In 1965, the Polish writer Stanislaw Lem published a collection of short stories titled The Cyberiad. Their protagonists were Trurl and Klapaucius, two robot “constructors” with practically infinite capabilities; friends and rivals roaming the universe constantly attempting to outdo each other with their inventions. Isambard Khroustaliov and Ben Carey, were greatly enthused by The Cyberiad, both for the “technical chaos” of its stories as well as the dazzling, idiomatic prose style of Lem. On Field Recordings From Other Constellations, they too pit their improvisatory wits with and against one another on a battery of electronic equipment – the ARP 2600, Buchla 200e, Destiny Plus 16 Psyche, Make Noise Strega & Morphagene, Moog ONE, Oberheim OB-X8 and Sequential Prophet 12.
Field Recordings from Other Constellations was recorded on a rainy evening at Coda to Coda’s studios in mid-2023. The four tracks are edited excerpts from a much longer, improvised session. In the session, Carey piloted generative patches on his Buchla 200e synthesiser, whilst Khroustaliov’s setup made use of custom machine listening software to control a studio full of interconnected synths. The result was a human and machine collaboration, with Khroustaliov and Carey both tweaking and performing their instruments in response to each other, and their machines’ own twisted agencies.
“Electronic music is so ubiquitous as to be taken for granted in the 21st century. Field Recordings From Other Constellations is the sort of album that shocks you anew into a sense of the awesome capabilities and possibilities of electronic sound … its otherness … akin to first contact.” Andrew Plummer, Limited Noise.
“A masterclass in electronic music world building” Crampton Hodnet, The Australian.