U2 & Brian Eno Working On “Sci-Fi Irish Folk Music”

Lately U2 have been celebrating the 20th anniversary of their 2004 album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb with a reissue and an entire alternate LP. But the band is not totally fixated on the rearview. Today the Edge was a guest on Jo Wiley’s BBC Radio 2 show to promote the Atomic Bomb festivities, and he shared some intel on U2’s new music.

That music involves drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who sat out the band’s Sphere residency due to health issues:

We’re at that great phase where we don’t have to over think it, we’re just making music and loving that process. And then we’ll figure out where things belong afterwards so there’s a couple of different projects. Definitely U2, with Larry which is wonderful, we’ve got him in the studio… he’s good, he’s taking it easy but he’s back in the saddle on the drums still doing some recording with us and so we’ll be doing a bit more of that before the end of the year.

The Edge then discussed the “sci-fi Irish folk music” he and Bono are working on with longtime collaborator Brian Eno:

And then Bono and I are working on some crazy kind of sci-fi Irish folk music… which could end up becoming a part of the new U2 album, we’re not sure yet we’ll see. Part of our kind of process is to go so widely away from, off track, and then sort of the process of bringing things back on track is kind of how you get sort of unique sounding music… We have Brian Eno involved. And a bunch of, you know some beautiful, Irish musicians, you know so incredibly talented.

I cannot possibly imagine what sci-fi Irish folk music by U2 and Brian Eno would sound like, but I’m looking forward to finding out someday, and not entirely due to morbid curiosity.