Released in 1981, “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” is still one of the greatest albums of its genre. Back then, many claimed that it was through this album that sampling was invented. Although that wasn’t true, the album did pioneer a particular type of musical pedigree and continues to serve as an inspiration to this day.
The album is named after a Nigerian author, Amos Tutuola’s book “My Life in The Bush of Ghosts.” Neither Eno nor Byrne has read the book, but they somehow felt that this title resonated with their creation. Eno even describes it as a “vision of a psychedelic Africa.”
Brain Eno is an experimental musician and record producer who frequently collaborated with other musicians and bands and coined the term “ambient music.” Working with David Byrne, the lead of “Talking Heads,” he created this classic, which was so unique, it went on to expand the horizons of music lovers.
This fantastic album, which sounded like the future yet tribal, began as a side project for Eno. In an interview with "pitchfork," Byrne says that he wanted to document the music of a fake foreign culture and build it on serendipity with this album.
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The album brings together various kinds of hip-hop music, funk, ambient music, eastern percussion, chill lofi beats, and more. They picked up their samples from a wide range of sources. For example, their opening track, “America is waiting,” and “Mea Culpa,” is taken from a radio talk show in San Francisco and New York, respectively. “Help me somebody” records a sermon in New Orleans.
“The Jezebel Spirit” trivializes an exorcism with the rhythm of an exorcist’s laugh. It is by adding such elements that they make the album fascinating, provoking reactions from the listeners. And it is also because of so many samples that required clearance for copyrights that the album sat on the shelf for a whole year before being released.
Combining sampled vocals, found sounds, middle eastern rhythms and electronic music techniques, “The Bush of Ghosts” is a very influential, uncluttered and mysterious album. With its symphony of electronic music messing with speech sounds, they have created infectious grooves that build drama, the echoes of which are heard in today’s modern music as well.
