Brian Eno: ‘Sex, drugs, art… they’re all ways of surrendering’

Eno's contention is that there are four areas – religion, art, sex, drugs – in which this kind of surrender is prized. "These are areas where you stop being manipulators of your surroundings and become recipients. In religion, you stop being you and you start to become us. With drugs, you go from being you to being part of everything. In lots of So... See more

"I set up situations that involve abandoning control and finding out what happens." And now, in his most improbable guise yet, as artistic director of the 2010 Brighton festival, Eno wants to programme works that demonstrate why surrender is key to the sort of music and art that excite him. "I came to this idea because I noticed that when I set up ... See more

In the digital age, cultural artifacts are eroded by abundance. Timelines layer and compress artwork, images, and artifacts into corners of the internet. In my corner, I stumbled across a speech entitled “Perfume, Defense and David Bowie’s Wedding” delivered by Brian Eno in 1992 at the Sadler Wells Theatre in London. In it, Eno predicted the nonlin... See more

I feel totally overwhelmed by the state of the world, but I think music and creativity, to me, is a way of exploring what's possible. There's always something when I'm making music that I didn't see that comes from nowhere and appears. When you go to create something, you're opening yourself up to possibility. It is a way that I continuously touch ... See more

“I came of age at a magical time,” he reflected later. “Our consciousness was raised by Zen, and also by LSD.” Even later in life he would credit psychedelic drugs for making him more enlightened. “Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t re

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Music is all around.

It is we who turn away.

John Cage

you should read the word “I” as a name for a sort of collective of people that meets up in me. I try to keep that in mind all the time.