Just when you thought that 2023 had reached peak Fred again.., the Coachella-headlining, Maschine-wielding superproducer is back in the headlines.
On May 2, Kieran Hebden (aka British producer Four Tet) announced that Fred again.. and Brian Eno have recorded a collaborative album, Secret Life, that's set to be released on his label Text Records on Friday May 5.
Hebden also revealed the artwork, below, and claimed that Secret Life is "the most beautiful album of 2023". The release will be available on both vinyl and CD, and the trio have set up a digital radio station, Secret Life FM, that broadcasts the project once a day at 10pm BST.
This isn't the first time Eno and Fred again.. have worked together. The pair met in 2009 when Fred joined a local choir group of which Eno was a member. After Eno began mentoring Fred, he later contributed to Eno and Karl Hyde's 2014 releases Someday World and High Life, before Eno remixed a track from Fred and drill star Headie One's joint EP GANG.
Speaking to The New York Times late last year, Eno discussed the pair's working relationship. "I know that Fred has sometimes referred to me as a mentor, but actually, it works both ways," he says. "What he’s doing is quite unfamiliar — I’ve actually never heard anything quite like this before. He always seems to be doing it in relation to a community of people around him — the bits of vocal and ambient sounds."
Brian Eno released his 22nd solo album, FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE, last October.
