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Cassette
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RM 4135CS
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Robin Fox's work with frequency is a thing of wonder. Between his renowned pieces for laser and his extensive dance commissions, he has been responsible for creating a series of powerful electronic music works that exist equally between digital and analog realms. On Threnody To Now, Fox uses sound to meditate on affect and its manifestations in modern living. Deeply intuitive and iterative pieces, both these compositions dwell in harmony, folding and unfolding across a mesh of slow-release envelopes and low frequency oscillation. They both set up a self-contained spectrum, contoured in a sonic language that is personal and ultimately summarizes what comes in the wake one of the most curious moments of our age.
A note from Robin Fox: "Everybody, it seems, lives their own personal apocalypse. It's inevitable. Built into the arc of our mortal time on earth is the inescapable feeling that we live right on the edge of the end of the world as we know it. It is all part and parcel of each unit of human consciousness assuming it is the center of everything. Try as I might to avoid catastrophic thinking there is a creeping sense of dread and unease making its way into my mind right now and it made its way into these pieces too. Both tracks on this release are linear takes recorded on my studio Eurorack modular system. They are different patches on different days -- but they feel related. Both sessions started with a desire to explore the harmonic series with patience and make something vast. What emerged where two epic pieces that seemed to tap into a sadness and disconnection that was gripping the city and my mind at that time. Listen to these tracks at a time when the light is changing. The liminal times of dawn and dusk or that moment when the sun emerges from behind a bank of dark clouds. While a threnody is a lament there is hope in the rising harmonic phrases too. A sense that we may yet emerge from this period better than we were. We must be better than we were. Always."
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LP
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EMEGO 206LP
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Robin Fox follows his 2010 solo album A Handful of Automation (DEMEGO 012LP) with A Small Prometheus, a significant work that exposes a very different audio-world to that previously encountered. In time since A Handful of Automation, Fox has been highly active with his widely acclaimed RGB (red green blue) laser show along with a collaboration with Atom TM (Double Vision), which premiered at Unsound Festival in 2014. A Small Prometheus was developed as a soundtrack to a dance work of the same name co-created with Australian choreographer Stephanie Lake. The outline here was to explore the themes of combustion and dissipating heat in various physical systems. Greatly extending the language of his creative output, Fox constructs a synthesis of electronic and acoustic sources to create a deeply nuanced excursion through space and time, timbre and texture. There is a subtle intensity to the works here: "A Pound of Flesh" is an industrial-strength spiraling drone, intoxicating and disorientating; "Antlers" takes the listener on an 11-minute ride through a vortex of pulsing and swirling electronics; "A Small Prometheus" is an unnerving combination of distressed field recordings, close-mic'd crackle, and a foreboding distant pulse. "Through Sky" starts out with a slow, menacing, rhythmic backbone that hosts an arsenal of small sounds before a certain wind supplants all in an admirable and somewhat haunted exchange. With its combination of vast caverns, spiraling counterflows, and microscopic investigations, A Small Prometheus opens up a new world of sound in Fox's personal trajectory. Limited LP version includes six tracks; two additional melodic, rhythmic bonus tracks can be sourced from Bandcamp, further expanding the rich, elaborate sound world of Robin Fox. Cover image by Robin Fox. Layout by Stephen O'Malley. Mastered by Byron Scullin. Heat recordings engineered by Byron Scullin.
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LP
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DEMEGO 012LP
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First solo audio-only release by Melbourne-based sound and laser artist Robin Fox and first solo release since the mind-melting Backscatter DVD on Synaesthesia (2005). Taking time out from his duo with Anthony Pateras, A Handful Of Automation showcases Fox's unique and highly individual take on the usually misunderstood extreme computer music genre, and is a pleasurably disorientating ride. Alongside chaos trips such as "Boundary Layer Skin Friction" and the stunning title-track, sit beautifully-scored examples of electronic concentration such as "GODSPEED" and the closing "Melophobia (Final Edit)." This album is a must for connoisseurs of high-grade computer usage, and is released as a vinyl LP as well as a C50 cassette featuring 2 bonus cuts. Cover features images from Fox's photographic collection Proof Of Concept -- a series that has grown out of his legendary laser performances. Edition of 300.
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