ROGER ENO 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: To tie in with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings, Brian Eno has decided to put out a new edition of his decidedly spacey 1983 ambient album "Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks", which started life as the soundtrack to a long-forgotten documentary about NASA's space program. The edition is rather special, not only because it contains a remastered version of the original set created by Eno, his brother Roger and regular collaborator Daniel Lanois, but also because it contains a second disc of previously unheard material. This is not old, though, but rather brand new recordings - described as "new interpretations of the film soundtrack" - made by the Lanois and the Eno brothers late last year in a similar style. In a word: essential.

Review: According to the maestro himself, Roger Eno, The Skies They Shift Like Chords is a record about transience, subtle and pronounced changes, and, in many ways, the march of evolution in music and life itself. The celebrated piano and string-focused artist laid some serious groundwork for high expectations on his debut LP, and now elevates that blueprint towards the heavens with this stunning album.

Utilising an array of instruments - electric guitars, flute organs, bass clarinet - remarkably most of the pieces here are based on improvisations which then developed into full blown tracks, a process Eno describes as capturing "snapshots" we would otherwise risk losing in the ether. Contemporary classical at its most captivatingly beautiful, this is the very definition of timelessness, drawing on modern and age-old techniques to forge something anew.