Brian Eno is going on a solo tour with “Ships across Europe” in October – here are the facts.
Brian Eno is touring for the first time ever with a live solo show: ‘Ships’ begins October 21st in Venice, with two concerts, one at 3pm and one at 8pm. He then stops in Berlin, Germany, Paris, France and Utrecht, Netherlands. The tour will conclude with another day of two concerts on October 30th, this time at 6.30pm and 9pm in London. General sales are scheduled to begin on June 8 across Europe.
“Ships across Europe”: Everything about the solo tour
In the fall, the 75-year-old will perform his concert program entitled Ships across Europe, which is based on the 2016 album THE SHIP and features new and old compositions from his catalogue. He will be joined by the Baltic Sea Philharmonic (with conductor Kristjan Järvi), actor Peter Serafinowicz and Eno’s longtime collaborators Leo Abrahams and Peter Chilvers.
The appointments:
- 21.10. Venice, Italy – Venice Biennale Musica, Teatro la Fenice (3pm and 8pm)
- 24.10. Berlin, Germany – Berlin Philharmonic
- 26.10. Paris, France – La Seine Musicale
- 28.10. Utrecht, Netherlands – TivoliVredenburg
- 30.10. London, England – Royal Festival Hall, Southbank (6.30pm and 9pm)
Brian Eno: “I wanted a young orchestra that played from the heart – not just from the score”
In press materials, Eno said of the new tour, “The album THE SHIP is unusual in that while it uses vocals, it doesn’t particularly rely on song form. It’s an atmosphere with occasional characters drifting through it, characters lost in the vague space the music creates. It gives me a sense of war in the background and a sense of inevitability. And a sense of grandeur befitting an orchestra. Lots of people work together here.”
Eno says he envisioned an orchestra that “plays the music the way he would like to play it: from the heart and not just from the score. “I wanted the players to be young, fresh and enthusiastic.” When he saw the Baltic Sea Philharmonic for the first time, he found all of that… “and then I noticed it was named after a sea. That sealed it!”
Kristjan Järvi: “An orchestra that really is a band”
Kristjan Järvi, who will conduct and orchestrate the performances, added his thoughts as follows: “Freedom of expression is the key element in this presentation. Each person in this performance is just as important as the other. Each is just as important as the other and is not replaceable or expendable. To have an orchestra that is really a band and not an orchestra that is performing but is itself ‘the performance’, that’s what Brian and I see as unique about this collaboration.”
More about Brian Eno and THE SHIP – and current albums
Although Eno toured with Roxy Music and other artists throughout the 1970s, Eno only played sporadic one-off solo concerts, often as part of festival programs. In 2021, he and his brother Roger Eno last performed live at the Acropolis.
THE SHIP was released on April 29, 2016. Inspiration for the record included World War I and the sinking of the Titanic. “The Titanic was the ‘Unsinkable Ship’, the pinnacle of engineering, and was intended to be the greatest human triumph over nature. World War I was the ‘war of rearmament’, ‘to be finished by Christmas’, intended to be the triumph of willpower and steel over humanity. The catastrophic failure of both events paved the way for a century of dramatic experimentation with the relationship between man and the world he creates,” says Eno.
In 2022, Eno released a new album, FOREVER AND EVER NOMORE, which was not only his first album since 2017’s REFLECTION, but also his first album of mostly sung songs since 2005’s ANOTHER DAY ON EARTH. In April, ambient pioneer and Producer teamed up with FredAgain (own spelling “FredAgain..”) for a collaborative LP, SECRET LIFE.