FROM THE TRANSLATORWorking on David Sheppard's book now seems to me to be a clear deviation from my “main line”. In my previous works, I strictly adhered to what was most dear to me - coverage of the activities of unique individuals who turned the world around them upside down, doing everything in their own way and only in their own way, people after whom the world of modern music could no longer remain the same he was before - in other words, "mad scientists". The mad scientist image has always been incredibly dear to me, and Fripp, Zappa and Beefheart fit it perfectly. In Ino's case, we are, of course, also dealing with a scientist, but no longer mad. Eno is a secular man who, although he creates his own unique worlds, does it in a truly gentlemanly manner - without violating generally accepted “agreements.” In my eyes this is a minus. At the same time, it is impossible not to admit that Eno made a very tangible contribution to modern music, and his social circle has no analogues at all. Perhaps this is the main value of this book - the fact that on its pages the reader will meet everyone. Here are Fripp, and Wyatt, and David Byrne, and all sorts of other U2 and Coldplay. A significant advantage is that the truly interesting period of Inov’s creativity - i.e. up to and including On Land - is described here in extremely detailed and fascinating, good, truly English (with such a sly squint) language. So I don’t have to regret the eleven months spent on work. As in my other works, I threw out the author’s short preface, replacing it with my own. In addition, there are no references to sources (they are - very inconveniently - not indicated in the text, but are relegated en masse to the end of the book; I was horrified by the thought of stupidly copying them completely off the paper). But I am sure that the reader of this book (if I imagine him correctly) does not care much about such trifles. I ask readers to distribute my translation as widely as possible - and thus erect a miraculous monument to free labor. I hope that it won’t occur to anyone to take money for this - remember that with our “altruism” we are bringing a bright future closer, in which art will be free for all. (The author falls to the floor laughing.) I hope that David Sheppard will forgive us. Feel free to write to me - and if you suddenly have the opportunity to give me some quality material, then you yourself should be ashamed if you give it to me still haven’t been sent. Finally, many thanks to my friends Grigory Chiknaverov and Dmitry Senchakov for their invaluable help and constant faith in me, as well as to the readers of cachanoff.livejournal.com for their moral support. PK January 16, 2011.