Reflections on “Spring Frost” by Brian Eno

There’s a quote by, I think, Miles Davis about how the space between the notes is just as important as the notes themselves. Brian Eno’s music reminds me how true that really is.

This song has so few notes and so few sounds, but it still expresses lots of emotion.

The electric piano is alone at times, but never lonely. Maybe it’s the softness of the synth or the line cliché. Maybe it’s the sustained notes in the background.

I often get in my head when thinking about music or composing. Trying to find some really new, innovative, or hip idea can be exhausting.

Brian Eno’s music reminds me you don’t always need to do that.

One simple, yet interesting, idea is all you need to make music.

It depends how you use that idea, but not all music needs to impress academics or fans of jazz or classical music.

Not all of the music you make needs to have a lot of notes.

Sometimes fewer notes expresses much more than anything else.

Also some well placed sustains can add space without having silence.

ISJ