Customer Reviews

Sonora Portraits

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This disc and its accompanying 96-page booklet were put together by Materiali Sonori, an Italian label which has specialized in collecting obscure and previously unreleased stuff by cult artists for odd 'rarities collections' and then selling the whole thing at an excessive price. Granted, the booklet is quite informative and well written, featuring an interview with Eno as well as information about other ambient/neo-classical artists like Erik Satie and John Cage. Plus, you can also take a look at Eno's discography and at a list of official/unofficial web sites. It's a solid introduction, but I think there are much better books on the market which deal with Eno's groundbreaking early work and ambient music in general; for example, David Toop's classic "Ocean of sound", or Eric Tamm's "Brian Eno - His music..". The 53-minute audio disc primarily contains material from Eno's latter-day albums ("Neroli", "The drop", "Spinner"), and these selections prove that cult stars usually get less adventurous and often bland with age. It's not very clever to represent Eno's contributions to ambient music with his latter-day work, since his recent albums not only showed a downward sales pattern but also confirmed a growing belief that he's no longer at the top of this genre. Contrary to popular belief, the three tracks ("Distant hill", "Radiothesia III" and "Stravinsky) from the unreleased "Glitterbug" soundtrack are not exclusive to "Sonora portraits"; you can pick up these three pieces much cheaper with the fabulous sampler "Future perfect". This compilation (along with "Glitters is gold" and "All Saints calling") from the All Saints label also features tracks by Harold Budd, Roger Eno, ambient supergroup Channel Light Vessel, and others. "Stravinsky" is really a brilliant neo-classical piece with bright violin arpeggios so typical for Stravinsky's own compositions. The slow-moving "Distant hill" is also worth mentioning, an organ-loaden piece with various metallic sounds clattering away in the distance. Beyond that and a couple of beautiful, atmospheric cuts from 1988's "Music for films III", there's just not much substance here. Eno simply doesn't sound as gripping and focused as he once did with his early ambient efforts; much of what is here never settles on a definite approach and seems underdeveloped and listless. And the schmaltzy pop song "Spinning away", featuring none other than John Cale on vocals, is a little out of place. It would be wrong to say that the "Sonora portraits" compilation is a complete failure, but there are quite some questions: Why nothing from the great "Shutov Assembly" album and the aggressive "Nerve net"? Why not some pieces which cannot be found elsewhere? The selections are useless for those who already own Eno's latter-day albums and only give a slight hint at what Eno is capable of. The fact remains that "Sonora portrait" is an item for completists and devoted Eno fans.

Not for the hard core Eno fans as its all compilation but for anyone who likes ambient/electro drone that fits into a lock like a worn key.... this is a must. The songs meld into one another from instrumental to lyrics and back. As for the book its nice but give me TAMMS book on Eno any day.

The big problem was that I didn't like "Spinner" and this CD seems like its half spinner edits. But I did like "Saint Tom" and I REALLY like "Strawinsky". Something to ponder over: does Strawinsky use the open (aka No Pussyfooting) looper? I think it does. Oh well...

I love this cd, but I wish that I would have been warned that at the end of the cd there is one track with vocals and then Eno speaking. When I listen to much of Eno's stuff I get into a zone and when I heard voices it was a little bit of a shock to the system.

Most Eno fans already own these tracks on other cds, so its certainly not the most essential Eno cd to get.

If you are a newcomer to the world of Eno, this may not be the worst cd for you to start off with, mixing nicely various periods of Eno's development with a very nice bonus of him talking at the end of the cd.

Its a great collection and again, for the new fan, could be worth checking out.