ENO is often the answer for the crossword clue
[Musician Brian] or [Rock’s Brian]
In 2019, Brian ENO received a pair of honors that have likely never otherwise been bestowed upon the same person in the same year. First, in March, the [Roxy Music co-founder] was inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (though he didn’t attend).
Three months later, the [British rocker Brian] received a less expected accolade when the American astronomer Marc Buie was so moved by albums like Apollo: Atmospherics and Soundtracks that he named an asteroid after the [Icon of ambient music].
In so doing, Buie made ENO a whole other sort of [Rock star of note].
ENO: Crosswords’ [Artsy renaissance man Brian]
It’s a shame when a supremely useful and ubiquitous crossword answer doesn’t offer many ways to clue it. The brevity and vowel-heavy contents of ENO certainly put it at risk for overuse.
[Ambient music legend that I swear never to put in a puzzle again (for the next two months)]
Aimee Lucido, American Values Club, February 24, 2015
Fortunately, the [Eclectic musician Brian ENO is such an [Artistic Brian] that there’s no shortage of interesting ways to describe him. Just for starters, [Bowie once called him “a very glamorous young man”].
Speaking of which, though he sometimes drops the Brian altogether and simply goes by Eno, his full name is the remarkable Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno.
[Brian who is a rare example of someone whose prominence in crosswords is commensurate with his actual prominence]
Francis Heaney, American Values Club, June 11, 2014
Eno arrived on the scene early 1970s with GLAM [Rock with lipstick?] band ROXY Music [Classic theater name]. Next, Eno enjoyed a critically acclaimed and incredibly prolific solo career as an art-rocker in the mid-70s, releasing four evergreen albums:
- Here Come the Warm Jets (1973)
- Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy) (1974)
- Another Green World (1975)
- and Before and After Science (1977)
Big names show up as collaborators on Eno records as regularly as Eno’s little name drops into puzzles. For instance, Another Green World features Phil Collins on drums and––what’s that sound on a couple tracks?––why it’s [Velvet Underground’s John] CALE playing viola. Natch.
(CALE can also turn up as former auto [Racer Yarborough])
ENO would eventually become a [Repeated collaborator with Bowie] and winner of six Grammys—mostly for his work as a [U2 producer].
Meanwhile, dating at least back to 1973, ENO was busy creating ambient music. Not just the sounds but the word: in Music for Airports (1978), he became the [Musician who coined the term “ambient music”]. Words from those liner notes make ENO the [Composer of music “as ignorable as it is interesting”].
A [Self-described “non-musician”] ENO is also the [Composer of “The Microsoft Sound,” which, ironically he wrote on a Mac].
As the man behind the “Microsoft Sound,” calling ENO an [Ambient composer of note] isn’t far from ringing true literally.
ENO: Crossword composer?
That he was inducted into the Hall of Fame probably didn’t mean much to the [Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!” producer Brian] ENO. Still, it was probably a relief to constructor Ben Tausig, who amusingly once griped that ENO was a [Brian who hasn’t yet joined Neil Diamond in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]. Only a fan could write a clue like that.
Tausig also wrote my all-time favorite clue for ENO, itself nothing short of minimal work of genius:
[Composer of crosswords?]
Ben Tausig, Chicago Reader/Ink Well, March 9, 2012
Man, it just sneaks up on you so good.
And then when one considers how the musical minimalist has minimalized his name, perhaps it could be siaid he’s sort of composed himself into a crossword answer.
No, one ENO’s not ENOW in crosswords
That should be ENOW [Adequate, old-style], [Sufficient, for Shakespeare] about Brian Eno. But spare me a word about his brother, Roger Eno, who, being an [Ambient music pioneer] himself, permits such clues’ answers to refer to either ENO.
The siblings with the [Ambient surname] paired up to make Apollo in 1983. Though APOLLO for the [Moon-landing program], the album’s title also happens to refer to the [God of music] and healing, amongst his other domains.
Before Roger joined his brother on this project–which would launch Roger’s own career as a composer–he’d worked as a music therpist: a job bringing together music and healing.
In a curiosity of crosswordese, you could certainly describe both Enos’ work as [Mood music?], yet that clue appears instead for a near twin of ENO, EMO, the [Angsty music genre], and [Offshoot of punk].
And while ENOS has appeared as [Brian and Roger of musical note], it’s much more likely to refer to the [Son of Seth], the [Baseball Hall-of-Famer Slaughter], or–speaking of space–the [Space chimp of 1961],
Add to all that Brian Eno’s work as an artist, and constructors have almost no end of ways to clue him. Those overwhelmed about how to proceed are in luck: as Brian ENO is also the [Co-creator of the Oblique Strategies playing cards].
