You probably don't think you know Michael Brook's music, but have you heard U2's The Joshua Tree? Yes? Well, you know the good bits on it — the atmospheric fiddly bits at the start before Bongo plums in — they're mostly made by The Edge playing one of Michael Brook's Infinite Guitars.
I was sitting in a car outside C's house in Sheffield one afternoon in 1992 when Johnny Walker played a track (possibly Breakdown, but I can't be sure) from Cobalt Blue on the Saturday Sequence. I liked it, and bought the album. I liked that too. Simple.
In fact, along with last Saturday's entry, it's one of my favourite ambient(ish) albums. This time, not only does it have several of Brian Eno's sidekicks — sorry, "collaborators" — on it (Nell Catchpole, Daniel Lanois, Russell Mills and brother Roger), it also has the man himself, credited with "structural rearrangement" on half the tracks, and with things like "treatments" on a smaller number.
There's also "special thanks" to Bill Buxton, whose work in HCI I was familiar with. A few years later, at the HCI '96 Conference I approached Buxton and introduced myself (back then I even had some standing in the HCI community myself). I asked him, "You work with Michael Brook, don't you?" His reply was simple. "Yes, occasionally." He left the natural follow-up, "and what is it to you if I do?" unspoken, but I heard it loud and clear, nevertheless, and realised I had no answer beyond the horribly lame, "Oh, I, errr, liked one of his albums, once." So I left that unspoken, too, and our interview reached a quick and ever-so-slightly awkward end.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
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