Brian Eno and David Byrne - 'My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts' (EMI) Released 27/03/06

Originally released in 1981, ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’ marked the coming together of two of the biggest names in contemporary music, Brian Eno and David Byrne, the result being an album that took the world by storm. The future, some said, the past others reminisced, but whichever way you look at it the album is one of great oddity and mystique. Nobody else, then or now, could take the title of a 1954 novel by Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola and turn it into a record of such immense value in the progression of Western music. When you think back in time at the countless albums considered by the masses as ‘important’ or ‘great’, how many have such a rootsy vibe and heritage? The answer is very few.

Fresh from working together on the 1979 Talking Heads album ‘Fear Of Music’, Byrne and Eno came together to pioneer what is now entitled ‘World Music’, the symbiotic fusion of Western grooves and third-world primitive tribal vibe and atmosphere. Afterall, without the primitive invention of music, where would we be today? It’s only right that two such highly regarded artists should give a nod to the past, and inadvertently, the future of music.

The novel ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’ is a tale of a bush so dense civilisation can’t penetrate it, filled with different towns which in turn are settled by different ghosts and forest spirits. These spirits and ghosts can be heard throughout the Eno/Byrne album in the background, in the foreground, in your head when there is no music. For a piece of music to continue inside you once the physical ‘song’ has ended takes an immense stab at ones emotional psyche, done effortlessly here.

From the recital of America’s Foreign Policy in first part ‘America Is Waiting’ to the preachers, radio talk-show hosts, exorcism ceremonies, Lebanese mountain singers, Muslim chanting and Egyptian pop throughout the rest, an uneasy and desperate atmosphere is created. You’re compelled to keep listening, to see how it ends. Like a car crash, you want to close your eyes; you want the culmination, the climax to draw to an end. But it won’t. As such, you’re left in limbo, not sure what’s happening but feeling strangely at home within the warmth of the African sun where we all began. This, ladies and gentlemen, is ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’. Seminal, inspirational, intellectual, essential, words that come only close to explaining the raw nature of this album, which had been sampled by many artists including Goldie, Moby and Bjork.

Now reissued via Nonesuch Records, ‘My Life…’ is given another chance to reveal its majesty, its majestic nature and its reason for being a ‘classic’ pop album. With 7 previously unreleased outtakes and ideas from the album’s sessions throughout 1979 and 1980 this new release is a perfect addition to any Roxy Music or Talking Heads fan, and anyone in this modern world who listens to music with an ethnic beat or any sampling.