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Before and After Science
A picture of the album cover depicting a white border with a stark black and white image of the side profile of Brian Eno's face. In the top right corner is Brian Eno's name. In the bottom right corner the album's title is written.
Studio album by
Brian Eno
ReleasedDecember 1977 (1977-12)
StudioBasing Street, London; Conny's Studio, Cologne[1]
Genre
Length39:30
LabelIsland, Polydor
ProducerBrian Eno, Rhett Davies
Brian Eno chronology
Cluster & Eno
(1977) 		Before and After Science
(1977) 		After the Heat
(1978)
Singles from Before and After Science
  1. "King's Lead Hat"
    Released: January 1978

Before and After Science is the fifth solo studio album by English musician Brian Eno, originally released by Polydor Records in December 1977 in the United Kingdom and by Island in the United States soon after. It was produced by Eno and Rhett Davies.

Several musicians from the United Kingdom and Germany notably collaborated on the album, including Robert Wyatt, Fred Frith, Phil Manzanera, Paul Rudolph, Andy Fraser, Dave Mattacks, Jaki Liebezeit, Dieter Moebius, and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Over one hundred tracks were written, but only ten made the album's final cut. The musical styles range from energetic and jagged to languid and pastoral.

The album marks Eno's last foray into rock music as a solo artist in the 1970s; nearly all of his following work instead showcases avant-garde and ambient music, which was hinted at predominantly on the second side of Before and After Science. It was Eno's second to chart in the United States. The song "King's Lead Hat" (the title of which is an anagram for Talking Heads, for whom Eno would later produce three albums) was remixed and released as a single, although it did not chart in the United Kingdom. Critical response to the album has remained positive, with several critics calling it one of Eno's best works.

Production

[edit]

Unlike Eno's previous albums, which were recorded in a very short time, Before and After Science was two years in the making.[6] During this two-year period, Eno was busy working on his solo ambient music albums Music for Films and Discreet Music[6] and collaborating with David Bowie on the latter's albums Low and "Heroes".[7][8] Due to the very positive critical reception accorded his previous rock music-oriented album, Another Green World, Eno was afraid of repeating himself but still wanted to release a high-quality product.[6]

As on his previous rock-based recordings, Eno worked with a plethora of guest musicians. Several artists from German and British groups of the era contributed to the album, collaborating with Eno for the first time. Guitarist Fred Frith of Henry Cow caught Eno's attention with "the timbral possibilities that [Frith had] been discovering" on his solo guitar album Guitar Solos.[9] Jaki Liebezeit of the German krautrock group Can played drums on "Backwater", and German ambient duo Cluster co-wrote and performed on "By This River".[1][10] Eno had previously worked with Cluster on their album Cluster & Eno, released in 1977.[11] Other musicians included Dave Mattacks, who played drums on "Kurt's Rejoinder" and "Here He Comes", and Andy Fraser (bass guitarist in British blues rock band Free) who played the drums on "King's Lead Hat".[1][12][13]

Several musicians who had worked with Eno on previous albums returned. Percy Jones of Brand X and Phil Collins of Brand X and Genesis played bass and drums respectively, as they had on Another Green World.[10] Other returning contributors included Robert Fripp, Paul Rudolph, Bill MacCormick and Eno's former Roxy Music bandmate Phil Manzanera.[14] "Shirley Williams" is credited on the album sleeve for "time" and "brush timbales" on "Through Hollow Lands" and "Kurt's Rejoinder"; Williams was a pseudonym for Robert Wyatt.[15] Working extensively with the musicians and his instructional cards—the Oblique Strategies—during the two years working on the album, Eno wrote over one hundred songs.[1][6][16]

Music and lyrics

[edit]

Jim DeRogatis, author of Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock, described the overall sound of Before and After Science as "the coldest and most clinical of Eno's pop efforts".[17] David Ross Smith of online music database AllMusic wrote that "Despite the album's pop format, the sound is unique and strays far from the mainstream".[10] According to David Bowie biographer Thomas Jerome Seabrook, the album is "split between up-tempo art-rock on side one and more pastoral material on side two",[2] while Piotr Orlov of LA Weekly categorized it as an art pop record.[3] The album's opening tracks "No One Receiving" and "Backwater" start the album as upbeat and bouncy songs.[10] "King's Lead Hat" is an anagram of Talking Heads, a new wave group Eno had met after a concert in England when they were touring with the Ramones.[18][19] Eno would later produce Talking Heads' second, third and fourth albums, including Remain in Light.[20] The last five songs of the album have been described as having "an occasional pastoral quality" and being "pensive and atmospheric".[10]

Eno referred to the music of Before and After Science as "ocean music", as opposed to Another Green World', which he described as "sky music".[16] References to water in the lyrics appear in songs such as "Backwater", "Julie With..." and "By this River".[21] Author Simon Reynolds noted themes of "boredom" and "bliss" through the album, citing "Here He Comes", about "a boy trying to vanish by floating through the sky through a different time" and "Spider and I", about a boy watching the sky and dreaming about being carried away with a ship, as examples.[21] Eno's songwriting style was described as "a sound-over-sense approach".[10] Influenced by German artist and poet Kurt Schwitters, Eno consciously did not make songwriting or lyrics the main focus in the music.[10] Tom Carson of Rolling Stone noted this style, stating that the lyrics are "only complementary variables" to the music on the album.[22] Lester Bangs commented on Eno's lyrical style on "Julie with..." stating that the lyrics' themes "could be a murderer's ruminations, or simply a lovers' retreat... or Julie could be three years old".[16] Schwitters' influence is also shown on the song "Kurt's Rejoinder", on which samples of Schwitters' poem "Ursonate" can be heard.[10][18]

Release

[edit]
an illustration of an empty room featuring two floors connected by a carpeted stairway.
Peter Schmidt's "Four Years" was one of four prints included in the original pressings of the album[23]

Before and After Science was released in December 1977 on Polydor in the United Kingdom and on Island in the United States.[24] The first pressings of the album included four offset prints by Peter Schmidt.[23] The back cover of the LP states "Fourteen Pictures" under the album title, referencing Eno's ten songs and Peter Schmidt's 4 prints. These prints included "The Road to the Crater", "Look at September, look at October", "The Other House" and "Four Years".[23] The album did not chart in the United Kingdom, but was Eno's first album since Here Come the Warm Jets to chart in the United States, where it peaked at 171 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart.[25][26] "King's Lead Hat" was remixed and released as a single in January 1978, featuring the B-side "R.A.F.", which is credited to "Eno & Snatch" (in the UK, not the US).[24] This single failed to chart and has never been reissued in any form.[25][26]

The album was re-issued on compact disc through E.G. Records in January 1987.[24] In 2004, Virgin Records began reissuing Eno's albums in batches of four to five.[27] The remastered digipak release of Before and After Science was released on 31 May 2004 in the United Kingdom and on 1 June 2004 in North America.[28]

Critical reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusicStarStarStarStarStar[10]
BlenderStarStarStarStarStar[29]
Christgau's Record GuideA−[30]
Entertainment WeeklyA[31]
MojoStarStarStarStar[32]
The New Zealand HeraldStarStarStarStarStar[33]
Pitchfork10/10 (2017)[34]
The Rolling Stone Album GuideStarStarStarStarStar[35]
Spin Alternative Record Guide9/10[36]
Uncut8/10[37]

The album was critically acclaimed upon release. Writing for Creem, Joe Fernbacher called the Before and After Science "the perfect Eno album",[38] and Mitchell Schneider in Crawdaddy stated he could not "remember the last time a record took such a hold of [him]—and gave [him] such an extreme case of vertigo, too".[39] In DownBeat, Russell Shaw wrote that the album was "another typically awesome, stunning and numbing Brian Eno album—the record Pink Floyd could make if they set their collective mind to it".[40] Tom Carson of Rolling Stone considered the album "less immediately ingratiating than either Taking Tiger Mountain or Here Come the Warm Jets. Still, the execution here is close to flawless, and despite Eno's eclecticism, the disparate styles he employs connect brilliantly."[22] Critic Robert Christgau gave the album an A− rating, stating that he "didn't like the murkiness of the quiet, largely instrumental reflections that take over side two", but did not find that this "diminishes side one's oblique, charming tour of the popular rhythms of the day".[30] In 1979, Before and After Science was voted 12th best album of the year on The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 1978.[41]

Among later reviews of Before and After Science, the editors of AllMusic awarded the album the highest rating of five stars, with David Ross Smith stating that it ranks alongside Here Come the Warm Jets and Another Green World "as the most essential Eno material".[10] The music webzine Tiny Mix Tapes awarded the album their highest rating, stating that it "is not only one of the best albums in Eno's catalog, but of the 1970s as a whole".[42] Douglas Wolk of the webzine Pitchfork gave Before and After Science a perfect rating, calling the album "the most conceptually elegant of Eno’s '70s song-albums".[34] Pitchfork placed Before and After Science at number 100 on their list of "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s", referring to it as a "lovely, charming album" and going on to state that, while "not formally groundbreaking, it's frequently overlooked when discussing great albums from an era that's romanticized as placing premiums on progression and innovation—and particularly in the context of Eno's career, which is so full of both".[43]

Track listing

[edit]

All tracks are written by Brian Eno, except where noted[1][44]

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."No One Receiving" 3:52
2."Backwater" 3:43
3."Kurt's Rejoinder" 2:55
4."Energy Fools the Magician"Eno, arranged by Percy Jones2:04
5."King's Lead Hat" 3:56
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
6."Here He Comes" 5:38
7."Julie With..." 6:19
8."By this River"Eno, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Dieter Moebius3:03
9."Through Hollow Lands" (for Harold Budd)Eno, arranged by Fred Frith3:56
10."Spider and I" 4:10

Personnel

[edit]

Musicians[1]

  • Brian Eno – voices (on all tracks, except 4 and 9), piano (tracks 1, 2, 5–7), synthesizer (1, 3), guitar (1, 7), synthesized percussion (1), rhythm guitar (2, 5), brass (2), chorus (3, 4), 'jazz' piano (3), keyboards (4, 9, 10), vibes (4), metallics (5), Yamaha CS-80 (6–8), Moog synth (6, 9), EMS Synthi AKS (7, 10), Minimoog and bell (7), melody guitar (9)

Production[1]

  • Brian Eno – producer, cover design
  • Rhett Davies – producer, audio engineer
  • Conny Plank – engineer
  • Dave Hutchins – engineer
  • Cream – cover artwork
  • Ritva Saarikko – cover photograph
  • Peter Schmidt – art prints

Chart positions

[edit]
Chart (1978) Peak
position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[45] 45
New Zealand Albums Chart[46] 18
Swedish Albums Chart[47] 25
US Billboard 200[48] 171

Notes

[edit]

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Before and After Science

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
Before and After Science is the fifth solo studio by English musician , released in December 1977 by in the UK and in the . Produced by Eno and engineer , the album features ten tracks spanning approximately 40 minutes and showcases a stylistic divide between energetic, song-based on the first side and more experimental, ambient-leaning instrumentals on the second. The album's production involved a diverse array of collaborators from the and , including percussionist on drums for several tracks, bassist Percy Jones of , Can drummer , and members of the krautrock duo Cluster—Dieter Moebius and —on the closing ambient pieces "By This River" and "Spider and I." Guitarists and , both former bandmates of Eno, contribute solos and rhythm parts, while adds modified guitar textures. Recorded primarily at in with additional sessions at Hansa Studio in , the album's cover artwork consists of four offset prints from watercolors by Eno's frequent collaborator Peter Schmidt, emphasizing its conceptual and visual artistry. Critically acclaimed upon release, Before and After Science bridged punk's raw energy with progressive and ambient experimentation, appealing to both anti-punk and pro-punk audiences amid the music scene. Standout tracks like the anthemic "King's Lead Hat"—an anagram of ""—and the serene "By This River" highlight Eno's evolving production techniques, foreshadowing his pioneering ambient works such as Ambient 1: Music for Airports the following year. The album has since been recognized as a pivotal entry in Eno's discography, influencing electronic and genres with its innovative blend of structure and abstraction.

Background

Conceptual Development

Before and After Science emerged as Brian Eno's exploration of contrasting musical extremes during his mid-1970s transition from roots toward ambient experimentation, building on the hybrid approach of his previous album (1975), which mixed vocal pop tracks with instrumental sketches to create innovative textures and a questioning atmosphere. Taking nearly two years to coalesce after , the album marked Eno's final major solo venture in a conventional rock band configuration before his full pivot to ambient works like Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978). Eno structured the album as a conceptual "double album in one," dividing it into opposing halves: Side A, titled "Fourteen Pictures," features energetic, uptempo art-rock songs such as "Backwater" and "King's Lead Hat," while Side B presents serene, meditative ambient pieces evoking "ocean music," including "Julie With..." and "By This River," to highlight the tension between dynamic pop and weightless atmospheres. This deliberate contrast reflected Eno's intent to bridge his rock past with future ambient directions, influenced briefly by artist ' collage techniques in tracks like "Kurt's Rejoinder," which samples Schwitters' sound poem Ursonate. The title Before and After Science encapsulates a for as a cyclical process, contrasting pre-rational with post-rational analysis, where conditions "before " mirror those "after" it, isolating rational techniques as a temporary phase akin to a McLuhan-inspired return to pre-industrial states via post-industrial . Eno elaborated that "" denotes "techniques and rational ," emphasizing a circularity in artistic production. This idea aligns with his creative methodology, using systems to engage the conscious mind and free for deeper work, as in "He uses systems to occupy his conscious mind sufficiently for to operate."

Influences

Brian Eno drew significant inspiration from the Dadaist of , whose emphasis on phonetic experimentation and nonsensical vocal constructions influenced Eno's approach to and vocal layering on Before and After Science. Schwitters' techniques, particularly in works like Ursonate, encouraged Eno to prioritize sonic texture over semantic meaning, leading to multi-tracked voices that function as abstract elements within the music rather than straightforward narratives. This is exemplified in the track "Kurt's Rejoinder," which incorporates a sample of Schwitters reciting from Ursonate, creating a collage-like integration of and instrumentation that mirrors the Merz principles of assemblage and fragmentation. The album's rhythmic minimalism was profoundly shaped by Eno's collaborations with German acts, notably Cluster ( and Dieter Moebius), who contributed to several tracks and embodied the genre's repetitive, motorik-driven pulses. Eno's immersion in the scene during his time in Germany, including joint sessions with Cluster that yielded the concurrent album , informed a stripped-down aesthetic emphasizing steady beats and timbral exploration over complex arrangements. While Neu! exerted a broader stylistic influence through shared networks—such as Michael Rother's work with , a Cluster offshoot—Cluster's direct participation on Before and After Science provided models for the hypnotic, process-oriented evident in the album's ambient-leaning compositions. Water and oceanic imagery permeates the album's ambient tracks, such as "By This River," drawing from Eno's personal experiences in rural and literary evocations of fluid, drifting states. Recorded during sessions with Cluster near the , the track captures a sense of serene immersion, with synthesizers and evoking reverberating cascades and seashore expanses that reflect Eno's fascination with environmental soundscapes as metaphors for creative surrender. This imagery aligns with conceptual influences from and , where water represents adaptive flow, as Eno described the album's ethos as "sea-travel... putting oneself into a current and allowing oneself to drift."

Production

Recording Sessions

The recording sessions for Before and After Science took place over a period spanning 1975 to 1977, beginning with initial work after Eno's recovery from a January 1975 taxi accident, followed by the bulk of the main recording in 1976, with final mixing completed in 1977. These sessions were held at in and Conny's Studio in , , allowing Eno to leverage different sonic environments for experimentation. Co-produced by and , the process emphasized collaborative and improvisational techniques to generate material. The team recorded over 100 tracks in total, drawing from extended jamming sessions with guest musicians such as drummer and Can percussionist . Technical elements like tape loops and synthesizers were integral, used to layer and manipulate sounds during these improvisations, creating a rich archive from which the album was later assembled. This approach reflected Eno's evolving studio practice, prioritizing spontaneous creation over rigid structures.

Track Selection

The curation of tracks for Before and After Science emerged from an expansive recording process spanning two years, during which developed over 100 pieces of material at studios including in and Conny's Studio in . Co-produced by Eno and engineer , the final selection distilled this backlog to just 10 tracks, a deliberate choice to ensure thematic cohesion and avoid dilution of the album's core concept. Eno described the process as arduous, noting that he abandoned the project three times amid crises of confidence, ultimately identifying shared emotional and stylistic threads among the recordings to guide the choices. Central to the selection was balancing the album's dual personalities, with five upbeat, rock-driven songs assigned to Side A—"No One Receiving," "Backwater," "Kurt's Rejoinder," "Energy Fools the Magician," and "King's Lead Hat"—to evoke a sense of energetic, pre-apocalyptic urgency, while Side B featured five more ambient, introspective pieces—"Here He Comes," "Julie With...," "By This River," "Through Hollow Lands (For )," and "Spider and I"—to convey a melancholic, post-event drift. This bifurcation reinforced the title's "before and after" contrast, drawing on imagery and themes of loss for the latter half, as Eno explained: "They're all about the , in fact. They're to do with either drifting away or getting lost or being part of the flow of things." Material that disrupted this polarity, including many experimental fragments, was discarded during extensive editing and remixing phases to maintain the album's structural integrity. Among the key decisions, "King's Lead Hat" was included on Side A for its proto-punk drive and rhythmic intensity, channeling influences from emerging new wave acts like Talking Heads—whose name is an anagram of the track's title—and injecting a raw, urban edge into the rock sequences. Similarly, "Spider and I" anchored Side B with its ethereal, hymn-like quality, featuring sparse vocals over dreamy synths and percussion to embody the ambient drift, aligning with Eno's vision of post-atomic melancholy. These selections, honed through iterative reviews, underscored the album's role as a bridge between Eno's pop experiments and his later ambient pursuits.

Music and Lyrics

Musical Styles

Before and After Science exhibits a deliberate structural contrast between its two sides, reflecting Brian Eno's exploration of diverse sonic palettes within and proto-ambient genres. Side A embraces energetic infused with punk-like urgency, characterized by driving rhythms, prominent guitars, and dynamic vocals that evoke a sense of propulsion and immediacy. Tracks such as "No One Receiving" feature syncopated drum grooves courtesy of and heavy bass lines from Percy Jones, creating a funky, rhythmic foundation layered with angular guitar riffs, while "King's Lead Hat" delivers scrambled, clipped rock energy with glassy-eyed vocals and rapid-fire instrumentation reminiscent of emerging aesthetics. In contrast, Side B shifts to ambient and minimalist soundscapes, employing , sparse percussion, and ethereal arrangements to foster introspective, weightless atmospheres. This side draws on proto-ambient textures with subdued, meditative flows, as heard in "Through Hollow Lands," where subtle washes and delicate percussion evoke drifting, hollow expanses, and "By This River," which layers warm synth tones over gentle for a , emotive . The instrumentation here relies on contributions from Cluster members Dieter Moebius and , adding electronic subtlety and gravitas without overwhelming the sparse compositions. Overall production techniques emphasize unpredictability and innovation, blending the raw rock energy of Side A with the proto-ambient delicacy of Side B through Eno's use of cards—prompts co-created with artist Peter Schmidt to guide creative decisions during mixing and arrangement. This approach resulted in dense studio compositions that were subsequently deconstructed by selectively removing elements, yielding a hybrid texture that bridges visceral drive with atmospheric restraint.

Lyrical Themes

The lyrics of Before and After Science delve into contrasts between stagnation and serenity, often portraying human disconnection amid natural immersion. Tracks like "Backwater" evoke a sense of rural escape and routine drift, with of at the "edges of time" and floating in "coastal waters," symbolizing detachment from urban and a yearning for simpler, immersive . This theme of versus bliss underscores the album's exploration of mundane repetition giving way to tranquil absorption in the environment, as Eno's phrasing captures ironic contentment in isolation. Water and fluidity emerge as potent symbols of transition and emotional flow throughout the album, particularly on its ambient-leaning second side. In "By This River," sparse vocals describe being "stuck by this river" under an "ever falling" sky, conveying isolation and a meditative surrender to natural cycles, where waiting for the tide represents acceptance of impermanence. Similarly, "Through Hollow Lands" employs abstract, non-narrative evocations of vast landscapes to suggest wandering disconnection, reinforced by instrumental elements that mimic fluid motion. Eno described these pieces as "post-atomic tracks" centered on the sea, involving "drifting away or getting lost or being part of the flow of things," blending melancholy with the excitement of uncertainty. Eno's lyrical approach draws from traditions, favoring phonetic and impressionistic structures over conventional storytelling, which results in minimalistic, evocative phrasing especially in the ambient tracks. Influenced by figures like , the lyrics prioritize sonic texture and mood, as in the fragmented repetitions of "By This River" that align with the side's sparse musicality to heighten introspection. This method allows themes of human disconnection to unfold through sensory immersion rather than explicit narrative, creating a poetic that invites listeners to project personal meaning onto the fluidity of existence.

Artwork

Cover Design

The cover design for Before and After Science was created by Brian Eno. It presents a stark white background overlaid with the album title and artist's name rendered in simple black sans-serif text, embodying a minimalist aesthetic that strips away extraneous visual elements to emphasize purity and form. The back cover features a black-and-white photograph of Eno by Ritva Saarikko. The design's restraint underscores the transitional nature of the work, bridging Eno's earlier experimental rock explorations with his emerging ambient sensibilities.

Insert Materials

The original 1977 LP release of Before and After Science included a portfolio containing four abstract offset prints derived from watercolors by artist Peter Schmidt, inserted into a grey and light blue sleeve. These prints, titled "The Road to the Crater," "Look at September, Look at October," "The Other House," and "Four Years," were designed as visual complements to the album's tracks, with abstract forms and color schemes—such as watery blues in some pieces—evoking the ambient and introspective moods of the record's latter side. The back cover subtitle "Fourteen Pictures" explicitly integrated these four prints with the ten songs, treating them as equivalent artistic elements within the overall work. The inner sleeve notes, penned by , elaborated on his ongoing with Schmidt, highlighting their 1975 creation of the Oblique Strategies card deck as a tool for creative during the album's production. Eno wrote: "Apart from our on this record, Peter and I have been working together and comparing notes for some time. In 1975 we produced a boxed set or oracle cards called '', which were used extensively in the making of this record." These notes also acknowledged the influence of key collaborators, offering special thanks to Achim Roedelius and Möbi Moebius of Cluster, , and for their advice and encouragement throughout the process. Additionally, the track "Through Hollow Lands" carried a dedication "For ," recognizing the American composer's impact on Eno's ambient explorations. Later reissues of Before and After Science, including CD and subsequent vinyl editions, typically excluded the original Peter Schmidt prints, substituting them with glossy inserts featuring drawings or reproductions that referenced the artworks rather than replicating them in full. This omission has rendered complete sets from the initial Polydor pressings rare among collectors, often commanding premium prices due to the prints' status as integral, limited-edition components of the album's conceptual package.

Release and Promotion

Release Details

Before and After Science was released in December 1977 by in the and , and by in the United States. The album was initially issued in LP and cassette formats, with editions appearing in subsequent years. Catalog numbers for the original releases included Polydor 2302 071 for the edition and Island ILPS 9478 for the version. Former bandmates (guitar) and (saxophone and oboe) contributed to the album.

Singles and Marketing

The lead single from Brian Eno's Before and After Science was "King's Lead Hat," released on January 27, 1978, by in the . The track, a remixed version of the album cut, was backed with the non-album B-side "R.A.F.," a collaboration between Eno and Snatch. Despite its energetic style and title referencing , the single failed to enter the charts. Marketing for Before and After Science leaned heavily on Eno's reputation as a pioneering experimental artist, positioning the as an accessible entry point into his evolving sound.

Commercial Performance

Chart Positions

Before and After Science achieved modest success on international charts, reflecting its appeal to a specialized audience in the and scenes. The peaked at number 171 on the US in , marking Eno's second entry on that chart following . The following table summarizes its peak positions on select national charts:
Chart (1978)Peak Position
Albums (RMNZ)18
Swedish Albums ()25
171
In the , the album did not enter the Top 40, failing to appear on the Official Albums Chart. Its , "King's Lead Hat," also did not chart in major territories, further underscoring the album's limited mainstream penetration. The album's niche appeal, characterized by its blend of pop structures with avant-garde experimentation, constrained its commercial performance despite widespread critical acclaim for its innovative approach.

Sales Figures

Before and After Science did not achieve any major certifications from recording industry associations such as the RIAA or BPI. Specific sales figures for the album are not publicly detailed by its label, Polydor Records, but estimates place it within the modest range typical of Brian Eno's early solo releases. A 2024 retrospective in Tracking Angle estimates that the combined lifetime sales of Eno's four rock-oriented albums—Here Come the Warm Jets (1974), Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (1975), Another Green World (1975), and Before and After Science (1977)—totaled under 100,000 units, underscoring the niche market for these works. Earlier analyses, such as a 1979 Musician magazine profile, noted that no Eno solo album had exceeded 50,000 copies sold by the late 1970s. The album's enduring status has supported ongoing sales through reissues, particularly vinyl editions in the and beyond, though exact figures remain unavailable. For instance, the 2017 Astralwerks half-speed mastered 180-gram double LP reissue, limited in production, has been popular among collectors, contributing to sustained revenue from Eno's catalog. In comparison to Eno's prior efforts like Another Green World, which also charted modestly outside the top 40 in key markets, Before and After Science experienced a similar dip from any perceived commercial peaks but has benefited from long-term interest driven by its transitional role in Eno's oeuvre.

Critical Reception

Contemporary Reviews

Upon its release in December 1977, Before and After Science garnered positive reception in the UK press for its innovative blend of pop structures and experimental elements. In a review for Sounds, described Eno as "The Originator," commending the album for achieving "the perfect synthesis" of primitive rhythms and sophisticated production, with influences and water-themed enhancing its thematic cohesion. Similar acclaim appeared in New Musical Express (NME), where extended interviews with Eno emphasized the record's dual nature—energetic rock on side one contrasting the ambient-leaning instrumentals on side two—as a deliberate evolution in his . In the United States, responses were more mixed, as evidenced by Rolling Stone's May 1978 review by Tom Carson, which acknowledged the album's graceful melodies and near-flawless execution but critiqued its austerity and restraint as less immediately engaging for traditional rock audiences compared to Eno's earlier, more vibrant works. Carson highlighted tracks like "Backwater" for their pulsating drive alongside the resigned lyricism of "Julie With..." and "Spider and I," yet suggested the futuristic electronic elements might alienate fans seeking overt energy. Early interviews and reader correspondence in UK publications further underscored Eno's emerging reputation in ambient music, with NME featuring Eno's commentary on side two's "melancholy, post-atomic" instrumentals as a shift toward passive, atmospheric compositions that would define his future direction. Fan letters in Sounds and NME praised the album's subtlety and innovation, often citing its role in expanding rock's boundaries amid the punk era.

Retrospective Assessments

In the years following its release, Before and After Science has been reevaluated as a pivotal work in Brian Eno's discography, often highlighted for its synthesis of rock, pop, and emerging ambient elements. Pitchfork ranked the album at number 100 in its 2004 list of the top 100 albums of the 1970s, praising its charming balance of Eno's pop sensibilities and ambient impulses, exemplified by the dadaist energy of "Backwater" and the tranquil second side influenced by his collaborations with David Bowie. AllMusic awarded it a perfect five-star rating, describing it as a transitional masterpiece that demonstrates Eno's innovative use of the studio as an instrument, bridging his earlier vocal experiments with the atmospheric soundscapes that would define his later career. Academic analyses have further underscored the album's significance in the evolution of electronic and ambient genres. In Eric Tamm's 1995 book Brian Eno: His Music and the Vertical "Color" of Sound, the album is examined as a key transitional point, where Eno's compositional techniques—such as layering synthesizers and —foreshadow the generative and ambient approaches in works like Ambient 1: Music for Airports, marking a shift from structured songs to more fluid, environmental . Retrospectives in the 2020s have increasingly noted the album's prescience amid broader reevaluations of Eno's influence on electronic music. A 2024 review in Spectrum Culture highlights its forward-thinking blend of rock instrumentation and ambient drift, arguing that tracks like "By This River" anticipated the immersive electronic textures that would permeate contemporary genres from IDM to . Likewise, a 2025 analysis in Polyphonic Press describes the album as a "dimension-straddling classic" whose hushed, haunting pieces prefigure Eno's ambient innovations, demonstrating enduring relevance in an era of algorithm-driven and electronic experimentation. A 2022 piece in Rock and Roll Globe further emphasizes its prophetic role, crediting Eno with defining the sonic palette for and electronic pop in the decades since.

Legacy

Cultural Impact

Before and After Science marked a pivotal transition in Brian Eno's oeuvre, with its instrumental second side foreshadowing the ambient explorations that defined his subsequent —Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978), Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror (1980), and Ambient 4: On Land (1982)—by emphasizing generative, non-vocal soundscapes as a deliberate departure from rock structures. The album's experimental fusion of pop, art rock, and electronics exerted a profound influence on subsequent musicians, notably shaping the production aesthetics of through their collaboration on My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981). Similarly, the record's textural innovations have informed electronic and IDM styles. In broader music discourse, Before and After Science is frequently referenced as a harbinger of and new wave movements, its quirky rhythms and synth-driven tracks anticipating the angular experimentation of bands like and in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Tracks from the album, particularly the ethereal "By This River," have been sampled in later productions, extending its sonic footprint into genre evolutions beyond the 1990s. The track was performed live during Eno's 2023 tour, highlighting its enduring appeal. The record's cultural resonance extends into visual art communities, bolstered by Eno's collaboration with painter Peter Schmidt, who contributed four offset prints from watercolors to the original LP packaging and co-developed the Oblique Strategies cards—a set of aphoristic prompts for that permeates interdisciplinary practices to this day. This integration of sound and visual philosophy underscores the album's enduring appeal among artists seeking to disrupt conventional workflows.

Reissues and Remasters

The first compact disc edition of Before and After Science was released in 1987 by Polydor Records in select markets, including Japan, marking the album's initial transition to digital format while retaining the original track listing and artwork. EG Records simultaneously issued CD versions in the UK and US, distributed through Polydor affiliates, providing broader accessibility for collectors. In 2004, released a remastered CD edition as part of the Original Masters series, supervised by to enhance clarity and fidelity, with improved compared to earlier pressings. Some regional variants, such as Japanese paper-sleeve editions, included bonus tracks or enhanced packaging, though the core release stuck to the standard ten tracks. As part of a career campaign by Universal Music Catalogue, the appeared in a high-resolution remastered vinyl edition on , pressed on 140-gram heavyweight vinyl and cut at half-speed at for superior audio detail and reduced noise. This edition preserved the original mix while offering expanded sonic depth suitable for modern playback systems. During the , Before and After Science was added to major digital streaming platforms like and , utilizing the 2004 and high-resolution scans of the original Peter Schmidt artwork to maintain visual authenticity in online interfaces.

Credits

Track Listing

All tracks are written by , except "By This River", which is credited to Eno, Dieter Moebius, and Hans-Joachim . The original 1977 vinyl release divides the album into two sides, with a total runtime of 39:30.
SideNo.TitleLength
A1"No One Receiving"3:41
A2"Backwater"3:42
A3"Kurt's Rejoinder"2:53
A4"Energy Fools the Magician"2:03
A5"King's Lead Hat"3:57
B1"Here He Comes"5:39
B2"Julie With..."6:24
B3"By This River"3:01
B4"Through Hollow Lands (for )"4:15
B5"Spider and I"4:25

Personnel

The album Before and After Science features as the primary artist and producer, supported by a diverse array of guest musicians from rock and scenes, reflecting Eno's collaborative approach during recording sessions in and . Approximately 15 unique contributors are credited across instruments, with performances often specific to tracks. Production was handled by Eno and , while engineering duties were shared among Davies, , and Dave Hutchins. "" is a for .
RolePersonnel
Vocals, synthesizers (Yamaha CS80, Moog, AKS, Mini-Moog), guitars, treatments, piano, synthesized percussion, keyboards, vibraphone, bells, metallicsBrian Eno
Bass, rhythm guitar, harmonic bassPaul Rudolph
Drums (on "No One Receiving," "Energy Fools the Magician")Phil Collins
Fretless bass, analogue delay bassPercy Jones
Drums (on "Backwater")Jaki Liebezeit
Drums (on "Kurt's Rejoinder," "Here He Comes")Dave Mattacks
Percussion (brush timbales on "Kurt's Rejoinder," time on "Through Hollow Lands"; as Shirley Williams)Robert Wyatt
Guitar (modified on "Energy Fools the Magician," cascade guitars on "Through Hollow Lands")Fred Frith
Guitar solo (on "King's Lead Hat")Robert Fripp
Guitar, rhythm guitar (on "Here He Comes")Phil Manzanera
Bass (on "Here He Comes")Paul Rudolph
Voice (sample from Ur Sonata on "Kurt's Rejoinder")Kurt Schwitters
Agogô, stick percussion (on "No One Receiving")Rhett Davies
Drums (on "King's Lead Hat")Andy Fraser
Brush timbales (on "Kurt's Rejoinder")Shirley Williams
ProducerBrian Eno, Rhett Davies
EngineerRhett Davies, Conny Plank, Dave Hutchins
Cover artworkCream
Cover designBrian Eno
Paintings (offset prints)Peter Schmidt
Grand piano, electric piano (on "By This River")Hans-Joachim Roedelius
Bass Fender piano (on "By This River")Dieter Moebius

References

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  50. https://www.sorrystaterecords.com/products/brian-eno-before-and-after-science-12
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