Brian Eno

The second of three volumes in Brian Eno's Music for Films series, 1983's Music for Films, Vol. II is also Eno's first collaboration with his classically trained keyboardist brother (11 years his junior), Roger Eno, and an early example of his "Hamilton period," when his home base was Daniel Lanois' Grant Avenue Studios in this small southern Ontario city. Lanois, Roger Eno, and Michael Brook all play major roles in the writing, performing, and production on this collection (which many discographies list as a various-artists compilation for that reason), but the results are not very different from the original Music for Films: brief, atmospheric instrumental pieces in a variety of moods and musical styles, not quite as shapeless as the entries in the similarly ongoing Ambient series, but more pleasantly listenable than compelling. The set was first released as part of the now-deleted Working Backwards 1983-1973 ten-LP box set, but was later issued as a stand-alone LP and CD. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide