DIGITALLY YOURS

David Byrne and Brian Eno have teamed up again to release a new album on the Internet

David Byrne and Brian Eno have teamed up again to release a new album on the Internet
Beginning in the late summer of 1979 and continuing well into the fall of 1980, David Byrne and Brian Eno were holed up in five recording studios in New York and Los Angeles, piecing together rainbow glints of sound. Using analog technology, the art-rock duo doggedly tried to synchronise sampled voices with their multi-layered instrumental tracks.

With no digital sequencing software, the process was tedious and often frustrating. However, the two still managed to come up with richly evocative, even groundbreaking music. The album, 8216;My Life in the Bush of Ghosts8217;, was finally released in early 1981.

Fast-forward 27 years, Byrne and Eno decide to collaborate on another album. This time the new set, 8216;Everything That Happens Will Happen Today8217;, doesn8217;t take nearly as long to make. The two are never together in the studio. In fact, they8217;re never in the same country during the entire process. Eno is in his London studio while Byrne is at home in New York.

8220;Brian had some tracks and wanted me to write some words and tunes. Years ago, that would have implied going into the studio together,8221; says Byrne. 8220;Now we can just e-mail the tracks back and forth. I would record vocals over whatever he implemented and send him back an MP3 and say, 8216;Here8217;s my idea.8217; It8217;s amazing how easy it is once you get the technical glitches worked out.8221;
Once the album was done, Byrne and Eno decided to digitally release the album via everythingthathappens.com.

8220;The record didn8217;t cost us very much,8221; says Byrne, who8217;s probably best-known as a founding member and chief songwriter for the Talking Heads. 8220;We hadn8217;t made a deal with a record company. But did we need it? We put our money where our mouth is and did it ourselves. We hired people to build a website around it, which is more than what a starting artist could do.8221;

Last year, the rock band Radiohead initially released its latest album, 8216;In Rainbows8217;, as an exclusive digital download, whistling in a new distribution trend for established acts. But the group let fans decide how much they wanted to pay for the music. On their site, Byrne and Eno offer three formats at different prices:

8220;So far it8217;s paid back the recording costs and costs for building the website,8221; Byrne said. 8220;But you can8217;t pay the rent by breaking even. It8217;s easy for Brian and I because we8217;re a known entity. But we8217;re all going to need help on the marketing end.8221;

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With no expensive, all-encompassing ad campaign, 8216;Everything That Happens8217; has still attracted fans. 8216;Strange Overtones8217;, an amorphous but funky standout and a free stream available from the album, was downloaded more than 40,000 times in the first three days it was available. Eno8217;s arrangements remain eerily strange but accessible while Byrne8217;s lyrics take on a spiritual context. Biblical allusions and images of redemption abound.

8220;Upon starting this project, we quickly realised we were making something like electronic gospel,8221; Eno says. 8220;This notion tapped into my long love affair with gospel music, which, curiously was inadvertently initiated by David and the Talking Heads.8221;
_ Rashod D. Ollison, LATWP