Brian Eno has been making music for my entire life. I have never known a world without Brian Eno, and as I myself age and begin to contemplate mortality more frequently, I am dismayed to realize at some point Mr. Eno will cease making music. He certainly may do so at any time of his own volition, but seeing as he is 74 years old and releasing a new album this year (FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE - his 22nd solo studio album), he seems set on continuing this work until he is no longer able to do so.

Over the years I have had a desire to express my appreciation of his work directly to Brain Eno. The urge comes and goes as my particular musical cravings cycle through endlessly, but this desire never completely abates. And yet I always hesitate. The man’s catalog is as vast as it is looming - you can hardly see one side of his career from the other! His work as an award-winning producer is equally impressive. He composed the Windows 95 startup sound. He is an artist with critical and commercial success that few can rival. In short, Brian Eno does not need to hear from me that I really like his music.

And in fact, when I have gone searching for a way to deliver such praise to Mr. Eno, I always find there is no easy way to do so, at least not directly. Sure, one could write a label or find a random email address associated with one of his online endeavors, but there is little chance such a haphazard message would reach his eyes. Perhaps the most in-depth analysis of contacting Brian Eno is a February 2000 essay entitled “why contacting brian eno may not be a good idea ”.

So here I find myself, on the eve of his 22nd solo studio album, once again thinking I need to tell Mr. Eno that I have enjoyed his music for my whole life and don’t want to feel like I am taking him for granted. And what have I done to prove otherwise? I have paid money for some (but nowhere near all) of his music - mostly CDs, the sum total of which almost certainly did very little to further increase his wealth. I’ve crafted Spotify playlists dedicated to my favorites (which generates even less remuneration I’m sure). I’ve desperately clicked through YouTube ads to stream much-needed familiar Brian Eno songs when no other music source was available. And less-directly, I’ve given artists I might have otherwise missed some attention because they covered a Brian Eno tune I like. In short, my selfish need to appreciate Brian Eno in some tangible way continues to go unfilled. I am putting this missive here in the Brian Eno Dead Letter Office in the hopes that somehow, someway it will cause the cosmos to nudge some facet of one moment of Brian Eno’s life into a slightly more pleasant outcome. Perhaps a quirky stray electron in a music-making circuit, or a breeze that lingers longer than expected while strolling on some faraway beach.