On Bach

The seeds of this project were planted in February of 2009 at the historic Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, where Sutekh was invited to perform at a special event entitled "Bach to the Moon". Sutekh had the honor of being the only electronic musician in the program, performing alongside an impressive roster of classical musicians. With so many hit-or-miss attempts to unite 'electronica' and classical music in recent history, the challenge of creating a Bach-inspired set was daunting, but the results were such a success that Sutekh decided to develop the material further into a full-length album, his fourth overall, and his first since 2002. Creaked is proud to present this micro-opus which is at times dark, mysterious, meditative, funky, demented, and playful - an album that will reward careful headphone listening and sound system shaking alike.

Those who know Sutekh's work know it is rarely easy to classify, and this album is no exception. Rather than "remixing" recognizable Bach works or creating electronic cover versions a la Wendy Carlos (whose mastery of the genre can never be surpassed), Sutekh decided to treat Bach more like a symbiotic growth, or perhaps a fungus, bubbling up from the depths of his twisted sonic cauldron when you least expect it. Manipulated MIDI data of Bach's chorales, audio recordings of period pipe organs, demented baroque-style arpeggiation, shuffled Swingle-beats, and a noisy homage to Glenn Gould's curious habits, all make appearances.

While Bach may be the messy glue that holds the pieces together, Seth Horvitz reaches far and wide for influences, in this case connecting the dots between the quirky 'paradoxical' techno he is known for, the cosmic musique concrète of Parmegiani, and the dissonant clouds of Ligeti. And every so often, between the strands of this noisy web emerge traces of Bach.