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’.
NEWS
Lola Young has joined forces with Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) to release a new T shirt for the charity’s Lifelines collection.
The shirt supports CALM’s suicide prevention work, with proceeds helping to fund vital resources such as its helpline and CALMzone mental health app.
CALM introduced the Lifelines range last year, with Fontaines D.C., Blossoms and Inhaler also contributing their own designs to the collection.
Young’s design includes the words, “There’s a flicker of light. There’s always morning after the night”, taken from her track ‘Flicker Of Light’.
“I wrote this song about realising there is hope. I have often felt like there isn’t, but there is always a reason to keep going,” Young said. “That’s even when you don’t want to get out of bed, you do, and that is amazing, and you’re still here, and you’re still alive, and if anything, that’s something to be proud of.”
CALM CEO Simon Gunning also shared his appreciation for the collaboration, saying: “We couldn’t be more grateful to Lola for supporting ‘Lifelines’ and showing just how powerful music can be as a force for good.”
Priced at £30, the T shirts come in both standard and boxy fits and are available to purchase here.
Young has regularly spoken about her experiences with mental health. She returned to performing earlier this year after calling off her 2025 tour because of exhaustion. The decision followed her collapse during a performance in New York City. During her time away, she later discussed receiving support for addiction and attending AA meetings as part of her recovery.
In an interview with NME in May, Young explained that she believes “all healing journeys are never ending”, although she is now “definitely in a much better place”. She also said she feels “excited and ready to perform and to release music”.
Reflecting on the encouragement she received after publicly discussing those challenges, Young said: “My fans inspire me in the same way I hope to inspire them. I feel like I’ve never tried to be especially honest… it just comes very naturally to me.”
“I don’t really have any other choice but to be honest, so if people connect to that, and that’s amazing.”
Several musicians have also applauded the ‘Messy’ singer for honestly addressing the pressure placed on touring performers. Lily Allen said she was “in awe” of the BRIT and Grammy winner, while Victoria Canal credited Young with bringing greater attention to the damaging impact demanding tour schedules can have on artists’ mental wellbeing.
When NME asked whether musicians were beginning to establish firmer boundaries around their health, Young replied: “I never intended it to start a movement, but I hope that it does in some way.”
