Musical strategist and producer Brian Eno has piloted another in his lengthy series of artistically-challenging albums on this new disc of songs and ambient works. Each selection is either written for or inspired by a specific movie or film clip, not unusual since Eno has been highly motivated by the visual arts dating back at least as far as 1978's Music For Films. On this journey he's accompanied by the four members of U2 who co-write and provide most of the musical backing, furthering the experiments that Eno encouraged on their own albums beginning with The Unforgettable Fire. However, their role as inspired sidemen is emphasized by the absence of the band's name anywhere on the cover.

This is not typical U2 fare, so a fan of the band's more pop-oriented material should beware. The album has much more in common with the ground-breaking Eno/U2 collaboration on The Unforgettable Fire or Edge's 1986 soundtrack to "The Captive." Eno's liberating exercise airs an essential element of U2's music that is often obscured by the ever-burgeoning presence of fame and personality in the band's career. Quite simply, U2 manages to escape its own mortal coil to forge whatever musical whims the members and their musical mentor choose to follow. Many of the devices and inspirations that wired Achtung, Baby and Zooropa into the Nineties are revisited to spark this outstanding 14-song collection.

The most traditional-sounding piece of music on Original Soundtracks 1 is "Elvis Ate America," a hip-hop fragment sung by Bono with frantic scratching and an in-your-face mix from Howie B. The track was inspired by a four-minute film using vintage Super-8 images of Elvis Presley in concert shot by visual artist Jeff Koons. It's easy to see why Eno/U2 were drawn to this work since Bono's fascination with the Messianic cultural figure has been well-documented and regularly expressed.

Elsewhere, legendary tenor Luciano Pavarotti makes an appearance, lending his powerful tenor to the dreamy "Miss Sarejevo," a film by Bill Carter which documents the bizarre and dangerous, yet noble staging of a beauty contest during the regular mortar shellings in the capital of Bosnia. The video offers a particularly revealing look at the faces of war and the misery of conflict ("under a blood-red sky, a crowd has gathered - black and white"). Pavarotti's presence commands the center of the song, where a guitar solo might have otherwise gone. The unfortunate effect, though, is that his heavenly tones dwarf and squash Bono's own vocal contribution to the song. Although it is doubtful that any non-operatic singer could compete with that voice, the transition from Pavarotti back to Bono is, at best, uncomfortable and awkward. U2's singer accomodates himself well on other tracks, though, including "Your Blue Room" with ethereal organ and penetrating guitar solo from the Edge, as well as a rare spoken intonation from Adam Clayton.

Lush, spatial textures and minimalist exercises both enliven this stimulating collection of instrumentals and vocal selections, a project which challenged Eno's mind, yet is not so distant that a fan of U2's more traditional work couldn't appreciate as well. It seems quite possible and natural that a video extension of this project might surface one day. Placing this soundtrack music with the actual footage that inspired it would serve to further promote both Eno and U2's vision as well as the film-makers' and theiroften-difficult to obtain) works.