{"id":636,"date":"2011-11-02T10:17:46","date_gmt":"2011-11-02T15:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=636"},"modified":"2011-11-02T10:17:46","modified_gmt":"2011-11-02T15:17:46","slug":"moogfest-recap-day-2-part-1-brian-enos-illustrated-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2011\/11\/02\/moogfest-recap-day-2-part-1-brian-enos-illustrated-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Moogfest 2011 Recap: Day 2, Part 1: Brian Eno\u2019s \u201cIllustrated Talk\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brian Eno<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cIllustrated Talk\u201d was a separately-ticketed event; Moogfest pass holders got first dibs on tickets (and a reduced price). Clearly hoping to avoid recriminations later, the promoters went to great lengths to let people know that Eno would not be playing music at this event (nor at his also-separately-ticketed \u201c77 Million Paintings\u201d installation at the YMI).<\/p>\n

No matter: music or no, the Eno event was worth whatever pricetag AC Entertainment hung on it. Dressed \u201cbusiness casual,\u201d the unassuming Eno took to the stage right on time (after a brief intro by AC head Ashley Capps<\/strong>, clearly jazzed at the opportunity to introduce a hero of his). Eno was surprisingly self-effacing, quickly making it clear why pretty much anyone who\u2019s ever worked with him (in his capacities as producer and\/or collaborator) has nothing but praise for the man.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For someone so closely associated with technology and experimentation, Eno is refreshingly humanistic in his approach and worldview. At the risk of inaccurately paraphrasing him \u2013 Eno is nothing if not precisely articulate, though he\u2019d almost certainly argue otherwise \u2013 technology is merely a tool of creative expression. Far from being a technocrat, Eno is a champion of the creative process, and seems to believe that the potential to create great things lies within everyone.<\/p>\n

Throughout his two-hour talk, Eno presented overhead transparencies featuring endearingly crude hand drawings. These helped reinforce the points he was making, and did so in the most unpretentious manner possible. After the talk, I heard or read (I can\u2019t recall which: so much info had found its way into my head, I was happily suffering overload) someone suggest that Eno\u2019s presentation was professorial. Nothing could be farther from the truth: like his music, the talk was warm and wholly human-centered.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Eno has a knack for demystifying things that would otherwise seem complicated. With the aid of another illustration, he gave a quick explanation of the concept\/mechanics behind Terry Riley<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cIn C,\u201d elucidating the piece in a concise manner. Eno explained why no two performances of \u201cIn C\u201d are ever the same, and used that idea to move into a discussion of the relationship(s) between composer, performer and the audience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

With excellent delivery and timing, Eno showed that he has quite a sharp sense of humor, often making little jokey asides at his own expense. And he made a point of offering a pair of endorsements: one for local Asheville record shop Harvest Records (paraphrase: \u201cThey don\u2019t stock all <\/em>records, just the good ones<\/em>\u201d) and another for \u2013 of all things — a hardcore pornography site. Of the latter, it was truly to make a valid point about creativity.<\/p>\n

I have a stack of Eno records \u2013 including his 1970s \u201cpop trilogy,\u201d some of the ambient discs, and his collaborations with Robert Fripp \u2013 and I\u2019ve enjoyed them for years now. But after hearing and seeing Eno talk, I am sure that I will hear all of his work in a substantially different way. Moogfest may have been (nominally) a music festival, but Eno\u2019s \u201cIllustrated Talk\u201d was a major highlight.<\/p>\n

Next: Hans-Joachim Roedelius<\/strong> (again), Terry & Gyan Riley<\/strong>, and The Flaming Lips<\/strong>. And more after that! <\/em><\/p>\n

Follow \u201cthe_musoscribe\u201d on \"\" Twitter<\/a> and get notified
\nwhen new features, reviews and essays are published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brian Eno\u2019s \u201cIllustrated Talk\u201d was a separately-ticketed event; Moogfest pass holders got first dibs on tickets (and a reduced price). Clearly hoping to avoid recriminations later, the promoters went to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-shows","category-review","cat-44-id","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}