NEWS
Brian Eno and Beatie Wolfe have announced two collaborative albums together, ‘Luminal’ and ‘Lateral’. Listen to the pair of lead singles below.
The renowned musician, producer and songwriter has teamed up with Anglo-American conceptual artist and composer Wolfe on the dual project.
They first met through their environmental work when they gave a SXSW featured talk on ‘Art And Climate’ – which was recently selected as one of the Austin festival’s best in 25 years.
Eno and Wolfe then came together again when they were each showcasing their visual and conceptual art pieces at separate galleries in London. It was these meetings that eventually led to the duo’s musical collaboration.
Both ‘Luminal’ and ‘Lateral’ are due for release on June 6 via Verve. The material on the former is described as “dream music”, while the latter is “space music”. Fans can get a taste of what to expect with two lead singles: ‘Suddenly’ (from ‘Luminal’) and ‘Big Empty Country (Edit)’ (‘Lateral’).
Watch the two official visualisers below. You can pre-order/pre-save the albums here (‘Luminal’) and here (‘Lateral’).
The two albums were recorded sporadically by the pair throughout 2024. In a joint statement about their new work together, Eno and Wolfe explained: “Music is about making feelings happen.
“Some of those feelings are familiar, while others may not be – or may be complex mixtures of several different feelings. There are many beautiful words for such feelings in other languages and cultures – words that don’t exist in English. By giving a feeling a name, we make that feeling more likely to be felt, more tangible.”
They continued: “Art is able to trigger feelings, or feeling mixtures, that we’ve never quite felt before. In this way, a piece of art can become the ‘mother’ for a type of feeling, and a place you can go to find and re-experience that feeling.”
The two artists went on to list numerous words that reflected “some of the feelings we found ourselves working with” on the LPs. These were:
Ailyak (Bulgarian)… going slow, enjoying the process
Commuovere (Italian)… the experience of being moved
Dor (Romanian)… longing or belonging
Duende (Spanish)… getting the shivers
Fèath (Gaelic)… stillness, peace
Gezelligheid (Dutch)… warm intimacy
Ilinx (French)… strange excitement from play
Jijivisha (Sanskrit)… life lived fully
Liget (Filipino)… fiery energy, life spark
Merak (Serbian)… at one with the Universe
Meraki (Greek)… to pour yourself into something
Mono no aware (Japanese)… appreciation of life’s transience
Onsra (Boro)… the anticipation of losing love
Pronoia (Greek)… the opposite of paranoia
Sisu (Finnish)… determination, grit
Torschlusspanik (German)… fear of time running out
Ya’aburnee (Arabic)… not wanting to live in a world without someone
The CD and exclusive colour vinyl editions of ‘Luminal’ and ‘Lateral’ were manufactured using eco-friendly materials. Check out the full tracklists below.
‘Milky Sleep’
‘Hopelessly At Ease’
‘My Lovely Days’
‘Play On’
‘Shhh’
‘Suddenly’
‘A Ceiling And Lifeboat’
‘And Live Again’
‘Breath March’
‘Never Was It Now’
‘What We Are’
CD
‘Big Empty Country’
Vinyl
‘Big Empty Country’ (Day)
‘Big Empty Country’ (Night)
Digital
‘Big Empty Country Pt. I’
‘Big Empty Country Pt. II’
‘Big Empty Country Pt. III’
‘Big Empty Country Pt. IV’
‘Big Empty Country Pt. V’
‘Big Empty Country Pt. VI’
‘Big Empty Country Pt. VII’
‘Big Empty Country Pt. VIII’
Last month saw Eno surprise-release a new solo album, ‘Aurum’, marking his latest solo full-length release since 2022’s ‘FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE’.
The record arrived exclusively on Apple Music due to its use of the service’s spatial-audio technology, meaning the record won’t be available on Spotify or other streaming platforms.
Eno also opened up about using Apple’s spatial audio technology and touched on the topic of AI.
“The biggest problem for me about AI is not intrinsic to AI,” he explained. “It’s to do with the fact that it’s owned by the same few people, and I have less and less interest in what those people think, and more and more criticisms of what the effect of their work has been.”
Following ‘FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE’, Eno teamed up with Fred Again.. for the collaborative 2023 record ‘Secret Life’.
Haim have offered an early glimpse into their next album, telling NME that New York has been fueling their creativity and that they are “always writing”.
Also read: Este Haim discusses scoring Bella Ramsey film Sunny Dancer and Haim’s fifth album shaped by New York
The Los Angeles group, featuring siblings Danielle, Este and Alana Haim, put out their fourth studio album, ‘I Quit’, during the summer of 2025.
During a recent conversation with NME, Este spoke about creating the soundtrack for the new Bella Ramsey movie Sunny Dancer with Zachary Dawes, known for his work with Lana Del Rey and The Last Shadow Puppets. The bassist was also asked whether Haim had started developing fresh music.
“Haim business is open for business, 24 hours, seven days a week,” the musician responded. “We’re always writing, we’re always thinking about what the next thing is going to sound like.”
Still, Este indicated that the sisters are not rushing into their fifth album and plan to give themselves enough space to discover new ideas. She explained that she “just want[s] to live in it a little bit and experience life”.
“I want to revel in being married for a minute,” Este went on. “I didn’t get married until I was 39, so now I want to enjoy it and stop and smell the roses for a little bit.”
Discussing what has been sparking ideas for Haim and possibly influencing the direction of their upcoming project, Este pointed to the time she has spent in New York and the friendships she has been able to revisit there.
“I’ve really found New York to be very inspiring. Being here and reconnecting with friends that I went to college with and didn’t have the chance to hang out with because I was living in LA has been really great.
“And the energy in New York, I’ve really been thriving in it. You go outside of your door and you’re in the shit; you are in the flow whether you like it or not. I’ve found it really inspiring – just the energy and the sounds of New York, it’s so different for me.”
Asked how those surroundings might eventually translate into Haim’s music, Este kept the details under wraps, saying: “We’ll have to wait and see! I don’t know the answers yet, but I’m having a great time figuring it out!”
Este has also worked with Christopher Stracey on the music for the upcoming Callum Turner film One Night Only. Her previous composing credits include Netflix’s Maid and the Sydney Sweeney romantic comedy Anyone But You.
She takes on the role of Aura in Sunny Dancer as well. Meanwhile, her sister and fellow Haim member Alana Haim has appeared in The Mastermind, The Drama and One Battle After Another within roughly the last year.
Haim marked the arrival of ‘I Quit’ last summer by playing an unannounced performance at Glastonbury Festival. After completing a run of North American dates, the trio embarked on a UK arena tour later that year.
‘I Quit’ earned a place on NME’s ranking of the 50 best albums released in 2025, while ‘Relationships’ was included among the publication’s standout songs of the year. A deluxe version followed in October, adding ‘Tie You Down’, a collaboration with Bon Iver.
Awarding the original release four stars, NME said: “‘I Quit’ is set at a crossroads in the grieving process, when lessons have already been learned, but the pain of memories still linger.
“But this is still a Haim album, and their songs never linger on despair, are never far from the warmth of their sisterhood. They’re no longer the pop group you once knew, but this record is proof that sometimes, you really do need to let go in order to grow.”
