The track titles for Agent Im Objekt, Stefan Juster's second foray with Editions Mego under the Jung An Tagen moniker, play out like a crash dump or a log file spat out by a damaged AI on the verge of passing the Turing Test. The music itself is also algorithmic. Listening to these 12 relatively short pieces of oblique synthesized rhythm, one could be forgiven for suspecting that an inhuman consciousness was responsible for this music; it could be a deep learning experiment run amok.
Juster's experiments in timbre echo the ice-cold digital constructions of computer music but are somehow imbued with an organic sense of movement and polyrhythm that only a human could concoct. The individual pieces, while temporally brief, seem to expand into timelessness, allowing the listener to peer into a hyperreal digital landscape that stretches to infinity. A propulsive beat is the mechanism for locomotion in this space.
Agent Im Objekt is the sonic equivalent of the cyberspace envisioned by William Gibson in his debut novel, Neuromancer. It's dark and brooding, intelligent and intricate, a musical environment fit for adventurous listeners willing to navigate its rewarding complexity.
(Editions Mego)Juster's experiments in timbre echo the ice-cold digital constructions of computer music but are somehow imbued with an organic sense of movement and polyrhythm that only a human could concoct. The individual pieces, while temporally brief, seem to expand into timelessness, allowing the listener to peer into a hyperreal digital landscape that stretches to infinity. A propulsive beat is the mechanism for locomotion in this space.
Agent Im Objekt is the sonic equivalent of the cyberspace envisioned by William Gibson in his debut novel, Neuromancer. It's dark and brooding, intelligent and intricate, a musical environment fit for adventurous listeners willing to navigate its rewarding complexity.