BRIAN ENO & JOHN CALE – Spinning Away (1990)

“Spinning Away” is a track by Brian Eno and John Cale, featured on their 1990 collaborative album Wrong Way Up. The album marked a unique moment in both artists’ careers—blending Eno’s ambient sensibilities with Cale’s avant-garde classical and rock background. “Spinning Away” is often highlighted as one of the album’s most beautiful and accessible songs. “Spinning Away” fuses lush, layered production with bright melodies and an almost hypnotic rhythmic drive.

Up on a hill, as the day dissolves With my pencil turning moments into line High above in the violet sky A silent silver plane – it draws a golden chain

One by one, all the stars appear As the great winds of the planet spiral in Spinning away, like the night sky at Arles In the million insect storm, the constellations form

On a hill, under a raven sky I have no idea exactly what I’ve drawn Some kind of change, some kind of spinning away With every single line moving further out in time

And now as the pale moon rides In the stars, in the stars Her form in my pale blue lines In the stars, in the stars And there, as the world rolls ’round In the stars, in the stars I draw, but the lines move ’round In the stars, in the stars And there, as the great wheels blaze In the stars, in the stars I draw, but my drawing fades In the stars, in the stars And now, as the old sun dies In the stars, in the stars I draw, and the four winds sigh In the stars, in the stars