Dienstag, 17. März 2020

Purchased (Not Only) By The Cover

Bildergebnis für my life in the bush of ghosts

Brian Eno and David Byrne worked together on the first albums by Talking Heads in the late 70's/early 80's. During the break between Fear Of Music and Remain In Light both worked on a project that was released in 1980 as My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. I saw that cover first and asked myself what is this? It was totally different to many covers I saw before. Not knowing if this diffuse picture is just arty or a simple mistake by pressing the cover. Later I found the answer:

The cover image was created by pasting small cutout humanoid shapes onto a monitor and pointing a camera at it to create video feedback, infinitely multiplying the shapes: "Somehow, despite it being very techie, these techniques also seemed analogous to what we were doing on the record. It was funky as well as being techie. Extremely lo-tech, actually, and not what you were supposed to do with a TV set.

Anyway, I  read the name of the artists and took the album for a listen in the record shop. What I heard was also very new to me. Not knowing if it was good or not I bought the album and gave them a listen at home. I have to admit that the sound confused me when I listened to it. It wasn't usual in these days to use samples and loops to create a new sound. So I took it as another experiment in music and forgot the album standing between many others. Years later when a lot of bands and artists started to sample music and used loops for their sounds I remembered this album. And I have to say that Eno and Byrne were miles ahead with this album that sadly didn't got the acclaim it should have.

Brian Eno & David Byrne - Regiment
Brian Eno & David Byrne - The Jezebel Spirit
Brian Eno & David Byrne - Help Me Somebody

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