Brian Eno Schedules First Solo Tour

Larisha Paul
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
image-7 - Credit: CECILY ENO
image-7 - Credit: CECILY ENO

Over the years, Brian Eno has shared expansive and immersive bodies of solo work that he’s never taken on the road. He’s landed on the occasional festival lineup, occasionally toured with other artists, and even played a few one-offs. But only now is he preparing to complete a full tour all on his own. Eno’s latest endeavor, a concert series titled Ships, will bring him across Europe for five shows later this year.

The run will center around his 2016 solo album The Ship, which features a 21-minute title track and was inspired by the Titanic disaster. “The album The Ship an unusual piece in that it uses voice but doesn’t particularly rely on the song form,” Eno shared in a statement. “It’s an atmosphere with occasional characters drifting through it, characters lost in the vague space made by the music. There’s a sense of wartime in the background, and a sense of inevitability. There is also a sense of scale which suits an orchestra, and a sense of many people working together.”

More from Rolling Stone

Eno’s Ships tour will begin on Oct. 21 in Venice, Italy with two shows, one at 3 p.m. and one at 8 p.m. He’ll then make stops in Berlin, Germany; Paris, France; and Utrecht, Netherlands. The tour will wrap with another two-show day, this time set for 6.30 p.m. and 9 p.m. in London, England. General sale is scheduled to begin across Europe on June 8.

Conveying the material on The Ship in a live-setting requires layers of support, which is why Eno has tapped the Baltic Sea Philharmonic to back him on this tour. “I wanted an orchestra which played music the way I would like to play music: from the heart rather than just from the score,” he continued. “I wanted the players to be young and fresh and enthusiastic. When I first saw the Baltic Sea Philharmonic I found all that…and then noticed they were named after a sea. That sealed it!”

Kristjan Järvi, who will conduct and orchestra the performances, added: “The freedom of expression is the key element in this presentation. Every person in this performance is just as important as the next. Everyone matters equally as much as the other and is not replaceable or expendable. To have an orchestra that is really a band rather than an orchestra which executes a performance but “is the performance” itself is what Brian and I see as the uniqueness of this collaboration.”

Last year, Eno released a new album, ForeverAndEverNoMore, which not only marked his first album since 2017’s Reflection, but his first album featuring mostly songs with vocals since 2005’s Another Day on Earth. Just last month, the ambient pioneer and producer linked up with Fred again.. for a collaborative LP, Secret Life.

Best of Rolling Stone

Click here to read the full article.