Brian Eno ( ) (born on 15 May, 1948, in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England), with full name Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno. He is an English electronic musician, music theorist and record producer. As a solo artist, he is best known as the father of modern ambient music.
With an art school background and inspiration from minimalism, Eno first came to prominence as the keyboard and synthesizer player of the 1970s glam and art rock band Roxy Music. After leaving the group, Eno recorded four highly idiosyncratic and original rock albums, before turning to more abstract soundscapes on records such as Discreet Music (1975) and Ambient 1/Music for Airports (1978). Since then he has made dozens of albums, many with similarly minded collaborators such as Harold Budd, Cluster, John Cale, David Byrne and Robert Fripp.
Eno also became involved in pop music collaborations beginning in the late 1970s, joining David Bowie on his avant-garde Berlin Trilogy and helping to popularise the band Devo and the punk rock-influenced "No Wave" scene. Eno is also notable for introducing the concepts of chance music to pop and rock and roll. Eno's production and songwriting credits include critical and commercial successes by Talking Heads and U2, such as Remain in Light and The Joshua Tree, as well as work with James, Slowdive, Paul Simon and the upcoming Coldplay album scheduled for release in early 2008.
Eno has pursued several artistic ventures parallel to his music career, including visual art installations, a regular column in the newspaper The Observer and, in collaboration with artist Peter Schmidt, "Oblique Strategies", a deck of cards in which each card contains a phrase or cryptic remark, intended to be drawn randomly, for the purpose of suggesting insights to break a deadlock or dilemma situation.
