Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, RDI (/ˈiːnoʊ/; born 15 May 1948 and originally christened Brian Peter George Eno), professionally known as Brian Eno or simply Eno, is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer, and visual artist. Born in Suffolk, Eno attended art school in the late 1960s, where he studied under Roy Ascott and took inspiration from minimalist painting, cybernetics, and experimental music techniques. In 1970, he joined the band Roxy Music first as a technical consultant and later as synthesiser player. The group's success in the glam rock scene came quickly, but Eno soon became tired of touring and of conflicts with lead singer Bryan Ferry, leaving the group in 1973 to record a series of innovative solo albums that would explore various styles and help pioneer ambient music.

Eno has also worked as an influential collaborator and music producer. Throughout the 1970s, he collaborated with Robert Fripp on a series of proto-ambient LPs, David Bowie on his late 1970s "Berlin Trilogy," avant-garde musicians Jon Hassell and Harold Budd on several respective projects, and David Byrne on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (released 1981). During this period, he also produced the "No Wave" compilation No New York (1978), three albums by New York post-punk group Talking Heads, and albums by new wave bands Devo and Ultravox, among others. In subsequent decades, he has produced or worked on albums by U2, James, Laurie Anderson, Coldplay, Paul Simon, Grace Jones, James Blake and Slowdive. Eno has also pursued multimedia ventures in parallel to his music career, including sound and art installations as well as his mid-1970s development with Peter Schmidt of "Oblique Strategies", a deck of cards featuring cryptic aphorisms intended to break creative blocks and encourage lateral thinking.

Eno has been described as "one of popular music's most important and influential figures." A self-described "non-musician," Eno has advocated a methodology of "theory over practice" throughout his career and helped to pioneer a variety of novel production techniques and approaches, playing an important role in the development of ambient, electronic, worldbeat, chance, and generative music styles. He continues to release music, produce, and write, and maintains a regular column in Prospect Magazine.

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