| Confield | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 30 April 2001 | |||
| Recorded | 1999-2001 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 62:00 | |||
| Label | Warp WARP128 | |||
| Producer | Autechre | |||
| Autechre chronology | ||||
| ||||
Confield is the sixth album by British electronic music duo Autechre, released on April 30th, 2001 by Warp Records.
With Confield, Sean Booth and Rob Brown largely abandoned the warm ambient sounds of their earlier works such as Amber and Tri Repetae in favour of more chaotic and abstract sound palettes and methods of composition that they had been pursuing with LP5 , EP7 , and Peel Session 2 . Confield saw the experimental use of computer programs, specifically Max/MSP, to form the basis of songs instead of stand-alone synthesizers. According to Booth, "Most of Confield came out of experiments with Max that weren't really applicable in a club environment." [1]
Like EP7 before it and their 2003 release Draft 7.30 , Booth and Brown make use of generative sequences on Confield. However, in an interview following the release of Draft 7.30, Booth explained that although the beats they create using generative sequences may seem completely random to some, he and Brown exercised tight control over the limits and rules of what the beats could do.
"[On Confield] you have something that some people would call random, but I would say is quantifiable," Booth said. "It seems that for a lot of people, if they hear something that doesn't sound regular, they assume it's random. If live musicians were playing it, they'd probably call it jazz or something. But the fact that it's coming out of a computer, as they perceive it, somehow seems to make it different. For me it's just messing around with a lot of analogue sequencers and drum machines. It's like saying, 'I want this to go from this beat to that beat over this amount of time, with this curve, which is shaped according to this equation.'"
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 82/100 [2] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| Alternative Press | 8/10 [4] |
| Blender | [5] |
| The Guardian | [6] |
| Mojo |  [7] |
| NME | 8/10 [8] |
| Pitchfork | 8.8/10 [9] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [10] |
| Sputnikmusic | [11] |
| Spin | 7/10 [12] |
Pitchfork gave the album an 8.8/10, claiming that, "For those willing to take these times in stride, Confield promises elegant production, accessibility in moderation, and one of the most enveloping, thought-provoking listening experiences to come forth from leftfield this year." However, AllMusic, giving the album only a 3/5, argued that Confield was "a record to respect, not enjoy," a viewpoint expressed by other review outlets. The Washington Post 's Mark Jenkins said that the duo had progressed from "making music that sounds odd" to "craft[ing] its music to sound wrong", further commenting that the pair now sounded "ragged and fidgety" rather than "smooth and pulsing" as in the past. He said many of the songs sounded as though the CD player was skipping, and said the album was more madness than method. [13] Fiona Shepherd of The Scotsman held a similar view, saying the album sounded like "a malfunctioning dishwasher or a CD jumping. Forever." [14]
Despite the record's controversial nature, the album scores an average of 82/100 at Metacritic based on ten reviews, the highest average for any Autechre album on the site. [2]
In 2009, chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound recorded a version of "Cfern" on their album a/rhythmia. [15]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "VI Scose Poise" | 6:57 |
| 2. | "Cfern" | 6:41 |
| 3. | "Pen Expers" | 7:08 |
| 4. | "Sim Gishel" | 7:14 |
| 5. | "Parhelic Triangle" | 6:03 |
| 6. | "Bine" | 4:41 |
| 7. | "Eidetic Casein" | 6:12 |
| 8. | "Uviol" | 8:35 |
| 9. | "Lentic Catachresis" | 8:29 |
| Total length: | 62:00 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 10. | "MCR Quarter" (Recorded live at Band On The Wall, Manchester 1998) | 11:02 |
| Total length: | 73:02 | |
Intelligent dance music (IDM) is a style of electronic music originating in the early 1990s, defined by idiosyncratic experimentation rather than specific genre constraints. It emerged from the culture and sound palette of electronic and rave music styles such as ambient techno, acid house, Detroit techno and breakbeat; it has been regarded as better suited to home listening than dancing. Prominent artists associated with it include Four Tet, Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher, Venetian Snares, Boards of Canada, Telefon Tel Aviv, μ-Ziq, the Black Dog, the Future Sound of London, and Luke Vibert.
Autechre is an English electronic music duo consisting of Rob Brown and Sean Booth, both from Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1987, they are among the best known acts signed to UK electronic label Warp Records, through which all of Autechre's full-length albums have been released beginning with their 1993 debut Incunabula. They gained initial recognition when they were featured on Warp's 1992 compilation Artificial Intelligence.
Boards of Canada are a Scottish electronic music duo consisting of the brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin, formed initially as a group in 1986 before becoming a duo in the 1990s. Signing first to Skam followed by Warp Records in the 1990s, the duo received recognition following the release of their debut album Music Has the Right to Children on Warp in 1998. They followed with the critically acclaimed albums Geogaddi (2002), The Campfire Headphase (2005) and Tomorrow's Harvest (2013).
Incunabula is the debut studio album by English electronic music duo Autechre, released by UK label Warp on 29 November 1993, and again by Wax Trax! on 25 January 1994 in the United States.
Amber is the second studio album by English electronic music duo Autechre, released on 7 November 1994 by Warp. It was the first Autechre album to be composed entirely of new material, as their debut album Incunabula (1993) was a compilation of older tracks.
Tri Repetae is the third studio album by English electronic music duo Autechre, released on 6 November 1995 by Warp in the United Kingdom. In contrast to the duo's previous albums, Incunabula (1993) and Amber (1994), Tri Repetae features a distinct style that incorporates more minimal rhythms and spacious melodies.
The untitled fifth studio album by English electronic music duo Autechre, commonly known as LP5, was released on 13 July 1998 on Warp. No title was printed anywhere within the artwork, so it became known as LP5 in line with the later EP EP7; it has also been called Autechre, as well as Album, as listed on promotional copies.
Draft 7.30 is the seventh album by English electronic music duo Autechre, released on 7 April 2003 by Warp Records.
EP7 is the seventh EP by the electronic music group Autechre, released by Warp Records on 7 June 1999. It is classified as an EP by the band despite being long enough to qualify as an album. The record was released in two parts on vinyl, named EP7.1 and EP7.2. The name of this EP prompted Warp Records to give the name LP5 to the previously released untitled album by the band.
Skam Records is an independent electronic music record label based in Manchester, England, founded by Andy Maddocks around 1990. Skam also runs a smaller sub-label called 33.
Untilted is the eighth studio album by the British IDM duo Autechre. The record was released 18 April 2005 in Europe and 19 April 2005 in North America by Warp Records, while Beat Records released it in Japan on 9 April 2005. The album charted at #199 in the UK. The cover art for the album was created by Alex Rutterford.
Quaristice is the ninth studio album by British electronic music duo Autechre, initially released on 29 January 2008 by Warp Records. It was made available for download via bleep.com in FLAC and MP3 format on 29 January 2008 and then received a physical release on 3 March 2008.
Oversteps is the tenth album by electronic music duo Autechre, released on Warp Records in 2010. The album was made available for official download on bleep.com and the Japanese iTunes Store on 22 February 2010; the CD and deluxe vinyl editions were released on 22 March 2010. Critics were generally quite positive about Oversteps, with many considering it more focused and accessible than previous albums. Four months after its release, Oversteps was followed by a companion EP entitled Move of Ten.
Move of Ten is an EP by British electronic music duo Autechre, announced on 25 May 2010 and released by Warp Records in June–July 2010, only a few months after Oversteps, Autechre's tenth major album. Move of Ten features packaging and artwork by The Designers Republic, and was released in mp3 as well as 16- and 24-bit WAV formats on 14 June 2010 via the bleep.com online music store. A release on CD and two (separate) 12"s followed on 12 July.
Exai is the eleventh album by electronic music duo Autechre, released on Warp Records. The double album was released in digital form on 7 February 2013, with double CD and quadruple vinyl versions released on 5 March 2013. At the time of its release, Exai was Autechre's longest album to date.
L-event is an EP by electronic music duo Autechre, released on Warp Records on 28 October 2013. The EP is a companion to Autechre's double album Exai, which was released earlier in the same year.
elseq 1–5 is the twelfth studio album by British electronic music duo Autechre, released by Warp Records on 19 May 2016. The album consists of five segments, each roughly 50 minutes in length. All five were made available for individual or group purchase as a digital download only, making it Autechre's first album without a physical release.
AE_LIVE 2016/2018 is a series of live recordings by British electronic music duo Autechre, released on 7 April 2020 by Warp Records. It consists of 7 soundboard recordings made during their live tours in 2016 and 2018. The 2016 dates were recorded during Autechre's European "onesix" tour, and the 2018 dates were recorded during a short tour of Australia, Japan and Ireland. Autechre has said some dates from these tours were not recorded due to technical difficulties. Both tours feature variations of the same set. AE_LIVE 2016/2018 follows the previous series AE_LIVE, which features a different set performed during 2014 and 2015.
Sign is the fourteenth studio album by British electronic music duo Autechre. It was announced by Warp Records on 2 September 2020 via their Twitter page, and was released on 16 October 2020. The album was broadcast for the first time on 8 October on the Autechre website. Shortly after, it was made available as a digital download to those who pre-ordered. The cover and packaging artwork was created by The Designers Republic.
Plus is the fifteenth full-length studio album by British electronic music duo Autechre. It was released digitally, without any prior announcement, on 28 October 2020, twelve days after the release of Sign, the band's preceding album. Plus was released on physical formats on 20 November 2020. The cover and packaging artwork was created by The Designers Republic, and pairs with the artwork for Sign.
