The serene, delicate songs on Another Green World sound practically
meditative, but the album itself was an experiment fueled by adrenaline,
panic, and pure faith. It was the first Brian Eno album to be composed
almost completely in the confines of a recording studio, over a scant
few months in the summer of 1975. The album was a proof of concept for
Eno's budding ideas of "the studio as musical instrument," and a
signpost for a bold new way of thinking about music.
In this book, Geeta Dayal unravels Another Green World's abundant
mysteries, venturing into its dense thickets of sound. How was an album
this cohesive and refined formed in such a seemingly ad hoc way? How
were electronics and layers of synthetic treatments used to create an
album so redolent of the natural world? How did a deck of cards figure
into all of this? Here, through interviews and archival research, she
unearths the strange story of how Another Green World formed the link
to Eno's future - foreshadowing his metamorphosis from unlikely glam
rocker to sonic painter and producer.
