English ambient pioneer Brian Eno has partnered with fellow crossover artists Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams to release his next album, Small Craft on a Milk Sea, out November 2 on Warp Records. The album, available as CD and high-quality download, will also be available in a limited-edition or collectors’-edition box set, both designed by Eno.
We don’t know how Small Craft on a Milk Sea will sound yet, but Hopkins and Abrahams are excellent picks for collaboration. Hopkins’ 2009 album Insides made our list of 50 unheralded albums from last year.
The limited-edition box set will include a heavyweight vinyl, two CDs, and a lithographic print, all packaged in a birch-paper-covered slipcase with printed and foil-blocked cover and spine. The 12” vinyl and CD are to be in full color, lined in a crimson stock with foil blocks. An extra disc including four tracks and a 12” square lithographic print of original Eno artwork printed on 352gsm Mohawk Superfine stock are also included.
The collectors’-edition box set, in addition to the entire contents of the limited-edition set, will contain a signed, customized 12” square Eno silkscreen combining screen-printed elements by Eno and graphic artist Nick Robertson, along with a real copper plate etched with the title and edition number embedded in the slipcase spine of the vinyl. Only 250 copies will be available worldwide, with pre-orders available live at 3 p.m. (UK) on August 25 here.