Reflection

Brian Eno presents Reflection, his new album on Warp Records.

Returning to the grounds mapped out on Discreet Music, Music For Airports & Thursday Afternoon, Reflection is Eno's continuation of the theme of ambient; a term he coined in 1978 at a stage of his career that many consider to house his most creative output.

Reflection is a long form track in the vein of Thursday Afternoon, but where the Atmospheres and Soundtracks of that piece focused on a shimmering synth texture with piano keys slowly dropping like icicles from a cavernous ceiling.

The piece strips back the sounds to a constantly evolving drone with the keys still falling into an unbroken ocean of sound, yet this time the atmospheres are reflecting something more dark thank shark.

Mirroring perfectly Eno's idea that 'Ambient' music is a term "to distinguish it from pieces of music that have fixed duration and rhythmically connected, locked together elements". A truly captivating listen, the 54-minute duration has an effect akin to time being somewhat frozen, when digested in its entirety.

Commenting on Reflection, Eno spoke of the recording as the most realised version of his ambient music yet, one without parameters or end.