Warp

“Sound-only movies” is how Brian Eno describes the music on his debut album for Warp Records, a label that has seemingly spent the last 20 years grooming itself for his inevitable arrival. Working alongside frequent 21st century collaborators – British electronic music wunderkind Jon Hopkins and experimental guitar hero Leo Abrahams – Small Craft on a Milk Sea continues the soundtrack explorations that the trio began while working on the score to Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Lovely Bones. These experiments are evidenced on the ghostly piano-driven ambience of tracks like “Complex Heaven” and “Emerald and Stone.” Improvised, rhythmically daring nods to his past work with Cluster, David Byrne and Robert Fripp are counterbalanced the quieter moments, making this 15-track Sea journey the most well-rounded instrumental album of Eno’s vanguard 40-year career.