Brian Eno has compared the modern editing craze as a disease that wipes out forethought and care in the creative process.
“I went to a movie the other evening,” he said in an interview with The Telegraph, “and it made me think a lot about the danger of editing. Editing is now the easiest thing on Earth to do, and all the things that evolved out of word processing - “Oh let’s put that sentence there, let’s get rid of this” have become commonplace in films and music too.
“There used to be a sort of barrier because it was a physically destructive process. When you were actually cutting film or tape, you did it with some forethought and care, because those steps weren’t so easily revocable, you couldn’t just put it back. Whereas now editing is like a disease. It drives me completely mad.”
Eno’s reputation was built of moving with technology. His latest album ‘Small Craft On A Milk Sea’ sounds as if it was plucked straight out of the future.
In the past he has injected new life into bands like U2 and Coldplay with his skills in the studio.
“One of the things I always try to do when I’m working in the studio is to cut out choices, because there are too many,” he said in the interview after comparing music to a Chinese restaurant with a 62 page menu. “You end up not ordering the thing you wanted, because you’re just baffled by the choice,” he explains.
Eno’s ‘Small Craft On A Milk Sea’ is out in stores now.
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