Marking the release of his EP Blackbox Life Recorder 21f, Aphex returns to the spotlight with his oldest bond: that with video art. A journey through AFX cinematic dimensions
Aphex Twin’s Blackbox Life Recorder 21f, Warp Records
After his appearances as a headliner at some of Europe’s festivals, one above all Barcelona’s Sónar, and after releasing the new track Blackbox Life Recorder 21f, a preview of the new Ep Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In a Room7 F760, due out July 28 through Warp, the legendary producer, among influential figures in electronic music of the last 30+ years, returns to Italy five years after his last, unforgettable appearance at C2C 2018.
The location chosen for this grand return is the Scaliger Castle in Villafranca di Verona, a real theater under the stars, an immense green lawn enclosed within the walls of a castle, also mentioned by William Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet.
The Scaliger Castle in Villafranca di Verona, Italy
Aphex Twin is preparing to bring to the Villafranca Festival stage what the international press called a live performance that held the Rosendal Garden Party in its grip, a complete experience, an impressive performance, an insane visual spectacle (Kultmagasine); an indomitable and indefatigable performance that turned the Sonar main stage into a colossal rave with its diabolical sonic and visual bacchanal, a spectacle characterized by an impressive display, with dozens of spotlights and laser lights incessantly etching the atmosphere and a continuous battery of psychedelic images, bounced from the two large disco balls hanging above the dance floor (Efe. com); an uninterrupted onslaught of sensory overload: dizzying rhythms, machine-gun lasers, overdriven bass and deafening dissonances (Pitchfork); a show that gave no respite, blast after blast, and sent almost everyone into raptures with stratospheric imagery (Indiehoy).
The live show and Aphex Twin relationship with video art
Richard David James, better known as Aphex Twin, but also under a host of other pseudonyms, was born in 1971 in Ireland, then grew up in Cornwall. Taking inspiration from the classical music of Edgar Varèse and Erik Satie, from the avant-garde of Stockhausen and John Cage to rave and jungle, via Brian Eno and Kraftwerk, he has established himself as one of the most creative, innovative and personal names in the entire electronic music scene.
Aphex Twin is recognized to the extent that it has earned him the nickname ‘Mozart of electronics,’ and to the fact that Windowlicker, one of his best-known tracks, has been described by critics as a ‘theme song of all twentieth-century music.’
Video Art and Aphex Twin. From Philip Glass to Krzysztof Penderecki
Admired by composers such as Philip Glass and Krzysztof Penderecki, with whom he has collaborated, his work has also been central to one of the major turning points in rock in recent decades. It is a well known and documented fact that Radiohead gave their sound the more electronic and contemporary turn that began with Kid A (2000), precisely from the music that was coming out for the British Warp, and in particular from their admiration for Aphex Twin, one of the label’s artists. Thom Yorke had no qualms about calling him ‘his greatest influence’ and declaring that listening to his records had opened a door where there was no place for his electric guitar.
If IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) – of which the producer is surely the most emblematic and recognizable character – made ordinary figures protagonists, with unremarkable looks and a tendency to hide rather than show themselves, Aphex did the opposite: he made his own face an icon. Starring in videos and covers, he exposed his image while at the same time hiding it, showing it, digitally altering it, superimposing it on other bodies, playing with the clichés of show business society, often with the collaboration of video artist Chris Cunningham (among many, the video for ‘Come To Daddy’ remains unforgettable).
Aphex Twin video art – Chris Cunningham legacy
This atypical image, coupled with the mythology he built up by dint of statements, interviews and urban legends-two out of all that his first album, a universally acknowledged masterpiece as Selected Ambient Works 85-92, would contain material recorded from the age of fourteen; or that with his first earnings he would buy himself a tank with which to drive around the Cornish hills – has given rise to a veritable idolatry on the part of fans all over the world, who on the web, for decades, on dedicated channels such as the mythological WATMM forum, have been sifting through his every statement, every image, every second of his songs, in search of mysterious and ulterior meanings.
Aphex Twin Charisma is built on video art – Bill Viola and the drug movie
But charisma and mystery would not be enough to make him such an unquestionably figure if there were no music. From the first Selected Ambient Works through the second volume, from …I Care Because You Do to the Richard D. James Album, from the classic piano pieces of Drukqs to Syro, from the distant gem collection Classics to the remix collection, to the latest EP Collapse in 2018 (presented, never to be denied, as an 1818 record made by a secular deity), to releases under the AFX name, Polygon Window, Caustic Window, a plethora of releases that are difficult to pigeonhole and keep up with go to form a single corpus that spans the entire musical spectrum from academia to rave, ecstasy to horror.
Video help fusing: techno, breakbeat, ambient, minimalism. All about acid dreams
Techno, breakbeat, acid, ambient, minimalism, classical, pop, industrial, drum and bass are just a few of the elements that, sometimes in the same work, go to create an absolutely revolutionary proposal that is always highly personal and impactful, spanning the entire history of electronic music and managing to speak with equal force to different generations, and to the most diverse audiences.
Despite the fact that over the years he has diluted his appearances and made his presence even more mysterious and elusive, each of his new moves does not fail to trigger the immediate interest of audiences and critics all over the world, as with no other figure assimilated to him, if any.
His last memorable performance at the sold-out C2C 2018, in front of ten thousand people, has entered the myth surpassing even his previous, rare, venues on Italian soil: a totalizing set, made of visuals, lasers and crazy lights, ambient music that becomes more acidic, with an absolute predominance of songs from his repertoire modified and transfigured in a surgical and enthralling way.
Aphex Twin
Richard David James, best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic styles such as techno, ambient, and jungle. Journalists from publications including Mixmag, The New York Times, NME, Fact, Clash and The Guardian have called James one of the most influential artists in contemporary electronic music.
Ario Mezzolani
