I Dormienti

Last updated

I Dormienti
I Dormienti.jpg
Studio album by
Released1999
Recorded1999
Genre Ambient
Length39:40
Label Opal
Producer Brian Eno
Brian Eno chronology
Lightness: Music for the Marble Palace
(1998)
I Dormienti
(1999)
Kite Stories
(1999)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]

I Dormienti is the seventeenth solo studio album Brian Eno, released in 1999. [2] It is also the title of an art-book by Eno and Italian painter, sculptor and set designer Mimmo Paladino, released in 2000, packaged with a copy of the album and featuring pictures & sketches of the installation from which the music is drawn. The music on the album is taken from an installation that took place at the undercroft of the Roundhouse, Chalk Farm Road, Camden, London, from 9 September to 6 October 1999.

Contents

The event featured the works of Eno and Paladino, who became established in the early 80's as one of the main exponents of the so-called Transavanguardia, a form of neo-expressionism and lyrical abstraction. This was the second of his exhibitions; the first did not feature Eno's collaboration. [3]

Overview

An Opal release, with no catalogue number, this title is only currently available from EnoShop. [4]

The exhibition was in the form of drawings and terracota sculptures – about 30 reclining figures with about 20 attendant crocodiles he called I Dormienti, "The Sleepers". The publicity notice said of it, "in the centre of a labyrinth of tunnels", Paladino created "an installation of primordial life forms" that were accompanied by Eno's "unique sound and light production". [5] In actuality, Eno had nothing to do with the lighting; illumination was provided by the venue's dim emergency lights, which imparted a pallor to the sculptures and drawings.

The music came from well-concealed speakers and consisted mainly of a three-note Neroli -esque sequence, and electronic noise. In his recent installations at Bonn and Amsterdam, stories spoken very slowly, one or two words at a time, were used in the performance, and here the method was developed further with treated, sampled voices speaking in syllables – an idea which would be used in his next album, Kite Stories.

The material condensed onto the album in a single track consists of ten or so layers of the aforementioned syllables, speech excerpts, the standard Eno treated piano, and various drones and echoes.

The book

The book was edited by Demetrio Paparoni and published by Alberico Cetti Serbelloni Editore of Milan, in 2000, ISBN   88-88098-00-3. Two editions were printed:

It features a five-colour "pentachrome" printing-process, 250 gram card stock, silk screen printed cloth cover, protective sleeve, monochrome and colour photographs by Peppe Avallone of the Roundhouse exhibition, sketches by Paladino and Eno, a dialogue between the two artists, and the text is in Italian and English. 108 pages, 1214 × 1214 inches.

The CD is also included, with a different label from the album.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Brian Eno

No.TitleLength
1."I Dormienti"39:40
Total length:39:40

Related Research Articles

Oblique Strategies is a card-based method for promoting creativity jointly created by musician/artist Brian Eno and multimedia artist Peter Schmidt, first published in 1975. Physically, it takes the form of a deck of 7-by-9-centimetre printed cards in a black box. Each card offers a challenging constraint intended to help artists break creative blocks by encouraging lateral thinking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Phillips (artist)</span> English artist (1937–2022)

Trevor Thomas Phillips was an English visual artist. He worked as a painter, printmaker and collagist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Schmidt (artist)</span>

Peter Schmidt was a Berlin-born British artist, painter, theoretician of color and composition, pioneering multimedia exhibitor and an influential teacher at Watford College of Art. He was part of a generation of art school teachers in the 1960s and 1970s who had great impact on some students who later went on to work in art and music. He worked with Hansjörg Mayer, Brian Eno, Mark Boyle, Dieter Roth and had associations with Russell Mills, David Toop and Tom Phillips.

Bruce Conner was an American artist who worked with assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography.

Russell Mills is a British artist who was born in Ripon, Yorkshire, England in 1952. He has produced record covers and book covers for Brian Eno, the Cocteau Twins, Michael Nyman, David Sylvian, Peter Gabriel, and Nine Inch Nails.

<i>The Shutov Assembly</i> 1992 studio album by Brian Eno

The Shutov Assembly is the twelfth solo studio album by Brian Eno, released on 10 November 1992 on Opal via Warner Bros. Records. One of Eno's ambient albums, it was reissued in 2014 with a second disc with bonus tracks. It is considered the follow-up to Nerve Net, which was released that same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans-Joachim Roedelius</span> German musician and composer (born 1934)

Hans-Joachim Roedelius is a German electronic musician and composer, best known as a co-founder of the influential 'kosmische' groups Cluster and Harmonia. He also performed in the ambient jazz trio Aquarello, and released several solo studio albums.

<i>A Year with Swollen Appendices</i>

A Year with Swollen Appendices is a book by Brian Eno. The paperback book was published by Faber and Faber in 1996 and is divided into two sections. The first part is a diary covering the year 1995, the second part, the 'swollen appendices' of the title is a collection of essays, short stories and correspondence. It was re-released with a new introduction by the author in 2021.

<i>Music for Civic Recovery Centre</i> 2000 studio album by Brian Eno

Music for Civic Recovery Centre is the nineteenth solo studio album by Brian Eno, released in 2000. Part of Eno's Quiet Club series of Installations, is Eno's third release that has a sole composition.

<i>Kite Stories</i> 1999 studio album by Brian Eno

Kite Stories is the eighteenth solo studio album from Brian Eno, released in 1999 by Opal Music.

<i>Compact Forest Proposal</i> 2001 studio album by Brian Eno

"Compact Forest Proposal" is the twentieth solo studio album from Brian Eno, released in February 2001.

<i>Lightness: Music for the Marble Palace – The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg</i> 1997 studio album by Brian Eno

"Lightness" is the sixteenth solo studio album by Brian Eno, released in 1997, and re-released in 2000 by Opal Music. The music on the album was made for an Installation—a show featuring music and visuals—that took place at the Marble Palace in Saint Petersburg, which accommodates permanent exhibitions of the State Russian Museum, from November to mid-December 1997.

<i>Extracts from Music for White Cube, London 1997</i> 1997 studio album by Brian Eno

Extracts from Music for White Cube, London 1997 is the seventeenth solo studio album from British musician Brian Eno, released in 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mimmo Paladino</span> Italian sculptor, painter and printmaker

Mimmo Paladino is an Italian sculptor, painter and printmaker. He is a leading name in the Transvanguardia artistic movement and one of the many European artists to revive Expressionism in the 1980s.

Transavantgarde or Transavanguardia is the Italian version of Neo-expressionism, an art movement that swept through Italy and the rest of Western Europe in the late 1970s and 1980s. The term transavanguardia was coined by Italian art critic Achille Bonito Oliva, originating in the "Aperto '80" at the Venice Biennale, and literally means beyond the avant-garde.

<i>Lux</i> (Brian Eno album) 2012 album by Brian Eno

Lux is the twenty-fifth solo studio album from Brian Eno, released through Warp on 13 November 2012. The album is a collection of ambient soundscapes that have been installed in art galleries and airport terminals. Critical reception has positively compared it with Eno's previous ambient work and noted that it is both relaxing as well as challenging music for those who engage it critically. In 2013, Brian Eno created a number of limited edition prints featuring the cover artwork from Lux made available only from his website.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Eno</span> British musician (born 1948)

Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, also known by the mononym Eno, is an English musician, composer, record producer and visual artist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambient music and electronica, and for producing, recording, and writing works in rock and pop music. A self-described "non-musician", Eno has helped introduce unconventional concepts and approaches to contemporary music. He has been described as one of popular music's most influential and innovative figures. In 2019, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Roxy Music.

Costantino D'Orazio is an Italian art critic and curator.

Artiscope is a Brussels art gallery specialized in contemporary American and European artists. Artiscope Gallery has organized exhibitions in collaboration with many museums in Belgium and Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myfanwy Macleod</span> Canadian artist (born 1961)

Myfanwy MacLeod is a Canadian artist who lives, and works, in Vancouver, British Columbia. She has exhibited work in Canada, the United States of America, and Europe. MacLeod received an award from La Fondation André Piolat (1995), and a VIVA award from the Doris and Jack Shadbolt Foundation (1999). She has work in public, and private collections, including at the National Art Gallery of Canada, and the Vancouver Art Gallery.

References

  1. I Dormienti at AllMusic
  2. "I Dormienti Brian Eno". ProgArchives. 16 November 2016.
  3. "Paladino/Eno – 'I dormienti', 1999". James Putnam Inventory. 16 November 2016.
  4. "I Dormienti Brian Eno". EnoShop. 16 November 2016.
  5. "I Dormienti Brian Eno". DarkShark. 16 November 2016.