The serene, delicate songs on Another Green World sound practically
meditative, but the album itself was an experiment fueled by
adrenaline, panic, and pure faith. It was the first Brian Eno album to
be composed almost completely in the confines of a recording studio,
over a scant few months in the summer of 1975. The album was a proof
of concept for Eno's budding ideas of the studio as musical
instrument, and a signpost for a bold new way of thinking about
music.
In this book, Geeta Dayal unravels Another Green World's abundant
mysteries, venturing into its dense thickets of sound. How was an
album this cohesive and refined formed in such a seemingly ad hoc way?
How were electronics and layers of synthetic treatments used to create
an album so redolent of the natural world? How did a deck of cards
figure into all of this? Here, through interviews and archival
research, she unearths the strange story of how Another Green World
formed the link to Eno's future -- foreshadowing his metamorphosis
from unlikely glam rocker to sonic painter and producer.