Brian Eno, ‘Textures’ CD (Standard Music Library, ESL 003)

If you are not already familiar with it, ‘Textures’ is a CD by Brian Eno that has never been commercially available to the public, instead only a limited, promotional-only release, intended as a stock library music source for licensing by film and television makers, released by Standard Music Library, cat. no. ESL 003.

Despite its limited availability, it appears that it has been issued a few times, so this particular sleeve design is not the only one available.

Although all the titles may appear unfamiliar, much of the music on the CD has been released on regular CDs, mostly ‘The Shutov Assembly’, though much of it remains exclusive to this CD, at least to date.

Tracklisting is:

1. Soft Dawn (2:19)
2. The Water Garden (2:53)
3. Shaded Water (3:16)
4. Suspicions (4:14)
5. Ozone (1:42)
6. Landscape With Haze (4:06)
7. Mirage (3:20)
8. River Mist (4:33)
9. Constant Dreams (3:57)
10. Dark Dreams (3:07)
11. Black Planet (2:52)
12. Night Thoughts (3:37)
13. Travellers (3:52)
14. Evil Thoughts (2:01)
15. Darkness (1:24)
16. Jungles (2:00)
17. Sanctuaries (1:37)
18. Menace (1:46)
19. Suspended Motion (3:43)
20. The Wild (4:22)
21. River Journey (11:14)

All tracks are composed by Brian Eno except for 3, 12 and 13 which are composed by Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno, and tracks 14-17, which are composed by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois.

The tracks which are here under another name are as follows;

• The Water Garden is Cavallino, from ‘The Shutov Assembly’
• Shaded Water is Alhondiga, from ‘The Shutov Assembly’
• Suspicions is a much shorter version of Lanzarote, from ‘The Shutov Assembly’ (and it’s worth noting that ‘Lanzarote’ itself first appeared in 1986 on a 8” flexidisc with ‘Artforum International’ magazine and titled as ‘Glint (East of Woodbridge)’.
• Mirage is Triennale, from ‘The Shutov Assembly’
• Landscape with Haze is Riverside, from ‘The Shutov Assembly’
• River Mist is Asian River from ‘Music For Films III’
• River Journey is an extended remix of Asian River from ‘Music For Films III’
• Constant Dreams is an edit of Neroli from ‘Neroli’
• Suspended Motion is Markgraph, from ‘The Shutov Assembly’
• The Wild is Stedelijk, from ‘The Shutov Assembly’

What with being intended for television and film makers, each track comes with its own brief description of the mood it evokes, so in the case of ‘Ozone’ it is ‘gently-pulsing, tinkling slightly dramatic’, while something like ‘Dark Dreams’ is ‘weird confused bizarre atmospheric’.