The debut album of one of the most important Electronic music artists of the past generation, Autechre, Incunabula is more of a collection of early works than a proper album, but because the style is relatively the same throughout the works, it makes perfect sense listened to as an organic album. Autechere are a remarkable duo of electronic musicians(Rob Brown and Sean Booth), not least because of the slow-burning progression of their career from experimental dance floor music(such as this album) to music of such cerebral complexity later in their career that some fans found it incomprehensible(the album Confield). Incunabula (the plural of the latin word incunabulum, which means in the early stages of development) finds them at a fairly accessible period, expertly mixing dance-floor ready beats with cerebral sounds and unconventional structures. Taking a cue from the minimalist art music aesthetic, Autechre gradually builds their tracks up layer by layer, over time, giving them a strange mix of surrealism and detail that no other electronic artists have quite been able to achieve. Over time, their formula has been explored, deepened, and interpolated to such an expert degree that all of their albums have rewards to be found on them if you are open to new ways of musical thinking. Incunabula lays the groundwork for all to follow, but even the groundwork is made with such skill that this is a 90's classic. Don't miss it. Incunabula on amazon
Claude Debussy was one of the most innovative composers bridging the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, effectively marking the transition from romanticism to modernism. His music is sensuous and beautiful, while at the same time straying far outside the bounds of traditional harmony, the combination of the two aesthetics demonstrating an elusive, dreamy quality heretofore unknown in art music. Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, otherwise known in English as Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, was based on an erotic poem by Stephane Mallarme, and is sometimes viewed as a Tone Poem, though it's subtly interweaving, free form textures do not conform to anyone's idea of a story set to music. What it seems to attempt to do instead is to evoke an atmosphere, an environment, in which the listener is invited to lose themselves in a hazy cloud of blurring tonalities and the impression of a lovely afternoon in the forest, amongst the pleasures of nature. In fact, Debussy's music was often labeled impressionism because it seemed to impress images and scenes upon the listener, rather than explicitly evoke them. La Mer is a three part orchestral composition essaying the mysteries, joys, and turbulence of the sea. Debussy here pulls out all the orchestral stops, as he had an intense identification with and admiration of the sea. La Mer's lulls and intensities can seduce any listener into instantly falling in love with the sea, even if they have never seen it, as Debussy hadn't when he started writing it. Although it is not a form of exact programme music, it, like Prelude... before it, is a masterpiece of impressionism. La Mer suggests the sea, the waves, a storm, so masterfully that one sometimes feels as if they were actually experiencing them somehow, while listening. Debussy was one of the most important composers that beget the experimentalism of the 20th century, while still being considered a mainstream composer.
