Brian Eno on the Cherished Sounds of Failure
Near the end of 1995, the artist and producer Brian Eno wrote the following about new media in his diary, which entries were later collected in a book called A Year with Swollen Appendices.
Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit — all these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided.
It’s the sound of failure: so much of modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.
Note to the artist: when the medium fails conspicuously, and especially if it fails in new ways, the listener believes something is happening beyond its limits.
Nailed it.
Comments 3
First time commenting, but this is one reason I so appreciate the work of William Basinski. He’s best known for “the disintegration loops” due to the proximity/presence of September 11 in that production (I think they occurred nearly simultaneously), but to me his piece “92982” is the real gem. It’s something truly special, and things like it simply don’t get made often.
So great!
Ties into something that kind of blew my mind recently while listening to some classic Jungle and Drum n Bass music. Even though they had the ability to easily make any beat they wanted on a drum machine, many used actual drum samples (sometimes even a single beat) because of their imperfections 🤯
Human Swing & Ghost Notes: Funk drummers (like Clyde Stubblefield on the "Funky Drummer" or Gregory Coleman on the "Amen Break") played with subtle micro-timing variations, quiet filler hits ("ghost notes"), and natural groove. When you speed those recordings up to 165+ BPM, those tiny human imperfections create the signature fast, "rolling" feel of jungle.
Acoustic Room Tone: Real drums were recorded in studio rooms with ambient mic air and natural compression. Drum machines sounded too clean, dry, and synthetic by comparison.
I love this quote very much.
They're currently little expensive and hard to come by, but if anyone has the chance I highly recommend the Mono Kulture issue with Brian Eno.
Mono Kultur features longform interviews with a singular person per issue, and what makes Eno's issue so special is that he is interviewed by his daughter. It's warm and personal in a way that could only happen if a family member is interviewing you.
Maybe someday they'll post the interview online. The world would be a little better because of it.
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