Brian Eno is heading out on his first-ever solo tour later this year.
He will present a show called ‘Ships’ during a run of European dates following a commission from La Biennale di Venezia. The run of gigs kicks off on October 21 at Teatro la Fenice as the centre piece of the 2023 Venice Biennale Musica, with Eno set to perform alongside an orchestra, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, for the first time.
The show will take in an orchestral adaptation of Eno’s 2016 album The Ship, as well as a number of other new and classic compositions by the artist. The performance also features a cameo appearance from the actor Peter Serafinowicz, as well as support from long-time collaborators in the form of guitarist Leo Abrahams and programmer and keyboardist Peter Chilvers.
Following the premiere performance at Venice Biennale Musica, Eno will take the show to Philharmonie Berlin (October 24), Paris’ La Seine Musicale (26), TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht (28) and London’s Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Centre.
Speaking about the tour, Eno said: "The album The Ship is an unusual piece in that it uses voice but doesn’t particularly rely on the song form. It’s an atmosphere with occasional characters drifting through it, characters lost in the vague space made by the music. There’s a sense of wartime in the background, and a sense of inevitability. There is also a sense of scale which suits an orchestra, and a sense of many people working together.
"I wanted an orchestra which played music the way I would like to play music: from the heart rather than just from the score. I wanted the players to be young and fresh and enthusiastic. When I first saw the Baltic Sea Philharmonic I found all that… and then noticed they were named after a sea. That sealed it!"
The tour follows on from the release in 2022 of Eno’s 22nd studio album, FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE.
