Canadian musician Michael Brook, also known as the inventor of the infinite guitar, the famous modified guitar used in U2 songs, released "Cobalt Blue" on the 4AD label in 1992, a quiet, breathtaking soundscape, It has been reevaluated over the years as a timeless masterpiece. The album features ambient pioneer Brian Eno, composer/multi-instrumentalist Roger Eno, and Grammy-winning producer Daniel Lanois. Live at the Aquarium, recorded later that year, is a rare solo performance in London that captures the hypnotic sustain, expansive textures, and atmospheric depths of Michael Brook's distinctive sound world.

It was seven years between his debut album "Hybrid" in 1985 and the release of his second album "Cobalt Blue" in 1992. Michael Brook signed with Brian Eno's label and management, Opal, and moved from his hometown of Toronto to England. While collaborating with Eno and Lanois, touring with Jon Hassell, and participating in the legendary Opal Evenings live project with Roger Eno, Harold Budd, and Larage, he broke new ground experimenting with looping, sequencing, and sound processing on stage. He also broke new ground experimenting with onstage looping, sequencers, and sound processing. Shortly after "Cobalt Blue" was completed, however, Opal lost its distribution deal and the release was canceled. Michael Brook says of that time, "I was friends with Ivo Watts-Russell of 4AD, and he offered to release the album for me. But for a long time after its release, we didn't get a sufficient response. Because the music press avoided anything that was hard to classify into genres.... So in the beginning I didn't know what the public would think. It was like a guitar crying in the wilderness." he said. During the same period, he collaborated with Pieter Norten on "Sleeps with Fishes" (1987), a masterpiece of 4AD ambient music, and with world music giants such as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Youssou N'Dour in the course of his energetic activities. The result of absorbing these vast inspirations and experiences was "Cobalt Blue," which, although not fully appreciated at the time of its release, has continued to grow in fame and influence over the years and has proven to be an important turning point in a distinguished career.

He went on to receive a Grammy nomination in 1996 for his album with Nusrat, "Night Song," and a Golden Globe nomination in 2008 for the soundtrack to the classic film "Into the Wild. El Infierno" won the Best Music Award at the 2011 Havana Film Festival. An accomplished film music composer, he has worked on more than 50 films, and his Nusrat album Chain of Light, produced in 2024, was named World Music Album of the Year by The Guardian. Of course, these glorious achievements were still in the future when he began work on Cobalt Blue. The sound that emerged from "Cobalt Blue" was "not strictly ambient," says Michael Brook. More rhythmic and melodic, he describes the material as Wordless Songs. This drive and orientation toward change represented a shift in priorities - a kind of rebellion.