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Brian Eno credit Cecily Eno

Brian Eno announces new album inspired by the climate emergency with lead single "There Were Bells"

28 July 2022, 14:01 | Written by Cerys Kenneally

Brian Eno has shared news of his climate emergency-inspired new album FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE, and has released new track "There Were Bells" to accompany the announcement.

"There Were Bells" is the first outing from Eno's new album, and was written by Eno for his and Roger Eno's performance at the Acropolis, Anthens in August 2021. The new song is teamed with a video from the same concert.

FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE will be the first album where Eno sings vocals on the majority of the tracks since 2005's Another Day On Earth.

Speaking about the album and how it's inspired by the climate emergency, Eno said, "Like everybody else - except, apparently, most of the governments of the world - I’ve been thinking about our narrowing, precarious future, and this music grew out of those thoughts. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say I’ve been feeling about it…and the music grew out of the feelings. Those of us who share those feelings are aware that the world is changing at a super-rapid rate, and that large parts of it are disappearing forever…hence the album title."

"These aren’t propaganda songs to tell you what to believe and how to act," Eno continued. "Instead they’re my own exploration of my own feelings. The hope is that they will invite you, the listener, to share those experiences and explorations."

He also said, "It took me a long time to embrace the idea that we artists are actually feelings-merchants. Feelings are subjective. Science avoids them because they’re hard to quantify and compare. But ‘feelings’ are the beginnings of thoughts, and the long term attendants of them too. Feelings are the whole body reacting, often before the conscious brain has got into gear, and often with a wide lens that encompasses more than the brain is consciously aware of."

"Art is where we start to become acquainted with those feelings, where we notice them and learn from them - learn what we like and don’t like - and from there they start to turn into actionable thoughts," Eno added. "Children learn through play; adults play through Art. Art gives you the space to ‘have’ feelings, but it comes with an off-switch: you can shut the book or leave the gallery. Art is a safe place to experience feelings - joyous ones and difficult ones. Sometimes those feelings are about things we long for, sometimes they’re about things we might want to avoid."

He concluded, "I’m more and more convinced that our only hope of saving our planet is if we begin to have different feelings about it: perhaps if we became re-enchanted by the amazing improbability of life; perhaps if we suffered regret and even shame at what we’ve already lost; perhaps if we felt exhilarated by the challenges we face and what might yet become possible. Briefly, we need to fall in love again, but this time with Nature, with Civilisation and with our hopes for the future."

Tracklist:

  1. Who Gives a Thought
  2. We Let It In
  3. Icarus or Blériot
  4. Garden of Stars
  5. Inclusion
  6. There Were Bells
  7. Sherry
  8. I’m Hardly Me
  9. These Small Noises
  10. Making Gardens Out of Silence
"There Were Bells" is out now. Brian Eno's FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE album will arrive on 14 October via UMC, and is available to pre-order now.
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