Brian Eno - Drums Between The Bells

(Warp)

Featuring the words of poet and contemporary thinker Rick Holland, Drums Between The Bells isn’t so much a collection of songs as a series of soundscapes accompanied by spoken-word passages, here uttered by nine people, including actress Caroline Wildi and Eno and Holland themselves. From that modest concept come moments that are often sublime, occasionally grating (witness the Zen-like riddling of ‘The Real’), and an album of unassuming eloquence that reverberates from solitary headphone listening out into the relative chaos of the everyday world. Following the excellent Small Craft On A Milk Sea by months, Drums Between The Bells confirms recent years as Eno’s most fertile since the 1970s.