Before and After Science

Brian Eno’s fifth solo album, three years in the making and recorded partly at Conny Plank’s Cologne studio with contributions from Robert Fripp, Phil Collins, Jaki Liebezeit, and members of Cluster among others, moved across an energetic first side toward the quieter, more atmospheric material of its second — a transitional record between his 1970s art-rock albums and the fully ambient direction he had already begun exploring on Discreet Music and would formalize the following year on Ambient 1: Music for Airports.