''Reflection'' is the twenty-eighth studio album by English musician

Brian Eno Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his contributions to ambient music and work in rock, pop an ...

, released on 1 January 2017 on

Warp Records Warp Records (or simply Warp) is a British independent record label founded in Sheffield in 1989 by record store employees Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell and record producer Robert Gordon.Southern, Richard (2003) "Label of Love: WARP", X-RAY, A ...

. It is a piece of

generative Generative may refer to: * Generative actor, a person who instigates social change * Generative art, art that has been created using an autonomous system that is frequently, but not necessarily, implemented using a computer * Generative music, mus ...

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...

produced by Eno, which plays indefinitely via an app, modulating its output at different times of the day. A pre-recorded version of the album is available on CD and vinyl, which runs for 54 minutes. Digital streaming versions of the album update on a seasonal basis. It was nominated for the 2017 Grammy Award for Best New Age Album.

Background

''Reflection'' was released as part of Eno's series of ambient albums. Its structure is similar to that of ''

Thursday Afternoon ''Thursday Afternoon'' is the tenth solo studio album by British ambient musician Brian Eno consisting of one 60-minute eponymous composition. It is the rearranged soundtrack to an 80-minute video production of the same title made in 1984. ...

'' (1985), an earlier album of his that consists of a single track that runs for 60 minutes in length. ''Reflection'' has a length of 54 minutes. Eno decided on its title as the piece "makes imthink back. It makes me think things over. It seems to create a psychological space that encourages internal conversation. And external ones actually—people seem to enjoy it as the background to their conversations". He considers the work the most sophisticated of all his ambient releases, and that the physical editions are a mere static excerpt of the "full" piece contained in the iOS app.

Release

On 1 January 2017, an album listening event was held at several Rough Trade shops worldwide. During the event, an edition of ''Reflection'' limited to 500 copies was available on CD, where each disc contained a "uniquely generated, one-of-a-kind" version of the piece inside of an autographed case sleeve. Subsequently, 1 April, 1 July, and 9 October saw Eno release a new excerpt of the generative piece to streaming services

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and

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, with varying lengths (the "autumn" iteration being 65:24 in length.) Each of these seasonal excerpts took the place of the previous version to represent the album. The generative

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

app also received updates on these same days.

Track listing

Written, recorded, and produced by Brian Eno.

Critical reception

Upon release, ''Reflection'' received positive reviews from critics. Writing for

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

, Kitty Empire wrote, "The overall effect is deeply, magnificently peaceful, meditative, even; ambient certainly monopolises certain sections of the thesaurus."

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. *

– writer, performer, producer Additional personnel *

Peter Chilvers Peter Chilvers was an inventor, engineer and promoter of sailing and windsurfing. He is credited with an early version of a sail powered surfboard. He died from lung cancer on 26 February 2015. Life Chilvers had been an engineer for Lotus an ...

– mutation software Production * Matt Colton – mastering at Alchemy Studios *Brian Eno – cover image, photography *Nick Robertson – layout, design

Charts

References

External links

*Official Eno and album website a
Brian-Eno.net
{{Authority control 2017 albums Brian Eno albums Albums produced by Brian Eno Warp (record label) albums Ambient albums by British artists