ENO, Brian, and Peter SCHMIDT. Oblique Strategies [title on lid, continued on first card:] Over one hundred worthwhile dilemmas.

ENO, Brian, and Peter SCHMIDT. Oblique Strategies [title on lid, continued on first card:] Over one hundred worthwhile dilemmas. First published 1975, slightly revised edition 1978.

Title and instruction card, and 128 text-cards (72 x 99 mm), all in the original black paper-covered box, lid stamped in white on the sides; box minimally rubbed, lid minimally cockled, contents fine.

Second revised edition, one of 1000 sets produced.

"These cards evolved from our separate observations of the principles underlying what we were doing. Sometimes they were recognized in retrospect (intellect catching up with intuition), sometimes they were identified as they were happening, sometimes they were formulated. They can be used as a pack (a set of possibilities being continuously reviewed in the mind) or by drawing a single card from the shuffled pack when a dilemma occurs in a working situation. In this case the card is trusted even if its appropriateness is quite unclear. They are not final, as new ideas will present themselves, and others will become self-evident" (instructions).

One of the most influential musicians of the last fifty years, Brian Eno needs little introduction. His collaborator for this extraordinary set of cards, Peter Schmidt, (1931-1980) was a British multimedia artist, printmaker, painter, and experimenter with electronic sounds. He had been born to Jewish parents in Berlin and survived as an enemy alien on the Isle of Wight, before studying art and being exhibited many times during and after his lifetime. He performed electronic music at the ICA's 1961 event A Painter's Use of Sound and was advisor to their groundbreaking exhibition Cybernetic Serendipity in 1968.

Oblique Strategies has been used (and continues to be used) by many artists. David Bowie famously responded to their cues in the creation of his great Berlin trilogy of albums, Low, Heroes and Lodger. Released between 1977 and 1979 and considered to be the highpoint of Bowie's output, all three records were produced by Eno.

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