ANGELA AUX - Instinctive Travels on the Paths of Space and Time LP

It’s a rare stroke of luck to come across an album that stands out in the constant flood of new releases. A record that is such a fully refined work of art that you’d be tempted to think it has always been there, ready to connect with your emotional mainframe when the time is right. INSTINCTIVE TRAVELS ON THE PATHS OF SPACE AND TIME is one of these singular albums: sublimely beautiful, immediately relevant. Undeniable. Is it a classic? Maybe. The future will tell. Which brings us to the topic at hand. INSTINCTIVE TRAVELS ON THE PATHS OF SPACE AND TIME is the musical element in a trilogy in which Florian Kreier takes his project Angela Aux to the outer reaches of the imaginable. The trilogy is completed by the SciFi novella „Nach dem Ende der Zeit“ (“After the end of time”) and „Introduction To The Future Self“, the transmedial play that connects all the dots. The play proved to be a night to remember at the renowned theatre “Münchner Kammerspiele”, presenting them with the existential questions that the work of Angela Aux poses: How does the future of civilization feel with artificial intelligence running the show? What do algorithms crave? How to experience consciousness in a virtual space that has made an analog existence obsolete? Will an omnipotent superintelligence in a synthetic parallel universe be sent into a downward spiral of searching for meaning in it all? And will it find something besides endless melancholy at its bottom? But fear not. Even though Kreier came to be an artist via the scenic route of political science, the theoretical framework is rewarding but not required reading for the enjoyment of this exceptional record. There is a crack in everything, and its wistfully magical tunes will be sending their golden hues right through. Its warm glow reminiscent of all the fireplaces sentient beings have gathered around in history to do what they do: Share stories and ideas. It’s a primal, emotional experience, so having this concept album speak a future minded version of the folk lingo makes total sense. So come gather round people, cyborgs, ghosts in the machines, wherever you roam. You will find solace there, hope and ideas. (Christoph Lindemann)