Brian Eno

Brian Eno ( EE-noh; born Brian Peter George Eno, 15 May 1948) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, sound designer, author and political activist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambient music and electronica, and for producing, recording, and writing works in rock and pop music. A self-described "non-musician", Eno has helped introduce unconventional concepts and approaches to contemporary music. He has been described as one of popular music's most influential and innovative figures. In 2019, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Roxy Music. Born in Suffolk, Eno studied painting and experimental music at the art school of Ipswich Civic College in the mid-1960s, and then at Winchester School of Art. He joined the glam rock group Roxy Music as its synthesiser player in 1971 and recorded two albums with them before departing in 1973. He released his first solo album, the rock-oriented Here Come the Warm Jets (1974), and explored minimal music on the influential recordings Discreet Music (1975) and Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978), with the latter coining the term "ambient music". Eno collaborated frequently with other musicians in the 1970s, including Robert Wyatt, Robert Fripp (mainly as part of the Fripp & Eno collective), Harmonia, Cluster, Harold Budd, David Bowie, John Cale and David Byrne. He also established himself as a sought-after producer, working on albums by Jon Hassell, Laraaji, Byrne's Talking Heads, Ultravox, and Devo, as well as the no wave compilation No New York (1978). Eno continued to record solo albums and produce artists including U2, Coldplay, Peter Gabriel, Daniel Lanois, Laurie Anderson, Grace Jones, Slowdive, Karl Hyde of Underworld, James, Kevin Shields, and Damon Albarn. Since his student days, Eno has worked in other media, including sound installations, film and writing. In the 1970s, he co-developed Oblique Strategies, a pack of cards featuring aphorisms intended to spur creative thinking. From the 1970s onwards, his installations have included the sails of the Sydney Opera House in 2009 and the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank in 2016. An advocate for humanitarian causes, Eno writes on a variety of subjects and is a founding member of the Long Now Foundation. His modern political activism has also included awareness of the conditions in the Gaza Strip before and during the Gaza war and genocide, climate crisis awareness, opposing the Conservative Party, opposing Brexit, and advocating for freedom for Julian Assange. In September 2025, he signed an open pledge with Film Workers for Palestine pledging not to work with Israeli film institutions "that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people."