In a way, an album's release date is a beginning rather than an end point.
So much of the musical experience is personal, shifting to adjust to your mood and surroundings on a near daily basis. Seizing upon this idea, Brian Eno decided to embark on an unusual experiment late last year.
Returning with new album 'LUX' the English producer opted to stream the album online. Rather than a straight forward audio playback, Brian Eno decided to get fans involved during the course of four completely unique events. Played in its entirety four times, fans were encouraged to post pictures of their surroundings whilst listening to 'LUX'.
Termed the 'Day Of Light' the experiment was oddly moving, with fans able to reflect on the shifting experiences of a vast, global audience connected by just one album. "'Day of Light' was conceived to mark the release of my new album LUX. We asked people to send in photos with the theme 'Play of Light' – which was one of the titles I considered for the album – to be streamed throughout the day, accompanying the broadcast of the album. The idea was to make a collaborative, generative work…to see what happened if you just made a space for it to happen in."
The timing of the four plays was designed to highlight shifts during the day. Over 6000 submissions were made, with Eno and his team trimming the results down to a single four minute video. Another statement from Brian Eno: "I think we were all taken aback at the scale of the response: over 6000 pictures! But even more remarkable was the high quality…it made the task of selecting which ones would finally be streamed ( – there wasn't time to show them all) quite difficult. I was very touched that so many people responded and shared their work. I'm also particularly grateful to Calum Morton and his team at Warp for making the whole thing work."
Watch it now.
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'LUX' is out now.
