the belldog

the meeting of brian eno and cluster resulted in one of those heaven-sent collaborations that music lovers wish for but which rarely come to pass. in fact their collaboration resulted in two albums ”cluster and eno”, and ”after the heat” . each succesfully melds cluster’s electronic minimalist sensibility with eno’s broader and more colourful palette resulting in a series of mini tone poems focussed as much on establishing mood through texture and tonal colour as on anything.

in my view, the song that defines the most successful moment of the entire collaboration would have to be “the belldog”.

when asked about the roots of the words for this song, eno is quoted as having based them on this experience . . . .
'i was walking through washington square park, towards the "arc de triomphe" style monument there. there was a little group of people under the arch, and the full moon stood low on the horizon, visible through the top of the arch. as i got closer i saw what it was that had attracted their attention. a very grubby man of indeterminate age was playing an out-of-tune upright piano on wheels: his touch was that of a plummy night club pianist, but the chords he used were completely strange. over this sequence of soft discords he sang, again and again, in a trembling voice: "the belldog, where are you?" i have no idea what he meant by the belldog. for me it was (and is) an unidentified mythical character from some unfamiliar mythology...so the vague feeling i have about the belldog is that he is a herald; of what is not clear. whatever it is, in the song he has either not yet appeared or has gone away...' - brian eno in ”more dark than shark”, quoted by craig clark.

here are the lyrics to “the belldog” . . .
most of the day
we were at the machinery
in the dark sheds
that the seasons ignore
i held the levers that guided
the signals to the radio
but the words i receive,
random code, broken fragments
from before.
out in the trees
my reason deserting me
all the dark stars
cluster over the bay.
then in a certain moment
i lose control and at last i am
part of the machinery.
(the belldog) where are you?
and the light disappears
as the world makes its
circle through the sky.

the belldog . . .