Overheard: Brian Eno Tropical Rainforest Sound Installation Winter Garden New York September 1989

Eno's Rainforest installation took place in two locations: the World Financial Center's Winter Garden in New York (September-October 1989), and the Barbican in London (June 1990). The music was originally considered for inclusion on Eno's album The Shutov Assembly - as a bonus for not skipping this description, students can find that unreleased track posted by Todd Franker here:    • Brian Eno - Thinking Music   . Versions have also appeared on the Sonos Radio stream The Lighthouse (without the wildlife sounds).

As well as the Rainforest track, the installation included a second piece of music. Eno is famous for changing his installation music if he thinks he can make it more suitable for the venue where it is being played.

The audio recording was made by the artist and designer David Shibler, and this video is dedicated to his memory.

Original flyer text ( sourced from https://harmonicsdb.wordpress.com/201... ) :

Tropical Rainforest Sound Installation
Created by Brian Eno for the Winter Garden
Commissioned by the World Financial Center Arts & Events Program
September 14 - October 8
Listening hours daily 12-2 and 5-7 p.m.

This sound installation is created from the bird, animal and natural
sounds of the Columbian Amazon Rainforest. The recordings were made by Richard Ranft, Curator of Wildlife Sounds at the British Library National
Sound Archive during an expedition mounted by the British Ornithologists'
Union in 1988. Brian Eno uses Ranft's location recordings (along with one he made himself in a Japanese forest) to reassemble a rainforest sound
environment for the Winter Garden. Eno has mixed these sounds with his own newly-created music and a composition entitled "A Clearing" from his "Ambient 4: On Land" album (1982). The two-hour program is distributed through the 102 speakers hidden throughout the space.

The natural sound from the Columbian Rainforest includes those of birds
(the common potoo, motmots, black-capped donacobius, yellow-ridged toucan, usset-backed oropendola, yelIow-rumped cacique, screaming piha, parakeets, chachalaca, pauraque and musician wren) as well as marine toads, owl monkeys, and bullfrogs.

Brian Eno's recordings are available at CD Street (WFC Courtyard Upper
Level) and Rizzoli (Winter Garden). Richard Ranft has compiled. recordings from his expedition on a 60-minute cassette entitled "Rainforest Requiem", published by X-Directory on the ManKind music label (X-Directory Ltd., Studio 7, King Edward's Mansions, 629 Fulham Road, London SW6 5QU, UK).

These days, "Rainforest Requiem" is available on CD published by the British Library, and on Audible.

© Brian Eno 1989. This does not appear to be accessibly archived elsewhere. The University will rapidly comply with any takedown request.