In a world where commodification of information has become the norm and
anonymity is scarce, Autechre are not willing to participate. Gradually they
have shifted from semirepresentational covers to just covers, with nothing
but the information to keep track of the physical location of the music.
The CD cover of their fifth album is matte black with a silent carving of
the words "autechre" and "ae" on it, accompanied by a sticker with the
required producer, label and copyright information. The inlay is a plain
cardboard rectangle with track names. The CD is blank. The vinyl covers are
of plain recycled marsana cardboard with a half-circle access cut for the
records and the same sticker as on the CD. The word "autechre" is embossed
almost unnoticeably on the sleeve. The records themselves are inside
white cardboard inner sleeves with the other half being rectangular and the
accessible end cut to match the half-circle of the vinyl. Track names are
printed white on black on the label on each side. Unless one is well versed
in the electronic music circuit, it is not possible to even start to guess
what the music is like.
The music is information, a constant flux of change in varispeed data.
According to Gibson, Cyberspace is "A graphic representation of data abstracted
from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity."
(William Gibson: Neuromancer, 1984) Autechre's fifth, unnamed album could as
well be the aural equivalent to Gibson's Cyberspace. It is an audio space yet
explored, an uncharted territory of the non-mathematics and non-logic of
emotion. It is a rain of data structures in a machine-generated landscape.
Like all uncharted territories, this one is not without its difficulties.
It is emotionally very hard to access without prior experience with previous
Autechre records. As with any analytical field of science, one must first
study the basics before being engulfed by advanced theory. Such is the case
with this album as well; to begin to appreciate it, it is almost required to
start from the beginning, from "Incunabula" to "Amber" and "Tri Repetae",
"Chiastic Slide" to the fifth Autechre album (not forgetting the intermediate
single releases). Though the progression is not really required as one can
just listen, it helps to hear Autechre's progress from the soothing ambience
through unparalleled emotional response to mathematics and to the abstraction
of data on the latest album.
It is unjust to even to try to classify or label the record in any way.
Though it is initially very hard to access, the rewards are great. This is
a very involving record, definitely something that can not be played in the
background (unless one has unparalleled skills of concentration).
The last track has several minutes of silence between two songs. The last
one goes yet unnamed.
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nuutti-iivari meril?inen -> gordon@diversion.org : diversion communications
technostructuralist + information architect + media designer