Roger Eno, the skies:rarities

Roger Eno, the skies:rarities. 2024. Desutche Grammaphon. Available HERE

As I am shifting away from 24 years of equipment reviews and focusing more and more on sharing music I find, I was recently afforded the opportunity to listen to a wonderful new album by Roger Eno. The album is titled the skies:rarities available on Deutsche Grammaphon. Yes that is spelled correctly. My copy happened to be a promo copy.

I got an introduction to the music via a pre-release download and then later on with this vinyl. Have to say, the latter turned out to be more enjoyable for me. A disclaimer is in order here, just to be honest and transparent. I am normally not drawn to many solo piano pieces. So with that being said I hope you will indulge with me and join me on my journey and see what an impact it made on me.

Before I delve into the music I think it important to tell you what the system was that I was using for this review. So here is the rundown:

Cary Audio 211 Founders Edition monoblock amplifiers. They sport two 845, two 300B, one 6CA7 and one 6SL7 tube per amp running a continuous 70 watts and up to 100 watts in AB mode.
Cary Audio SLP-05 Tube Preamp a two story affair running eight 6SN7, and one 5AR4 tubes.
AirTight ATE 3011 Phono Preamp boosted by the AirTight AT H2 Step Up Transformer
Benny Audio Odyssey turntable and 14" Carbon Tonearm with the Air Tight Opus One Cartridge and a Hana Umami cartridge.
Nordost and XLO Signature cables throughout.

For the uninitiated the name Roger Eno may not ring a bell, perhaps his older brother Brian Eno may be more familiar to many. Brian is known for work with Roxy Music and collaborations with Robert Fripp and others. While Brian may be more well known he has nothing on his younger sibling in the realm of composing and musicianship.

This is Roger's latest album, and contains eight tracks featuring unreleased material from the original album sessions from the skies, they shift like chords, 2023 World Piano Day track "Through the Blue (Piano Version)" and former Amazon Original track "Above and Below."

I found it a bit hard to categorize the genre of music. It hovers between haunting piano tunes and neo-classical. Whatever genre it belongs in it is a very extraordinary album of finely crafted music.

Roger is an accomplished piano/keyboard player, and this particular album is just a small representation of what he is capable of. Small representation of very large talent.

The whole album plays more like one continuous track with small movements and slight breaks as opposed to a number of singular tracks. Each side consists of four tracks, and each seem to integrate almost seamlessly into each other so the continuity and flow of music are both relaxed and intoxicating.

Side A is full of interesting compositions. The first track, "Breaking the Surface" is an orchestral piece featuring Scoring Berlin* and conducted (as all the music is) by Roger Eno and Christian Badzura. Roger also conducted the orchestral performance. It also features Christian Badzura on synth bass. The song is mystical and haunting in nature to me.

For some reason it emoted feelings of a large Tall Ship crossing the ocean though storms and heavy fogs to finally find itself breaking through the heavy fog to get its first glimpse of land in a long journey. Full of relaxed counterpoint tension until the last few measures where it seem as though we received needed assurance and relief that land is in sight.

The second track is appropriately titled "Patterned Ground," giving me the sense of a somewhat somber Hallelujah or relief. There is a performance by the Vocalconsort Berlin* that has an almost angelic quality to it. Again the relief of making a landing on terra firma after the long journey is what I perceived the track to be.

The next track is a solo piano performance titled "Through the Blue." Almost as if the captain is taking a long trek through the land, taking in the natural beauty and wonder of a place less traveled. It paints pictures of a trek through meadows under wide open and brilliant blue skies. Alone with ones thoughts as you take in the beauty.

The final track on side A is titled "Above and Below." It seems to incite feelings of standing on a cliff looking down at the shoreline and comparing it to the elevated meadows of grass and other flowering plants adrift from the crashing surf and sparse shoreline. Stay or go? One of life's eternal conundrums to be sure. Seaside or inland? I was never sure of the choice and maybe that is the point. Sometimes life presents us with choices that are black and white in terms of outcome, but the void between the choices in not stark and easy. Perhaps no choice is the best choice. This last track includes some very sublime nocturnal guitar and synth programming from Christian that adds lower frequency flourishes coupled with Roger's piano playing. Gives some nice weight to the piece and continues in the same venue of almost melancholy discovery. Not so much a sense of any disappointment, but rather a sense of relief and resolve that this is the place we were searching for and now we have finally found it, thank God.

All in all, the side A was undoubtedly my favorite as it painted a very vivid picture in my somewhat strange mind. I always love pieces that do that, even if the intent of the performer has zero to do with the story I feel. It is the listener who gets to ultimately choose the story. That is my story and I am sticking with it.

Side B was a bit more difficult to categorize as it is four tracks of Roger and his solo piano. I guess I would definitely call it neo-classical if I had to choose a genre, and I may be dead wrong about that. All four movements are similar in feel and all of which carry a bit of the same haunting flavor.

The tracks are titled:

Now and Then
Changing Light
Time Will Tell
Into Silence

All of these pieces have the same exquisite piano touch that Roger seems to be the master of. The notes ring clear and have incredible decay. You can hear the hammers strike the strings on more aggressive passages and the level of soul that pours out of that piano is extremely moving.

The performance of these four songs do not possess any kind of rip snorting, explosive, or flamboyance of many of today's brilliant classical pianists, but rather deliberately shy of fireworks and hoopla and more focused on emoting thought and deep feeling, and not bombastic barrage of a million notes in five bars. Slow, deliberate, and perfectly timed interludes. Almost as if to say, "I want to be sure you stay right with me and follow what I am trying to project." The listener, in turn, finds themselves settling in for a pleasant and relaxing ride as if we are in a Gondola on a waterway sightseeing around the new territory. Casually taking it all in and reveling in the quiet of simply floating in the stream. All the while engrossed in the untouched and unspoiled look of a land devoid of human cruelty and destruction.

That is about the best way I can describe the music from this album. The sound and production are wonderful. The quality of the pressing is close to CD quiet, but much more intimate and completely devoid of any grain or harsh high end. Much more natural to the ears to be sure. Everything is properly balanced front to back, and the sound stage is spread out side to side and bottom to top, and with razor like focusing on the imaging. The recording brings Roger right into the listening room as though it was a very personal performance for the listener and no one else. Deeply personal and capable of transporting the listener on their very own journey without leaving the chair.

I will return to the album frequently as a great tool to use to wind down, shed the rest of the world off my shoulders for a bit, and return to that shoreline and countryside that it brought to me during this review. In the end I think the real measure of the value of any piece of music is what it emotes in the listener. Some music makes you want to get up and dance for a few minutes, others will tear at your heartstrings with lyrics of sadness, betrayal and loss. Perhaps the greatest and most difficult music to master is that which makes you leave the here and now behind to journey to a place in your mind that you may have or may not have ever been before and leaves you with a profound sense of discovery. Here is where I think the genius of Roger Eno is at its best.

I highly recommend that you get a copy and take the journey for yourself. I am rather certain you will not be sorry. Available HERE.

For more info about Scoring Berlin and Vocalconsort Berlin and how they help composers complete their musical dreams check them out at the following websites respectively: