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Music

Brian Eno Says Trump's Election Gives People a Chance To "Really Rethink"

The musician and producer is using generative music to rethink the way society could work.
Photo courtesy of Warp Records

Brian Eno said in an interview published today that he is "pleased" about the election of Donald Trump and the outcome of Brexit referendum in the UK "because it gives us a kick up the arse." The electronic music pioneer said that these political outcomes, which are intensely distressing for many, will encourage people to reconsider the social structures of society. "With Trump, there's a chance of a proper crash, and a chance to really rethink," he said in the interview with The Guardian.

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Eno also discussed his recent ambient album Reflection, and how he is using generative music "as a sort of model for how society or politics could work." Contrasting the musical process with that of an orchestra, which is organized in a top-down hierarchical manner, he says that generative music could be interpreted as intimating a more egalitarian model of social organization. Where politics works in relation to pre-existing rules, he thinks it could be improved by utilizing the social structures of musical and artistic systems.

His comments tapped into ideas about widespread social inequality that he also mentioned in a recent New Year's Day message. There, he said the present moment as the culmination of a "process of decivilisation" that "[sneers] at social generosity and [champions] a sort of righteous selfishness."

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