptively simple, and a real gift from Mr Eno, this is Xanax on a disc...try it, you just might....

Numerous other reviewers have made the argument that this CD does not reward conscious listening and in fact demands an extremely low playback volume for maximum effectiveness. I think these reviewers are on the right track but do not follow the demands of this piece to their logical conclusion. The playback volume should be so low that no sound whatsoever may be heard from the speakers. In fact, the stereo shouldn't even be turned on when listening to this CD. You shouldn't even take it out of the jewel box. In fact, you shouldn't even think about this CD. There is no Neroli. Stop reading this review. A koan: if Neroli is playing in an empty forest, does it make a sound?

The other reviewer has stated a lot of what I had to say about this ... album(?), except for the camping in the woods thing ... you know.

Neroli very much is an acquired taste; it takes an appreciation of classical and avant-garde to understand it's purpose. Comprised of only one instrument (it's either a custom-made synth bell-pad, or a treated piano... one or the other), it's melodies are sparse and just barely hooked together only with subtle, unimposing randomness implemented into the tones (the formula and concept are explained in greater detail in it's liner notes).

As for my subjective opinion... I like it. An apt subtitle --should have-- been "Music for Isolation Tanks"; it seems almost a soundtrack to being within a womb, or an environment with microbes floating freely around you with the current.

What I like especially about it is, Neroli unintentionally models after John Cage's "4:33"; though it's not exact silence (as Cage's 4:33 was), it's like Cage's work in that any other sounds that happen to occur in your environment become part of what you are listening to--your apartment neighbor running a faucet, a motorcycle buzzing down the street outside, the sound of your dog clicking its toes across your floor, etc.. Because of this--as others have said--Neroli can be considered the perfect execution on the ambient theme. Though it's not as "entertaining" as the upbeat chill-out ambience works of modern techno artists (The Orb, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, etc), Neroli's purpose is fulfilling in every way in terms of relevance to the genre's original theories and roles.

In my opinion, this is one of Eno's best works. It is at least perhaps his most beautiful work. If you listen to this CD in it's proper time and place, you will find it a timeless piece that you simply must hear again and again. I try to listen to this CD at least a couple times a week, but here is the secret. Listen to this CD late at night, in your favorite quiet place, with the lights out, by a fire or candlelight and it will sooth your mind and soul. Some of the most gorgeous piano you will ever hear. Each note plays then echoes and echoes, Just Gorgeous.." Other Eno Ambient works I recommmend are : "Thursday Afternoon", "Discreet Music", "Music For Airports". Also "Evening Star" and "No Pussyfooting" both with Robert Fripp.

Brian Eno's work has meant a lot to me over the last eighteen years or so, and I still have not given up entirely on "Neroli." Nonetheless, at this point I cannot see how this album can withstand comparison to any of Eno's other work. To be sure, ambient music is meant largely as a background for relaxation and/or recreation, or even as a supplement to contemplation--and I suppose this album will serve these purposes as well as any other ambient piece. However, Eno himself claimed (on the back of *Music for Airports*) something to the effect that ambient music should reward an *active* listening no less than a passive one.

Unfortunately, Neroli possesses none of the magic or mystery of Eno's earlier thinking music. The background it provides is, in my view, neither interesting nor beautiful. Hence much of the advice we see here in other reviews to "turn it down so that you can hardly hear it" or "try to forget you even have it on." When did any of Eno's earlier music ever require such cautionary qualifications?!

Whereas "Thursday Afternoon" (1985) melds, merges, and develops before your ears during its entire 61 minutes of play, Neroli occupies its 58 minutes strumming through a single hyperslow, unaffecting and (according to the liner notes) Phrygian sequence over and over. In fact, one almost has to wonder whether anything more than 58 minutes went into the entire making & production of this album! And while Thursday Afternoon shifts and alters its textures not only at every interval, but also at each different volume level, Neroli offers (to these ears at least) no such multidimensional rewards.

Some of the other reviewers here have accused Neroli of being a gigantic joke on Eno's fans. While this is hardly likely, the sad truth is that this work might as well have been intended as a grotesque caricature of minimalist ambience taken to its furthest and most deadening extremes. Perhaps Eno was merely testing the limits of the genre (or even the tolerance of his admirers). In any case, he has forsaken much here of what made his prior music so great.