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Home   >   Projects   >   the skies - rarities   >   Press Release

Track Listing:

1
Breaking The Surface
 
2
Patterned Ground
 
3
Above And Below
 
4
Through The Blue
 
5
Now And Then
 
6
Changing Light
 
7
Time Will Tell
 
8
Into Silence
 

Roger Eno :

the skies - rarities

Roger Eno announces  the skies: rarities mini-album – out 27 September

Eno reimagines his second DG solo album to create the skies: rarities “Tender, dreamy, and breathtakingly beautiful, [the album] is a delicate, deeply visceral enchantment” Atwood Magazine, on the skies, they shift like chords

“a beautiful reflection on the here, the now, and an uncertain future”  The Line of Best Fit, on the skies, they shift like chords “a quiet joy to experience” Exposé, on the skies, they shift like chords

Released to universal acclaim in October 2023, the skies, they shift like chords, Roger Eno’s second solo album for Deutsche Grammophon, contained twelve shimmering musical portraits that traced an evocative and thought-provoking path through sound and silence. Fresh from a series of live performances which included sold-out shows at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and National Sawdust in New York, the British composer and musician now presents a new eight-track mini-album, the skies: rarities. This collection consists of reinterpretations and unreleased highlights from the skies… recording session, together with Eno’s popular 2023 World Piano Day track “Through the Blue (Piano Version)” and the former Amazon Original track “Above and Below”. Out digitally and on 12-inch vinyl on 27 September 2024, the skies: rarities also features Scoring Berlin and the singers of Vocalconsort Berlin. 

Inspired in part by the open skies and landscapes of East Anglia and the threat posed to the region’s biodiversity in our modern world, the music of the skies, they shift like chords has an elegiac feel. The same nostalgic yet vibrant tone flows through Roger Eno’s new Rarities mini-album – listen, for example, to the gentle, ethereal sound of solo piano tracks such as “Changing Light” and “Into Silence”. 

Other solo pieces include the original rework of “Through the Blue (Piano Version)” which was laid down for World Piano Day and also the original version of “Above and Below”. Neither of these fan favourites have been released before on physical format and have only appeared in different guises on the skies, they shift like chords. Reviewing his recent live performance at London’s Southbank Centre, Electronic Sound wrote, “Even without the undulating ambient landscapes that Daniel Lanois and [Eno’s] brother Brian added to the piece as producers, ‘Through the Blue’ is breathtaking.” 

This is the second “rarities” mini-album that Roger has conceived – reimaginations of the original work that began with his debut solo album on DG, The Turning Year. His latest “rarities release” begins with two tracks that explore different soundworlds; the singers of Vocalconsort Berlin provide the wordless chorus in “Patterned Ground”, for choir and electronics, while the opening piece, “Breaking The Surface”, features Scoring Berlin. They were asked to combine the notes on the score with moments of improvisation, a process central to Roger Eno’s music. As he explains: “I like the idea of treating composition as watercolour sketches, like those by the Norwich School of painters from the early 1800s, where they get what they see onto the paper with fast brushstrokes.” 

“A lot of these tracks come from improvisations, he continues. “But they’re then ‘cleaned up’, which generally means taking notes out to give the ones that remain more space, which in turn gives people time to reflect.”

Following on from his well received second album for Deutsche Grammophon, the skies, they shift like chords, Roger Eno presents a new 8-track companion mini-album, the skies: rarities. This consists of reinterpretations and unreleased highlights from the original recording session, together with the hugely popular “Through the Blue (Piano Version)”, created for World Piano Day 2023, and “Above and Below” (a former Amazon Original track). While some of the pieces are for solo piano, performed by the composer, others explore different acoustic and electronic soundworlds, with Eno joined on different tracks by guitarist Jon Goddard, Scoring Berlin’s string players and the singers of Vocalconsort Berlin. Out digitally and on vinyl on 27 September 2024, the skies: rarities features a cover design by Roger’s daughter Cecily Eno.  


“Breaking The Surface”
the skies: rarities opens with a work infused with the spirit of improvisation. “Breaking The Surface” reflects Eno’s fascination with what he calls “decomposition” – he provided the classically trained string players of Scoring Berlin with a set of notes and invited them to perform them whenever they wished, however they wished and for as long as they wished. The resulting freedom, he observes, “results in quite extraordinary effects. I love watching how musicians communicate – usually non-verbally – in an attempt to create harmony out of potential chaos. An analogy to the human condition, perhaps?”

“Patterned Ground”
Originally conceived for a cappella chamber choir, “Patterned Ground”, for wordless chorus and electronics was created in partnership with producer Christian Badzura (DG’s Vice President A&R New Repertoire) and the singers of Vocalconsort Berlin. “This version is far more disconcerting, taking us into darker corners, maybe suggesting hidden ceremonies and strange rites,” comments Eno.

“Above And Below”
“Above And Below”, originally a commissioned track, presented the composer with the challenge of distilling many ideas into a work intended to stand alone and not as part of a larger whole. “I decided to base it on a sense of flow of waves,” explains Eno. “It’s a flow of one chord throughout, although the ear tells you that things are changing, which they do very subtly.” This version gets its first physical release on the skies: rarities. Eno’s string quartet arrangement, “Above And Below (Crepuscular)”, appears on the skies, they shift like chords.

“Through The Blue (Piano Version)”
Made for World Piano Day 2023, this intimate version of Through The Blue offers an alternative take on the haunting original that opened Eno’s first solo album, Voices (1985; produced by Daniel Lanois, effects/treatments by Brian Eno). Roger recorded this version on Christian Badzura’s beloved upright piano, giving the music a new depth of personal expression, still melancholy but with extra warmth and lyricism. “Both Christian and I have a soft spot for this track,” says Eno. It too gets its first physical release on the skies: rarities. A grand-piano version, “Through The Blue (St Swithin’s)”, can be heard on the skies, they shift like chords.

“Now And Then”
The coincidence of two physical objects gave rise to “Now And Then”. The solo piano piece came into being after Eno bought a Bechstein upright made in 1904. “I was playing one night and my grandfather clock was ticking – ‘tick tock, tick tock’ – and so the piece got its rhythmic influence from that clock, which in turn gave me the idea for the title,” he recalls.

“Changing Light”  
Repeating patterns and imperceptible change merge on this track, where time appears to stand still. “‘Changing Light’,” says Eno, “is based on a method of working, if you like: it’s the use of an ostinato, above it a gently changing melody, and beneath it an occasionally changing bass. The impression I wanted to give was of standing in twilight, as the light changes around you.”

“Time Will Tell”
Emptiness, the deep feeling of letting go, stands at the heart of this piece. There’s an unsettling fragility about “Time Will Tell”, present in its yearning intervals and chiming discords. Yet its shifting harmonies and brief silences also harbour a sense of hope. The composition appears to end with a question mark.

“Into Silence”
Here, a beacon of sound shines above the shifting piano tides below. It was supplied by Roger Eno’s long-time friend and colleague Jon Goddard, on his “noctilucent guitar”, like those rare clouds occasionally seen high in the night sky. “This sustained high element acts as a constant to the changes occurring below,” notes the composer. “Jon helped me enormously here giving the piece a particular flavour it would otherwise have lacked. For this I thank him.”