Confield

Confield Artist Autechre Released 30 April 2001 Label Warp Records (WARP128)

Peel Session 2 (2000) Confield Gantz Graf (2002)

Confield is the sixth studio album by Autechre released on Warp Records. It was originally released on April 30th, 2001, then later repressed on vinyl in 2023, alongside Draft 7.30.

History

The material shown on Confield was developed and curated over 18 months.

In the Sound On Sound Interview, April 2004, Autechre gave some background information on Confield, specifically noting the increased use of Max first in live sets and then in studio experiments "that weren't really applicable in a club environment" lead to a lot of what became Confield.

However, Autechre has pushed back on the narrative that Confield was a purely 'generative' Max record (and by proxy 'random'). In the same Sound On Sound interview, Sean expressed discomfort with how generative being synonymous with random when they're "based on a set of rules" that they controlled, alongside utilising a lot of "analogue sequencers and drum machines" which enabled a ton of complex sequencing.

Rob noted that roughly 10% of Confield was properly generative, and in an Interview with SB for Reverb Magazine, January 2008, Sean further clarified that only 3 tracks on Confield even used Max sequencing. Much of Confield was instead done by hand with Logic Pro.

The record has gained a status for being one of their most difficult records, however Sean felt that "it's like pop music compared to some of the stuff we had considered putting out!" and that the record didn't feel like a huge leap, but rather like just "another album" similar to Chiastic Slide.

Cover

There are two main versions of the cover for Confield. The first (shown in the thumbnail of article) is for the CD issues. The vinyl issues uses a different image for the cover from the original Confield cover.

For the promotion cycle of Confield, a page was posted by Warp titled Confileid (Con File ID). On the page, it featured an animation of dozens of 3D planes being scattered with a moving camera. Multiple frames of the animation went on to be used in the design of Confield, including both of the main covers.

When Confield and Draft 7.30 was reissued in 2023, Warp put out a promotional video for Confield featuring the same animation but in higher quality. They also put out a series of shorts of album tracks played over animations; both of the original for Sim Gishel and Lentic Catachresis, as well as different versions including a fountain-like eruption for VI Scose Poise, Cfern, Pen Expers; a side downpour for Bine and Eidetic Casein; and a top-down view for Parhelic Triangle and Uviol.

A high quality frame from the animation was also used as a Twitch image for au7echre.

Tracks

VI Scose Poise

• The same reyong instrument used on "Parhelic Triangle" was also used on "VI Scose Poise"
• On an old promotional website the track used to be called "VI Code Spoilse"

Pen Expers

• "Pen Expers" was made using a Minidisk, "like by pausing a DMX drum machine."
• The title is likely a reference to GenExpr, the Max patching language.
• An early version of "Pen Expers" mashed up with Vangelis's "Cosmos" was performed at Coachella 1999.

Sim Gishel

• "Sim Gishel" only used some algorithmic elements.

Parhelic Triangle

• Rob noted that "Parhelic Triangle" didn't rely on any generative/algorithmic elements at all.
• In the July Twitch AMA, Sean explained that the process behind "Parhelic Triangle". He first recorded himself playing a reyong (a type of gamelan instrument) which was then taken into Logic. The "couple of MIDI parts laid over the top" of the track were detuned to 9 EDO to be in key with the reyong. The loose pulse of the track is due to the reyong being played somewhat irregularly by Sean and him having to manually time it up in Logic before overlaying the percussion to it. The percussion was assembled from "rubber bands in a shoebox sampled on an Emu E-synth".

Uviol

• A 16-minute version of "Uviol" was played during the 2008-02-23 Webcast. In the WATMM Ask Autechre Anything, Sean mentioned that the longer versions are often parts of the real-time jams without as much editing.
• "Uviol" was one of the tracks to use a lot of Max sequencing.

Lentic Catachresis

• The ending half of "Lentic Catachresis" has the same progression as Lego Feet's "Part 1".

MCR Quarter

• The title is likely a play on Envane's "Quarter" naming aesthetic, and MCR likely is just short for Manchester.
• As listed on the Japanese CD issue, "MCR Quarter" was recorded in 1998 at Manchester's Band On The Wall, however it reappeared (possibly just replayed the bootleg recording) at Warp's 10th Anniversary event on November, 5 1999.

Tracklist

#	Title	Length
1	VI Scose Poise	6:57
2	Cfern	6:41
3	Pen Expers	7:08
4	Sim Gishel	7:15
5	Parhelic Triangle	6:04
6	Bine	4:41
7	Eidetic Casein	6:12
8	Uviol	8:35
9	Lentic Catachresis	8:30
		1:02:03
10	MCR Quarter (Recorded Live At Band On The Wall, Manchester 1998) [Japanese CD exclusive]	11:03
Total		1:13:06

Trivia

• The CAT number, WARP128, was likely specifically requested by Autechre. 128 is the seventh power of 2.
• Confield was originally titled "L.E.D." on a promotional CDr, distributed by Source 360°

Links

• AE_STORE
• Apple Music
• Bandcamp
• Bleep
• Discogs
• Soundcloud
• Spotify
• Repress announcement tweet
• Repress release tweet

Credits

• Autechre (production)
• Rob Brown (writer)
• Sean Booth (writer)
• Frank Arkwright (mastering engineer)