Lateral

Album review

These two were made for each other: for a series of three albums on Verve, Brian Eno, the ambient music pioneer who is always a step ahead of the rest, has joined forces with Beatie Wolfe, the London musician known for her out-there projects like sending music into space, or an installation that visually represents rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere. The two artists first met at a karaoke bar in Korea and quickly found common ground in their aversion toward NFTs. A joint conference held at SXSW in 2022 on the topic of art and climate change sealed the deal. The duo soon found themselves in Eno’s studio, where they forged a bond that can be heard throughout these two records, Luminal and Lateral.

On Luminal, she sings, she plays the Omnichord, the melodica, the ukulele…and Eno does what he does best: surround her in beauty, using little more than an old guitar, giving the album a jittery synth-folk/folktronica feel. It must be said: this collab works like a dream. Given such perfect harmony, it makes sense for the two artists to have dropped Lateral at the same time. This purely instrumental album with Eno on synth and Wolf on guitar playing variations on “Big Empty Country” is a record for calming the nerves. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz