Relix Magazine on Luminal and Lateral

Listen: Brian Eno and Beatie Wolfe Unveil Collaborative Albums Luminal and Lateral with Singles “Suddenly” and “Big Empty Country (Edit)”

April 11, 2025

Photo Credit: Cecily Eno

Brian Eno and Beatie Wolfe have announced two new collaborative records, Luminal and Lateral, set to release on June 4 via Verve Records. In their typically subversive fashion, the conceptual composers’ first shared endeavor is split between two themes, with a press release vaguely detailing that “Luminal is Dream music. Lateral is Space music.” These two sides of their artistic connection come into focus with the advance singles “Suddenly” and “Big Empty Country (Edit),” out now everywhere.

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Eno and Wolfe first crossed paths in 2022 when they delivered a celebrated talk on ‘Art and Climate’ at SXSW, then again while displaying their visual artworks at separate galleries in London. The legendary ambient innovator and acclaimed activist artist and composer didn’t plan to undertake such an expansive project together, but their kindred approaches yielded works that express the range and richness of their artistic perspectives. This naturally eclectic result is apparent between today’s advance offerings: while “Suddenly” is a warm and wistful folk-pop reflection, “Big Empty Country (Edit)” is just the sort of expansive atmospheric work Eno could be credited with inventing.

“Music is about making feelings happen,” the artists expressed in a shared statement. “Some of those feelings are familiar, while others may not be – or may be complex mixtures of several different feelings. There are many beautiful words for such feelings in other languages and cultures – words that don’t exist in English. By giving a feeling a name, we make that feeling more likely to be felt, more tangible. Art is able to trigger feelings, or feeling mixtures, that we’ve never quite felt before. In this way, a piece of Art can become the ‘mother’ for a type of feeling, and a place you can go to find and re-experience that feeling.”

Luminal and Lateral are available to pre-order now. Read on for the full tracklists.

Luminal – Beatie Wolfe and Brian Eno:
1. Milky Sleep
2. Hopelessly At Ease
3. My Lovely Days
4. Play On
5. Shhh
6. Suddenly
7. A Ceiling and a Lifeboat
8. And Live Again
9. Breath March
10. Never Was It Now
11. What We Are
Lateral – Brian Eno and Beatie Wolfe:
1. Big Empty Country Pt. I
2. Big Empty Country Pt. II
3. Big Empty Country Pt. III
4. Big Empty Country Pt. IV
5. Big Empty Country Pt. V
6. Big Empty Country Pt. VI
7. Big Empty Country Pt. VII
8. Big Empty Country Pt. VIII