In September 2001 Brian and SSEYO released the worlds first 'sonified e-mail', meaning that they embedded a piece of music into an e-mail. Hardly groundbreaking, but interesting as it was the first time it had been done with a generative in SSEYO Koan Vector Audio format on such a scale. They made a big deal of it and you can can see the press release if you are interested. The original e-mail included the right to 'forward it to anyone you think would be interested' so here it is, embedded into this page. You will need the latest version of the SSEYO plugin
This is not the first time that Brian has used SSEYO technology, he released -Generative 1- an album of generative KOAN pieces and has been interested in developing automatic music generation systems. The Partobject exhibition in the US in 2000 was also based on KOAN pieces, but 'Wander' is the first public release of a SSEYO KOAN piece since 1995.
Does this signify a possible -Generative 2-? Time will tell, but if so, it might be another collaboration. Brian never really did seem that comfortable with creating KOAN pieces, and this latest effort was reprogrammed by Tim Mark Didymus.
Eno once said that the most interesting thing about computers were the screensavers, although he seems to like to manipulate images of women's breasts and bottoms as well. He recently criticised musicians who allowed technology to take over from the creative process. There has been a mild ripple of discontent over that comment, as Eno himself could be accused of over reliance on technology with little apparent creative control in his use of KOAN and other automatic systems.
Eno's has always seemed to enjoy being involved with technology, but to some extent it does not seem to be something he has a natural ability to fully exploit.
Fancy a bit of a play? Have a go on Eno's Head.
'Wander' by Brian Eno, reprogrammed by Tim Mark Didymus. (c) 2001 Opal Music. All Rights Reserved.