13 thoughts on “Aphex Twin’s Remote Orchestra

  1. Well, that was terrible. The piece was a sonic mess. The close-ups of the players suggested they were both bored and uninspired. I am going to pretend I never saw this and just go put Drukqs in the player.

  2. that’s AUKSO orchestra, and half of its musicians are my friends from Music Academy in Katowice, Poland. I spoke to them, because I was really, really jealous, that the get to play with Aphex Twin AND Johnny Greenwood (I’m a theoretist and composer with main instrument being piano). And after first rehearsal, all of them were nearly deaf and exhausted, and no one really liked what they were participating to (although with Johnny Greenwood they were quite satisfied).

    James’ piece was based on Penderecki’s works, so that’s why it sounds how it sounds, but everyone I know had been really disappointed that there was so little Aphex-like elements.

    If this was something in the middle between Aphex Twin and Krzysztof Penderecki, it might have been quite interesting.

    1. Even though it turned out as it did, your inside account makes a lot of sense. I think it just is what it is but it is sad that the musicians at hand weren’t given anything more challenging or more thrilling to interoperate given their eagerness.
      As a fan of Aphex Twin I was disappointed by the results, encouraged by the adventurous premise of the project but ultimately not very surprised to learn that this took place nearly one year ago yet only heard it now. I do really hope to see more contemporary artists utilizing techy tools to integrate and produce many more orchestral one-off concerts though.

      1. You should keep an eye on AUKSO orchestra then, because they seem to be doing more and more of this kind of collaborations. I think there is an album with Johnny Greenwood and his take on Penderecki’s “Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima” (which is, by the way, amazing piece of not so contemporary music 🙂 ).

  3. Richard James is the man, never afraid of new sonic territory, never one to worry too much about a new idea falling on its face. This may be more hit than miss, but it’s that same sort of fearlessness that made Aphex legendary. He could make a fine living just phoning in dj sets every night, but he’s not and I definitely respect that.

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