Online version in: http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/oblique/oblique.html
001 Remove specifics and convert to ambiguities
002 Don't be frightened of clichés
003 What is the reality of the situation?
004 Are there sections? Consider transitions
005 Turn it upside down
006 Think of the radio
007 Allow an easement
(an easement is the abandonment of a stricture)
008 Simple subtraction
009 Remove specifics and convert to ambiguities
010 Go slowly all the way round the outside
011 A line has two sides
012 Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do
and do the last thing on the list
013 Into the impossible
014 Ask people to work against their better judgment
015 Take away the elements in order
of apparent non-importance
016 Infinitesimal gradations
017 Change instrument roles
018 Accretion
019 Disconnect from desire
020 Emphasize repetitions
021 Don't be afraid of things because they're easy to do
022 Don't be frightened to display your talents
023 Breathe more deeply
024 Honor thy error as a hidden intention
025 Only one element of each kind
026 Is there something missing?
027 Use unqualified people
028 How would you have done it?
029 Emphasize differences
030 Do nothing for as long as possible
031 Bridges
-build
-burn
032 You don't have to be ashamed of using your own ideas
033 Tidy up
034 Do the words need changing?
035 Ask your body
036 Water
037 Make a sudden, destructive unpredictable action; incorporate
038 Consult other sources
039 Use an unacceptable color
040 Humanize something free of error
041 Use filters
042 Fill every beat with something
043 Discard an axiom
044 What wouldn't you do?
045 Decorate, decorate
046 Balance the consistency principle
with the inconsistency principle
047 Do nothing for as long as possible
048 Listen to the quiet voice
049 Is it finished?
050 Put in earplugs
051 Give the game away
052 Abandon normal instruments
053 Use fewer notes
054 Repetition is a form of change
055 Give way to your worst impulse
056 Reverse
057 Trust in the you of now
058 What would your closest friend do?
059 Distorting time
060 Make a blank valuable
by putting it in an exquisite frame
061 Ghost echoes
062 You can only make one dot at a time
063 Just carry on
064 (Organic) machinery
065 The inconsistency principle
066 Don't break the silence
067 Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them
068 Cascades
069 Courage!
070 What mistakes did you make last time?
071 You are an engineer
072 Consider different fading systems
073 Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics
074 Mute and continue
075 Look at the order in which you do things
076 It is quite possible (after all)
077 Go outside. Shut the door.
078 Don't stress one thing more than another
079 Do we need holes?
080 Cluster analysis
081 Work at a different speed
082 Do something boring
083 Look closely at the most embarrassing
details and amplify them
084 Define an area as ‘safe’ and use it as an anchor
085 Mechanicalize something idiosyncratic
086 Overtly resist change
087 Emphasize the flaws
088 Accept advice
089 Remember those quiet evenings
090 Take a break
091 The tape is now the music
092 Short circuit
(example; a man eating peas with the idea that they will
improve his virility shovels them straight into his lap)
093 Imagine the music as a moving chain or caterpillar
094 Use an old idea
095 Intentions
-credibility of
-nobility of
-humility of
096 Destroy
-nothing
-the most important thing
097 Imagine the music as a set of disconnected events
098 Change nothing and continue with immaculate consistency
099 Imagine the piece as a set of disconnected events
100 What are you really thinking about just now?
Incorporate.
101 Assemble some of the instruments in a
group and treat the group
102 Shut the door and listen from outside
103 Is the tuning appropriate?
104 Look at a very small object, look at its centre
105 Children's voices
-speaking
-singing
106 Feedback recordings into an acoustic situation
107 Towards the insignificant
108 Simply a matter of work
109 Not building a wall but making a brick
110 Revaluation (a warm feeling)
111 The most important thing is the thing
most easily forgotten
112 Idiot glee
113 Be extravagant
114 State the problem in words as clearly as possible
115 Disciplined self-indulgence
116 Always first steps
117 Question the heroic approach
118 Always give yourself credit for having
more than personality
119 Faced with a choice, do both
120 Tape your mouth
121 Get your neck massaged
122 Do the washing up
123 Convert a melodic element into a rhythmic element
124 Spectrum analysis
125 Twist the spine
126 Lowest common denominator check
-single beat
-single note
-single riff
127 Listen in total darkness,
or in a very large room, very quietly
128 Would anybody want it?
129 Retrace your steps
130 Go to an extreme, move back to a more comfortable place
131 Once the search is in progress, something will be found
132 Only a part, not the whole
133 From nothing to more than nothing
134 Be less critical more often
blacnk cards - add your own!
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