The First Law Suite (5​-​track ep)

Is it possible to intersect two highly juxtaposed media forms? A form in Baroque music, J. S. Bach’s Suite of Dances, exemplared by his work French Suites for keyboard, for example. Here reimagined using contemporary electronic music techniques. The second a collection of emotively inspired science fiction stories by Isaac Asimov themed around a robotic future.

Whilst music has been used in SciFi films, and radio, there is little music directly inspired by Sci-Fi writing with even less combining it with traditional form music, reimagined in electronic form.

The music in The First Law Suite utilises dance forms that might typically appear in the Suite, such as the Prelude, Courante, Allemande, and the Sarabande. Whilst track 3, “Can’t Scap(E)=(nc)2 My Head” derives its form from the Lied or Art Song, whereby an unsophisticated folk-song is transformed into an elevated musical composition, either in strophic form, or as one continuous whole; in this case, in strophic form.

The second element, a collection of robot stories by the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, is not a literalist musical conversion of any of the texts. Instead, the occasional eidolon of storytelling atmosphere finds its way into the sonic empyrean.

This intersectionality allows for a variety of cross-currents to playout in the music. The first of The Three Laws of Robotics as imagined by Asimov who says: “1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm” might be said to take form in the haunting ever-present menace suggested in the evolving electronic textures. With the Baroque era dance suite forms being echoed in the form as a musical ghost, or even just a hint of ghost.