STEREO

Reviewed by Randal McIlroy

Brian Eno

Foreverandevernomore

(Opal/Universal)

A one-year diary commissioned from Brian Eno was an uncharacteristically dry and windy business, but for the sparkling accounts of rock’s greatest conceptualist dancing to old rock’n’roll with his young daughters. Foreverandevernomore is that father worrying for his family and an imperiled planet; “these billion years will end” he rues in “Garden of Stars,” before hymnal quietude is threatened by a rattle of static. There is no preaching, and the music overall is more pensive than threatening. The mood, indeed, is cosmic; the graceful “Inclusion” is imbued with the blended wonder and sorrow upon studying the night sky, and some reassurance may be gleaned from the long, closing “Making Gardens Out of Silence,” where placid pillows of synthesizers muffle ominous booms and rattling percussion.

JON BALKE/SIWAN

Hafla

(eCM/Universal)

Norwegian composer Jon Balke’s recent solo music on Warp and Discourses (both ECM) has set thoughtful, unhurried piano over an electronic undergrowth of sound, from field recordings to barely heard newscasts, contrasting foreground and background for intriguing surface tension. Siwan explores its own contrasts, with poetry from Al-Andalus (historically, Muslim holdings in Spain), lifted by the strings of forwardthinking baroque ensemble, Baroksolistene, and an international cast led by the rich, wistful singing of Algerian Mona Boutchebak. “Uquállibu” is a thrilling starting point, with its lusty strings and percussion and spectral keyboard.

Pink Floyd

Animals (2018 Remix)

(pink FlOyd reCOrds/sOny)

Many remixed editions are valuable only as a cash grab – catnip for completists. Not this one. James Guthrie’s overhaul of Pink Floyd’s darkest and most claustrophobic, text-heavy album, its release delayed by squabbles, opens windows to welcome light and fresh air. Better separation of instruments brings out more power from Nick Mason’s drums, reveals new details in Richard Wright’s keyboards and amplifies the sound effects of woofs, oinks and baas to emphasize Roger Waters’s Animal Farm-style depiction of a population divided between voracious dogs, gluttonous pigs and vulnerable sheep. Despite its dour worldview, Animals remains engaging, thanks largely to David Gilmour’s full-frontal guitar, which still thrills as it breaks the tension in the tightly coiled “Sheep.” No music has been added, but the expanded packaging offers multiple shots from the arresting original cover, for which a giant, inflatable pig was sent adrift over London’s Battersea Power Station.