Music inspired by Sheckley's works

Paradox One

Thanks to Marcos Sullivan at http://sheckley.tripod.com I came across this http://www.holeintheweb.com/drp/sinfield.htm (Postscript at the end of the page)
About Pete Sinfield’s most obscure album contribution, ROBERT SHECKLEY’S IN A LAND OF CLEAR COLORS, a limited-edition book/album released in a numbered edition of 1,000 for (originally) $100.00 a copy. The project came together on the Spanish island of Ibiza, and was published by the Galeria el Mensajero on Ibiza in 1979.
Essentially it came about while science fiction author Sheckley was living on Ibiza and became drinking buddies with the Galeria owner Martin Watson Todd and Peter Sinfield. (Sinfield: “I met Bob Sheckley in Ibiza where I spend much of my time these last years getting drunk and thinking about doing something more constructive than getting drunk.” )

One day Brian Eno came to visit his friend Sinfield, and became part of the local social group of expatriates and artistic types. ‘I didn’t know who this fellow Eno was at first,’ Sheckley recalls. ‘I’d never heard of his music, but he was somebody I could talk to….’”

The end result was the publication of Sheckley’s 1974 novella, “In A Land of Clear Colors,” in a box-slip-cased volume which measures 12¾ inches square and runs to 46 heavy pages with illustrations, plus an LP. The LP (tucked into a pocket in the book’s back cover) consists of Peter Sinfield’s narration of Sheckley’s story (somewhat edited for time; the full version appears as the book’s main text), with “background music” (much of it very ambient) in places by Eno.

Some collectors bought this “multimedia album” for the “music by Brian Eno,” and the vast majority of them were disappointed when they heard it, because there isn’t much music on it.

Here’s how I described it in Heavy Metal: “But what of Eno’s music? Let me say immediately that there’s not a whole lot of it – perhaps twenty minutes’ worth, total, out of the approximately fifty minutes playing time of the record. Most of it is atmospheric and specifically keyed to the narration. None of it can be described as ‘rock.’ … The music is a seamless sonic tapestry; it is sound-track music, as specifically functional as sound-track music must always be, and as such it is excellent, reinforcing the imagery of the narrated story. It fades in and out behind Sinfield’s voice, never intruding, always supporting. There are only a few brief minutes when the music occupies the stage alone: at the beginning of the record and at the close of side one.” Sheckley’s story is surreal and satirical and Sinfield’s narration is effective. But Eno’s presence is barely felt.

IN A LAND OF CLEAR COLORS has not been reissued on CD and is unlikely to be.

(I must admit I had not heard of the novella 'In A Land of Clear Colours'- can anyone cast any more light on this and how one might get a hold of a copy of this collaboration?)

For info about the Eno LP see
http://www.holeintheweb.com/drp/sinfield.htm