Roger and Brian Eno have joined forces to make their first ever duo album, Mixing Colours.

Mixing Colours explores the nature of sound, its colours and textures, and the subtle variety of moods they inspire. It evolved from individual pieces that Roger began recording in late 2005, and he began sending these to Brian as MIDI files, like aural snapshots of his work at the time. His older brother responded by manipulating their contents and matching mood to particular sounds. The exchange of ideas gradually gathered momentum until it developed into a full body of work.

“We weren’t directing this towards an end result—it was like a back-and-forth conversation we were having over a 15-year period,” recalls Roger. “The idea for a full album emerged as the number of pieces continued to increase. It’s something that neither of us could have arrived at alone.”

The titles of all but one of the album’s 18 tracks are associated with colours, from “Celeste” to “Desert Sand,” “Obsidian” to “Cerulean Blue,” and the music is augmented by an accompanying series of short films made by Brian Eno in partnership with collaborator Peter Chilvers. The first Mixing Colours video for “Celeste” was released in February, with further films for “Blonde” and “Slow Movement: Sand.”

Roger and Brian Eno first worked together in company with producer, musician, and songwriter Daniel Lanois on the soundtrack to Al Reinert’s documentary feature about NASA’s Apollo programme, “For All Mankind” (1983). The brothers have since worked in tandem on soundtracks to everything from David Lynch’s “Dune” (1984) and Dario Argento’s “Opera” (1987) to Danny Boyle’s “Mr Wroe’s Virgins” (1993).

Tracklisting

01. Spring Frost
02. Burnt Umber
03. Celeste
04. Wintergreen
05. Obsidian
06. Blonde
07. Dark Sienna
08. Verdigris (Album Focus Track)
09. Snow
10. Rose Quartz
11. Quicksilver
12. Ultramarine
13. Iris
14. Cinnabar
15. Desert Sand
16. Deep Saffron
17. Cerulean Blue
18. Slow Movement – Sand

Mixing Colours LP is available now on CD via Deutsche Grammophon, and you can order it here.