condition (record/cover): NM / VG+ (some dirt on white)

By 1977 Brian Eno had spent two years writing what he called "fragments of memory rather than songs", more than a hundred sketches of which only ten would survive onto Before And After Science. The record took twenty months to assemble and is the most labour-intensive of his vocal albums. Released first on Island in December 1977 and shortly thereafter on Polydor across continental Europe in this pressing (2310 547), it is also Eno's last song-form record for almost two decades, the bridge between his rock period and the ambient territory he was about to claim entirely.

Side one is the rhythm side. "No One Receiving" opens with a bass line locked between Phil Collins and Percy Jones of Brand X. "Backwater" is one of the most charming pop songs Eno ever wrote. "Kurt's Rejoinder" samples Kurt Schwitters reciting the Ursonate under a clattering rhythm track that anticipates Talking Heads' Remain In Light by three years (an album Eno would shortly produce). Side two slows everything down. "Energy Fools The Magician" floats. "Through Hollow Lands", dedicated to Harold Budd, is a piano miniature. "Spider And I", the closer, is the most quietly beautiful piece Eno had then written.

The original vintage European Polydor pressing of 2310 547, with the Peter Schmidt-designed cover and the printed inner. The transition record, the one that contains in compressed form everything Eno had been and everything he was about to become.