opal evenings

The real value of the iPod shuffle facility is that it throws up long forgotten music, forcibly reminds you what you've been missing, then makes you play old albums that haven't been played for way too long.

Two tracks recently, both from 1988, made me abandon my shuffling and delve deeper into the albums this music came from.

Firstly - "Balthus Bemused By Colour" from Harold Budd’s synth and reverb heavy White Arcades. It's a great piece of music, way too echoey, but that’s what you get if you hang around with Robin Guthrie for too long. The White Arcades is a lovely album, but is perhaps the only Budd record that sounds dated, or rather, of it’s time. All his other stuff is timeless.

But just when I was thinking - I must play the whole of The White Arcades again, I heard -

"Winter Music" by Roger Eno, from Between Tides. Interestingly this dates from the same time as the Budd track, but this one, as with all of Between Tides, really is timeless. The mix of strings and piano on this album is quite magical and although I adore Voices I think that Between Tides is perhaps the better album.

Roger Eno is Brian Eno's brother, younger by some eleven years. He worked with his brother on Apollo in 1982 and in 1985 Brian assisted in the recording of Voices, the ironically titled all instrumental debut album from Roger. The frosty synth embellishments contributed by Brian are excellent and give the album a real sense of a chilly winter’s night. But these also invite comparisons with the piano / synth albums Brian made with Harold Budd and at times Voices veers close to being Son Of Plateaux Of Mirror, a comparison which is quite understandable but is perhaps a little unfair to Roger. Whilst Budd's playing is pretty and sparse, much like the younger Eno's on Voices, in general Roger's piano work relies more on melody and is imbued with a peculiarly English flavour which sets it apart from Budd's minimalist beauty.

Roger worked without his brother on the 1988 follow up album Between Tides. Contributions and production from infinite guitarist Michael Brook, and the addition of gorgeously simple string arrangements mean that Between Tides is a large step away from the wintery ambience of the debut. Most of the pieces are wistfully melancholy, utterly beautiful, calming and reflective in a very English pastoral manner.  

In 1988 Roger Eno, Harold Budd, Michael Brook and electronic zither player Laraaji played a series of joint concerts under the title An Opal Evening. Opal was the record label set up by Brian Eno and his soon to be wife Anthea which had signed all four artists.

These concerts would typically allow for a solo set by each musician with joint ventures and improvs often joining the sets before all four would combine for a finale. The improvisational nature of much of the music extended to the casualness with which the quartet approached their stagecraft. Dr Martin and I saw the show at the Royal Festival Hall at which there was a surprising amount of laughter, not least when Michael Brook announced that Roger Eno would be onstage next, 'when we can find him'. Roger eventually arrived to huge applause which clearly baffled him.

One of the tracks played at the RFH went by the clearly ironic title of "Optimistic Prelude" at that point. A lovely, slightly wistful piece with a repeated piano motif overlaid with gently increasing strings, and a mournful oboe, this piece was wonderful in the hall, and this actual performance appears on Between Tides as "Winter Music".

A later Opal Evening, at a Festival in Lanzarote in December 1989 gave rise to a number of semi-official albums. It seems like the usual Opal suspects played at this Festival, which was televised, either just locally in the Canaries or across Spain, it’s not too clear. The artists, Budd, Brook, Roger E, and Laraaji (plus Peter Hammill, who was also on the bill) obviously gave their permission for the tv broadcast and possibly for the subsequent Spanish only home video of some of the performances, but it seems that was as far as it went.  

So when Sine Records issued half a dozen cds in the mid 1990s taken from these performances the artists weren’t terribly impressed. But there seems to be some sort of legal grey area here as the cds were apparently dubbed from the tv recording. Obviously these cds weren’t strictly bootlegs as I bought most of them in HMV in Oxford Street, but they obviously weren’t strictly authorized either. And that led to all sorts of made up titles on the discs. Check out Budd’s Aqua for a right old muddle with the track names. Roger’s Night Garden seems to feature all new pieces, so it’s unclear what the titles ought to be, and Laraaji’s music is pretty much untitle-able anyway! Michael Brook says he’s never been paid for his disc, so I guess the others haven’t either.

The sound quality isn’t bad on all of these but while most tracks have the audience / applause neatly faded out there are a few pieces that shake you out of your ambient induced reverie when some overloud clapping crashes in. But… despite all that, there’s some excellent music to be found on these. The Brook one is especially good I think.

Anyway, I have thoroughly enjoyed getting re-acquainted with Between Tides. Lovely music for a quiet evening unwinding with a glass of wine. Perfect.