The guest artistic director for Brighton Festival 2010 has been announced as Brian Eno.

The artist, musician and producer, who shot to fame in the 1970s with glam rock band Roxy Music, will curate a collection of events across the city between May 1 and 23.

During the festival, pieces of his work including 77 Million Paintings and a music arrangement of the 1983 album Apollo (Atmospheres & Soundtracks) will be featured. He will also create an exclusively commissioned sound installation.

Following in the footsteps of this year’s guest artistic director Anish Kapoor, Eno’s influence will be felt across the festival programme as his key interests and ideas, ranging from social creativity to climate change and the environment, are taken up by its team of programmers.

Andrew Comben, chief executive of Brighton Dome and Festival, said: “Anish Kapoor set the standard at this year’s festival and he also set expectations running for who might follow him. I was really keen that the festival kept surprising people and didn’t fall into a pattern of any one type of artist from year to year.

“Brian Eno, to my mind, is one of the most fascinating all-around artists. For me, he embodies an almost ideal curator as he can touch on so many different areas, from the debate and discussion for the literary side of the festival to music, which is a huge part of his history.

“Increasingly, visual arts are something he has also been exploring over a number of years.

“I’m really looking forward to what promises to be an exceptional festival.”

Mr Eno said: “I am delighted to be part of a festival which has consistently placed itself at the cutting edge of the creative arts in Britain.

“I hope to be able to show some recent work that has not yet been seen in this country and also to develop new works especially for the festival. I would like this festival to provoke and entertain and hopefully to start some social conversations which will persist long after it has finished.”

Highlights will include 77 Million Paintings, a constantly evolving sound and image-scape which premiered in Tokyo in March 2006. The work has since exhibited in 13 countries and will be shown as a free event in Fabrica, Brighton, throughout the festival.

The contemporary ensemble Icebreaker will perform a music arrangement of the 1983 album Apollo (Atmospheres & Soundtracks) by Eno live to the film of the original NASA footage of the Apollo moon landing. Brighton Festival has also commissioned a sound installation to be mounted in various city locations.

Three additional key commissions in this year’s programme include the world premiere of Hofesh Shechter’s first full-length work Political Mother, the UK premiere of Rimini Protokoll’s Best Before and dreamthinkspeak’s world premiere of its new project a site-responsive, promenade installation inspired by The Cherry Orchard, marking the 150th anniversary of Anton Chekhov’s birth.

Is Brian Eno the right choice? Let us know below.