Brian Eno - I Dormienti (1999)
EAC | FLAC (Image) + CUE / NO LOG | 235 MB | MP3 320 CBR | 100 MB | No Artwork
Minimal, Ambient, Installation | Label: Opal Records | Catalog Number: none
Music was made for an installation of sculptures, 'I Dormienti' or 'The Sleepers', by the Italian artist Mimmo Paladino at the Roundhouse, London, this one long piece takes its title from Paladino sculptures of prone figures. Over his usual treated piano, Brian Eno drops in sudden sounds: spoken fragments ("ing," "of"), looped, disintegrated, sped up, or brought down into conspiratorial whispers. It strangely turns what is background music into something more participatory -- as if a close listen will reveal a hidden message. One of the more fascinating of Eno's hard-to-find installation discs.
The music on the album is taken from an Installation - a show featuring music and visuals - that took place at the undercroft of the Roundhouse, Chalk Farm Road, Camden, London, from September 9th to October 6th, 1999. The event featured the work of Italian painter, sculptor and set designer Mimmo Paladino, who became established in the early 80's as one of the main exponents of the so-called Transavanguardia, a form of Neo-expressionism and Lyrical Abstraction. This was the second of his exhibitions; the first did not feature Eno's collaboration. His exhibition was in the form of drawings and terracota sculptures - about 30 reclining figures with about 20 attendant crocodiles he called I Dormienti, "The Sleepers". The publicity notice said of it "In the centre of a labyrinth of tunnels, Paladino will create an installation of primordial life forms that will be accompanied by Eno's unique sound and light production". Actually, Eno had nothing to do with the lighting; illumination was provided by the venue's dim emergency lights which imparted a pallor to the sculptures and drawings. The music came from well-concealed speakers and consisted mainly of a three-note Neroli-esque sequence, and electronic noise. In his recent Installations at Bonn and Amsterdam, stories spoken very slowly, one or two words at a time, were used in the performance, and here the method was developed further with treated, sampled voices speaking in syllables - an idea which would be used in his next album, Kite Stories. The material condensed onto the album in a single track consists of ten or so layers of the aforementioned syllables, speech excerpts, the standard Eno treated piano, and various drones and echoes. So, what persuaded two such diverse personalities to collaborate on this superb book, edited by Demetrio Paparoni and published by Alberico Cetti Serbelloni Editore? Brian Eno is not only a musician. His son et lumiere installations have been shown as part of many important exhibitions in top American and European museums. As an artist, Eno is an ardent fan of Paladino's painting and, similarly, Paladino has always admired Eno's audiovisual "ambients."