jmtd → log → Luminal and Lateral

For my birthday I was gifted copies of Eno's last two albums, Luminal and Lateral, both of which are collaborations with Beatie Wolfe.

Let's start with the art. I love this semi-minimalist, bold style, and how the LP itself (in their coloured, bio-vinyl variants) feels like it's part of the artwork. I like the way the artist credits mirror each other: Wolfe, Eno for Luminal; Eno, Wolfe for Lateral.

My first "bio vinyl" LP was the Cure's last one, last year. Ahead of it arriving I planned to blog about it, but when it came arrived it turned out I had nothing interesting to say. In terms of how it feels, or sounds, it's basically the same as the traditional vinyl formulation.

The attraction of bio-vinyl to well-known environmentalists like Eno (and I guess, the Cure) is the reduced environmental impact due to changing out the petroleum and other ingredients with recycled used cooking oil. You can read more about bio-vinyl if you wish. I try not to be too cynical about things like this; my immediate response is to assume some kind of green-washing PR campaign (I'm currently reading Consumed by Saabira Chaudhuri, an excellent book that is not sadly only fuelling my cynicism) but I know Eno in particular takes this stuff seriously and has likely done more than a surface-level evaluation. So perhaps every little helps.

On to the music. The first few cuts I heard from the albums earlier in the year didn't inspire me much. Possibly I heard something from Luminal, the vocal album; and I'm generally more drawn to Eno's ambient work. (Lateral is ambient instrumental). I was not otherwise familiar with Beatie Wolfe. On returning to the albums months later, I found them more compelling. Luminal reminds me a little of Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks. Lateral worked well as space music for phd-correction sessions.

The pair recently announced a third album, Liminal, to arrive in October, and totally throw off the symmetry of the first two. Two of its tracks are available to stream now in the usual places.