Brian Eno announces his first ever solo tour

The Ships tour features an orchestral adaptation of Eno’s acclaimed 2016 album, The Ship as well as new and classic Eno compositions. Eno will be performing together with Baltic Sea Philharmonic, orchestrated and conducted by Kristjan Järvi. The performance also features a cameo appearance from the actor Peter Serafinowicz as well as support from long-time collaborators, guitarist Leo Abrahams and programmer/keyboardist, Peter Chilvers.

The tour kicks off in Venice, and his performance at the Biennale Musica marks Brian Eno’s first live tour in a five decade solo career and also his first appearance with orchestra. Eno has only ever played a handful of solo shows, the most recent in 2021 at the UNESCO World Heritage site, the Acropolis in Athens with his brother Roger Eno.

These performances coincide with his attendance at the 2023 Biennale Musica where he will be honoured with the Golden Lion lifetime achievement award. Following his performance in Venice, Eno will head to Berlin, Paris, Utretcht, and before the tour culminates at London's Royal Festival Hall.

Of the performance, Eno says: "The album THE SHIP is an unusual piece in that it uses voice but doesn’t particularly rely on the song form. It’s an atmosphere with occasional characters drifting through it, characters lost in the vague space made by the music. There’s a sense of wartime in the background, and a sense of inevitability. There is also a sense of scale which suits an orchestra, and a sense of many people working together.

I wanted an orchestra which played music the way I would like to play music: from the heart rather than just from the score. I wanted the players to be young and fresh and enthusiastic. When I first saw the Baltic Sea Philharmonic I found all that…and then noticed they were named after a sea. That sealed it!”