Energy Fools the Magician

General CommentThis instrumental bridge is crucial to introducing the softer, more relaxed themes that will appear on side 2, providing relief from the fast pace we have witnessed so far.

Magicians -- in Eno's lexicon -- are scientists. Energy is the driving force of the universe -- matter is energy, energy is matter, etc. The scientific observer is fooled by appearances into believing himself a limited entity, when he is in fact part and parcel of Infinity. I think this song is a worldess painting of the allure of Science to humanity. This song fades out into "King's Lead Hat," where we will hear all about the pinnacle of glory and absurdity in Scientific thought.

(An aside: many songs on "Before and After Science" are introduced through fade-ins, and most songs end by fading out. This technique seems to imply endlessness; the songs are cyclic at core, like video game BGM. Eno is presenting us with snapshots of human history -- each song is a fragment of The Long Now, it seems, and he fades us out and in to avoid severing the internal continuity of each Moment).

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